The American Farmhouse Tavern & Dining Hall in Manhattan Beach goes all out for weekend brunch, with meats cooked on the Santa Maria-style barbecue and complimentary mimosas. We already checked out The Farmhouse for dinner, and I have to say the farm decor looked much more appropos by the light of day. Everything was sparkling clean, including the kitchen.
We ordered the Cattleman’s Breakfast: two eggs your way, ranch style potatoes, cattleman beans, ranch style toast and a side of Santa Maria Style salsa. It comes with your choice of meats, and we went for linguica, the unofficial sausage of the central California Coast. The skin was natural casing, giving it a nice crunch off the barbecue.
Another specialty of The Farmhouse is the hash, which we naturally ordered with tri-tip. The meat was a little overdone, but it was probably twice-cooked as most hash is. Extra points for barbecuing the salmon in the Benedict. There was a disappointed comment that the salmon was farmed, and that there were an awful lot of capers considering the delicacy of the dish. But it’s too late in the season for Alaskan salmon, and Lord knows what is happening with fish in Scotland right now. There is kind of a dilemma there. Is it better to have locally sourced, farmed, with less of a carbon footprint, or “authentic” imported products? Discuss.
The ambiance was nice for a sunny Saturday morning, and the service was excellent. Of course, we were dining at their invitation, which usually means the service is pretty good. Looking around the room no one was waving their arms at passing servers or acting distressed. Everyone seemed pretty damned happy to be there. I know I was.
