Description
During a typical morning at the Ugly Mug, signs of last night's debauchery are everywhere: The women's restroom has a broken stall door handle and the men's room has a hunk of broken glass on the floor. Someone left behind a broken plastic tiara-hopefully the only goods damaged at that bachelorette party. Nothing about the scene bodes well for a good breakfast, so the omelet made with duck confit and manchego cheese is a fine surprise. At the Mug, eggs Benedict can be ordered with bison sausage, and the migas is a nacho-style take on the Tex-Mex breakfast with scrambled eggs courtesy of an Owatonna farmer and chips freshly cut and fried from locally made La Perla tortillas. Chef Nick Bullick, most recently sous chef at the Happy Gnome, offers an affordable downtown breakfast--free Bull Run coffee!--plus a lunch and dinner menu injected with more fresh, seasonal, and upscale ingredients than the typical bar. There might be venison burgers, chicken strips beer-battered with Summit EPA, and poutine with white cheese curds from Ellsworth Creamery. Or salads made with arugula, spinach, strawberries, and chevre, and entrées such as pan-seared duck breast with sweet corn flan. Nothing ugly about that.
