It’s been said that Phoenix is a city best suited to early risers. Keeping Ben Franklin hours not only helps people to enjoy a little time outside, even in the summer heat, but also allows better synchronization of work hours with colleagues in the Eastern and Central time zones. One effect is that restaurants specializing in breakfast have proliferated, often beginning their day earlier than is typical in many other cities and closing in the afternoon after lunch service. Hope’s Brunch House is a welcome addition to the local lineup of breakfast-and-lunch places.
Hope’s is an independently owned establishment that has moved into the former site of an IHOP, a chain also associated with breakfast food. The location is in Midtown, two blocks north of Encanto/Central station on the B Line. Unfortunately, there is no bike rack on the premises, but the owners are relaxed about customers locking up against a railing on the north side of the building along Wilshire Drive. The old IHOP decor has been replaced with vivid red and an icon of a steaming coffee mug featured on the restaurant’s prominent sign along Central Avenue.
Inside, there are posters with inspirational sayings, photos of European cities, and plenty of natural light. The restaurant’s opening feeling is enhanced with seating of mostly booths separated by half walls in a floor plan that recalls the property’s previous identity as a chain. Servers bring each table a bottle of alkaline water, even before coffee is offered. The expansive menu fills six entire pages with numerous listings of breakfast and lunch food. A whiteboard near the entrance usually adds two or three entree specials, as well as a few juice offerings.
As expected for a place that opens at 7AM, the menu begins with a heavy breakfast focus. That means seven or eight different varieties of omelettes and eggs Benedict, as well as the usual starches like pancakes, waffles, French toast, and crepes. There are so many variations of these that a sampler may be an effective way to start. The crepe sampler is a trio with one crepe in each of the following variations: mixed berries, fruit and cream, and banana and strawberry with Nutella. Some of these ingredients fill the crepes, others top them, and some do both.
For French toast, the “Very Berry” includes a cinnamon swirl and mixed berries on top of four slices of brioche. It’s a manageable size that pairs well with a side of bacon, sausage, or sausage patties. The Bananza pancakes, on the other hand, are an enormous meal with three fluffy discs covered with pecans, sliced bananas, and Nutella. Waffles are available with sweet toppings, but a savory option is the chicken and waffles in which a poultry piece is pounded thin like katsu or schnitzel with a little bit of bacon in the breading to impart a smoky, salty flavor.
If chicken and waffles begin the transition from breakfast to lunch, it’s the burgers, sandwiches, and salads on the menu that make it fully realized. First, though, there’s soup. With all lunch entrees, the restaurant offers a complimentary cup of the day’s soup, which is usually announced on the whiteboard near the entrance. Each day’s creation can be something as simple as a piquant tomato bisque or as clever as a Philly cheesesteak soup in which a smooth base of melted cheese is enhanced with bits of grilled ribeye, bell peppers, and sautéed onions.
Those soups are an appealing preclude to a menu that include successful sandwiches like a three-layered turkey bacon club, a vivid version of a classic with abundant turkey, crisp bacon, and fresh tomatoes on toasted white bread spread with mayonnaise. The burger menu includes both a classic patty melt, albeit made with American cheese rather than the more traditional Swiss, and an A1 patty melt that adds the steak sauce of that name and bacon to the mix of elements between slices of rye. All sandwiches come with a side of either fries or fried okra.
Fresh fruit or salad are also available as lighter accompaniments, and larger format salads offer another approach to lunch. Classics such as Cobb and Greek salads are available, and the Southwest salad is hearty with spring mix topped with avocado, corn, tortilla strips, and chicken carnitas, in which poultry is prepared via a method usually associated with pork. Those chicken carnitas also appear in some of the selections from the “South of the Border” section of the menu, which includes Mexican-inspired selection like chilaquiles, migas, and breakfast burritos.
Another section of the menu labeled “Healthy Choices” mixes traditional items like steel cut oatmeal and a bagel with lox with newer trends such as avocado toast, chia seed pudding, and quinoa bowls. The whiteboard specials on any given day may include diner food like pork chops or Hope’s interpretation of the Southern classic of shrimp and grits. The version here uses bay shrimp, the same fried okra served as a side, some corn, and a little holy trinity of bell peppers, celery, and onions, but not tomato. It may not be entirely traditional, but it’s quite good.
The beverage menu includes fountain sodas, iced tea, drip coffee and generous pours of fresh squeezed orange juice. There is no liquor license, and that seems a refreshing break given that there are plenty of other places for those who crave boozy breakfasts and bottomless mimosas. Not all Phoenicians are early risers, but many of its most loyal residents are, and Hope’s provides morning fuel to people who live in nearby neighborhoods or work in adjacent offices. With an equally robust midday menu, the night owls have plenty of time to catch up at lunch.
2508 N. Central Ave, Phoenix AZ 85004
https://hopesbrunchhouse.com
PHX Rail Food 