photo/Dan Zarin
Bistro Leluco
347 Cottage Rd., South Portland
536-1690
bistro-leluco.com
It was a glorious, sunny weekend morning: not too hot, not too cool; perfect patio weather. Driving through downtown Portland, my wife and I spotted crowds of people already queuing up outside some of the city’s better-known brunch spots.
Suckers.
Less than 10 minutes later, we were sitting with three friends at a quiet outdoor table at Bistro Leluco. The cozy South Portland restaurant opened in January and started serving brunch in early May. Just a few weeks in, it’s already on par with Portland’s best.
While one friend sipped a Cafe Americano ($5.50), three of us selected cocktails from a long and creative menu that included a handful of brunch-only options. One of those, the Maria Clara ($14), is made with tequila, caraway, cardamom, garlic and lemon, clarified with coconut milk and rimmed with spicy curaçao dust. The clarification process (which I learned about from our friendly and knowledgeable server) eliminated the bitterness and alcoholic burn, leaving an impossibly smooth, slightly saline and intensely flavorful drink that went down dangerously easy.
The fruity and refreshing Motivational Speech ($15), made with Brazilian cachaça, fig-infused Chinese baijiu, citrus and beet, tasted like summer, while the vegetal Dancing Green ($16), with wakame mezcal, rum, vermouth, green pepper and herbaceous génépy liqueur, screamed spring!
As a first course, we shared a bright and acidic scallop ceviche ($16), a showstopper of a dish made with lime, honey, scallion, green chili, and pomegranate molasses.
And the hits kept coming.
Each of our entrées was perfectly balanced and expertly executed, from the avocado toast ($16) with pickled red onions, jalapenos, arugula, whipped farmer’s cheese and poached egg, to the steak omelette ($17) with sharp provolone and local oyster mushrooms. My wife enjoyed every last morsel of her strapatsada ($15), a simple and satisfying scramble with tomato, sheep’s-milk feta and herbs served on a grilled slab of Standard Baking Co. baguette.
Our friend’s classic Benedict ($18) blew him away with its velvety, lemony Hollandaise sauce and lusciously fatty, house-smoked, pork-belly bacon. His wife ate a significant portion of his potatoes, leading him to lament, “I’m watching the best home fries of my generation disappear off my plate.” He fought back by surreptitiously stealing bites of her sourdough French toast with blueberry pear compote ($16), a dish that was somehow both decadent and delicate, with crusty bread that remained crunchy but not dry.
Before the check had even arrived, we were already planning another trip to try other menu items like bluefin tuna crudo ($20), shakshuka ($15) and a brown butter lobster bun ($21) — as well as at least a few more cocktails.
We better hurry, though. Once word gets out, it won’t be long before those weekend crowds spill over the bridge and ruin it for the rest of us.
Bistro Leluco serves brunch Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
