Bastille Cafe & Bar
5307 Ballard Avenue Northwest

For the past several years, I've joined my neighbors for dinner here on Christmas Eve.  It's always a wonderful evening.  When they started serving brunch on Sundays, it went on my list.  The down side is that it is smack in the middle of the Ballard Farmer's Market which is year round so getting to the place is a bitch.

But, today, I proved to me that the enormous hassle is well worth the effort.

Food:  The menu has several items that looked like Must Tries and then the nice waiter came by to share 3 specials.  It would have been a torturous decision except the menu had my achilles brunch heel - Croque Madame.

And it was perfect.  Just perfect.  There used to be a place in West Seattle that had the best but they retired it off the menu.  But even the memory of it isn't as good as this was this morning.  The perfect ham, the perfect cheese - the egg was done... perfectly.  OMG

The waiter did tell me that it was perennial on the menu so I could feel free to experiment next time knowing that I could come home to the Croque.  (He also told me of another place near by - Anita's who also served Croque Madame.  But, I have no need to top perfection.)

Service:  Impeccable and exceptional.  In every way.

Everything else:  This restaurant has the secret sauce.  It was really loud but the noise became background music in no time.  There was a table with two unruly kids next to me and they didn't bother me a bit.  I read my book and enjoyed my meal.  Oh, I had forgotten to load up the Kindle app on my tablet with my current book but I looked and they had free WiFi!!

Seriously, this is absolutely my new favorite brunch place ever.  I may have to come back here a few dozen times before I even try anyplace else again.

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