A bountiful brunch

Box St. serves up delicious doughnuts, variety of breakfast options

There’s a cocktail called Caroline’s Hat at Box St. All Day, the new brunch-focused restaurant just steps away from the Tower of the Americas at Hemisfair. It’s named for Box St. creative director Caroline Garcia-Bowman’s wide-brimmed fedora, what we might call an influencer hat.

The composition of the drink changes from time to time, trading out gin for rye for raspberry lambic, but there’s always an undercurrent of Topo Chico sparkle. It’s the effervescent spirit of Box St. in a glass.

Garcia-Bowman’s influence weaves throughout the place. In the color scheme of moss green, coral pink, peach and tangerine; in the menus that employ a mix of retro-mod and clean contemporary fonts; in the woven basket lampshades and bentwood-andwicker chairs that evoke a beach resort aesthetic.

It’s the square-shot world of an Instagram feed devoted to brunch. More than that, it’s the picture of a restaurant capable of taking that theme from concept to plate, a picture more than two years in the making from the time co-owners Daniel Treviño and Edward Garcia III signed the Hemisfair lease, making the leap from their longtime food truck The Box Street Social.

I chose to start each of my brunch experiences with warm yeast doughnuts. Not once, not twice, but all three times, they were that good. They came in a pair, one coated in cinnamon and sugar like a churro, the other draped in sweet white glaze, both with the stay-puffed interior of a proper doughnut-shop doughnut. With a coffee program that handles basic drip, flat white and cappuccino with equal skill, Box St. could pivot to coffee and doughnuts if this whole brunch thing doesn’t work out.

But I’m guessing it will, given the strength of French toast made from housebaked milk bread piled with lemon mascarpone, candied nuts and berry compote. The pancake Box St. calls the Thicc Boy was another strong volley from the syrup canon, a single pancake puffed like the top layer of a birthday cake, with cherry compote and shaved chocolate in place of frosting. Is it breakfast? Brunch? Dessert? Yes.

Breakfast purists will appreciate the Box St. Brekky for its all-inclusive roster of eggs, bacon, tater tots, Brussels sprout hash and sourdough toast. I appreciated it for the strength of those individual components: perfect sunny-side eggs, thick-cut bacon

blending crispiness and substance, little tater tot cubes with the potato power of the Avengers’ Tesseract and an aromatic hash that suggested Brussels sprouts are ready for work no matter what time you set their alarm.

Do you ever see a plate on somebody else’s table and suffer from order envy? That’s how I discovered chilaquiles at Box St., with tortilla chips rising from the

bowl like toasted ramparts around a village of eggs, chorizo, black beans and avocado thriving inside, powered by a salsa duo of dusky macha and tangy tomatillo.

It’s possible that in the great evolution of brunch, eggs Benedict has been left behind. The

Box St. version stayed too close to the ancestral formula of English muffins, poached eggs, Canadian

bacon and hollandaise, content to be ordinary. And these days, that’s not enough.

Brunch these days means more than friends-with-Benedicts. At Box St., it means chicken wings with the sultry orange glow of Thai chile sauce. It means a perfect diner burger with melted American cheese on fresh brioche and hand-cut fries and a fried chicken sandwich gone all

Nashville-hot with a layer of Fresno peppers. And it means steakand-eggs meets steak frites, even if Box St. went overboard with salt on a rib-eye that could have had more heft to back up its $35 price.

Box St. has advanced on brunch’s evolutionary arc by serving dinner on Fridays, with plans to add Saturday dinner next month.

On the first night out, the kitchen kept it simple but effective with a rustic Bolognese of beef and pork over a novel pasta called calamarata, made with wide noodles rolled in tight rings like calamari. The rustic touch didn’t work as well with braised beef short ribs that came off more like roast beef left in the oven too long.

They flexed more refined skills with Snapper Grenobloise, a mouthful of syllables to describe snapper seared to a pearled bite with a lush sauce of butter, capers and lemon that projected power and restraint at the same time.

As it chases the sun through the day and eventually into the night, Box St. already has accomplished something by going from food truck to brick-andmortar with so much style. But it’s accomplished even more with a menu that puts substance over style.

Photos by Mike Sutter / Staff Among the brunch-style options are the Box St. Brekky — eggs, bacon, tater tots, Brussels sprout hash, sourdough toast — and chilaquiles.

The Milk Bread French Toast is piled high with lemon mascarpone, berry compote, candied nuts and meringue.

Eggs Benedict, left, and the Thicc Boy Pancake with cherry compote and shaved chocolate are among the brunch-style options.

Box St. serves more than breakfast-style foods — for example, its burger, which comes with American cheese and hand-cut fries.

The yeast doughnuts — including the cinnamon churro, left, and the traditional glazed — are made in-house.

The menu iat Box St. All Day, a new Hemisfair restaurant focusing on brunch, includes steak frites with eggs.