Brunch, Part 2 - Wait-Your-Face-Off Edition

Heading into the weekend, it is time for the next installation of noteworthy brunch spots (click here for Part 1). Because some restaurants are wildly popular and therefore draw large crowds willing to stand outside for upwards of an hour, today's theme is the waiting game (bonus points to anyone who busts out those dance moves in line). Some people say good things come to those who wait - others will argue, "I can't stand around in the rain for an eternity watching other people through the window enjoy their meals. I'm cold, hungry, tired, and my feet hurt from these stupid shoes. In the time I stood here starving, I could have made coffee and eggs at home, and it would have cost me less money than the taxi ride down here." Or, you know, less specific rants. For those who are willing to stick it out, here is what you can expect once inside these brunch hot spots.

1) Prune - 54 East 1st Street, between 1st & 2nd Avenues

Prune is a small restaurant with limited seating on the Lower East Side. Tables are crammed next to one another, and it takes careful maneuvering not to knock over your neighbor's water glass as you shimmy through to your seat. Well, "careful maneuvering" or "a smaller ass than mine." The western wall's weathered wood framed mirrors, the small tiles of the floor, and the front windows' capacity to open to the sidewalk create a charming, homey atmosphere in this otherwise bustling restaurant.

However, patrons are not here to admire the long bar leading to the open kitchen or to decide if the hanging light fixtures would look appropriate in their own apartment. They are ready to eat unique dishes and make a selection from the pleasantly varied bloody mary list. Now, there are options on the menu that may be found most anywhere else (I'm looking at you, eggs benedict and huevos rancheros), but Prune is the place to try coddled eggs with chicken, grilled handmade lamb sausage with oysters, or butter-crumbed eggs with spicy stewed chickpeas and flatbread. Oh, you wanted a large dutch style pancake cooked in the oven with blueberries that essentially amounts to your own personal cake? Prune has that too. It is also the restaurant for at least ten different bloody marys incorporating ingredients ranging from fresh fennel to beef bouillon to smoked chipotle peppers to baby white turnips to clam juice to beef jerky (used as a swizzle stick). The bloodies are additionally served with a beer chaser.

According to the restaurant's website, brunch is available both Saturday and Sunday from 10:00am until 3:30pm. Considering reservations are not an option, your best bet to be seated sorta-kinda-almost-reasonably-promptly is to go with only one other person. Tables of three are hard to come by, and any party over four might as well bring snacks for the wait, since you won't be eating inside any time soon.

2) Clinton St. Baking Company - 4 Clinton Street, between Houston & Stanton Streets

The popularity of this once-bakery has led to its expansion into a full on restaurant serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner. The room has a coffee shop feel given the banquette seating, dessert display, and sundae glasses lining shelves by the coffee pots. Swinging double doors leading to the semi-visible kitchen recall suburban diners, while sections of exposed brick wall are reminders you are in downtown Manhattan.

Brunch menu items include a buttermilk biscuit egg sandwich with tomato jam and cheddar, brioche french toast with caramelized bananas and roasted pecans, and potato pancakes with smoked salmon, lemon creme fraiche, chopped egg, and dill. The real draw, however, is apparently the wild Maine blueberry pancakes (though banana walnut are available too) with warm maple butter. They have been revered across the internet and by my buddies alike, and they were even a subject of one of Bobby Flay's Throwdowns on the Food Network. I would personally rather satisfy a sweet craving with Clinton St. Baking Company's strawberry layer cake or blondie sundae (with salted caramel sauce? oh hellzzz yeah), but to each his own (and other cliches).

According to the restaurant's website, brunch hours are Saturday from 9:00am until 4:00pm and Sunday from 9:00am until 6:00pm. The restaurant will not deliver during this time, but it accommodates take-out orders. As expected, Clinton St. Baking Company does not take reservations for brunch, and expected or not, they only accept credit cards at dinner. Thankfully, if you want to try those pancakes but do not want to pay for them with cash, they are available all day everyday and not solely at brunch.

Grape and Grain/Against the Grain

There is a restaurant in the East Village, which is really a wine bar and a separate annex offering craft beer. What? Well you see, first there is Grape and Grain, a wine bar that serves dinner seven nights a week and brunch on the weekends. Then there is Against the Grain, which is a sliver of a bar next door serving nibbles and brewskies. Yes, you may order wine and beer at both venues, but the more extensive list of vino is available from the former, while the full list of light, white, pale, amber, dark, and darker beers is found at the latter.

Grape and Grain is a small establishment equipped with an L-shaped bar and several sturdy wood tables. Seating is a mix of mismatched stools, wood chairs, benches along the walls, and pillows in the front windowsill. Ornate little chandeliers hang from the pressed tin ceiling, which help to illuminate the votive lit room. The close quarters, dim lighting, and exposed brick walls add up to all shades of snug and cozy. The pan European food, flowing wine, and increasingly loud conversations mean all sorts of satisfaction and happy. The menu here includes appetizers (such as white bean dip with spiced pita chips), cheese, sandwiches (including brie and ham with whole grain mustard and tomato), pizzas (eight different varieties), and dessert.

