Category: Food

Pulled pork eggs benny on an English muffin served with deli potatoes. Home-made hollandaise sauce is gluten-free.

I was at the Urban Deli a few Saturdays ago for breakfast and went with an old standby – Eggs Benedict. Even though the Deli has a wonderful breakfast menu including Eggs Benny available four ways, I went with the traditional Eggs Benny – back bacon, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce (gluten-free) and Deli potatoes.

No, I’m not a foodie and I’ve not known for being adventurous when it comes to food.

Simply put, it was the best Eggs Benny I’ve had in years.

How does that happen?

So how does a restaurant make a breakfast staple like Eggs Benny a standout? I asked and the answer is this: the Urban Deli does just about everything themselves with the possible exception of laying the eggs.

The first thing I noticed was the English muffin. It was the freshest muffin I recall having Eggs Benedict on. The muffin may be the least noticed element in Eggs Benny. It’s usually just an English muffin. But when it’s as fresh and soft as mine was at the Urban Deli believe me, you notice. There’s a reason for that.

The Deli gets their bread delivered fresh every morning from City Road Bakery. (They are one of the four bakeries the Deli uses.)

Of course, there’s more to it than an English muffin. There are the eggs. Mine were poached perfectly. When I broke into them, the yoke spilled out to embrace and merge with the hollandaise like a teenager in love.

Speaking of hollandaise, at the Deli they make it from scratch. It’s not a sauce they have delivered from elsewhere. They put it together in the kitchen so it is homemade.

And it’s all served with our Deli potatoes — served for breakfast and a blend of grade-A Chef potatoes, sweet potatoes and leek.

Mimosa

When I lived in Edmonton there was a restaurant down the street from me where I would go on weekend mornings and have (you guessed it) Eggs Benedict. I got into the habit then of always getting a mimosa. I’m always surprised when I go into some restaurants for brunch and they don’t have it available. In some cases, they don’t even know what it is.

Mimosa is pretty simple. Orange juice and champagne. But again, the Urban Deli steps it up by doing it the right way. The orange juice at the Deli is freshly squeezed. They take the time to get the freshest juice possible by doing it themselves. (Fresh squeezed orange juice is only available Saturday mornings for the breakfast menu.)

Believe me, when you get a mimosa at the Deli, you can tell the difference.

Yes, I also had coffee. What’s breakfast without coffee? The Urban Deli’s comes from Red Whale and mine was freshly brewed and tasted the way coffee should taste and was beautifully aromatic.

If you get the sense that I enjoyed my breakfast at the Urban Deli you would be correct. I did. Actually, I loved it.

For me, the real test of skill and passion is in doing the most common and simple of things well. You do them well by paying attention to the details. Apart from bacon and eggs, what could be more common than Eggs Benedict for breakfast? What could be simpler than mimosa?

When you do the common and the simple in ways that make them rise above the usual; when you capture the essence of good food by working on getting the tastes and textures perfect, you aren’t just doing something right. You’re doing it with passion and focus.

At the Urban Deli, you can taste it.

(Note: Bill can’t claim to be completely impartial. He is a friend of the Urban Deli and helps them with their web site and social media. He is a writer, social media practitioner and maintains Writelife.)