Weekend brunch at Exile Brewing Company

I've eaten a few weekend brunches recently at Exile Brewing Company in the burgeoning artist's community centered around the intersection of 15th and Walnut Sts.

For my first taste of Exile's brunch I ordered up biscuits topped with a zesty sausage gravy. Eye-opening, likely overseasoned for some. Not for all palates, but I'd come back for another plateful.

The pork belly hash is a fairly hardcore presentation of pig flesh featuring thick slices of pork belly, piled on with red potatoes, peppers, onions, eggs and slices of American and mozzarella cheeses, served with toasty pita points.

The potatoes were tasty enough and my eggs over easy were par but I was expecting a proper hash: diced meat intermixed with potatoes. I've had pork belly before, diced and braised in an amazing taco [see blog post]. A similar treatment with this dish plus some grilling with the potatoes could make this 'hash' exemplary. As it is, I'd pass on the pork belly for a side of crispy bacon.

A dish more suited to my liking is the three-egg house omelet with bacon, ham, Gruyère and cheddar cheeses, served with a side of hash browns. On the occasion I tried it, the kitchen was out of ham which just meant more crispy bacon within the moist omelet. The hash browns, though a bit oily, are worth revisiting with some dashes of Cholula.