Serafina's Sunday Jazz Brunch

Where: Serafina Osteria & Enoteca
2043 Eastlake Avenue East (Eastlake)
(206) 323-0807

Time of Entry: Sunday at around noon (Sunday Jazz Brunch is 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.)

Level of hangover: This is a button-down-shirt-touched-by-a-hot-iron-on-a Sunday kind of place. A bleary-eyed hangover might just get frowned upon.

Staff's level of hangover: Nada. The staff is wide-eyed and chipper. (And very happy with their recently completed kitchen remodel. It's a rather pleasant space, but the living room decor is unchanged.)

Prescriptions: So what exactly is an Italian brunch? Not so far from what you might expect. Eggy dishes made with Italian ingredients, in Italian. One: an egg scramble with prosciutto, peas, and creme fraiche (OK, only partially Italian at that). But the eggs, in this dish and the Borsellino (less elegantly described as poached eggs in ham baskets) were both perfectly cooked. The poached eggs were richly viscous and only ever so slightly runny. Sides of potatoes with the eggs and ham provided the requisite starch to grease to protein ratio.

Hair of the Dog: A generous glass of the house white (yes, really) fit the mood of the place. And accompanied the ham baskets quite nicely, surprisingly enough.

Do you really want to have jazz with your brunch? No, not so much, really. Especially if you've got some self-generated pounding going on. When the electric guitar and sax took a break, we spotted an iTunes set-up behind a screen. The preset playlist sufficed, actually. Even the better-dressed tables were talking over the live mood-music.

Success of the Soak: The food was great, if a bit pricey. A classic date place if ever there was one, I'd rather go here for the night before than the morning after.

My only complaint: Their garden patio (equipped with heat lamps) was not yet open.