Farmington Hills is represented on the blog! Yes, Farmington Hills is a new-to-the-blog city on 100 Places in the D!
My knowledge of Farmington Hills is limited to the time I spent there working my first job out of college, a six-month paid internship at a publishing company. I don’t have much memory of the city and its ethos from that time; I didn’t venture out for lunch much or for after-work happy hours ever. So I was excited to have an excuse to become reacquainted with it a few weeks ago when it turned out to be a logical halfway meeting point for me and friends from Mt. Pleasant who’d been in Ann Arbor for a wedding. We decided on the aptly named restaurant, Breakfast Club, for our Sunday a.m. meet-up.
Once I exited the expressway and rolled into Farmington Hills, I remembered, right, it’s not too different from where I live: the respectable-suburbia category of turf. Breakfast Club is located in a strip mall on 10 Mile Road. It’s open for lunch and breakfast daily; its extensive menu includes dishes from both mealtimes.
The most intriguing choice on Breakfast Club’s menu for me has to be the Oven Baked French Toast, which you’ll see a picture of if you pull up the menu on the restaurant’s website. It’s a brick of a thing that more resembles a gargantuan serving of bread pudding than French toast; it’s topped with luscious-looking berries, coffee cake crumbles, and raspberry sauce. WOW.
I’ve become leery of ordering sweet, carb-centric items such as French toast, pancakes, and waffles at restaurants for fear of the energy crash that inevitably occurs a few hours later, but I would love to go back to Breakfast Club and split a salad and then the Oven Baked French Toast for dessert; I think that would be a happy compromise.
What did I end up ordering at Breakfast Club if not the Oven Baked French Toast? Well, because I’m more of a lunch person than a breakfast person, I zeroed in on the sandwiches on the menu and decided on the Pot Roast hoagie with its thinly sliced beef, sauteed onions, gooey provolone, and just the right amount of horseradish sauce, accompanied by a side of mixed fruit. The sandwich was big enough that I was able to save half of it to take away, which I was happy about, because it was super delicious and reheated well in the oven so I could recreate the whole comfort-food-indulgence experience in the comfort of my own home.
Speaking of home-sweet-home, the ambiance of Breakfast Club was sophisticated-cozy; the warm-hued walls, floral accents, paintings and wall hangings, and floral tablecloths evoked the feeling of dining in a loved one’s home. A chalkboard with the specials of the day also hung on one wall, which my friends ordered from: one had the Benedict Con Queso, and the other had the Cactus Chili Bowl. Both dishes looked amazing, constituted big ol’ portions, and were reportedly quite tasty, too; they had me wishing I could rethink my attitude around eggs (which alas, I’m not a fan of, limiting me from trying many breakfast dishes on restaurant menus).
In addition to ample amounts of egg-centric dishes – including omelets and benedicts plus egg-studded combos and breakfast bowls – Breakfast Club’s breakfast portion of the menu includes various pancake, waffle, and French toast choices, while the lunch portion has the sandwich section I mentioned earlier, plus entree salads, soups, and soup-salad-sandwich combo options.
For me, the most charming aspect of this bustling brunch spot actually involved the part of the meal that is generally the most uncharming: the check presentation. Because on the day we were there, we were each given a chocolate-covered strawberry to go along with our bill. What a delightful way to soften the financial blow to patrons’ pocketbooks! I have no idea whether Breakfast Club does this all day every day or if it’s a gesture limited to Sundays or just-because times, but I thought it was an ingenious above-and-beyond customer-service move, the perfect gesture to distinguish itself from the other area breakfast/lunch joints.
38467 W. 10 Mile Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48335
100 Places in the D 