After living in Charlotte for a few years now, there are a few things that I can affirm Charlotte has an abundance of – yoga studios, breweries, and brunch joints. Personally, I’ve made it my mission to try all of the dubbed “must-eat” brunch places in Charlotte. While most South Park weekend warriors headed to yoga Saturday morning, 15 of my sisters and I slapped on our stretch pants and headed to brunch over at Terrace Café’s South Park location.
Thanks to the rain we weren’t able to enjoy outdoor seating, which consequently, made our wait time a little longer. To be fair, we didn’t make reservations because we didn’t know how many of us there would actually be, and the hostess told us that if we were there by 10 AM we wouldn’t have a giant wait time.
Terrace Cafe – Brunch
We were there by 10 AM, but still waited around 40 minutes. When you enter Terrace Café, you immediately notice how small it is. The bar is small and L-shaped, and there are two high-top dining tables in the immediate bar area. This made waiting around slightly cramped, and getting a drink mildly inconvenient. The bar wasn’t spacious enough to adequately seat guests waiting for tables and there also wasn’t any bench seating. So all you could really do was stand idly by and try to avoid being shoulder-checked by passing patrons.
What did make the wait a little more bearable were the mimosas. I live and breathe for a good brunch pick-me-up, and if it was Sunday and I had to wait until noon for a drink, waiting would have been a disaster for every party involved. Like my mother taught me, a good mimosa is one-part orange juice, three parts champagne. I believe Terrace Café has my mother’s number on file because the mimosa was perfect. If you prefer a little more juice in your mimosa, I suggest conveying that to the bartender. At $7 a glass, I was a little peeved. Most places I’ve brunched at offer mimosas for $3-5 a glass. So I limited myself to one and called it a day.
Terrace Cafe
Aside from my mimosa addiction, my brunch entrée go-to is a Benedict dish. Growing up I was a little spoiled, because every now and then my culinary trained father would make eggs Benedict, and I’ve been in love with this brunch staple ever since. There were three different benedicts to choose from: Canadian bacon, steak and crab cake. I ordered the Canadian bacon Benedict because sometimes you just need to revert to the classics. There’s the option to choose fresh fruit, grits, or hash browns with your entrée, and I went the route of fruit because you know, #healthy. I asked for my hollandaise on the side just in case it was a disaster.
After placing our orders, I headed back up to the bar to scout their latte menu, which was adorably posted on a chalkboard. There were a few options for a caffeine fix, but I settled on an almond milk salted caramel mocha. Honestly, it was like sipping heaven on earth. The mocha came out a little on the lukewarm side of hot, but it was still delicious none-the-less.
For being a party of 15 during a decently busy brunch hour, service was incredibly quick. Our server was also amazing. He got all of our orders correct, knew who ordered what, and most importantly, he remembered to put my hollandaise on the side.
Terrace Cafe – Canadian Bacon Eggs Benedict
My Canadian Benedict wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t fantastic. The hollandaise was the perfect consistency and temperature, but a little on the bland side. I feel it should have been a bit more acidic with a touch more pepper, but other than that, it was good. For $12, it was well worth it. However, the side of fruit was fabulous. All of the fruit was perfectly ripe and tart. I would honestly go back and just get a fruit plate and a salted caramel mocha.
All-in-all, out of the places I’ve tried for brunch, I’d go back to Terrace Café any time. Their staff is incredible, food is above average and the mimosas are a pure glass of heaven.