REVIEW | Alabama's All American Eatery, Northern Quarter

BRUNCH is a bit of a divisive topic amongst the chattering classes. The New York Times, no less, has said that the breakfast-lunch mash-up “is for jerks”. What can such a humble meal have done to raise the ire of this great paper of record?

when you’re feeling lazy and wanting a little peace of a Sunday morning, then hell is other people...

There is that horribly twee name (I’d like to suggest the far more accurate ‘massive late breakfast but you’ll be so full you might only have a kitkat for lunch’ or ‘klunch’ for short. Alright, not that, how about just ‘late breakfast’. There, that’s not so hard now is it?) and there is the overwhelming Americanness of it all, brashly overshadowing our humble all-day breakfasts with its free-flowing alcohol, enormous portions and inventive uses for peanut butter. If you could slut-shame a meal…

On the plus side, the concept evokes a utopia where every repast is treated with due reverence and respect – where the first meal of the day is a chance to indulge slowly and thoughtfully in the pleasures of the many different combinations of meat, bread and eggs can joyfully form.

But even more than that, it evokes a dreamscape where weekends start off at a leisurely pace and then proceed to slow right down. Where no one gets up before 9am and even the most boring sections of the paper (maybe not you, business) get at least a lazy peruse. It does sound like heaven. Plus I’m not a fan of early breakfast food, which seems to have being as dry and as beige as possible as its twin aims.

So it seems like a lot of people have fallen for brunch’s charms, in the Northern Quarter at least, where there is no such thing as too American. At just after 11am, when some lucky sods are still betwixt sheets, Alabama’s was absolutely heaving. They must be getting fabulous word of mouth because you could throw an upcycled pallet and hit a dozen American diner-inspired joints in this neck of the woods, but clearly people like it here over the others. Perhaps because it's the new kid on the block.

Alabama's All American Eatery

So yes as you can tell by the name they do the American thing. Yawn. It’s in the Northern Quarter (Newton Street to be precise). Of course. But it’s less styled than many of its NQ counterparts (though in a lovely setting and with a few nice design touches) and by concentrating its efforts on the most important meal of the day, Alabama’s has made an impression since it opened in March. Currently they don’t do evening meals and we had arrived too early for the lunch menu, so a late breakfast it was.

We thought we ordered the ‘breakfast’ (the one with the steak) but accidentally ordered the other ‘breakfast’ (£7) which was the sausage/eggs/streaky bacon combo. At our confused faces the waitress promptly figured out the problem and whizzed over a steak, free of charge. Nice touch. By now the protein load was getting out of control, but luckily we had also ordered grits (a smooth polenta-ish type porridge made in this case with cheese and spring onions and at least a hundred times more delicious than that sounds), plus some home fries, to make sure carbs got fair representation. Home fries are one of my favourite things about American diner-style breakfasts - a side of fries improves any meal. These came with cheese and gravy (be still, my beating heart) which sounded ideal but unfortunately the gravy was very salty, and the cheese had melted into a thick pat which formed a protective cap over the fries. Still those little potato chunks were darned good once you got past the accompaniments (tone down the salt sauce and I can live with the cheese wig).

 

The Breakfast & Benny's Crab Cakes

As for the breakfast itself, the sausage was the flat kind our Scottish cousins are fond of rather than the tubular sort, which may surprise some, and the bacon was a fraction less crisp than perfection. But even with these minor issues this was one of the most hearty and delicious late breakfasts I’d had for a while.

Benny’s crab cakes (£8.50), an English muffin topped with two plump crab cakes topped with two even plumper poached eggs, all drowned in a lake of buttery hollandaise sauce (actually closest to an Eggs Neptune rather than Benedict, eggs fact fans) was ordered as the lighter alternative to the meat party on the other side of the table. I was mistaken. Still crab must contain some vitamins, and there was definitely a few stray bits of greenery - so it was practically healthy, given the context. The crab cakes were firm and had a good texture and the hollandaise was silkily correct, with a sharp tang to cut through its richness.

Finally, for the youngest member of our crew, a stack of three pancakes (£6, main image), topped with Chantilly cream and berries. They were pretty good pancakes, from what I could tell by the sliver that I was allowed to eat. Perhaps the best review is the speed and look of solid concentration as they disappeared.

The only real fault with brunch (there I said it) at Alabama’s was that it was so popular. Obviously that’s a great thing for the owners, and they’ve done a good job carving out a niche in a difficult and saturated market, but when you’re feeling lazy and wanting a little peace of a Sunday morning, then hell is other people who have had the same bright idea as you. 

Alabama’s All American Eatery, 10 Newton Street, Northern Quarter M1 2AN. Tel: 0161 236 4666

Rating: 15/20

Food: 7.5 (Breakfast 8, Crab cakes 7, Pancakes 7)

Atmosphere: 3.5/5 if you like busy and vibrant you’ll love it.

Service: 4/5 friendly, professional and bearing steak.

Home fries

Grits

Bill Murray