Orange

Many of the restaurants that I have gone to for brunch have been restaurants that also serve dinner.  Jam was an exception and so is Orange which I went for brunch recently.  As one might expect, Oranges feature heavily in their menu to the point that they even have orange flavored coffee.  They also have regular coffee but I decided to try the orange flavored because it is one of their specialties.  In addition to the coffee, they have a make your own juice bar.  Starting with one of the standard juices (orange, grapefruit, carrot, pear, apple, or watermelon), you then add another juice which include the previous, plus lemon, lime, cucumber and mango.  You could finish there, but there are also premium ingredients that you can add for an additional  $0.99 which include banana, strawberry, ginger, yogurt, and pineapple.  I suppose you could also stick with a single juice, but what fun would that be?  I ordered an Orange Carrot Ginger Juice which was really good.  The color was a little more red than I would have expected but as I have never seen carrot juice, I have to assume that the darkness comes from the carrot contribution to the juice.

While every brunch place that I have been to has a combination of both sweet and savory elements on their menu, most seem to lean one way or the other.  While the savory side of the menu was larger than the sweet side for Orange, their specials leaned to the sweet side and they have a pancake flight that changes weekly and also leans sweet, so I thought that I would try the sweet side of the menu.  As a weekly special, Orange has pancake flights, the selection of which changes every week.  They also do a special flavored pancake (full size) and occasionally Frushi (fruit sushi).  The frushi though, was not on the menu when I went.  I decided that the pancake flight was the best way to try a bunch of stuff (and besides, it sounded REALLY good).  The pancake flight consisted of 4 sets of three silver dollar pancakes of different flavors.  My flight consisted of Coffee & Cream Cookie Pancakes, Fruity Walnut Thumbprint Pancakes, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Pancakes, and Very Chocolate Brownie Pancakes.  The Coffee & Cream Cookie Pancakes were vanilla pancakes with espresso cream between layers and topped with chocolate syrup.  The espresso cream on these provided a subtle coffee flavor but the chocolate syrup was what provided any bitterness.  This wasn't bad, although I think I would have liked it more had the coffee flavor been stronger.  The Fruity Walnut Thumbprints were probably my least favorite pancakes (although they were still good).  They were walnut pancakes topped with homemade blueberry jelly and sugar crystals.  The flavor combination was good but the jelly was a bit dense and didn't spread well so I tasted it most with the top pancake.  Because of the fact that the jelly was a little hard to spread, the lower pancakes were a bit dry.  The Oatmeal and Raisin Cookie Pancakes may have been my favorites.  These were spiced oatmeal pancakes with cinnamon-raisin butter and maple syrup.  The oatmeal flavor was pronounced and it really did remind me of an oatmeal cookie and the cinnamon raisin butter provided complementary spices.  There was just enough syrup to make them moist and provide a nice maple flavor without being soggy.  I tend to be subtle with my syrup so this was great.  The Very Chocolate Brownies were very chocolaty.  These ran a close second to the Oatmeal and Raisin Pancakes.  They were chocolate-infused pancakes studded with milk chocolate chips, topped with a thin chocolate ganache and sprinkled with powdered sugar.  They were dense and chocolaty and the chocolate chips were like a secret prize.

While I knew that I was going to like the pancakes, I also knew that I was going to want some savory so I ordered a side of bacon.  While I would normally say that bacon makes everything better, in this case, I will say that the bacon confirmed to me that Orange does sweet better than savory.  I love bacon and this might have been good bacon, but it was impossible to tell because they cooked it so crispy it lost all of it's chewiness.  It would have been impossible to stab a fork into it without shattering it.  While it did taste nice and bacony, I can't say that I would order bacon here again because it was so brittle.

I did enjoy my breakfast here and while I wasn't particularly happy with the bacon, I did enjoy the orange flavored coffee, the juice, and the pancakes.  I may try savory when I return but I probably won't order a side of bacon.