Phipps Feeding Fiasco

The experience

Ogre and I decided to effectively communicate so we didn’t have a breakfast fiasco like yesterday.  I told him I would get home from rounding and we could eat breakfast.  There was a slight wrench in the plans because I’d have to go to the hospital after brunch.  We planned to stay close to Plano by eating at Poor Richard’s, but it was packed.  Since we were halfway to West Plano at this point, we decided to go to Bread Winners instead.

There was about a 15-20 minute wait, so Mina and I settled inside and started playing I-Spy.  Mina said to me, “I spy with my little eye something…red!”  I guessed the exit sign.  She said, “No, it’s that thing on your face” and pointed to my cheek.  Oh, by that you mean my ZIT?!  Thanks, dear daughter, way to boost Mommy’s self esteem.

Thankfully, we were soon seated out on the patio, which was nice but Benji’s chair does not work with patio furniture, so we requested a high chair.  They gave us the children’s menu, which is on the back of a colorable map of the United States.  This was a lot of fun for Mina, who asked about where various states were and colored them in.  Luckily, she brought in her own purple crayon because the restaurant was out of crayons today. 

As soon as we sat down, they also gave us a small plate of breads (I think they were zucchini bread, pumpkin bread and a lemon-vanilla bread).  Benjamin also took notice of this and while I was ordering my coffee, he helped himself to a piece of cake.  That’s why there are only 3 pieces of bread in the picture.

Ogre ordered a scone when he found out they were blueberry today.  We looked over the menu and I decided to order the plain old French Toast (Tuscan) because I also wanted to try their chicken apple sausage and eggs.  Ogre ordered the Steak and Eggs after eyeballing another customer’s Hollandaise sauce.  Mina opted for the Dollar Cakes with Strawberries.

While we waited, Mina continued asking us about where various states (and a few countries and Africa) were on the map and Benjamin entertained himself by playing with the cream containers.  Ogre’s scone came out and he shared with all of us.  Benji wanted “mo mo yeah” (more).

"Uh-Oh." Benjamin dropped his half and half containers.

I made the mistake of telling Ogre that I recently realized that Colorado is pretty close to Texas.  He game me “a look” and raised his eyebrows.  I suppose he was trying to suspend his disbelief that I wouldn’t know that.  He also did not like my responses to Mina that Austin and San Antonio were in the middle of Texas.  I hadn’t realized I was eating with a Geography Genius.  Geez. 

Where's Africa?

Brunch arrived and save me from any more geographic scrutiny.  I helped Mina butter and syrup her pancakes and then I cut up some sausage for and gave some eggs to Benji.  Mina was very kind and shared some of her strawberries with Benji. 

We were all peacefully eating our brunch when *POP!* -Benji was splattered with half and half.  Seemed that he was able to pop one of those creamers open.  The table next to us laughed and thought it was the funniest thing -as did Benji.  We cleaned him off, I took his plate away because his food was covered in milk, cut up more sausage for him and gave him some more eggs and some of my french toast. 

Ogre told me that I “chose unwisely” when it came to my breakfast because I didn’t order a designer French Toast choice like the Banana Bread French Toast or the Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast.  I agree that would have been more interesting, but I was afraid it would be too rich.  I also told him that I wanted to try the sausage and the eggs and didn’t want my breakfast to cost a small fortune.  I was actually enjoying my sausage quite nicely until I had a bite with both cartilage and bone shards.  Nice.

After that, I was done with breakfast so I took both of the kids to the bathroom to hose them off.  I am not sure if the bathroom has a changing station because I didn’t check in the large stall.  There was a line and Mina didn’t need to go for once. 

While Ogre paid the bill I took Benji out front to wait.  Mina stayed with Ogre because she wanted a cookie from the counter. 

The food

The free bread they serve is excellent!  The breads were very moist and packed with flavor.  Not too sweet either.  This was the best part of the meal!

My French Toast was moist through and through (unlike the travesty at Cafe Brazil), I’ve decided that I don’t like French Toast made from sourdough.  I do believe that it is better at Cindy’s.  The chicken apple sausage is very tasty, but I warn you that you may find undesirables in it!  The eggs, which I ordered scrambled, were dry, edible, but dry.

Ogre said that the Steak and Eggs was good, but he wouldn’t order it again.  And, I noticed that he left half of it on the plate, which is indicative of the fact that he wasn’t too impressed.  He said that the Hollandaise sauce was bland.  It was served with potatoes that he described as having good flavor, but were too “soggy.”

Mina’s probably had the best breakfast dish of all of us.  The Dollar Cakes were nice and fluffy.  The strawberries were very sweet also.   All three of us liked them.

The service

Service was good.  We had to request coffee refills a few times, but it wasn’t outrageously bad.  Food came out at a pretty good tempo also so the kids weren’t sitting there bored.

The kids

Overall, this is a kid friendly restaurant.  I thought they had a nice selection of breakfast choices from ordering just Dollar Cakes to Dollar Cakes with Bacon and Eggs.  The Dollar Cakes were 3 bucks, but the chocolate milk was 2 bucks.  We sat outside on the patio, which is great for messy kids.  The inside also seemed very conducive to kids with a nice loud setting!  I also liked the map as a choice for coloring as it is educational AND fun!

The total: $46.71

What did Guidelive say?  They like it for Best Brunch.

Rants, Raves and Ramblings

Anybody out there know of or like John Pinette??  He is a stand up comedian I’ve followed since I was in high school.  He used to do this bit where he talked about in Russia they have to stand in line for bread.  He couldn’t imagine himself standing in line for miles waiting for bread.  He said that if he ever had to do that, he better be going around saying for weeks, “Have you had the bread??!…But, have you had the bread?!”  That’s what I also think when I have good bread.  …And I’m thinking it about it now and laughing.

Related Fiascos

• Cindi’s New York Style Deli: You’re at the Wrong One
• Les Phipps a La Madeleine
• The Egg and I (and the Rest of the Phipps)
• Croques and Crepes at Cafe De France
• Central Market Cafe on the Run (for Kid Fun)