Brisket hash at Ocotillo is a brunch dish you'll crave all day long

Sep. 9—Ocotillo, the new brunch restaurant on Danforth Street, serves one of the most deliciously satisfying dishes I've had at any time of day: the Terlingua Brisket Hash.

Terlingua on Washington Avenue is Ocotillo's sister operation, and its longtime fans will recognize the dish from when that restaurant used to serve brunch, before moving to a larger location down the street in 2020.

Now one of Ocotillo's signature dishes, it's a hearty mashup of smoked brisket, sweet and white potatoes, bell peppers and onions, topped by perfectly poached eggs and draped with a silky, lightly spicy hollandaise.

The brisket is the star of the show. It's made with prime-grade beef — smoked for up to 12 hours and fragrant with kiln-dried Maine oak — so the chunks in the hash are supremely moist and meltingly tender, with plenty of intensely flavorful "bark," the smoke-blackened outer coating of the brisket. The blend of white and sweet potatoes is a nice touch, and the bell peppers offer a pleasant hint of sweetness.

The egg yolks lend more sauciness to the dish, but what brings it all together is Ocotillo's hollandaise. "Our secret to the hollandaise is we put quite a bit of our house Fresno hot sauce in there," explained Ocotillo co-owner Pliny Reynolds. "It just gives it a backbone, a little depth and brings some acid to the flavor profile."

Indeed, the hollandaise has just the right amount of tang to balance the richness of the beef, and the Fresno sauce adds some nice background heat to the dish without being overpowering in the least.

And at just $17, particularly considering the price of beef these days — prime-grade beef, at that — the dish is kind of a bargain. It's a very generous portion; I took home enough leftovers for a light supper. Sure, it's nominally a brunch dish, but I'd crave this hearty hash for any meal.

Terlingua Brisket Hash, $17, Ocotillo, 211 Danforth St., ocotillo.me

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