I know this is hard to imagine, but until now, we haven’t had a restaurant in town that actually serves a real brunch. Truck stop breakfast? Yes. An early lunch with beers? Sure. Real Brunch with Mimosas and Bloodys and breakfast AND lunch food on one menu? Nope.
Justin and I ventured over to Blaze for a date night last weekend and were surprised to find that finally someone had built a restaurant in town that wasn’t a bar, chain or extremely fine dining. The interior is gorgeous and the wait was long…mostly due to staffing issues and first weekend kinks, I think.
We grabbed seats at the bar and were shocked by the beer menu. It was seriously big enough to be the dinner menu…a book of beer. Meads, Sours, local Maine brews…it was something to behold. I actually and two non alcoholic beers to choose from and Justin went with a Maine brewed honey mead that we sampled over the summer. I can’t wait to dominate their wine list once this kid is rocking out on the outside and don’t even get me started on their multiple mimosa options.
The concept of the menu is centered around wood fired cooking: salads, pizzas, oysters you name it, it all hits the grill. Add in as many Maine grown, made and raised ingredients as possible and I think they’re really on to something unique for our corner of the world.
Justin and I started with the duck fat fries and a grilled Cesar salad.
The fries were matchstick style, which Justin loves, cooked in duck fat and came with a variety of home made dipping sauces to choose from. Justin chose the chipotle ketchup and I went with an aioli.
I could have made a dinner out of that but because we shared our apps, we decided to order a round of tacos. Justin chose the duck confit and I went for the Korean beef. The duck confit taco was served in a deep fried shell, which while delicious, proved impossible to eat. We ended up breaking it up into lots of tiny pieces and attempting to eat it with a fork….and then gave up and ate it with our fingers, nacho style.
Overall, I really can’t wait to see how Blaze fine tunes their menu and works through their growing pains. I think this is the perfect vibe for a date night and know Justin and I will be frequent patrons.
Because we ventured in for dinner, we didn’t even know Brunch was an option until we started chatting with the bartender. We’ll let Blaze work out their first month kinks before hitting the Brunch (they don’t even have the Brunch menu set but were planning to serve anyway) because when I finally get my first Brunch in Bangor I want it to be phenomenal!
Stay tuned for the write up!
Yum!! I love brunch on the weekends…it's one of my favorite things to do! This place looks delcious – especially that taco! Even though it was hard to eat 😉