[DC - Downtown] Proper 21 - Pancake Flights, Brunch Burgers, and Booze, Oh My!

Proper 21 is a great brunch option if you are in the Metro Center area. The price is friendly on the wallet and has a pretty darn convenient location.

Proper 21 does pancake flights at brunch. You can choose three of the five options for $14.99 or all five for $19.99.  I chose the Cookies 'n Cream, S'more, and Are You Cereal? When I got my pancakes, instead of S'more, I got the Maine Blueberry and had to ask for the correct option. In the above photos, they are: Cookies 'n Cream, Are You Cereal?, and Maine Blueberry together, and the S'more separately.

I (Marissa) really love pancakes so I was looking forward to trying the different flavors. However, the toppings were a little overwhelming. I could barely taste the pancakes themselves sometimes. The best was Are You Cereal? The other two flavors had too much chocolate syrup, in my opinion. The biggest problem with them was the chocolate syrup between the individual pancakes. Are You Cereal? had berries, Cap'n Crunch, and "milk frosting." The berries, which tasted like jam, were sweet but not overwhelmingly so. The bits of cereal added a crunch that was missing in the other flavors. Overall, I'm glad I tried the pancake flight.

My friend also got a flight of pancakes. She chose the other three flavors that Marissa didn't choose. She went with the Banana Foster, Maine Blueberry, and the Are You Cereal? pancakes in her flight. She had a similar opinion to Marissa. The toppings were very sweet and a little overwhelming for the pancakes. The pancakes were rather thin - like a mix between pancakes and crepes. Both she and Marissa were impressed that they seemed to have actually made the pancakes to order.

I (Meredith) had to catch a bus back to New York after brunch, so I kind of wanted to go for a heavier full meal (I never feel like breakfast food is that satisfying). So, I went for the Proper Burger. This burger was actually really good. I would really recommend it. The beef was nice and moist on the inside still. The bacon thick cut and cooked to perfection - it was nice and crisp, which is a good feat for thick cut bacon. The two types of cheese were great, too, and fit well with the burger flavors, including the onions. I was a little iffy about the dijonaise because although I love, love, love mustard, I am less than enthusiastic about mayonnaise, so I was worried it was going to taste like mayo. Luckily for me. It tastes like mustard, not mayo.

The breakfast potatoes were not my favorite. I kind of wish I had the chance to opt for fries instead of breakfast potatoes. The breakfast potatoes were not crisp, which made me super sad. They were more like skillet potatoes, which aren't my favorite thing. The potatoes are seasoned with what I believe is paprika. It didn't have much salt on the potatoes or any other real flavors.

These are the brunch menu and cocktail menus. Marissa and I were tempted by the brunch cocktails, but it was SUPER hot that weekend and I had to take a bus, so that would have been disastrous. Most other tables had cocktails and they seemed pretty happy with their choices.

Atmosphere: This was oddly clubby for there being only 2 tables (including us) at the beginning of brunch on a Sunday. The music was bumping. It was kind of hard to hear each other.

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