Friday, January 27, 2017

June's All Day Shows Promise

June's All Day opened last summer at 1722 South Congress (at West Annie Street) in the former Wahoo's/Texas French Bread space. With a moniker of "new American," its multitude of twinkle lights gave it a comfortable feel and for me at least, kept it from taking itself too seriously.

On one of these recent warm January days, my friend and I dined at one of the sidewalk tables for dinner. Given the noise from the evening traffic, I am not sure I would choose to sit there again, but c'est la vie. They have happy hour from 4 - 6 pm EVERYDAY with ALL FOOD 50% off (yup) and discounts on various drinks. We sat around 5:45 pm, and our friendly waitress said she'd give us a few minutes but wanted to be sure to get our orders in before 6 pm.
June's All Day exterior
We both had a glass of Weinert Malbec, and wine of course makes everything better! There's the wine list that's with the food menu, and then there's the Wine Zine list that's in a cute hand-drawn booklet. It should be noted that June's is named for June Rodil, master sommelier of the McGuire Moorman Hospitality group.
June's All Day Wine Zine
Food-wise, we started with the salt cod croquettes, which were perfectly fried and come with a laurel leaf aioli and mojama. Mo-what? Yeah, had to look that one up. It's salt-cured tuna, which explains why I thought it was a buttery prosciutto when I first tried it. Not sure I got laurel flavor in the aioli, but there was garlic, and it was also real good with the accompanying rustic bread.
June's All Day salt cod croquettes with mojama and aioli
Next, the French onion soup, which had a really nice thick crusty layer of Gruyere across the top. The broth was a touch on the sweet side; I would have loved a little more thyme or sherry in there or something, but the cheese pretty much made up for everything.
June's All Day French Onion soup
My friend had the matzo ball caldo, which had a really nice spicy broth. I didn't try to matzo balls but I didn't hear any complaints from the other side of the table.
June's All Day matzo ball caldo
I had the bone marrow bolognese, made with fresh tajarin, or thin Piedmont-style egg noodles. Silky smooth noodles and a wonderfully savory sauce that wasn't overly rich. And given the previous courses, I took over half of the bolognese home, where it made an outstanding lunch the following day. I would order this again in a heartbeat. And I didn't think about light for photos when we choose to sit outdoors; I was forced to use my flash as it got darker out!
June's All Day Bone Marrow Bolognese with tajarin noodles
We finished off the meal with a Meyer lemon tart. Fantastic lemony flavor to the tart but the bottom of the crust was a bit soggy, which dampens my enthusiasm for it. But the tartness of the lemon was nicely complimented by the fairly neutral meringue.
June's All Day Meyer Lemon Tart
All in all it was a fine evening, and at happy hour pricing, that certainly sweetens the deal. We encountered very friendly waitstaff at the bar and our waitress Alyssa was spot on.  I hear June's has an incredible creme fraiche donut for breakfast, which sounds just up my alley. A welcome addition to South Congress; glad to have June's nearby and I look forward to returning.