...W?ch Addiction

I've raved in the past about my love for the Devilicious Food Truck, and touched on the trend of Food Trucks as the new medium for getting into the food business.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I made the lamentably late realization that the new restaurant I saw going into my work-neighborhood was in-fact a brick and mortar establishment by the same folks behind Devilicious.  Enter: W?ch Addiction.

Dyann and Mark have continued riffing on "New American" cuisine and have done a seemingly smart thing in designing the menu around the same quick-turnaround handmade food that makes the truck so awesome.  Fortunately, with the advent of actual tables, they can get away with a few more things that just aren't easy to do in the mobile environment.

As the name implies, Sandwiches feature heavily on the menu, though salads, sides, and the ever-eclectic Poutine are added.  For my first visit, I was called by the Panzanella salad, and of course I couldn't resist adding the crispy pork-belly on top.

The salad itself already packed a big punch of flavor and was suitably rich - so the pork belly may have been overkill.  Indeed, by the end, I was feeling I might have over done it. In any case, the flavors were excellent and I couldn't wait to dive into the rest of the menu.

Imagine my joy, then, upon receiving a newsletter only days later from Dyann dropping the bomb that this week they'd start with a new 7am Breakfast menu!  They "had me" at the mention of Corned Beef Hash - probably my all time favorite breakfast dish.

The corned beef itself was excellent, but Dyann seems to be well aware that good meat alone can't hold up a hash, and it's the potatoes and veggies that really seal the deal.  Roasted Red potatoes, herbed with (at least) Rosemary and Thyme, along with caramelized onions and tomatoes and cheese are the stars of the dish - savory, sweet, and filling.  I was also very pleasantly surprised that the obligatory fried egg topper was actually seasoned - Kudos to Chef Dyann for having the temerity to put salt and pepper on an egg.  Too many cooks will leave the poor thing naked, which on a dish this big in flavor would be a letdown.  My wife seldom enjoys eggs when eating out because they're usually some combination of overcooked or under-seasoned.  I think she'll be enjoying the eggs here.

I had initially read that W?ch Addiction was going to be Breakfast/Lunch only.  Then, they were showing their hours as 10a-7p during the week (10a-2p Sat), which I thought was probably a better business choice.  Adding six days a week of 7am Breakfast service is gutsy and I hope it pays off.  Either way, I know my wife will be relieved at the opportunity to give it a try for a weekend Breakfast, as a mid-week dinner visit was going to be a mixed-bag with the vegetarian and toddler in tow.

Which brings me to my final thought:  One of the things I love about trying a restaurant in it's early days is to see what the owners end up changing.  In the quest to make the concept work while remaining profitable, many restaurants fail outright, and many more end up changing radically.  What makes the process interesting is that sometimes the stuff I thought was key to the restaurant is seen as a flaw (or at the very least expendable), or vice versa, so you learn a lot about the owners from how they make those early course corrections.  Sometimes a new restaurant will just fix the problems and refine the process and flavors, or adjust portion sizes.  Other times they see the need to make larger shifts in mission or delivery.  I remember the Linkery, for example, going through several phases of lunch service, no lunch service, and back again while they struggled with their too-small kitchen, ingredients sourcing and costs.  In the end they've settled on a concept and schema that seem to work for them, though at times I do miss the raucous nature of some of the early food there.  Given the Devilicious background and W?ch Addition's promising early start, I have to say I'm excited to see where this thing goes for Mark and Dyann!