Mastering the art of brunch

I know I’m not the only one who’s had a hangover brunch in the city of New Orleans. But it stands to reason that a town so widely acknowledged as a bastion of bacchanalian bingeing would have also have mastered the creation of the greasy meal that serves as respite for so many bleary-eyed mornings after.

It's a tiny restaurant.

As I see it, it’s no coincidence that beignets, po-boys and inky black chicory-laced coffee have become Crescent City hallmarks, alongside the crimson hurricane cocktails and streetfuls of plastic cups spilling over with foamy lager. Without each other to balance their respective sides of the night, these two excesses of food and drink could never be sustained.

Of course, San Francisco and New Orleans have entirely different civic personalities. But a night of revelry, whether on the bayou or the bay, demands redemption, in the form of serious food. So it was with a great sigh of relief that I was introduced to Brenda’s French Soul Food, a creole Louisianan embassy in the heart of the otherwise unwelcoming Tenderloin.

Good grits, good omelets, good pancakes, and ridiculous Last Meal-worthy biscuits

The coffee was so black it stained the cup as I sipped. The hollandaise has obviously entered the building as disparate ingredients, a rarity when powdered packets are so temptingly easy. The pancakes, grits, and omelets were textbook perfection. The biscuits – oh, the biscuits! I will categorically declare these to be the most authentic southern biscuits I’ve tasted in the state of California. I suspect voodoo. Or pork fat. I’m not entirely sure, but I want these biscuits at every meal.

Beautiful beignets

There’s a flight of beignets on the menu. A flight. Of beignets. Honestly, why haven’t we seen this brilliant winebar solution applied to fried pastry before? In addition to the gold standard fluffy pillow of plain sugared fried dough, there was one filled with apple and cinnamon honey butter, one filled with dark chocolate, and one filled with – and this one is sheer genius – crawfish, scallions and cheddar. Only after our group had discovered and devoured the sublime crawfish edition did I manage to take my photograph, so there’s understandably no sign of the final piece of artistry among the dabs of chocolate and bits of apple strewn across the plate.

Aieee.