Waiters who carry trays of steamy omelettes and grits flutter in and out of a door with hundreds of half-smudged fingerprints.
Fathers dole out dated relationship advice to daughters over glasses of orange juice and bottles of Crystal Hot Sauce.
As an old man finally mounts his high chair and rests his elbows on the sticky bar, a waitress brings him his standard dark black coffee with a warm smile and a “Hey, Charles.”
Ivey’s Grill offers a continental-style brunch menu with locavore flair.
The experience begins with what seems like an orchestra of greetings from the staff in the dining room, which is adorned with paper mache animals, paintings of Muhammad Ali and plants hung at random.
After you take your seat and have your drink order in place, you can settle in to listen to the room.
The music, which moves from John Williams orchestral music to West Coast jazz guitar to a patriotic lone French horn, is accompanied by a conversation some intellectuals are having about Leonard Bernstein.
All of the unlikely parts mix well together, much like the food.
The Smoked Salmon Benedict is an amalgam of tart hollandaise sauce, hickory-smoked salmon and perfectly poached eggs all perched on top of a crisp split English muffin.
Ivey’s Grill smokes its salmon with brown sugar and hickory chips in the morning, only hours before it is served.
The sweet smoke of the salmon compliments the two perfectly poached eggs.
Hollandaise sauce, which is the emulsification of butter, egg yolk and lemon, used its lemon to cut the fattiness of the fish and add another creamy texture to the eggs, bringing the whole dish into harmony.
The potatoes were pan-fried chunks seasoned with rosemary, oregano and lots of pepper.
Although the pepper from the potatoes gave a good spice, the potatoes themselves were cold.
Where the potatoes lacked in warmth, the service didn’t.
Every member of the wait staff made sure drinks were full, people had their hot sauce and that you were going to get the pancakes when you come back.
It is easy to get a first impression of a staff in one visit, but it takes more than one trip to a restaurant to see what a menu is like, so lunch it was.
The crab cake sandwich, Matt & Tomei’s Crab Cake Sandwich, proudly displayed sweet chunks of crab from Northwest Seafood, along with capers to add a bit of texture and flavor.
To add even more texture and flavor, the cake is topped with lettuce and a dill mayonnaise.
Just counterclockwise from the sandwich sat an unlikely soloist, soba noodles.
The buckwheat noodles, ubiquitous to almost every Japanese home, took a trip to Thailand as they were tossed with peanut sauce, chopped peanuts, green onions and red cabbage.
The green onions helped to cut through the rich grit of the peanuts.
What would have truly rounded off the noodles as a Thai dish would have been just a little spice, which would have also worked well with the crab.
My mouth, having just been subjected to dill mayonnaise and peanut sauce, looked for something to cut all of the velvety textures.
And there it was. Like the somehow-overlooked hot girl with glasses and awkward bangs from your high school art class. I finally realized how beautiful and perfect it was at that moment, three measly slices of watermelon.
The cooling organic watermelon, from Bellevue Gardens Organic Farms, mellowed the flavors and cut through the textures of the meal.
Throughout the dish, the balance of flavors and textures was never an afterthought and it showed.
Ivey’s Grill manages to harmonize different local flavors into cohesive meals for all to enjoy.
Check back with The Avenue this summer for more local food reviews.
