Tour de Toast: Half & Half

It’s hard not to like the concept of Half & Half. And the visuals, as well – the literally iconic mugs with ampersands (those “&” symbols) all over them, for instance. It’s stayed busy ever since it opened in 2011, doing breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunch. Weekends are a madhouse, even if one uses the Nowait app. During the week, there are business types settling in, as well as the rest of us, including families with kids.

Half & Half gives us a counter, and several long, high-topped tables as well as the usual two- and four-tops, which means it’s easy for solo diners to find a spot. And they’ve put a vestibule around the front door, which is nice when the temperatures drops.

The separate lunch menu is available after 11 a.m., but it’s breakfast, served all day, we’re after. The Starters on the menu cover the expected (grapefruit) to the un- (breakfast fried rice). West Coast-trendy avocado toast is shown to good advantage with crunchy bread, a generous slather of mashed avocado, which seems to be done individually for each order, and topped with feta cheese and a shower of cilantro. The lime wedge alongside is a good addition. The feta, interestingly, is among the most un-salty I’ve ever had, but this is a delicious kick-off to things. And that grapefruit? Looks banal, except for the blackberry crowning it where a maraschino cherry would have gone in the days when grapefruit was sometimes served as a first course at fancy dinners. But upon spooning out the first segment, one discovers that in addition to the traditional cutting across the equator of the fruit, the kitchen has removed the South Pole and most of Antarctica. No wobbling around on the plate, very graceful. The promised vanilla sugar is on and around the grapefruit, the miniscule vanilla seeds noticeable if one pays attention. The grapefruit flavor, however, runs roughshod over the vanilla.

From the main courses, it’s hard to resist the Clara cakes, pancakes with raspberries, granola, and mascarpone cheese. Every time I’ve visited over the years, that’s where I land if I’m not working. To judge from plates around me, the very chunky vegetable hash, brussels sprouts, potatoes, spinach and onion, served with a couple of eggs, is quite popular. This time, instead of the Clara cakes, blueberry pancakes hit the spot. None of that regular-pancakes-with-blueberry-compote stuff that always seems like a gyp. Nope, these are immense, fluffy, tender, with plenty of fresh blueberries and some blueberry butter to top them off, the sort of pancakes that make French crepes seem timid. Half & Half offers the option of cooking them in bacon fat. While this sounds like a good idea, it doesn’t seem to add much. If they crumbled some of that bacon and tossed it on alongside the blueberries, we might be getting somewhere. The smoky bacon, taken solo, is very good, thick and crisp.

However, on two separate visits, the same problem occurred. An eggs Benedict with guacamole and chorizo sported some excellent hollandaise sauce. But under the sauce, the egg, while properly poached, was barely warm, as was the crumbled chorizo. The guacamole was cold and so was the untoasted English muffin. Even the plate was cold. I understand the necessity of the guacamole being refrigerated. But this was a good Benedict suffering from a chill. The potatoes, simple chunks of red potatoes that seem to have been oven roasted were only slightly warmer.

That same chorizo appeared in the biscuits and gravy – what the menu terms red-eye gravy, but not quite classically that, orange-y and spicy from the chorizo, and creamy from being a milk gravy. The biscuits are yellow inside, with a proper texture. But that dish, too, was barely room temperature. 

“Serve the hot food hot and the cold food cold,” was the mantra of the late Jack Miller, godfather to a generation or two of St. Louis kitchens. What’s going on here?

Coffee is serious at Half and Half; one can choose the bean and several methods of preparation. Both lattes and the house coffee were good, fresh and invigorating. But the house coffee offers two price levels, per cup and for a bottomless cup. Upon ordering the latter and draining my cup while seated at the counter, I wasn’t offered a refill and got a surprised look when I asked for one.

Great pancakes and bacon. Great hollandaise sauce. Mostly very affable service. But why the temperature problems?