Meet your favorite restaurant for brunch

When it comes to chichi restaurants, I have a serious fear of commitment. They bat their eyelashes, make lots of promises and turn on the come-hither charm, and even though you've heard through the grapevine they might be a little sketchy, your curiosity wins out and you finally break down and go. Then what do you know? They let you down. The next day you find yourself alone at the gym, feeling poor, fat and regretful that you didn't heed the warnings.

Lately, though, I've been having a great time getting to know some big players with very few strings attached by meeting them for brunch.

Take Tilth. This temple to organic fine food hiding inside a converted Wallingford home is normally nearly impossible to get into without a reservation. But on a recent Saturday morning, I strolled in, was seated promptly at one of many available tables and proceeded to have one of the finest meals in recent memory.

My eggs were scrambled lovingly, flecked with spinach and fresh chives and flavored generously with truffle oil. The heirloom tomato Bloody Mary reminded me that the ingredients of our classic breakfast cocktail do indeed come from the earth, and now that I've tasted one made from ripe tomatoes and freshly grated horseradish, the canned stuff is going to be hard to swallow.

I'm already well acquainted with the cocktails at Solo, a casually upscale bar that brings a bit of edginess to Lower Queen Anne's nightlife scene. But I usually arrive after 9 p.m., when it's too late to catch any of chef Jesse Smith's delicious Spanish tapas. Now, though, the kitchen is open Sunday mornings, serving potato and chorizo frittatas, crepes with fig and blue cheese or Serrano ham and Manchego cheese, and freshly brewed French-press coffee. Any drunken disappointments from the night before are easily remedied with the attention I get here in the morning.

Another new addition to the brunch scene is Waterfront Seafood Grill on Elliott Bay. A plate of truffle scrambled eggs or Dungeness crab eggs Benedict will set you back nearly $30 here, so it's not exactly a place to test the waters. But the views and impeccably prepared seafood are tried and true at dinner, and they're promising more of the same at brunch (beginning Jan. 20), with live New Orleans-style jazz and champagne cocktails that pack as much class into a Sunday as a Seattleite can possibly handle.

And then there's Veil. The ultramodern, stark-white atmosphere makes me think that no meal, no matter how expensive, can be good when produced in such a sterile environment. I've stayed away because it looks like its efforts to impress me are way too calculated. I want food made with love, not eye droppers and test tubes. But heck, for $10, I'll try anything.

So I ordered the $9 oatmeal, simply because it was, well, oatmeal that costs $9. The stuff is cooked so slowly and with so much cream, they actually call it oatmeal "risotto." Golden raisins, real vanilla and candied hazelnuts made me feel like every one of those nine bucks was well spent. It's funny, just when I was prepared for something superficial and fleeting, I found myself full of comfort and love.

I'm beginning to feel a certain sense of trust now between me and these kitchens. I know it's still a risk and I'm not saying I'm not still vulnerable; but having seen a side of them most don't, I'm ready to invest a little more. I'm not afraid.

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