This December, I went to sleep on a plane in Portland Oregon, and woke up in Portland Maine. OK, that’s only partly true, because I had to switch planes at some ungodly hour in Newark. But still, it was kind of cool. This was the sunrise on the short flight to Maine.
Maggie, Kiyo and our friend Flavia picked me up at the airport and of course, the first thing we did was grab brunch. Bintliff’s American Cafe is a Portland favorite, established in 1990 and still going strong. It serves brunch seven days a week, which I love, and it’s run in a quirky house, which is unique and cozy, especially in winter. It was packed when we went, around 9 AM on a Monday, which is odd. Maybe this was because some people were still off work for the holidays (it was December 30).
I ordered the Louisiana Bayou Benedict (grilled andouille sausage, homemade corn-cakes, two poached eggs and spicy Cajun hollandaise sauce) and it was so delicious! Definitely the best dish between the four of us, in my opinion. It was spicy with some sweetness from the corn-cakes, and such a fun, unique play on the classic Brunch dish.
Maggie and Flavia each had the “seasonal veggie home-fries,” which was a great choice. The plate was huge (they both had leftovers) and included sautéed baby spinach, tomato, squash, mushroom, onion, red bell pepper, broccoli, zucchini, cheese and two eggs served over three-potato home-fries.
Kiyo somehow made his plate all messy and so this picture is not appetizing, but I had a bite of his tomato grilled cheese and it was pretty good. I’m not a huge fan of white beans though, so I didn’t try his soup.
We all piled back into the car and back to the airport to pick up Chelsea. As you can see, between the five of us and all our luggage (and Chelsea’s snowboard!) there wasn’t much room!
We were on our way to our friend’s house to all celebrate New Year’s Eve together. How stunning is this view? You almost can’t even tell it was freezing out!
Bintliff’s American Cafe
Open: every day, 7:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Location: 98 Portland St, Portland, ME 04101 Phone:(207) 774-0005
Tagged: andouille sausage, bell pepper, Bintliff's American Cafe, breakfast, breakfast and brunch, breakfast sandwich, broccoli, brunch, cajun, cheese, Chelsea Jones, cornbread, egg, eggs, eggs benedict, grilled cheese, grilled cheese sandwich, hollandaise, home fries, Kiyo Egashira, Maggie Luckhardt, Maine, mushrooms, Portland ME, potatoes, restaurant, sausage, soup, squash, sunrise, tomato, travel, vegetables, white beans, winter, zucchini
