Wienstein and Gavinos

Mar
03
2010

Wienstein & Gavinos – A Crescent street legend tries out Brunch

The 411

I find often that many places flirt with the idea of adding brunch to the menu. As you know, I am a huge fan of this since I like the fact that the more places that are offering brunch the more choice we get. It is better for everyone with a morning hankering. Now, my friend let me know that Wienstein & Gavino’s had begun offering a brunch of sorts – well – it’s actually a Frittata menu. Normally I am not a huge omelette fan but, I did want to check this and see how Wienstein and Gavino’s would pull of brunch.

At 1st glance

When you walk into Wienstein’s you see two levels and a huge bar at the bottom. Once you are seated you notice a wood rich room with lots of character. Most people have been to Wienstein’s at least once in their lives so you are likely familiar with this Crescent street landmark.

Food

Now before I dig into the food I will describe exactly what a Frittata is and although being a traditional Italian dish and myself having grown up eating it, I did a little extra research on this. Frankly, when you think of Italian food, brunch it is not the first thing that comes to mind. A frittata is similar to an omelette in the fact that it is egg based and you can add many ingredients in it: cheese, vegetables, and spices. Frittatas, however, tend to be thicker and heartier and in some instances you can find potatoes in them to make them more filling than an omelette. In fact, a frittata has been compared to a quiche by some people but the main thing is that it is not fried but rather it tends to be oven baked giving it a distinctive taste and size. Usually, it can start on the stove top but by the end it will end up in the oven. The thickness is the frittata’s most visible difference from an omelette and as well as the fact that an omelette can fold over but the frittata cannot as it will break and it’s already thick enough. Now that we have our terms straightened out let’s see what we have.

The Fritatas are made with three eggs and come as five choices:

1) Smoked Salmon ($12) with red onions, rapini, cheese and dill.

2) Asparagus ($10) with zucchini, mushroom, sun dried tomatoes, shallots, romano cheese and fresh mint.

3) Cheese ($10) which has fontina, pecorino, swiss, spinach and thyme.

4) Bocconcini ($10) with cherry tomatoes, mushroom, cooked prosciutto, shallots and basil.

5) Italian Sausage ($11) sweet and hot peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, shallots.

Today we were three people so we got to try out over half of the offerings. We had the Cheese frittata, the Italian Sausage and the Bocconcini. All frittatas came with a side of potatoes and salad. The cheese dish was tasty and the various cheeses all blended in which is good since I find pecorino can be quite pronounced. The Bocconcini had a definite taste of the cooked prosciutto and it was somewhat salty, but prosciutto is a salty meat so it is expected in this case. There was quite a generous amount of prosciutto and I did not really notice the Bocconcini taste. Lastly, the Italian sausage was good. There were chunks of meat and the vegetables worked as I did not find that any particular flavour overpowered the dish.

I did find that the frittata were more similar to omelettes, well maybe a slightly thicker omelette, than I have had at other places but not by any means near the thickness and heartiness of a frittata. The fact that there was a side of potatoes and regular salad did not tickle my fancy. I personally felt the sides were more lunch than brunch. I would have dropped the potatoes and salad and tried to be a little more creative. I can accept the fact that this is a recent offering and we were the only people who ordered it that day, so it’s likely going to change. I really hope it does and maybe even expand it to some real brunch options because there is a need for brunch spots in that area of the city. Wienstein and Gavino’s has been making people happy with their dinner dishes for years so I’m sure they can comfortably apply that brunch.

Service

Our service was good and my coffee was refilled frequently. Our bill came nice and quick and our waitress also asked us for our feedback since it was a new menu addition so I really enjoyed that.

Vegetarian

Two of the items are pure vegetarian and the smoked salmon fritatta can work for those who eat fish. You can also order a normal salad from the lunch menu so , yes vegans, you have choice; although, I would not consider a lunch salad brunch but the choice is there.

Wrap up

Overall I was a touch disappointed by the limitations in the menu and since they did advertise it as only frittata, it’s not as bad as saying they have a full brunch. Although the frittatas were tasty I had issue with the fact that the sides were uninspiring and the frittatas were more like an omelette than a frittata; simply put, the thickness was not present. I really hope they redo their menu and offer some real brunch options at which point I would go back and re-review it.