Breakfast sandwich at Flipside Café | Brunch breakdown
The city’s smallest brunch is big on local ingredients.
1/4Photograph: Martha WilliamsNow in its third year, Will Von Hartz�s winter hideaway, Flipside Caf� (in the space that houses Miko�s Italian Ice in summer), still keeps the focus on doing a few things, and doing them right: coffee brewed by hand, bread baked on site, traditional soups (tomato, roasted garlic) made from scratch. This year, Alfredo Nogueira joined Von Hartz as Flipside�s chef, and though grilled cheese and soup remain the tiny shop�s signatures, Nogueira�s added renegade items like chicken potpies and a kale burger. His biggest achievement, though, might be the addition of a modest, three-item brunch menu, served on Saturdays and Sundays: a savory dish (usually a hash), one of the best French toasts in town and this deceptively simple biscuit breakfast sandwich. Not to end on a sad note, but it�s only fair to warn you: There are only ten seats and only five weeks left to claim one, because come April, the space morphs back into Miko�s Italian Ice. 1846 N Damen Ave (773-645-9664).
2/4Photograph: Martha WilliamsThe Biscuit�In high school [in New Orleans], I had a friend I used to trade my algebra homework for his breakfast biscuit sandwich,� Nogueira says. Hence, when he was discussing adding a breakfast option to the caf�s compact menu, this was the first thing that came to mind. �The biscuit�s just a classic buttermilk biscuit, but it�s made fresh every morning, with good buttermilk and butter.�
3/4Photograph: Martha WilliamsThe Scramble�The eggs are from Swan Creek Farm [in Michigan]. They�re soft-scrambled [in butter] with a little bit of cheese�the same cheese mix we use for our grilled cheese, which is cheddar and smoked Gouda.�
4/4Photograph: Martha WilliamsThe Sausage�We get heritage pork shoulder from PQM [Publican Quality Meats], and we grind it in-house, and we make it into a fresh sausage with maple and sage.�
