In our quest to find the best brunch in the city of Columbus, the Brave Brunching Big Ladies met up at Banana Bean last week. Banana Bean began life as a tiny little spot on Whittier Street in German Village where you didn't have a hope of getting in for brunch unless you had a reservation a week out. That success allowed them to open a second location on Greenlawn avenue close to Thurns.
I arrived late as usual (I'm sorry, girls. it's the last time I promise). When I arrived the girls were working on a plate of sweet potato fries with a dipping sauce close to remoulade. Yummy!
We ordered a few more appetizers - the eggplant fries (yummy; I love eggplant fries) with a sweet and quite spicy dipping sauce, as well as an order of fried oysters. The oysters were really tasty. They also came with a great dipping sauce!
On to the main events. Lady 1 ordered the crab cake eggs benedict, her favorite thing! She's always trying to find those (pictured at the top of the post).
Lady 2 opted for the Cedar Key Shrimp and Grits, which looked very tasty. I tried to convince everyone we needed an extra order for the table but alas (next time, for sure):
Lady 4 ordered the Bananas Foster French Toast. Oh. My. I'm not usually a "sweets for breakfast" kind of person but seriously, this was amazing. Lady 4 was probably getting a little irritated with our forks invading her plate every 45 seconds. The syrup is a Captain Morgan sauce, and it's amazing. As I tweeted during brunch, I could have sipped it through a straw, it was that good.
And Lady 5 (that's me, by the way) opted for the special of the day, fried green tomato eggs benedict! What a great idea! The special came with a pork chop, but it was a little early in the day for me to have a pork chop, so I ordered some bacon on the side. The fried green tomatoes were sitting on top of an amazingly delicious biscuit - so light and yummy!
Being a table full of foodies, we took a full 2 minutes to photograph our food before consuming. @bellasmommie and I immediately tweeted our plates.
So the coolest thing happened at brunch. I tweeted a desire I had, not even thinking about it, and about 45 seconds later, our server came over and said "um, who's Lisa the Waitress?" The chef had prepared exactly what I wanted after reading my tweet! We all laughed and thanked the chef and had a good time laughing over the power of Twitter! So Thanks @BananaBeanCafe!!
For those of you out there who think you don't need to embrace social media, think twice! You get free instant feedback. It was super cool.
The new Banana Bean space is reallyl nice - decorated to look a beach bar, there are umbrellas on the tables even inside. Service was great, with our poor waiter, Patrick, catering to our every request for more coffee, more coffee, more coffee...we really try not to be typical horrid ladies who brunch, but I am sure we were a pain. I thought he might faint when he offered to split our checks and we told him we'd figure it out! (Women never put their food on the same tab, even when they order the same thing.)
Banana Bean was a winner and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a yummy brunch. We'll certainly hitting it again after we've made the rounds of our list.
If you would like to join our brunch crew rotation, please don't hesitate to send me an email. We're having new peeps join us for the next few brunches. Sorry boys - ladies only!
Info: Banana Bean Cafe two locations - we visited the Greenlawn Ave location (340 Greenlawn Ave in the Brewery District 614.443.2262); and the cozy German Village (410 E Whittier 614.443.2266)
