Darling's

Description:

• Before achieving global domination, most conglomerates start out with a single product -- ConAgra started out purely as grain dealers, but now own everything from Chef Boyardee to the Egg Beaters you're forced to pathetically turn to after a childhood of Chef Boyardee. Expanding all your casual gorging needs, Darling's. After four years as a cheesecake-only insta-tution, the brothers behind Darling's have gone full-scale restaurant, tapping the former Naples, Fl Ritz-Carlton exec chef to create upscale fusion comfort food; in the bottom floor of the Piazza "Egg", the 120-seat space features a HoJo-esque orange/teal color scheme, lino-tiled floor, bar/counter seating, and three walls of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on 2nd St and the courtyard's massive LED Jumbotron. Breakfast wise, there'll be omelets like the chorizo-happy Santa Fe, flavored pancakes and French toast (peanut butter & Nutella, Granny Smith & golden raisin spicy cider...), plus specialties like sausage-gravy'd cat's eye biscuits, hopefully not named after the size of the biscuits. Lunch & dinner runs from lighter stuff like pierogies, chicken & tasso quesadillas, and seared ahi tuna piadina; to mammoth open-faced pulled pork sandwiches, lamb gyros, and a Black Angus burger; to entrées like grilled skirt steak w/ chimichurri, Arctic char in Zinfandel sauce, local kielbasa and slow-cooked kraut, and a Thanksgiving dinner w/ cornbread, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, and tasso gravy over pulled pork -- not a problem, since if you're celebrating the holidays in a diner, the turkey is you. Although currently booze license-less, Darling's plans to offer about 30 affordable wines, and early designs are underway for a bar to serve liquor in the rear -- so after branching out into a full menu, they'll be set to enter the burgeoning market of grinding puns.
• © Thrillist 2012