I have a favorite brunch place in several cities. Visiting Portland, ME? Bintliff's is the absolute bees knees (get the corned beef hash, made with huge chunks of house-made corned beef). Swinging by Rochester, NY? Hit up Simply Crepes (and order a crepe. Duh). In Washington, DC for the weekend? I do dearly love Busboys and Poets (pretty incredible crab benedict; they call it "The Neptune").
If you live in, are stopping by or just within a couple throusand miles of Atlanta, I'd like to recommend The Best Brunch in All of Atlanta: Murphy's.
Why Murphy's? There are the basics (great service; superb coffee and espresso drinks; shafts of brilliant sunlight which shine through the open french doors; the calm breeze which meanders through and around the restaurant). Oh, you want three really, AWESOME, food-related reasons? OK:
1) SHRIMP. AND. GRITS.
Oh my God. You might think you don't like grits. I betcha you'd like them if someone were to, say, cook them in cream and cheddar cheese, cover them in a piquant tomato and andouille sausage stew, toss on a handful of giant spice-rubbed grilled shrimp, and top it all off with a perfectly poached egg and scallions for good measure.
Seriously. I have dreams about this shrimp and grits. It's what brings me back to Murphy's every time I visit Atlanta (every two months to see Jen). They're so good, I'm salivating just writing about them.
Two more reasons and a Hungry Sam Housekeeping Note after the jump!
2) Best Bread Basket Ever.
You know when a restaurant half-asses its bread basket? Even schmancy restaurants sometimes throw mediocre white rolls or slices of stale-ish bread in your face, saying, "Here. Eat this. It will whet your appetite for something that doesn't suck."
Yeah, Murphy's doesn't do that. They serve a bread basket that I only ever remember I should photograph after we've gobbled up the last crumb. Murphy's serves their house-made biscuits, warm and fluffy on the inside and crisp and buttery on the outside with good butter, as well as an often-different offering of muffins (most recently, a wholesome yet tender and sweet harvest-style variety). This bread basket is so good it takes a pretty enormous amount of maturity and willpower on my part to a) not beg the waiter for more of the delicious (and free) baked bounty and b) remember that I have other food coming.
3) All the OTHER food.
I have a brilliant system at Murphy's: I nearly always order the shrimp and grits, then I persuade Jen to try something new. Then I just eat off her plate too. It's as though Jen's brunching with Machiavelli.
The point is, I've tried many of the other dishes Murphy's offers, from fried chicken and waffles to huevos rancheros to their spinach, mushroom, and sun-dried tomato benedict atop focaccia. Everything is good. Everything is GREAT. I simply haven't found a weakness in their brunch batting order.
But perhaps the tastiest dish I've tried is also the latest, when I branched out from my usual last weekend. This is a half-pound-ish smoked pork chop griddled to perfection and topped with a gently sweet honey (or maybe maple) glaze and chives:
Don't worry, I got a side of grits.
Here's a bonus reason: THEY HAVE A LEGIT COOKIE JAR!!! You just leave a buck, take a big cookie -- four varieties! This is just great news.
So, Murphy's? Keep it up; you're my favorite place in the South. And all y'all everyone else? Go eat at Murphy's.
HUNGRY SAM HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: If you've read this far, you must like this blog! And you've probably noticed my posts have been coming fewer and farther between. Life, you know? Over the next six weeks, I will be traveling a great deal for work, and this may be less about cooking than about tasty adventures in far-flung places like San Francisco, California, Huntington, West Virginia, and Columbus, Mississippi. Don't worry, I'll get back in the kitchen soon!