Brunch at Jimmy’s On the Park starts slowly. The live jazz doesn’t begin until 11:30, an hour and a half after it opens, allowing plenty of time for families with children – whether small or grown — to come in and actually talk. All should take particular note of the goofily charming wall art made of paint cans. This time of year, the two free-standing fireplaces are particularly welcome, even if most of their warmth is psychological. Later, we suspect, those who had a particularly rowdy Saturday night may crawl into the darkish corners and find a congenial serving of some hair of the dog. (The brunch drink list here includes Bellinis, a good idea.)
The menu is pretty evenly divided between lunch-y items like Caesar salad and sandwiches (chicken salad, turkey club wrap and salmon club, for example), and breakfast items. Lunch items we can get anytime, according to our logic, and aimed at the morning food. There’s also a children’s menu, but we consider offering toasted ravioli to innocent babes as near to child abuse. We pondered pancakes with blueberries and white chocolate, but decided that we could only rationalize it as health food if it were dark chocolate. And then there were the eggs temptingly scrambled with salsa, or with lobster, and served with tortillas.
The final choices were French toast and a crablette. With a name like that, we couldn’t pass up the omelet (or omelette) with lump crab, tomato and fresh mozzarella, as the menu described it.. It was a good looking plate, the eggs topped with cubes of the cheese, the house potatoes burnished with gold and interlaced with a few shreds of onion. If it really was lump crabmeat, it had been handled so much it was in shreds, but the combination, winter tomatoes and all, was flavorful The potatoes were adequate, but could have used more onions to kick them up a little. And the included croissant was almost refrigerator-cold, an injustice to a really fragile item.
Jimmy’s makes French toast from the croissants, served with strawberries and maple syrup. Although it’s definitely not for those on a low-fat diet, it’s good enough to eat without the syrup. And that’s a good idea, because the syrup was cold, too, colder than the croissant had been. Still, the bacon that comes with the French toast was crispy-crunchy and quite tasty.
Good coffee and service that is nicely casual while alert to any needs.
Jimmy’s On the Park
706 DeMun Ave, Clayton
314-725-8585
Lunch Tues.-Sat., Dinner nightly, Brunch Sunday
Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair access: Poor
Smoking: Yes
Brunch Entrees:$7-$13