Courtesy of rocwiki.org
I’ve been to the Gate House many times before. Whenever my fellow eaters and I are craving a wood-fire pizza with fresh ingredients and a wide array of creatively mixed toppings, we come here. The prices are solidly middle-of-road and its convenient location in the center of Village Gate means that we can meander out and explore a vast array of records, old books, vintage clothing, comics or possibly dominatrix gear.
The Gate House is a tasty and reliable source of pizza and nearby entertainment. On a blustery, butt-freezingly cold Sunday mid-morning, my companions and I were only interested in one thing however: brunch.
I’ve heard lots of things about brunch. I have heard that it is something to be extremely wary of in that it can be a way for restaurants to creatively utilize ingredients leftover from the last week of dinner rushes, before they restock for the next week. Before this experience I honestly couldn’t name any brunch entrees other then French toast. I came, though, because of a recommendation, and after sitting down and pouring over the menu, I became as excited as…well, a very hungry person in a restaurant full of good food.
I decided one ordering the filet mignon hash with “Poached Eggs, Hollandaise Sauce and a Side.” For the side, I chose asiago grits. I’ve heard horror stories and many warnings about the dangers of hollandaise sauce being used to mask ingredients of mediocre or even dangerously poor quality. I trusted the Gate House though. After all, food rules are meant to be broken. Sure enough, this attitude paid off. When the menu says “filet mignon hash” what it really mean is large chunks of tender, juicy and flavorful meat mixed in with thick-cut, crispy and hot home fries. That would have been tasty enough, but it was topped off with two perfectly cooked, runny poached eggs and a generous, but not absurd, amount of incredible hollandaise.
All of these ingredients together combined to form something that reminded me very much of a breakfast version of a garbage plate but with extremely high quality ingredients. I ordered asiago grits because of the inherent humor in combining a fancy sounding Italian cheese with a southern cooking staple that is often considered lowbrow.
I’m generally not a huge fan of grits, and I was hoping these would change my mind. Sure enough the asiago grits turned out to be more than an inside joke between chefs. The cheese flavor really came through, resulting in a stronger taste than most grits I’ve tried. They were also less watery and more substantial than the average grits, which was a definite plus.
All in all, the meal was incredibly tasty and also extremely filling. The hash was not super cheap though — at $15, it was the most expensive item on the menu. Overall, the prices were affordable, and from the looks on my friends’ faces I could tell they were enjoying themselves as well. The Gate House, in my mind, now has two things going for it. It’s a great place to get a delectable wood fire pizza or burger, and now it is a great way to start your day and decrease arterial blood flow all at once. We all wobbled out of the Gate House content and pledging that we weren’t going to eat any food for the rest of the day.
Ford is a member of
the class of 2013.
