We weren't necessarily planning to go here and we had Misaki with us, so we parked about a block away and made a call to the restaurant. We knew they had outdoor seating, but didn't know if that meant it was okay for mild-mannered little puppies like her. Apparently it is!
The below pictures if of the front door area, on Burnside. The outdoor seating is to the right here (Screen Door is on a corner) and consists of some full size picnic tables and a few more two-seater tables. Misaki laid down under the picnic table and was generally a model little Shiba. Our server also brought a little dish of water, which Misaki appreciated because it was a warm day and we had been out walking a bit.
So what did we order? We started with the praline bacon. It's a house-made bacon they pralined (I think that's a verb - pretty sure) and is pretty damn yummy. The first time we visited Screen Door I meant to order it but forgot when we actually ordered, then didn't rectify it because we ended up with a ton of food. This time we made a point of getting it.
Sweet, crunchy, bacony goodness. I wasn't sure about nuts on my bacon, but it was fantastic. I'm not sure if it's better than the bacon at The Country Cat - it's different - but I recommend this.
I ordered the traditional eggs benedict for my main course, with a side of grits:
I'd never had grits before and neither had Wifey, so I figured what the heck, why not? You always hear grits mentioned somewhat derisively like it's a throwaway dish (at least I have, spending my entire life in the Northwest), but these were actually really, really good. The menu didn't say, but I swear I tasted a little bit of cheesiness to them and the texture was nice. I'd go back and order one of their grit dishes as a main course.
The eggs benedict were very good. The Hollandaise sauce was much thicker than I've been able to manage at home (that is to say, normal, while mine is runny), the eggs were cooked just right so they spread in a puddle when cut into, and the grilled ham and English muffin was very good.
Wifey ordered something called Fried Chicken Cathead Biscuit Sandwich with sausage gravy and a side of roasted potatoes. Does that sound odd to you? Did to us. We had to ask the server what that meant before ordering, and she assured us that all it meant was that the dish was bigger than a cat's head. Southern people are weird. Here's what it looks like:
I didn't have a cat around to measure, but that certainly looks bigger than a cat's head to me. Or two cats heads. I love the knife stabbed in there holding the whole thing together.
The gravy was very good with a creamy texture and sausagey-yummy flavor, the fried chicken very moist and crunchy, the biscuit amazing, and the potatoes were also pretty tasty and well-seasoned. All in all this dish hit all the marks as far as taste and comfort. What more could you ask for? If anything we wished the potatoes were cut just a little bit smaller so there was a little more crunch, but that's a personal preference.
I believe our total bill was less than $30, but that also included an extra order of sausage gravy to go with our leftovers. That might seem a tad steep for a brunch, but considering we got five servings out of the food it's really not.
Just for fun, I decided to take some pictures at home with an actual cat's head (still attached, of course) to truly test Screen Door's claim about the dish. Below is one of the leftover servings - the only difference from what was originally served is a little of the extra sausage gravy and a fried egg.
Lilo graciously volunteered for the cat's head test. Actually, I lie - she didn't volunteer at all, but she's the one without claws and a little more calm when being held, so we can get her to do a lot of things we can't with the other two.
As you can see, the leftover chunk of chicken in this dish could possibly be the size of Lilo's head:
Or something.
Admittedly she is the smallest cat we have, and probably a tad smaller than average, but again, this was the leftovers and only about a quarter of the actual chicken.
So not only did we have another fine meal at a decent price, but Misaki also enjoyed the outdoor dining and we also learned that yes, indeed, the Fried Chicken Cathead Biscuit Sandwich is really, truly, bigger than a cat's head.
No cat heads were harmed in the production of this blog post.
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