the juice
The Fifty/50
2047 W. Division St.
773-489-5050
1.5 (out of 4) eggs
Loved it: Hoe-Mosa ($5), Hoegaarden with a splash of OJ
Hated it: Wobble Stopper ($9). If you like an extra-thick bloody mary, you may not agree, but we felt like we were drinking gazpacho from a pint glass.
Brunch time: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday-Sunday
Cost: $20-$25 per person, with a cocktail
Wait: None
THE JUICER: WHAT TO EXPECT BEFORE YOU GO
Hangover helper
The scene: We’ve got to hand it to the Fifty/50: The place has swagger. Hangover-friendly and loaded with boozy cocktails, the brunch menu confidently assumes the crew that spent the previous night drinking at the bar loves it so much they’ll return the next morning.
And why not? It’s hard to do much better along this stretch of Division Street if you’re looking for a bar with a sporty vibe and a little bit of attitude. And by attitude, we don’t mean surly servers — they’re friendly as can be. It’s the menu that sasses back with snarky descriptions like the one for Good Morning … umm … What’s Your Name Again? ($14.95), which promises “a shot of your choice, a few awkward looks and all the water you can drink” to accompany your eggs, beer and bloody mary.
The cuisine: Even before we hit the snark, the menu had us at “all-you-can-eat-bacon.” But then it lost us with, well, nearly everything else.
The menu overflows — it’s two pages long and jam-packed — with good ideas, starting with unlimited helpings of everyone’s favorite breakfast meat for $5.95. Then there are cute French toast sliders stuffed with mango or wild berry or chocolate mascarpone ($3 each). You can get mini-crepes, too ($3 each), or hearty savories like biscuits and gravy ($6.95) and breakfast skillets ($12).
But while ideas are abundant, execution is lacking. Those little sliders had only the tiniest dab of filling, and our bananas foster crepes didn’t fare well either. Breakfast lasagna — bacon, cheddar and caramelized onions layered between thin potato slices and topped with more cheese and two fried eggs ($8.95) — sounded great in theory, but the cheese quickly cooled into a rubbery glob.
If you can avoid getting swept up in the whimsical menu, you’re better off sticking to the fundamentals. The Basic (eggs, hash browns, toast, and sausage, bacon or Canadian bacon) is foolproof ($6.50), and the kitchen turns out a reliable eggs Benedict (left) on toasted brioche ($9.95).
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kpratt@tribune.com
