As Told Over Cafe Caturra on Grove Brunch
Considering I live 1.5 miles from Cafe Caturra on Grove, it's embarrassing to admit that I've never been brunching there before. This week, I channeled my inner Cazey and tried to be a planner. Granted, I passively invited people to a brunch on Saturday at an undisclosed location at an unknown time.
Clearly I didn't channel enough of Cazey.
Thankfully, someone I invited helped pick the time and location. I did step up at at least make the reservation, since I had no idea how busy it would be.
Immediately after making the reservation, I started scouring Cafe Caturra on Grove's brunch menu to pick out what I wanted. My eye went straight to the Buongiorno Panini with either fresh fruit or french fries (pending what fresh fruit they would serve). I went to bed excited to workout and brunch.
The day turned out to be BEAUTIFUL, so instead of going to the gym, I decided to take a run to train for the Monument 10K. [Side note: I'm making my miles matter and taking the Massey Challenge, which means raising $100 for VCU Massey Cancer Center, then getting a fancy golden shirt to run in. If you're running, please join me and make a #MasseyChallenge fundraising team: http://bit.ly/MasseyRegister.]
But back to brunch!
I picked up a friend, rollin' with the windows down to take in the beautiful weather. We easily found a parking spot across the street and walked into Cafe Caturra for brunch. The restaurant was flooded with light from the large windows, and we got a table by the back door (pro tip: there's a parking lot if you don't do parallel parking).
I had already reviewed the menu, but was weighing whether or not to get the spiked coffee or regular coffee. My friend wanted champagne and the other wanted a beer, so spiked coffee made sense.
Once our entire party showed up, we placed our order: two chicken and biscuits, two Caturra Messes, one Buongiorno Panini and one chicken sandwich.
I hate food envy, so I happily agreed to split a mess and the panini. The wait for food was pretty quick. I spent about five minutes trying to take a picture of my coffee with a fancy painting in the background. They all turned out bad, but here's one since it would be silly to not share at least one.
As soon as the food came out, I was a butterfly and flitted around to take pictures. I'm the person everyone hates.
Here's our brunch around the table.
The Buongiorno panini is an egg sandwich with cheese, spinach and tomato sauce (but special tomato sauce) on a ciabatta role. I loved the crunch of the ciabatta. The tomato sauce was delicious: so fantastic I wish there was more of it, maybe even served on the side for additional dipping.
The fries were also a knockout with coarse black pepper and fried to golden, crunchy perfection.
The Caturra mess is a potato base with ham, cheese, eggs and hollandaise sauce. What I liked best about this dish is the grilled flavor of it, helping to stick all the ingredients together and giving it a cohesive taste. My one critique is that the potatoes could have been cooked a bit more to make them tender.
Wow -- these chicken and biscuits are a heaping portion of a golden biscuit with a juicy chicken breast with bacon and smothered in sausage gravy. Plus, there's a side of hot sauce for dipping or drizzling.
And this my friends, is the chicken sandwich, which features grilled or crispy chicken, bacon, onion, tomato spread (different than the other tomato sauce) and lettuce.
If your mouth is watering yet, book your reservation at Cafe Caturra on Grove for Richmond Brunch Weekend! They're open both Saturday and Sunday.