Brunch Begs For More

Reviewing Westerville

Restaurant Review by Gary Gardiner

Sunday breakfast was once the best part of the week. I’d cook for the entire family: bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, hashbrowns, English muffins, fresh fruit, coffee, orange juice, whole milk, and sometimes cereal.

Later, it was just me and my wife. Omelets became the featured fare—two varieties, one loaded with vegetables, the other with jalapeños.

Now, I cook for myself and can make whatever I want. Recipes from all of the above have found their way onto my blue plate special. Omelets with three cheeses are my favorite. I’ve swapped orange juice for cranberry juice—its sharper flavor cuts through the jalapeños and blue cheese without the sweetness.

But today, I wanted something different. I went out for brunch.

I chose the Hot Honey Chicken & Biscuits at High Bank Distillery, which came with cheddar drop biscuits, sausage gravy, crispy fried chicken, spicy dust, and hot honey. For a protein boost—and just for fun—I ordered deviled eggs. They were flavored with white BBQ, spicy crunch, and arbol chili dust, and served with a side of dill pickles.

This is where things started to go sideways.

I often use hot honey at home—usually on poblano cheddar cheese spread across corn chips or crackers, or on a grilled cheese sandwich. I make a small well in the center of the cheese mound, fill it with hot honey, and enjoy a snap of heat blended with the creamy cheese. It’s a reliable afternoon snack.

But I didn’t taste any hot honey in or on the chicken and biscuits. There was a faint drizzle around the edge of the plate, near the sausage gravy, but nothing close to the flavor I expected. None of the familiar heat or sweet-spicy bite came through.

The five small pieces of deep-fried white meat tenderloin were pedestrian. They were crispy, but lacked flavor beneath the crunch. Hot honey chicken needs a bite of heat in the crust or a sticky coating of sweet spice. This had neither. The meat hadn’t been marinated or tossed in a hot honey glaze like Nashville hot chicken.

After the first tenderloin, I tried dipping it in the sausage gravy. It didn’t help. If there was sausage in the gravy, it added no flavor—only decoration. In my kitchen, sausage gravy carries the lingering taste of grease, with salt and pepper to sharpen the flavor. This version was flat. Neither the gravy nor a bite of biscuit helped elevate the chicken.

As for the biscuit, it had an ordinary flavor with barely a trace of cheese. The expected cheesy notes weren’t there. Neither the chicken nor the gravy offered enough flavor to mask it, let alone complement it.

My first memory of deviled eggs was at my grandmother’s house in Island Grove, Florida. They were flavorful, made with mayo, a hint of dark, spicy mustard, salt and pepper, and perhaps apple cider vinegar or sweet relish. More recently, I’ve had jalapeno deviled eggs, bacon-flavored deviled eggs, and deviled eggs with cheese.

I would expect restaurant deviled eggs to have a unique set of flavors, with the chef creating unique recipes. Recipes unique enough to create a powerful prelude to the main course, or the idea to save one or two to spread through the meal to create that melange of flavors and textures to complement each of the courses. These five deviled eggs were bland, perfectly set on the plate drizzled with the BBQ sauce, and adjacent to the serving of dill pickles. The arbol chili dust resembled paprika but lacked a different, distinctive flavor.

I’m still wondering what happened to the sixth deviled egg, the one half of the three eggs prepared for my plate. I understand the plate setting with five halves is more serene and balanced, but it does beg the question about the missing half. Plus, spicy crunch in deviled eggs seems too much like an egg shell that made it into the deviled part of the egg.

The dill pickles were great.

Brunch may have broken my old and new Sunday breakfast traditions, but it didn’t break any new ground or excite me much. Perhaps next time I’ll have the High Bank Grilled Cheese on sourdough served with tomato bisque or the breakfast corn dogs.

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