Moving Beyond Green Eggs & Lamb

Brunch on a holiday weekend is always a crap shoot. You never know who'll be open.

When I'd gotten home last night, I'd found an invitation from a friend saying only "Breakfast tomorrow?"

He wanted to eat at the ungodly hour of 10, so I guess that disqualified it as brunch.

We struck out at Ettamae's because they're on vacation, although Chef Matt was there working away.

He did share that they're debuting a new dinner menu starting next week, so that was worth hearing about.

But where to go now?

Keeping with the "E" theme, we drove down Broad to The Empress, spotted a couple sitting in the window and went in to choose our own window seat.

Our two talkative tables must have been just the incentive people needed because tables continued to be filled from then on.

Today's menu had a breakfast section and a lunch section, but no Green Eggs and Lamb, long my go-to on their brunch menu.

Owner Melissa explained that the price of lamb had tripled, so she'd taken my favorite off the menu. And understandably so.

It was probably a good thing, forcing me to try something different, so I ordered the Chorizo pizza with fresh Mozzarella, tomatoes and basil on herb focaccia.

My friend considered the Manly Man's Breakfast (two fried eggs over bison gravy and mashed potatoes) but chose instead the Simply Breakfast of bacon, seasoned potatoes, two poached eggs and toast with jam.

I didn't consider him any less of a manly man because of his decision. Or maybe I'm just not into manly men.

Of course we got a side of bacon. The two of us try never to go to breakfast or brunch and not have a plate of bacon to nosh on.

My pizza turned out to be an inspired choice; the thick bread made a savory bed for the sliced Chorizo and cheese topping and I scarfed it down like I hadn't eaten all day.

I hadn't. And I'm the type who usually gets up and eats within minutes, so I was starved.

Spying my suddenly empty plate, our server came over and offered to take it, saying, "But I won't take that one because there's still bacon on it."

Good thinking if you don't want a fork in the back of your hand.

My friend's breakfast suited him just as well with perfectly poached eggs, addictive potatoes and The Empress' usual exceptional bread.

Once the bacon was finished, we had a lingering salty taste that could only be cured by dessert.

I'm sure some people would look askance at dessert after breakfast/brunch, but we're not two of them.

When our server offered us the chocolate chile pate, we gave him the "Is that a rhetorical question?" look and soon after it appeared.

There's a good reason their pate took first prize at Broad Appetit last year; the combination of dark chocolate and the heat of the chiles on the finish is sublime.

Not to be overly optimistic, but I think it bodes well for the rest of the day when you've already had dessert by noon.

My friend chalked it up to a bacon/chocolate endorphin high.

I say whatever gets you through a Sunday...