My family used to love weekend brunches. We’d enjoy them… a lot. And, then, the pandemic hit and our lives went without bennies and skillets and French toast and endless coffee refills.
This past weekend, though, a decision was made. To do Sunday brunch again. So, maybe this review is coloured by the fact that we were out and about as a family again, enjoying a lazy Sunday morning together, over food we didn’t have to cook. But, looking out the wall of windows, over the snowy outskirts of St. Albert, with some great plates of food, well, it felt right. The kitchen at Glasshouse Kitchen | Bar delivered three excellent brunch dishes, plus baked items from Good Earth Bakery, which is located just downstairs inside the Enjoy Centre premises.
I had been to the Glasshouse a couple of times before, and seen the menu change. Just as the Enjoy Centre has changed ownership, the restaurant felt like a place that was trying to find its direction. But this past weekend was, by far, the best experience I’ve had here.
I had the Huevos Rancheros, and the grilled salsa, which is cooked to a medium brown, packs a bit of heat, and a lot of smokiness. With the crushed, refried beans and eggs, it was a great warm-up after we came in out of the cold.
My wife has the fried chicken eggs Benedict, which is served with a country gravy rather than Hollandaise. She was nice enough to give me a bite, and it really carried the comfort of southern-style biscuits and gravy. Most important: the breading on the chicken held up, even though it was covered in gravy.
And my son had the most colourful dish of the day, the Pain Perdue, French toast with a berry sauce, and dried blueberries added to for good measure. Some lemon ricotta cream was dolloped on the side for dipping. And, having the eating capacity of a teenager, he absolutely annihilated it. There was a point that he paused to ponder what he was eating, and he told me it was “very good” and got back to business.
But, what pushes Glasshouse over the top is evident in the name of the place. If you’ve never been to the Enjoy Centre, the restaurant is placed at one end of the building, meaning that the diners are close to a wall of glass that allows panoramic views of the outside world. Sure, there’s a parking lot in the foreground, but look past and you can see where the Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park begins.
Glasshouse Kitchen | Bar
Heritage Lakes | 101 Riel Dr St. Albert | 780.651.7361
glasshousekitchenbar.com
