We came to Chambar for a birthday dinner last year and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until we were in the neighborhood to check out Jam Cafe a couple of weeks ago that we realized Chambar specializes in breakfast and brunch, as well.
Chambar’s credo is simple: civilized debauchery. They live up to it. In a way, it’s the perfect epithet for a breakfast destination – when is any debauchee more civilized than (hopefully) before noon? Their website says, and I quote, “Chambar invites you to leave your day at the door and enjoy an evening of unpretentious fine dining”. As it is for dining, so it is for breaking fast – and what better time to leave your day at the door than just as its beginning?
I don’t know where the tradition of serving a latte in a glass comes from. We’ve had them that way in Paris and Rome, but I’m not sure it’s enough to say it’s a European thing. Serving a latte in a glass is a way of confirming for the drinker that what’s coming is a warm treat and not some blazing hot underdeveloped conception of a coffee. Chambar serves Parallel 49, and we’re fans.
Chamb
er waffles are cake waffles, and they’re fantastic. There are other establishments – good places, and places that we frequent but haven’t written about yet – who seem to use a store-bought waffle and we pretend we don’t notice. To be honest, the atmosphere in Chambar is enjoyable enough that we would probably turn a blind eye, were they to serve us a frozen product, and accept that sometimes dining is more about the ambiance and the service than the product. Halfway through breakfast, it came to our attention that not only was the waffle not frozen but there was a guy about twenty feet from us whose sole reason for being seems to be to make fresh waffles.
We’re not big people, so we don’t tend to eat a lot. We ordered two waffles a la carte, and as a complement we went for the Bon Matin. The eggs are poached a perfect medium soft. The bread has a similar consistency to the waffles, actually, with just a little more to the teeth and a pleasant crust. The tomato relish is mild. The tapenade and guacamole bring something playful to the savory breakfast board.
Chambar’s breakfast menu is full of fun surprises. On the sweeter end of the spectrum, they have a plate of waffles with a choice of compotes. At the more daring end, a dedicated morning debauchee may want to go for the spicy tajine and kickstart a day that is likely to be rowdy. This morning the Rugby Sevens are in town and there were a few tajines going out. We opted instead for a second Bon Matin, an after-breakfast walk on the seawall and then an afternoon at home in our pajamas.
For everything you need to know about Chambar, including their regular menus, group dining and event menus as well as projects they have on the go, you can follow any of the links above or go to http://www.chambar.com/.