Park Bruges Opens

Park Bruges, sister restaurant to Point Breeze's Point Brugge, will officially open to the public this Tuesday.

Before you think you've spotted a typo, let's explain the names. Belgium is home to both Dutch-speakers and French-speakers (as well as a smaller community of German speakers). In Point Breeze, Jesse and Amy Seager, who own both restaurants, decided to go with the Dutch spelling. In Highland Park, they've chosen the French spelling. "I think it's kind of indicative of everything else," said Jesse, "familiar, but also different."

The restaurant will be open for breakfast and lunch, and for brunch on both Saturday and Sunday. It will offer some of the dishes popular at Point Brugge, but with a new twist, such as moules frites with different sauces and slightly different frites. They'll be a little thinner, in order to accommodate one of the restaurant's new dishes -- poutine."We took a trip to Toronto and every restaurant there does the classic version [of poutine] with the curd and the gravy and they all do a creative version too, said Jesse.

Park Bruges' creative version will have carnitas-style pulled pork, cilantro and scallions.

Another signature dish of sorts, also inspired by that trip, is tarte flambee, bread dough rolled thin and classically topped with creme fraiche, cured pork and onions. Park Bruges neighbor E² will help out by lending their wood fired oven for this dish.

They're planning to offer a couple of different versions, including one classic with lonzetta cotta (slow-cooked rosemary pork loin) from Parma Sausage in the Strip District.

Park Bruges will have a slightly larger wine list with more SLO's than its sister restaurant, as well as a few new cocktails. But they'll also offer plenty of the Belgian and Belgian-style beers. 

Like Point Brugge, Park Bruges won't be taking reservations. The dining room is slightly larger, but given all the anticipation for the opening of this restaurant, waits are probably in order.