Brunch rarely inspires me: it’s always the same formulaic permutations of starches, eggs, and meats that I can make for myself; sweets I don’t care for; and prices that I don’t want to afford. Or in the words of Anthony Bourdain, brunch is nothing but a “horrible, cynical way of unloading leftovers and charging three times as much as you ordinarily charge for breakfast,” prepared by cooks who loathe the shift and probably its clientele. The lines are long, the drinks are weak, and the conversations are lame. I hate brunch.
This was the dread I felt when my perpetually-tardy friend wanted to get brunch in the outskirts of Atlanta at 1pm–an hour far too late to have any hope of getting a seat a Home Grown, which has a terrific fried chicken biscuit that I’ve yet to photograph properly but also has ridiculous lines after 10am–and suggested Hen Mother, which I had submitted previously for one of our perpetually-tardy weekend brunches. Owned and chefed by Soraya Khoury, who had recently been the executive chef of Atlanta’s Persian favorite Rumi’s, she had stated upon opening Hen Mother, “It might just seem like two eggs over easy, but it’s more than that to me…we’re giving you eggs, but it’s going to be bad-ass.”
That sentiment was not immediately apparent upon looking at the brunch menu, which consisted of the usual mainstays of sugary starches, eggs and breakfast meat in various constructions, something involving tortillas, and avocado toast. But if you accept that these items are unavoidable and look at the menu a bit more closely, you’ll notice that the items are made with care and/or try to go beyond the obvious. That includes the massive cinnamon bun that my friend and his wife ordered: it was massive, substantial (yet pillowy), and coated with enough cream cheese glaze to seal up one’s enemy in the catacombs. It also includes an interesting-looking quiche that uses plenty of fresh vegetables, an obligatory fried chicken biscuit that distinguishes itself with the use of thigh rather than breast meat. (This is a good thing) And the poutine hash that my friend ordered, while marred by overly large hunks of potato, was better than its counterpart at General Muir thanks to the thoughtful inclusion of a variety of mushrooms, fried shallots, and large chunks of melted cheese curds. More curds would be welcome though, especially at $13.95.
But what excited me the most about the Hen Mother menu was finding shakshouka listed. While it might be presumptuous to connect its menu presence to Khoury’s Arabic heritage, it is unlike any other item on the menu. It is: savory thanks to its use of stewed tomatoes, sheep’s milk feta; flavorful from za’atar, kalamata tapenade, and fresh herbs; and is able to pull off both without requiring the inclusion of meat. Served with crusty lavash flatbread, it makes for a delicious and thoughtfully alternative menu item. Some more flatbread would be welcome though; I had to polish my shakshouka off with a cookhouse biscuit that, while very good and worked well the shakshouka, was an additional cost that I wouldn’t have borne had there been enough lavash.
So there you have it: brunch will always suck, but places that serve brunch should take a page out of Hen Mother’s playbook and have have at least one thing that is unique and delicious on the menu so that those of us who hate brunch and its vapid procession of browns and yellows will have something to tide us through mimosa-fueled conversational inanity.
Rating: Recommended
Items of Note: Shakhouka
Future Follow Up: Quiches, XXL Cookhouse Chicken Biscuit
Hen Mother Cookhouse
11705 Jones Bridge Rd.
Suite B201
Johns Creek, GA 30005
