The Unvegan

It seems like oh so long ago that I paid a visit to Point Brugge, a nice little Belgian spot in my neighborhood. At the time, I was perfectly aware that the place had a sister restaurant called Park Bruges (so tricky with those mixed up spellings) in Highland Park, but saw no reason to drive to a place so similar to one in walking distance. But, when attempting to grab brunch at the former on Saturday, we were informed that the two restaurants split up their brunch days and only Park Bruges would be serving brunch that day. So, like any brunch seekers, we packed into the car and made our way to the park side of Belgium.

Although quite similar to Point Brugge, Park Bruges is a little bigger and their menu is a bit different as well. Most notably there were two items unavailable at Point Brugge that I jumped on. The first was Slow Roasted Beef Brisket Potato Hash (pictured above). It was like an unvegan special, topped with gouda, two sunnyside up eggs and horseradish sauce. Little did I know at the time that it also came with a bonus bit of baguette. And, as expected from such a dish, it was awesome. Just awesome. The hash browns were nicely crisped with just enough beef brisket to keep them in line. The eggs were runny, the gouda gooey and the horseradish sauce was just enough to add flavor without dominating anything else.

On top of that, I ordered a dish that had many of the same components of the hash: Poutine. This was topped with Amich Cheese Curds and Stock Gravy (as well as some chives that were left off of the menu). There was an option to upgrade with eggs, but considering the hash, I thought it might not be the best of ideas. Plus, poutine is typically rich enough as it is. And it was. This was loaded up with curds and the gravy wasn’t half-bad either. Still not the best poutine gravy I’ve had, but definitely the best in Pittsburgh. Plus, they loaded this up with curds and the fries (which you may recall as the highlight of Point Brugge) were sturdy under the weight of the gravy and cheese.

And thus, my experience at Park Bruges turned out to be a superior one to Point Brugge. It’s really just hard to beat those unique menu items, but perhaps one day the latter will wisen up and start mixing potatoes, meat, cheese and eggs together.