If you believe in magic just click your heels together three times and think to yourself, there’s no place like brunch, there’s no place like brunch. Where would you end up you say? The answer is an all-day brunch spot known as The Ruby Slipper Cafe. If you have visited New Orleans or vacationed around the Gulf, you are most likely familiar with it.
Ruby Slipper Cafe or as it will be known locally, Ruby Sunshine, serves some classic brunch dishes and killer cocktails with a dash of New Orleans seven days a week
Coincidently while on vacation in Gulf Shores I read some exciting foodie news in Eater Nashville. The Ruby Slipper announced that they are opening up a location in downtown Franklin. I had just made my first visit that morning and decided that I needed to go again to really get the full experience. It was in the name of research that I ate there twice.
Ruby Slipper is staffed with a very friendly crew. A few things to note about them before you go. They do not take reservation so get there early or expect a wait. You can always put that time to good use and get a drink. All the food is prepared from scratch. The coffee is also nice and strong. One other big plus for me is that everyone who worked there was so nice and friendly. True Southern hospitality.
The cocktails are as advertised and lived up to the billing. I had a bloody mary and tried their namesake, the Ruby Slipper, which consisted of sparkling wine with orange juice and pomegranate. It was a bit light on the pomegranate, but heavy on the sparkling wine and did not disappoint.
Yes, there are the staples that you would expect to find such as omelets, benedicts and sweet offerings, but you will also find some lighter fare options which provided a nice selection for any guest.
For our meals, we went with two dishes from the lighter fare section with one sweet offering (Bananas Foster Pain Perdu) and one savory offering (Corned Beef Bennie).
Skinny Migas - A Tex-Mex egg white scramble with onion, tomato, cilantro, pepper jack cheese & spinach, served with avocado, chipotle sour cream & crispy tortilla chips. Pro tip: order extra chipotle sour cream. You won’t regret it.
Skinny Florentine - Egg whites, portobello mushrooms, spinach & goat cheese accented with fresh thyme
Corned Beef Bennie - House-made corned beef hash served over a buttermilk biscuit, topped with two poached eggs, horseradish cream, finished with hollandaise
Bananas Foster Pain Perdu - French bread-based French toast with rum-flambéed bananas & raisins
Sometimes at restaurants, you get really beautiful and Instagrammable food that isn’t very flavorful, but photographs well. Harder to get is the food that tastes as good as it looks, and is picture perfect and memorable. In the case of Ruby Slipper Cafe, I would say that even though the presentation left a little something to be desired, it tasted outrageous. So even if the pictures aren’t blowing up your feeds, your taste buds won’t care. I will say though that I have found some good food photos online.
Mark this on your list as one of the hot spots and places to look forward to in 2019. I imagine you will be finding me and many other brunch-loving foodies in downtown Franklin next year.
