We came here for brunch the other day, really looking forward to their famous fried chicken. We saw it featured in a Southern Living magazine, especially intrigued by the fact that they serve it at room temperature. Curiosity sparked an inevitable craving that eventually lead to chronic drooling from the mouth (which had to be stopped). By the way, their brunch is now being served on both Saturday and Sunday.
The place is very bright and inviting inside. Large open windows covering the walls provide great natural lighting. Our server was very nice and very open to letting us take pictures during our meal. His exact words were 'Yeah of course!'
I got a bloody beer to start off the morning. A bloody beer is Fireman's #4 and tomato juice (similar to a Michelada). A lot of people like Micheladas, but I'm not a fan I guess (our friend Courtney wasn't either). It was a very odd combination, almost like drinking champagne and tomato juice. I'll stick with a regular Bloody Mary from now on.
Our actual meal came out next, which consisted of house made sausage, house cured bacon, brioche french toast, pulled pork egg sandwiches, and of course the fried chicken with potato salad. If that sounds like a lot of food, well, you're right. We may have gone a little overboard, but it was totally worth it.
While I applaud them for making their own sausage, it just wasn't our favorite. There was no crunch from the casing, and the sausage itself was pretty dry and bland.
The bacon was great though. We usually aren't too keen on bacon that's not extra crispy, but this was exceptional! I think I saw bacon from the surrounding restaurants outside Olivia's windows, just crying and whimpering from jealousy.
The french toast was very sweet and flavorful. We got their vanilla maple syrup, which went great with the sweet brioche they used for the bread. We scarfed this one down pretty quickly.
The pulled pork egg sandwiches were good. The pork was moist and flavorful, even if they were pretty tomato-y. They also provide homemade ketchup to dip those wonderfully crispy fries into.
OK, onto the fried chicken. I was really curious about the room temperature thing, especially with if the skin would be crispy at that point. Holy cow, if only all fried chicken could be this good! In fact, I thought about pocketing our leftover bones just to get a whiff of that crispy fried goodness later. The meat was exceptionally moist and flavorful, the skin was really crispy, and the seasoning was great too (a lot of celery salt was detected). The potato salad was also rustic, creamy, and very flavorful. In fact, the potato salad had some kind of seasoning that neither of us could pinpoint, but it really helped make it 'pop.'
Outside of the restaurant is Olivia's impressive garden. It's always nice to see a garden outside a restaurant, giving re-assurance that the food being served is in fact fresh.
Overall, we really enjoyed eating here. I highly recommend this place, especially for brunch. The price of the food, combined with the obvious freshness of everything, helped elevate this restaurant past your typical 'after church' brunch stop.
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