Breakfast Made Fun
Baily’s offers traditional and inventive yummies to start the day
By Jim Delmont
Greg Lindberg’s breakfast-lunch spot, Bailey’s, is continuing its good business at the corner of 120th and Pacific. Karen Bauermeister manages things and chef Claude Hampton, an early contributor to Lindberg’s and a veteran purveyor of Louisiana classics, oversees once-a-month “dinner after dark” offerings this fall at Bailey’s. Call for details and to get on Greg’s email list, which now has over 4,000 customers. Greg is the founder of the Absolutely Fresh Seafood outlets.
Bailey’s, since it opened in 2007, has always been a fun spot for breakfast, with quiches made with Gruyere cheese, egg yolks and heavy cream in the true quiche tradition – they are custard-like, not “airy,” as at many places that use whole eggs. The Belgian style waffles are made with malt powder in the flour; the sausage patties come from a local supplier; the bacon is lean, meaty and maple-smoked; and the Eggs Benedict ($9.99) are “the best in town,” according to Karen, who is also not shy about the bacon: “the best in town, too.” She may be right, as the bacon bits (actually, more than bits) that come in the “Breakfast Crepes” ($8.99) are crunchy and have a nice bacon flavor burst, but do not overpower any more than the ham nubs do, the two ingredients adding a savory touch. The dish overall is mild, with a nice balance between the soft, fluffy scrambled eggs, the creamy Muenster cheese, the bacon and ham and the hollandaise drizzled over the crepes.
Bailey’s has a huge breakfast menu you can sample until closing, but it also has lunch fare, since it is open until 2 p.m. The lunch menu is extensive, offering after 11 a.m. lots of sandwiches – including Reuben, egg salad, ham-chicken Provencal, a prime rib melt, BLT, and Moroccan chicken (a favorite with customers) with toasted focaccia bread, hummus, grilled marinated chicken, goat cheese and roasted red peppers, and Moroccan salad ($8.99) – plus four kinds of burgers and more. The lunch menu also has a clutch of salads, “country” sandwiches (Chicken fried chicken, pork tenderloin, chicken fried steak), and “red tater scrambles” with hot, buttered biscuits. The home-made soups are also popular (Bailey’s has the same knockout clam chowder as Shucks, plus a chicken basmati rice soup that has caught on). Soup of the day was roasted tomato and bacon. Full serving salads include a Chinese chicken choice and a Bourbon Street chicken, among others.
Breakfast offerings include Classic Eggs Benedict ($9.99), which proved to be as good as advertised – with an outstanding hollandaise sauce, Canadian bacon, delicious English muffins that seemed grilled on the outside, but soft and meaty inside, with poached eggs. The quiche Lorraine ($10.99) was silky and rich, served with big chunks of fruit, including a generous wedge of watermelon. Other Benedict offerings include Crab Benedict, a Blackstone choice (with grilled tomatoes and smoked bacon), Lox Benedict and a Denmark Benedict with house-smoked salmon. The Benedicts are all available in half-orders. The maple-tinged bacon was delicious, as were the sausage patties from Western Nebraska and the thick, mildly spicy sausage links – all meats being relatively lean. And they use one hundred per cent fat free frying oil.
Huevos Rancheros ($8.99) a lively Latino dish, is a meal in itself: scrambled eggs, chorizo sausage, cotija cheese and salsa in flour tortillas with refried beans. Also on the Southwestern side are Breakfast Burritos ($8.99) and a Guerrero Benedict ($9.99) with chorizo sausage and a unique chipotle hollandaise. You can have ham-scrambled eggs with homemade coffee cake, too – or other egg concoctions, about ten in all, including omelets. A quiche-of-the-day had ham and bacon, roasted red peppers and Muenster cheese
The waffles seemed like waffles, but the French toast, its batter darkened with cinnamon – and dusted with powdered sugar, were a little different, each wedge crisp on the outside, soft and light on the inside. And if you are a fan of down-home breakfast gravy, the version here comes with biscuits and is a classic, thick and white, lively with sausage bits.
Specials may include croissant French toast; a Mexicali salad with greens, fresh corn, carrots, homemade salsa, a seared chicken breast, avocado and a house vinaigrette; or a turkey sausage sandwich with egg and hollandaise.
“We have breakfast and lunch specials every day,” Karen said, “and we are trending to lighter, healthier fare – as, for example, in our California Benedict with turkey sausage and spinach. We’ll use turkey sausage in quiche, too.”
If you ask, you can get some things (like French toast) a la carte, at a lower price. Most dishes come with fruit cup, with ripe melon bits, grapes, and so on. During colder months, some hearty blue plate specials will return (meat loaf, pot roast). The menu will be more seasonal, Karen said – and it can be pretty sophisticated, as in the popular new Sonoma Salad ($9.99), which offers seared, marinated chicken, grapes, candied walnuts, artichoke hearts, gorgonzola cheese, pears, and mandarin oranges, with a kiwi Riesling vinaigrette.
There is a kids menu and some fancy early bird Champagne drinks, plus Bloody Marys. Bailey’s is intimate, with good traditional breakfast favorites at reasonable prices in an attractive setting with some roomy booths – and with prompt table service, in our case from Sarah, who didn’t miss a beat.