Hot Meal: Breakfast at Charles Phan's Out the Door Bush
It was delightful indeed to sit in the brand-new Out the Door Bush and peruse an alluring East-West morning menu that features chicken porridge (aka chao, congee, or jook) and phỏ as well as baked eggs with French ham and tomato coulis, and poached eggs with braised Niman Ranch beef brisket and crispy potatoes.
M. Brody The chicken porridge: An extravagance of crispy shallots
Sunlight streamed in through the glass window wall, illuminating a chic, spare décor that wittily juxtaposes hard surfaces (gray and white marble tables and counter tops) with soft (a pale wood wall and plaid upholstered armchairs). Alongside the long open kitchen is an impressively big oven, whose flickering flames roast pork and fish for lunch and dinner.
We drank Vietnamese iced coffee ($3.50), and French press coffee (single $3, double $6), nicely served in a silver pot, and picked at a warm coconut pull bread ($5), a three-leaf-clover affair, each leaf filled with luscious house-made coconut jam.
M. Brody Coffees, with coconut-jam-filled pull bread.
The chicken rice porridge ($7) was haute nursery food, flavored with the exciting, herbal, ever-so-mildly soapy, and bright green leaves of rau ram, topped with tender shredded chicken breast and an extravagance of crispy shallots. Two poached eggs from Sun Hill Farms spilled their golden yolks over the diced braised brisket and equally small crispy potatoes ($13), a deconstructed hash.
Among the dozen items on the breakfast menu at OTD Bush are steamed buns ($3), warm banana sticky rice with toasted coconut ($6), and crêpes with Fuji apples and brown butter ($9). You can linger over nine different teas (including magnolia blossom fragrance oolong and white chrysanthemum flower, all $4.50/pot) as well as cappuccinos ($3) and lattes ($4). Good morning!
M. Brody Poached eggs with braised brisket and crispy potatoes.
Out the Door Bush 2232 Bush (at Fillmore), 923-9575. Mon-Fri, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat-Sun, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.. Breakfast served Mon-Fri, 8 a.m.-11 a.m.; Sat-Sun, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
M. Brody The spare decor juxtaposes hard and soft materials, like marble on the tables and raw wood on the wall.
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