We didn’t even know if Adsum served brunch when we were walking around looking for a place to brunch. Even the people at Adsum weren’t that sure. Apparently, they do, starting at 11AM. But there were absolutely no signs of life there at all, and it was slightly after 11. There were some other people milling around outside too, probably wandering the same thing. When we finally asked somebody, they said oh, yeah, we are now. There were only two tables the entire time we were there, and we were the first ones to be seated. We weren’t the first ones to get menus or coffee or food.
Eventually, we got menus, and even more eventually, they brought over coffee. The coffee was good and we all enjoyed it. Yay for free refills! And it’s a good thing too, as we had to wait a hell of a long time for our food. I actually timed it, and we didn’t get fed until 45 minutes after being seated. This does not seem normal. I don’t know about you, but if there are two tables total, does it take 45 minutes to make three dishes for one of the tables? We were all so, so, so, so hungry. Luckily, we were enjoying each other’s company.
Here’s the omelette of the day, which happened to be a veggie one. When I ordered, he asked for a side of home fries. Guess what? The omelette already comes with home fries. You’d think the server would have let him know that, but no, he just took the order anyway. He did get the extra side of the home fries and they were quite good, I was lucky enough to eat most of them.
Here’s the croque madame with black forest ham, smoked gouda, béchamel, brioche, and an egg. Pretty good stuff! This also comes with home fries.
Here’s my mascarpone and strawberry stuffed french toast. This was pretty damn good and decadent, however, it came with frozen strawberries. That disappointed me to no end. It’s summer. This isn’t IHOP. Would it have killed you to get some fresh strawberries? If you’re going to charge me $12 for basically just two thick pieces of bread, at least do me the decency of using fresh strawberries. I know there’s been a lot of drama here with chefs changing and what not, but I was pretty disappointed with this brunch, especially the service. Waiting 45 minutes for frozen strawberries irked me, something fierce!

Santucci’s recently opened a location in Bella Vista. Apparently, it had been in the works for a long time, and voila, it finally opened! It’s bright and inviting on the inside, and is super casual. There aren’t too many tables, as it seems mostly to be a takeout place.
I read that they hand cut all the potatoes for their fries so I wanted to try out their sweet potato fries. None of the food came out quickly. In fact, all of the food took a long ass time to come out. I guess that’s what preparing every fresh and by hand takes. When these came out, I was a little disappointed with the portion. I thought wow, that bowl, which is the size of a soup bowl, is barely filled with fries. They tasted just fine. But with this type of portion, I thought this could get interesting. But then the rest of the food came out.
This is a personal size pizza. When I envisioned personal, I thought of the small pizza hut sized personal pizzas. Um, this pizza is pretty big for being called “personal”. Unless that said “person” belongs to a sumo stable. I’m thinking these were at least 9×9 if not 10×10. In any case, it was pretty damn big for a personal pizza. We each had two slices and couldn’t possibly eat any more. I was also really expecting a sweet sauce because that’s what everything I had read had said, but I didn’t find it sweet at all. I found it quite zesty and fresh tasting. But this is coming from a person whose favorite pizza sauce is from Franzone’s, and you know that is the sweetest of the sweet sauces around. So to me, Santucci’s sauce isn’t sweet at all! Overall, I quite liked it. But we both loved the crust. It’s not thin, but it’s not thick, and it’s not doughy. It’s a nice mix of chewy with a bit of crispness on the outside. And I’m definitely a fan of sauce on the top pizzas.
I also wanted to try the meatballs. You get four ginormous meatballs and a giant heap of spaghetti with gravy, yeah, I said gravy. The spaghetti looks fresh made too, as it’s a rectangular shaped noodle. These meatballs were awesome! They’re so huge that eating one is pretty much enough. This plate could easily feed four people. There’s visible bits of carrots too, so you know there’s even vegetables in those suckers! They’re cooked well, nothing is burnt, nothing is raw, and you don’t have to chew these very hard in your mouth. We’re big fans!

Wedge + Fig is an adorable cheese shop and casual cafe in old city. I stopped by recently for brunch in their courtyard, truly an oasis. You would think it would be hot out there, but it’s fairly shady and covered, so it was quite lovely. You also get to look into the kitchen to see what everyone’s up to.
I decided to get an orangina just for kicks. I’d forgotten how refreshing this little funny bottle can be.
We both ended up getting a 1/2 sandwich and soup combo. They ended up putting the switching the sandwiches, so this was not my sandwich, but it was my soup. This sandwich is the Svenson, with lemon-dill creme fraiche, nova lox, and sprouts on pumpernickle bread. My soup was one of the specials of the day, which was a creamy lemon and corn soup. It was lemony, it was corny, it was cool and refreshing.
This is my sandwich, the Blue Figs, with fourme d’ambert cheese, fig preserves, and prosciutto on pretzel bread. Ooh, this thing was good, especially the pretzel bread! It’s pressed too, so really easy to eat. i wish I’d had a whole sandwich. The soup that E got was another special of the day, and it was a summer fruit gazpacho, with mango, berries, and other delicious fruits. It tasted like a smoothie! But in a bowl! E also got a side of bacon. Look how lovely and thick that bacon is. Yum.
Here’s what you see when you look up from the adorable courtyard. We both really loved this place, and plan on going back again and again. The inside is adorable too, with some small tables for dining and random food items, along with of course, cheese! There weren’t too many people here, which made us worry, because we don’t want this place to ever go away! Service was friendly, food was great, the courtyard is cool and inviting. I want to try everything on their menu!