Fischers’ boasts bountiful buffet

Mama T’s hot beef
found on lunch menu

March 25, 2007

Fischers’ on the Green, long a dinner-only restaurant,
is now serving weekday lunch and Sunday brunch.

Here are some things we learned during five enjoyable visits.

1. A Bellini is a Mimosa back from charm school. We learned this during our very own “best brunch cocktail” contest, Audrey versus Jeff. For $17.95, Fischers’ brunch includes as many Mimosas, Bellinis, or glasses of champagne as you’d like. Jeff put his money on the Mimosa, regular orange juice transformed by champagne
into a slightly fizzy apéritif that is easy to enjoy at 10 a.m.

But like standard Screwdrivers, Mimosas taste mostly like diluted OJ. They gain bubbles, but they sacrifice flavor and citrusy brashness.

Audrey bet on the Bellini, a blend of sparkling wine and
house-puréed fresh peaches famously invented at Harry’s
Bar in Venice, Italy, in the 1930s. And she won: The champagne lightens and lifts the sweet, round lusciousness
of peach into something altogether enchanting.

2. Frittatas have more flavor than most omelets. Fischers’ brunch features a toque-topped cook preparing eggs to order, any style. Tempted first by omelets, we chose Italian frittatas instead—essentially sturdy disks of egg with meats and vegetables stirred in, then beautifully browned on both
sides. Our favorite mingled Canadian bacon, Asiago cheese and scallions.

3. Focused brunches mean fresher food. Let’s face it, most restaurant brunches feature many of yesterday’s entrées and much recycled food. Fischers’ does things differently,
staying focused instead on a fairly small number of items,
freshly made.

Dinner at Fischer’s starts with popovers. At brunch, fresh-baked cinnamon rolls take their place: fragrant, buttery and sweet. We enjoyed the good quality lox (cured salmon,
cold-smoked), but wished for better bagels — sliced
through for toasting — and individual bowls of capers
and diced red onions for garnishing.

We accompanied our frittatas with fruit, vegetables and
meats: chilled fresh strawberries, sliced fresh pineapple,
cantaloupe and honeydew melon; soft-steamed red
bell peppers, red onions and squash, both green and yellow;
crisp bacon, fine breakfast-sausage links grilled until crusty-dark, and kielbasa chunks that were crispbrown on one visit but flaccid on the next.

After one bite, we let the hashbrowns and French toast
be; they were limp and barely warm. (Might the egg chef
manage waffles to order?)

But we returned twice for more corned-beef hash and
found the eggs Benedict surprisingly good for a buffet-held dish, with excellent
poached eggs and mustardpeppy hollandaise.

The main brunch entrées change weekly. We tried good ham; good baked haddock,
a little chafing dish — dry but flavorful; superb beef pot roast in thick tender strands with real mashed potatoes and rich gravy; and herb-encrusted chicken, moist and satisfying if you opt for legs and thighs.

For dessert, Audrey recommends the mini-muffins, especially those with gooey
chocolate bits. Jeff required a second scoop of strawberry tiramisu.

4. White linen can be a wonderful thing. Fischers’ is the most elegant place to dine in the area, with a sumptuously decorated yet comfortable dining room and pretty linen
tablecloths and napkins. During the daytime, the view from the huge window — of the broad, undulating lawns and tree-packed hills — is unmatched.

An hour spent here can be restorative. At workday lunches in any weather, you may feel, as we did, that you’re getting away with something.

5. The best of Mama T’s still lives. When the Fischers’ casual restaurant, Mama T’s, closed recently, we mourned the loss of certain first-class sandwiches. Happily, the hot beef and Italian sausage are now regulars at lunch; the meatball is an occasional
special. The hot beef is braised, hand-pulled and served in good jus on a decent hoagie bun, $7.95. The housemade meatballs come soaked in a bright-tasting tomato sauce (special with soup, $7.95). The outstanding Chicago-style Italian sausage is
hand-crafted in-house with a secret herb-and-spice blend taught to Dave Fischer by his
longtime friend Pete Garza, owner of the late and legendary Pete’s Blue Diamond Supper Club near New Auburn. The sausage is astonishingly lean and finely ground,
with whispers of fennel and murmurs of red pepper that slowly build, bite by bite, into
a soft chorus of good flavors. When properly (slowly) grilled, this sausage stays
wonderfully moist and tender. We like it best served Mama T’s style with onions
and bell peppers in a lightly thickened, herbed gravy, $7.95.

We also recommend the New York-Style Reuben with house-cooked corned
beef in impressive 1/4-inch thick slices, mild sauerkraut and that rare thing in Reubens
these days: real Swiss cheese, $9.75.

6. Pot pies can be beautiful. Finally, don’t overlook the daily pot-pie special, $9.95.
The plain chicken version we sampled arrived in a wide porcelain canoe decked with
a gorgeously golden-brown, butter-flaky crust over sweet carrot dice, emerald-green
sweet peas, buttery-soft chunks of Yukon Gold potatoes and nuggets of roasted
chicken, all moistened by just enough clingy, rich, chickeny broth.

Main Course, the Leader-Telegram's restaurant review column, runs the second Tuesday and the fourth Sunday of the month.

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