City Mouse - Brunch

I mentioned that I liked the restaurant, Giant, so I was both excited and a little nervous when I heard that Executive Chef, Jason Vincent and his team were working with boutique hotel, Ace Hotel, to open their new place, City Mouse.  I was relieved and excited to hear that he had hired Chef Pat Sheerin, formerly of the late, lamented Trenchermen, as the Executive Chef.  Located in the West Loop Restaurant District across from the Google Building, entry is through the hotel lobby.  It is a large and very open space with a modern look, glass walls, and, like Giant, also named after a character in a children's book.  Giant is named after a character in the poem, Me and My Giant in Shel Siverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and City Mouse is named after the City Mouse in the story, The City Mouse and the Country Mouse.  They have a great covered patio which is very popular in the summertime, so while it would have been nice to sit outside, it would have been a significant wait.  We had a good table at one edge of the room where everything could be seen easily.  City Mouse offers Brunch every day with a good selection of breakfast and lunch selections and a pretty good beer and cocktail list.  I started out with a cocktail called a Gap Toothed Fizz, which had Gin, Mezcal, Cloosterbitter (a dutch bitter using distilled liquor, similar to Chartreuse or Genever), Lemon, Egg White, and Matcha.  As it was a fizz and used egg white, it had a nice foamy top sprinkled with ground Matcha Tea Leaves.  It was very herbal and botanical, with a little smoke from the mezcal, and a tart finish.  The foam made it a little different from cocktails I generally order, but the flavors fit very well and I did like it.

To start things off as far as food was concerned, I ordered something sweet for the table, a Pretzel Cinnamon Roll, something that was similar to a pastry that I really liked at Trenchermen.  It also had Chocolate Chips and was covered with Butterscotch.  It had a crusty exterior with salt, like a soft pretzel, with chocolate chips and the very sweet and sticky butterscotch.  It was very good, though admittedly, I preferred the Trenchermen version better.

My main course was mostly savory, though it also had some sweetness to it.  It was called a Gas Station Sandwich and the only thing that I can think of that might explain the name is that it contained a bunch of stuff that you might be able to find at a gas station truck stop during a road trip.  it had Sausage, Egg, Hash Browns, Cheese, and Grape Jelly on an English Muffin.  It was a standard breakfast sandwich (sausage, egg, and cheese, on an English muffin) with hash browns and grape jelly.  It was very good.  Hash Browns are frequently ordered with breakfast sandwiches and the flavor goes together well.  I don't normally eat potatoes on my sandwiches, but it isn't unlike the French Fries on the sandwiches at Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh or fries on burgers in Canada or France.  They go together well and it works.  Grape jelly is also a common morning staple and does go well with English muffins, but it was a little unusual to think of eating it with everything else.  It did work though, and added some sweetness to the sandwich.  The sandwich also came with a fruit cup with what the menu called Michigan Fruits.  In the bowl were Blackberries, Blueberries, which I liked, and Honeydew, which was okay, but it also had way too much Canteloupe, which I can do completely without.  I would have been happy with everything else if they had left out the canteloupe.

Brunch was very good and a lot of fun.  The food was good, the service was very friendly, and the space was nice.  I will definitely have to return at a future date to try the rest of their menu.