Fair Weather’s shrimp and grits begin with a mystery — there are no shrimp or grits to be seen. Instead, a poached egg rises from a swirl of greens, an alabaster island at the center of a stormy sea. Now, this might not be the best dish at Fair Weather, the recently returned brunch spot inside the old Jacqueline space. But it might be the coolest. Cut into that egg, mix the greens through the shrimp and grits and surprising cache of tomato-garlic sauce beneath, and what was once mostly green turns red, like a catalytic experiment in a high school chemistry class. For those lucky enough to experience it, Jacqueline’s early brunch has become a thing of legend. Starting not long after the seafood restaurant opened here in Southeast Portland, the menu lasted just long enough to catch our notice, landing on our best new brunches list in 2017. Four years later, owner Derek Hanson brought it back as Fair Weather, a pandemic pivot that stuck around for a few months — again, just enough time for its yeasted waffle with hazelnut-praline butter to crack our year-end best dishes list in 2021. Well, like the World Cup or Winter Olympics, four more years have passed, and brunch is back again, with Fair Weather once again taking over the charming Clinton Street corner after Hanson moved Jacqueline up the road last fall. And if it wasn’t before, the brunch menu — artful, nourishing, seafood-rich — is now the best brunch in town. So what are the best things to eat here? When available, it might be the Dungeness crab toast drenched in Hollandaise sauce, a breakfast-y dish that started on the dinner menu before migrating here. When the crab toast isn’t around — it wasn’t on our visit — then it’s probably that waffle: rectangular, fluffy yet crisp at the edges in a way I wish more Portland waffles were, with granular praline-hazelnut butter and a tiny carafe of maple syrup you apply yourself. Or it might be those shrimp and grits, assuming you don’t feel the tomato-garlic sauce might be more appropriate on pasta. Or the black cod swimming in green garlic cream, another dish straight from Jacqueline’s dinner playbook. Or the sweet Japanese potato topped with fluttering bonito and an impressive breaded and fried poached egg. Yes, it’s definitely that sweet potato. Seafood is the thread connecting the menu, but it’s not the only option, especially among the smaller dishes running along the menu’s left side. There are the waffles, of course. A “kinda burnt” brioche toast almost boozy with Nutella and vanilla-soused crème anglaise. Baby breakfast sliders with juicy pork sausage, folded egg and plentiful pickles, served with a little eye dropper of hot sauce on the side, just like Jacqueline offers with its oysters. Service is measured, never rushed. I only found out later that, on the weekday we visited, several staffers had called out sick. Katie Sombat (Beast) was overseeing the dining room solo, chef Cici Wollack delivered plates to the dining room and Hanson was in the back, washing dishes. Faced with a full restaurant, Sombat radiated calm — if a fire were to break out, this is the kind of person I would want leading me to safety. Open several months now, it’s almost the time when Fair Weather typically returns to the earth, like the cicada, for another multi-year rest. But Hanson has two and a half years left on the lease and further plans for the restaurant, including a new dinner menu, with small plates, an expanded wine list selected by Sombat and not quite so much seafood, so as not to compete with Jacqueline. As Fair Weather fans, here’s hoping this versions sticks around a little longer. Details: Fair Weather serves brunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday at 2039 S.E. Clinton St., with coffee service beginning at 8 a.m.; fairweatherpdx.com Recommended: Coffee drinks and doughnuts, the yeasted waffle with hazelnut-praline butter, the “kinda burnt” brioche toast, the breakfast slider, the roasted Japanese sweet potato, the black cod in green garlic cream and, should it return, the Dungeness crab toast. Vegetarian options: Seafood features prominently on Fair Weather’s menu, but non-pescatarians can seek out the sweet options on the menu’s “smaller” side, or try the stewed chickpeas with a poached egg and veggies — recently some flowering purple broccoli — on spelt toast. Accessibility: The dining room and bathroom are on sidewalk level and tables are spread out. Public transportation: TriMet bus lines FX2, 10 and 70 stop on Division Street nearby. — Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com Subscribe to The Best Thing I Ate This Week newsletter Each week, restaurant critic Michael Russell takes Oregonian/OregonLive subscribers along on his culinary explorations. Not a subscriber? You can receive a few weeks of The Best Thing I Ate This Week newsletter as a free trial. Sign up here.