Random Taste for Thursday 6/16/16

[My ongoing series for 2016 continues ... with the TWENTY-THIRD of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA (coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!]

WINNER BEST OF 2016 FOR MAIN

Establishment:  BC Cafe
Location:  Davie
Meal:  Sunday Brunch
Drink:  Bellini (not pictured)
prosecco sparkling wine and peach purée or nectar.
Dish 1:  bananas foster french toast (bottom left)
Dish 2:  chicken and waffles sliders (bottom right)
fried chicken, cheddar waffle, topped with cayenne maple syrup
Dish 3:  breakfast ramen (middle)
topped with pork belly, sausage, scallion pancake and sunny side up egg
Dish 4:  steakhouse eggs benedict (top left)
filet, creamed spinach, fried onion rings, black pepper bernaise
Dish 5:  breakfast burger (top right)
homemade beef patty, sweet potato pancake, fried egg, cheese, bacon
Server:  Oops ... didn't catch the name of the order taker or food deliverer (it was kind of counter service-ish)
Website:  http://www.bctacos.com/cafe/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/BCTacos/

What can I say ... brunch works well for this series!  After sampling one of the award winning "best" last week, it was great timing to see a current New Times article promoting the ten "outrageous" brunches in the area.  This particular place was deemed "outrageous" because it permits its customers who can't decide which dish to order ... to get ALL of them (in half-portion size, for a reasonable price for parties of two).  As luck would have it, Sunday errands had us out in that part of the world, and so it was a perfect match to sample this location that ALSO has a well known food truck pushing tacos and burgers out and about.  Here's how and why they scored well:

AMBIANCE:   10/10 (bright and colorful, with plenty of seating and parking [it is in the 'burbs, after all] -- it attracted a good mix of college kids, family folk coming right after church and a few of the drunks from the night before ... I can't think of a reason to dock a point)
FOOD:            7/10 (having the sampler, we got to taste half portions [those are only HALF portions!] of each of their five special brunch dishes ... which means I can actually consider all of them ... ranked, in order from super to oops:  the french toast [2 points!], the steakhouse eggs benedict [2 points!], the chicken and waffles [2 points!], the breakfast burger [1 point!] and the ramen [0 points!] ... the ramen might have been better except for a strange flavoring in the excessive broth, and the burger needed just a little more of "something something"
SERVICE:      9/10 (ordering at the counter and paying in advance as was the set up, there wasn't as much traditional service provided although, for sure, the person behind the counter was smiling and happy the whole time, and the person delivering the food seemed the same way ... just a point lost for a bussing incident at the table next to us when a guy took one of his children to the bathroom and his wife took the other child outside ... so the busser cleaned the table and discarded the fresh hot coffee the guy had just gotten ... the bin was literally steaming)
BACON:         9/10 (it may have only officially been in one of the five brunch dishes [the breakfast burger] ... but that ramen included pork belly ... which is like the forefather of all bacon ... and I confirmed that this place has several bacon options on its regular menu ... just a point lost because that pork belly was in the least successful of the dishes)
BONUS:         10/10 (+3 for all the smiles, +3 for the dessert goodies display, +3 for offering up a sampler platter for people like me and mine and +1 for being a place to which we will return -- if only to sample all the main dishes at non-brunch time)

TroyScore:  45 out of 50 -- aka 90, a low A

Random Taste for Thursday 6/9/16

[My ongoing series for 2016 continues ... with the TWENTY-SECOND of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA (coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!]

Establishment:  Bull Market (American bar and kitchen)
Location:  downtown Ft Lauderdale
Meal:  Sunday Brunch
Drink:  Bullberry Lemonade
smirnoff citrus, smirnoff blueberry, orange liqueor, lemon-lime soda
Round 1:  fried chicken, sausage and biscuits and breakfast meats
Round 2:  fried chicken, home-fried potatoes, bacon and eggs and fresh pineapple
Round 3:  wafles and syrup, bacon, fresh watermelon and s'mores doughnut
Round 4:  bonus s'mores doughnut
Server:  Me!  ('cause it was buffet style!)
Website:  https://www.bullmarketbar.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/bullmarketfl/

For the second time in this series, it's buffet time!  So it seemed only right to visit an award winner for Best Brunch 2015 (although my comments below suggest that I clearly wasn't on the committee handing those out).  It reminded me a lot of Duffy's in Chicago (my most recent hometown for the last dozen years) -- in both good and bad ways.  Don't be alarmed by all the rounds -- the plates were on the small side (the better to control the hungry masses, I'm sure).  And once we get the whole bathroom controversy around the country worked out, let's next tackle the sexist drink specials, as seen in the shot from the menu.  As for the score, here's how things shook out: 

AMBIANCE:   6/10 (it's a fun area, is that Himmarshee Village ... with lots of people-watching opportunities ... plus with an outdoor seating option, we could get up close to all the interesting types and colorful characters passing by [and their little dogs too] ... a point lost for that 'hood being so hot and hip that parking is a challenge ... a second point lost for the douche parade [a bunch of people on loud bikes who seemed to get joy out of setting off all of the car alarms on the street as they passed] ... a third point lost for having a wobbly table that we had to fix ourselves ... and a final point lost for having to fight through throngs of drunk girls to get to the buffet)
FOOD:            5/10 (I feel it a little harder to judge a buffet ... what with food sitting in chafing dishes and what not ... but the bottom line is that I don't feel like the offerings are going to win any awards [ironically, they DID win one of the best brunches in town] ... to be fair, I did not sample a whole row of seafood [I just couldn't agree with having mussels with my waffles] ... but the demerits are as follows:  two points lost for dry tasteless chicken [I tried it twice in hopes that I just had grabbed a bad piece], another one lost for a second drink that was delivered that was supposed to be a duplicate of the first but tasted like a really bad clone that was missing ingredients, a point lost for biscuits that didn't get the memo that they were to "flake", and a final point lost for the staff having never refilled the sausage ... the best option was the freshly made mini-waffles, which I found too late in the cycle)
SERVICE:      7/10 (it might be hard to work the buffet shift, and I can only guess that the person tasked with monitoring our table was brand new on the job, but a point lost for waiting too long to have our order taken in the first place, another one for him walking back to the kitchen multiple times without a dirty plate, and a third one for how scared he was of the reservationist)
BACON:         9/10 (lookit -- it's dangerous to have a buffet with bacon when someone like me comes to visit ... so thanks for that ... if only there could have been some crisp pieces in amidst the ones drowning in grease [hence the point lost despite me having bacon during each and every round])
BONUS:         9/10 (+3 for that doughnut, though [so good I had to have two], +3 for the customer who answered me when I accosted him about where he got his waffles [I had missed the waffle station], and +3 for the way that first drink tasted)

TroyScore:  36 out of 50 -- aka 72, a low C