With its breakfast specialty, Barney Rubble, featuring French toast coated in crushed Fruity Pebbles, maple syrup, strawberry-ginger jam, sweetened butter and creme anglaise, I am willing to bet my grandmother’s false teeth that Modern Malt will become a Syracuse favorite in no time.

Modern Malt, located in Armory Square, officially opened for business on Feb. 4. Breakfast runs all day and the menu includes thick creamy milkshakes, fresh smoothies and a decadent cocktail list. The restaurant has a chic, slightly retro, diner-style decor with big orange light fittings and minty-blue upholstered benches.

The bar is the first thing you see when you enter the restaurant — decorated with bright blue, orange and white mosaic tiles and surrounded by orange and blue stools. The waiters were dressed in black, and most had extensive body tattoos and ear gauges, giving the whole place a cool, indie-rock feel while maintaining a not-too-in-your-face, but fun Syracuse University vibe.

It features all your American staples — soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers — but created with extra attention to detail in order to produce a gourmet appearance. The menu even caters to Canadians with a poutinerie section. Poutine is a dish comprised of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.

I ordered a vanilla ginger milkshake, the Barney Rubble French toast and the XOXO tacos. The poutine burger was not listed on every menu, but I had heard it was a specialty so I inquired about it. Make sure you do as well, because this brioche bun stacked with fries, a bourbon au poivre burger, cheese curds and gravy is not to be missed. It even comes with lettuce, cucumber, onions and tomato on the side, so it’s basically healthy.

The milkshake arrived first in a tall clear glass with a red straw, a spiral of whipped cream and a sprinkle of crushed ginger cookie. There is a phrase called the milkshake effect — during which you devour an entire milkshake, are in heaven for the entire duration of the experience and then feel like death afterward because it was just too much sickly, sweet goodness to handle. The milkshake effect wasn’t a problem this time, as the it was the perfect size, leaving me quite capable of tucking into the Barney Rubble French toast, which arrived just moments later.

I don’t think it is possible to go wrong with Fruity Pebbles, thick French toast slices and creme anglaise, except maybe terming it as breakfast rather than dessert. All the toppings came in separate little side containers, which I appreciated as I could tailor the dish to my own personal sweet tooth cravings.

The XOXO tacos fillings were great — the light taste of the cilantro and chipotle aioli perfectly balanced the steak. I personally would have preferred a soft taco shell to the fried puff one, which made it both messy and tricky to divide up between tablemates.

The burger was a tender, gooey mess of fries, meat, gravy and cheese curds. I was disappointed, as the burger patty was slightly cold and the cheese curds were hard and un-melted. It was clear that this dish had been sitting under the lights in the kitchen for a while.

Nevertheless I loaded the bun with the vegetables and immensely enjoyed the struggle of trying to eat this massive burger, similar to the way I enjoyed the complete Modern Malt dining experience.

Published on February 8, 2015 at 11:54 pm