Gargi’s Lakeside

The young man who parked my car wished me a pleasant meal and said that it looked like the food was “pretty good in there.” I asked if he hadn’t dined there himself and he said that he hadn’t yet had a chance because it was his first night on the job. He also asked me to let him know how it was.

Some time later, when I went to the valet stand to retrieve my car, he asked, “How was it?” I just shrugged.

I’ve shrugged after every meal I’ve had at Gargi’s Lakeside, even before it was lakeside and still across the street in the tiny cubbyhole of a space now occupied by a sushi restaurant. It moved to the larger, freestanding building on the shore of Lake Ivanhoe more than 11 years ago. Over the last 27 years, I’ve visited Gargi’s a number of times, always hoping for it to have become the jewel that it should be, and each time I’ve left disappointed.

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Brunch at North Quarter Tavern

North Quarter Tavern, which opened earlier this summer, has added Sunday brunch to its repertoire. (It’s added lunch, too, but our focus here today is brunch.

Executive chef Matt Wall has applied the same standards he practices with his dinner menu — everything made from scratch, right on the premises — to the brunch menu. The offerings lean a bit more toward the lunch side of brunch but are made more breakfasty with the addition of an egg. In my world, everything can be made better with a fried egg on top.

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