Hop Devil Grill - Adios Huevos!

Hop Devil Grill is home to two of my favorite things in the world - "Taco Tuesdays" and a rotating craft beer selection.  It should come as no surprise that I was thrilled to find out that they had added a third favorite of mine - bottomless drinks at brunch.  They even outdid themselves, this endless brunch did not include only bloody mary's or mimosa's, but it included endless craft beer - "Beerunch" as they call it.  Sadly, my positive anticipation ended abruptly upon forking my first bite of huevos rancheros into my mouth.  Before I begin my headfirst dive into negativity, let me start off with some of the positive.  Hop Devil does in fact have a great beer selection, which rotates quite often.  They also have a pretty good happy hour, half off drinks until 8 p.m. 

Finally, you may have noticed that on Tuesdays there is a little gallop in my gait, a waltz in my walk, and a salsa in my step.  Why you may ask?  Simple - Taco Tuesdays.  Now, I don't know what favors I ever did for you Mexico, but I thank Mexico for creating these crunchy pieces of heaven stuffed to perfection.  Mostly, I thank Hop Devil for serving these super shells for $1.00 each.  The first time I went to dollar taco night, I went a bit overboard.  I ordered 6 vegetarian tacos - 3 soft and 3 hard.  The waitress looked at me in disgust and informed me I could always order more at a later point in my meal if I wanted more.  Ashamed, I retracted my initial order and instead ordered 5 vegetarian tacos.  I definitely could have ate 6.  Anyway, after having been back several times, I much prefer the hard tacos to the soft.  The soft are by no means bad, I just prefer the hard.  My co-diner on several occasions has tried the chicken and beef tacos and much prefers the beef.  Again, the chicken are not bad - the beef is apparently just better.  The only catch to this deal, which isn't really a catch, more of a bonus in my opinion, is that you have to order a drink to get the deal.
In addition to their Taco Tuesday night, Hop Devil offers various other specials and deals throughout the week.  This includes, dollar tostadas (not as good as the tacos), $10.00 pitchers of sangria, and half price burgers.  I have tried their vegetarian burger before and was very impressed.  My co-diner has tried their regular burger before and also was impressed.
After having such great experiences at Hop Devil, I should have left well enough alone.  I can never leave well enough alone.  I had a sneaking or rather screaming suspicion that Hop Devil may not serve the greatest breakfast, but I let curiosity get the best of me.  As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.  Lucky for Hop Devil - this little kitty has a million lives.
Prior to dining at Hop Devil for beerunch, I inspected their food choices.  I wasn't thrilled about the menu, but they did have one of my favorite breakfast staples (probably former favorite breakfast staples now) - huevos rancheros.  No one has ever wronged me with huevos rancheros - that is, until May 14, 2011.  
On this date, I was joined by three co-diners at Hop Devil for this beerunch.  Disastrously, three of the four of us ordered huevos rancheros.  Our waitress was extremely nice, but the food did take quite a while to come out after we ordered it.  In retrospect, I wish the food never came out at all.  The huevos was served with a side of yellow rice and a little tortilla bowl filled with liquid refried beans.  In all fairness, I ate all the rice and the beans, mostly because I was drinking and needed something to eat.

I don't even know how to describe the abomination that was the actual huevos rancheros. Huevos Cocktailos Sauceos is more like it.  Literally, there were two soft tortilla shells, with an egg on each, doused in what was supposed to be salsa.  My first bite of the actual egg part of the dish was disgusting, but I brainwashed myself into thinking maybe it was a fluke bite.  WRONG.  The second bite was just as horrible as the first.  Nothing was good about the dish, not the egg, not the steamy mushy tortilla shell, and especially not the cocktail sauce pretending to be salsa.  Now, I have nothing against cocktail sauce, I love cocktail sauce, I just don't want it on my huevos rancheros, and I definitely don't want it under the guise of salsa.  None of my co-diners who ordered the huevos rancheros ate much of it at all - I don't know who would.  The fourth co-diner ordered blueberry pancakes, which she said were fine, except no one ever brought her syrup.  I think maybe that was a good thing because I suspect that it may have been cocktail sauce pretending to be syrup also.  Seriously, thanks to Hop Devil I don't know that I will ever be able to order huevos rancheros again without doing deep breathing exercises and repeating audibly ten times, "the salsa will not be cocktail sauce, the salsa will not be cocktail sauce, etc." - talk about PTSRTBFED (post traumatic stress related to bad food experiences disorder).
I know that endless brunches are kind of a craze and I take full responsibility as a huge fan of endless brunches for only perpetuating restaurants to feel it a necessity to participate in the craze.  However, restaurants should know their place and establishments such as Hop Devil should not be cooking brunch.  They just shouldn't.  If they want to tag-along on this endless brunch craze, then they should just have an endless lunch and serve their regular lunch food (burgers, tacos, etc.).  I think if Hop Devil were to look at themselves in the mirror after eating an egg dish that they created, especially huevos rancheros, they would smash the mirror into a million little pieces and throw up. 
I end with some advice, to both myself and my old friend Hop Devil - stick to what you know is good.