CASUAL EATS

Hound & Mare Reimagine Breakfast

By Alyssa Denger

There’s more than a nutritional reason for breakfast arguably being the most important meal of the day. If it’s nourishing, comforting and avorful, it can set a positive tone for your next 24 hours. e meals served at Hound and Mare add unprecedented pizzazz to any breakfast spread. ey elevate the concept of the breakfast sandwich with exciting toppings while still catering to the tastebuds of picky eaters.

With a matte black storefront, Hound and Mare sits within the hustle and bustle of the restaurant row on Aurora Street, just o the Commons. Decorated with stained glass windows and local art, it is a modern space tailored to a minimalist perspective. Customers can listen to soothing music while sipping one of the cafes’ specialty drinks, like a lavender latte, NY maple latte, or a basic drip co ee. e front counter is covered with freshly baked pastries and other tasty treats. Some of the standouts are the Oreo chocolate chip cookie, apple fritters, and the variety of brightly colored macaroons.

Fair warning: If you’re not a dainty nibbler of an eater make sure to grab a good number of napkins. e centerpiece of each of their signature sandwiches is an over-easy egg. Although delicious, these sandwiches are layered with ingredients that will most likely drip down your ngers. One of their most popular items, the Paci c, is layered with crispy kale, honeyinfused feta and a roasted tomato. Put all these ingredients between a sliced sesame bagel and you have a sandwich that packs a sweet bite with notes of umami. If you like to stay more on the savory side for breakfast, the Melrose is a fantastic option. With so caramelized onions, crunchy bacon and a cheddar cheese crisp on top, this egg-centric sammie provides complex textures with rich and lasting taste.

Hound & Mare provides a varied menu with a unique array of flavors for a breakfast cafe. (Photo: Alyssa Denger) Other stars on the menu include the avocado toast and the Mar Vista burrito. With local sourdough as its foundation, the avocado toast is layered with tangy pickled red onions, tomato, and spicy Fresno chilis. If you want to elevate the avor of the toast you can add an egg on top, but it is delicious either way. e Mar Vista burrito was lled to the brim with every breakfast item you could possibly dream of. Packed with scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, salsa and black beans, this massive burrito will satisfy any appetite. Hound and Mare was launched in 2019 by Tam and Christine Lam whose parents have made their mark on the Ithaca dining scene with Saigon Kitchen, located on West State Street. e Lam sisters have brought their own L.A.-inspired approach to the Ithaca food scene. Eclectic and stylish, Hound and Mare provides a varied menu with a unique array of avors not commonly found in other breakfast cafes, whimsical baked goods, and a quiet environment to enjoy it all in. Hound & Mare, 118 N Aurora Street, (607) 319-4463, https://www.houndandmare.com/, is open Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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and topped with thin slices of Korean marinated beef. When the beef is sliced this thin, it’s easy to overcook it…however, not here. I also noticed either crisp lettuce or cabbage. e price on the menu is $12.50, on my bill it was $12.95.

BiBimBop is Korean for “mixed rice.” It’s close to Pho but with a rice rather than noodle base. e rice is combined with lettuce, cucumber, a bit of shredded carrots, bean sprouts, and part of a so -boiled egg. e egg served with many of their dishes could have been a gently cooked hard-boiled egg or a boiled egg cooked beyond the point where the yolk runs. e Shiitake Mushroom version, ($13.50) is one of three vegetarian o erings. It’s topped with a generous portion of thick slices of shiitake mushrooms, and in addition to the ingredients mentioned above, included some seaweed strips, and some thinly sliced cabbage. It’s easily a meal large enough for two, and maybe even three people. e o ering of alcoholic beverages is limited: hot and cold sake, two Japanese beers and one Ithaca beer. e restaurant is austerely traditional, with orange plastic hard back chairs, bare walls, and a loud, constantly blowing, noisy air conditioning unit and piped in music. e kitchen intrudes into part of the dining area, and I always nd the restaurant noisy. e Asian food served at Maru Ramen is authentic and beautifully prepared. Almost all the main courses are priced under $14.

Tidbit: ere is one, unisex toilet for about 60 diners and parking on the street can be di cult.

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howl, but this reboot is DOA. ings get so dire that when Grandpa (Daniel Roebuck) watches “Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” on TV, you’d rather watch Abbott and Costello.

Recommended: “ e Woman King” at Regal Stadium 14, “Patton Oswalt: We All Scream” and “Nick Kroll: Little Big Boy” on Net ix.

RIP Henry Silva (“ e Tall T”, “Cinderfella”, “ e Manchurian Candidate”, “Amazon Women on the Moon”, “Above the Law”, “Dick Tracy”, “Ghost Dog: e Way of the Samurai”)

RIP Louise Fletcher (“ ieves Like Us”, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, “ e Cheap Detective”, “ e Lady in Red”, “Firestarter”, “Once Upon a Time in America”, “Invaders From Mars”, “Flowers in the Attic”, “Blue Steel”, “ e Player”, “On Deadly Ground”, “Virtuosity”, “Mulholland Falls”, “2 Days in the Valley”, “High School High”)

“Don’t Worry Darling” is playing at Cinemapolis and Regal Stadium 14. “ e Munsters” is on Net ix. Maru Ramen, 512 W State Street, (607) 339-0329, https://www.maru-ramen.com, is open Monday through ursday and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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ing, in title, to the soil of his homeland, “Alluvial Face” portrays the face of an elderly, bearded man. Scrawled black lines, in a sort of modernist caricature style, are played o a rich ochre printed background. e question of the derivativeness of recent non-Western art—made and exhibited in a colonial and postcolonial shadow—is distinctly fraught.

I am among those who believe, rather unfashionably, in the possibility of assessing the originality of artwork cross-culturally—even building a global cannon of great works. However, this is a challenging endeavor, to say the least, impossible on the basis of what is presented in this intriguing but modest exhibition. It is enough that the pieces here, diverse in style and content, make this viewer want to see and learn more.

“Line of Ascent” through October 16, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 114 Central Avenue, (607) 255-6464, https://museum.cornell.edu, Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. through 5.p.m.

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