Looking for a brunch spot, on Open Table (so we didn’t have to wait) on the way to midtown, you only have so many choices.  I didn’t know that I’ve been to Einstein’s in at least five years and knew that I hadn’t blogged about it, so I grabbed the 10:45 slot and we parked at the valet, two houses down on Juniper.  We were promptly greeted and offered the choice of dining inside or outside, and chose inside.  They do have a fantastic tree on the patio (that patio may be the single best thing about this restaurant), so there was shade.  But it was still hot and the flies were abundant.

We were seated in a large booth, near the kitchen entrance and took a look at the menu.  Jo was interested in the breakfast part of brunch, me, more so in the lunch.   She chose a spinach and feta omelette with mushrooms and a pancake.

The omelette resembled one that I might have made at home – it looked like scrambled eggs with spinach in them and some feta and mushrooms thrown in.  In other words, it did not look very omelette-like.  The pancake was very heavy and kind of sweet, like it had been made with waffle batter.   I chose to go with a burger,

the Hillbilly burger, with bacon, pimento cheese, onion rings and barbecue sauce.  I’m not sure what made this burger “Hillbilly”-style.  Maybe the pimento cheese?  Kind of stereotypical.  And wrong.  Pimento cheese actually didn’t begin in the South (there’s a fascinating history of pimento cheese here).  Anyhow, the pimento cheese was thin and runny.  The burger was fine, but nothing spectacular.  

Overall, we were nonplussed – the patio may indeed be the best thing about a meal here.