The lost meals entries consist of meals that occurred at various times throughout 2012 which, for any number of reasons, escaped my documentation – some due to a cross country move and a new job, some due to the Los Angeles Kings run to the Stanley Cup, and some simply as a result of too much travel. Having enjoyed many of these meals with friends or family and with some of them amongst the year’s very best the reality is that with time my memory has deteriorated and as life moves forward I’ve realized there is little hope to ever “catch up” or document these experiences as well as I’d hope, yet in order to preserve them I present these pictures, notes, and thoughts on the experience.
Coffee
Monte Cristo with two French Toast slices, ham, Gruyere, strawberry jam with sweet potato tots and organic ketchup
Pineapple Upside Down Pancake
PB&J French Toast on Brioche
Located close to my then-sublease and featuring a menu annotated as organic along with praise from local magazines Tryst Café seemed like a good choice for my first breakfast in town and with interesting options on both the sweet and the savory side we arrived early to find the space as well as the service to be warm and inviting. Seated on entry and presented with menus, water, and gratuitously refilled fair trade coffee (bring your own artificial sweetener if you don’t fancy stevia) from a pleasant and efficient woman named Joanna who was seemingly running the show solo the meal most certainly started out well…at least until the food arrived.
Featuring a frequently changing selection of items based on what is fresh and local I have to commend Tryst for offering a multitude of options catering to a variety of dietary restrictions, but on the whole the only item which was tasted that really impressed was the French Toast; a hard to mess up amalgam of rich peanut butter and jam on eggy brioche that was pan seared golden and quite good even though the fruit cup lacked flavor aside from the overwhelming melon.
Moving past the toast, I guess the tots were as good as you can do with fried potatoes – a light sweetness, though some a bit overcooked – but the flavorless and watery ham on the Monte Cristo and the single ring of too-dull-to-taste Pineapple cooked into the base of a pancake no better than Bisquick left much to be desired. Unique enough as an option for persons with food allergies or restrictions I certainly see a place for Tryst Café in the local food scene – just not in mine, not considering the overall quality Phoenix’s breakfast/brunch scene and organic/healthy/vegan spaces like Herb Box or Nami.