Against the Grain is situated just on the other side of the building's residential entrance in an even smaller space than that of Grape and Grain. One raised table runs down the center of the narrow room toward the minuscule bar at the rear. Wooden stools abound, as do hooks on which patrons may hang their belongings. Exposed bulbs and votive candles provide the room's light, while a ledge runs along the left exposed brick wall that is adorned with rotating collections of art. According to the restaurant's website, Against the Grain is ideal for groups of twelve to thirty people, though smaller parties should have just as much fun. The menu here includes charcuterie plates, beer steamed cockles, and beer sausages as well as limited options from next door (why yes, I would like a meatball pizza with caramelized onions, thank you very much). The waitstaff hustles between the two venues delivering food and clearing plates, so at times, the wait is long, and the service is harried. That's ok, though - you have your drink and your date to amuse you in the meantime.

So head over to Grape and Grain with that small group who is conspiring to set that one friend up with that other friend. Down the line, you can all celebrate their engagement by reserving the main table at Against the Grain.

Grape and Grain - 620 East 6th Street, between Avenues B & C
Against the Grain - next door

Fried Dumpling

On a street in Chinatown you have probably never walked sits a wee eatery unremarkable for its ambiance, service, and selection. The square footage is minimal, the counter staff is brusque, and the menu is seven items long - a generous tally considering three items are beverages, and one is just a frozen version of another. Yet, you still need to know about this place. With the location comes charm, with the experience comes laughter, and above all else, Fried Dumpling might be the greatest value in Manhattan.

The menu is displayed on the glass window facing the street, and it reads like so:

Fried Dumpling - 5 pieces - $1.00
Fried Pork Bun - 4 pieces - $1.00
Soy Bean Juice - Small $0.75 - Large $1.50
Hot & Sour Soup - Small $1.00 - Large $2.00
Frozen Dumpling - 30 pieces - $5.00
Coffee - 1 cup - $0.50
Tea & Milk - 1 cup - $0.50

I mean...what? If you were to order everything, and large sizes at that, it would only cost $11.50, and you would burst from overindulgence - not to mention indigestion, as those thirty frozen dumplings probably wouldn't go down so easily. It is therefore possible to have a satisfying meal at Fried Dumpling for under $3.00, beverage included.

Now to be honest, the dumplings are not the best I have ever had given my preference for a thinner dough. However, they are by no means the worst, as that title has been reserved for a certain joint (that shall remain nameless) out on Long Island. Also, it turns out I hate warm soy bean juice, but for $0.75, it was worth trying. It was not, however, worth carrying around all day and trying again later after refrigeration...and then for a third time after adding a sweet green tea powdered mix...but we'll chalk that up to determination...and stupidity.

So next time you are in Chinatown, stroll south on Mott from Canal, and turn right when you reach Mosco Street. You will find Fried Dumpling situated on this narrow street that slopes gently west toward Columbus Park. Given the limited counter seating, you might opt to eat your purchase in the park, hustle it back to your office, or devour it on your way to tell your friends about the great deal you just found. Those who used to enjoy Fried Dumpling's now-closed location on Allen Street should be happy to learn their dream of tasty, cheap-ass, greasy food lives on.

Fried Dumpling - 106 Mosco Street, between Mott & Mulberry Streets

Tia Pol

Allow me to take you on a guided tour of Tia Pol, an authentic tapas restaurant worth the hike this far west in Chelsea. I'll ask that you please proceed single-file and keep large purses tucked by your sides, as we will be navigating through narrow quarters. In the off-chance you disturb a patron, he may growl but would be unlikely to strike. If, however, you obstruct his path to the pinchos morunos (juicy, tasty lamb skewers), we here at Fresh Pepper will not be held responsible for the carnage.

Right then. On your left you'll find the wood and marble bar. Here, you may order beer on tap, wine from the all-Spanish list, or an entire meal comprised of small plates (sandwiches are available at lunch, and egg dishes make the menu at brunch - more on the food when we reach the back room. Please hold your questions until then). Perch on one of the mismatched stools, and be sure to check out the daily specials scrawled on the chalkboard. You may enjoy a welcomed breeze in warm weather, as the entire glass front of the establishment can be opened to the sidewalk. In colder weather, people waiting for seats will cram in this area behind you along the brick wall and will mentally will you to eat faster.

As we come to the end of the bar, you will take note of the raised tables to the left. You sit on the high bench along the wall or on one of the backless stools while enjoying your meal in this area. That banging you hear is the bartender brewing fresh espresso. You will either get used to it, drown it out with your own chatter, or know to ask for another table next time.

Alright folks, a few more steps further into the restaurant brings us to...(drumroll for no reason)...this section. Here we find more small tables and stools to the right, perfect for serious heart-to-heart conversations as you dine face-to-face with your mother, brother, lover, significant other, or, you know, buddy. To the left is the kitchen. Peer through the opening in the wall to catch a glimpse of hard-workers working hard.

Anyone who needs the restroom will take this opportunity to go now. It is through this door on the left, and you will find it to be surprisingly spacious and delightfully clean. Everyone else will kindly direct their attention to the alcove where larger parties can be accommodated more comfortably than at the options up front.

Now, if we are all ready, please follow me into the back room, and be sure to mind the step. Here, there is plenty of seating for everyone at the several long tables, which are sometimes used communally for multiple parties when the restaurant is at its busiest. Settle in on the chairs with backs, because I am about to let you in on a little secret (which actually isn't a secret at all, but sometimes I like to be dramatic for no reason, as you may have noticed from that earlier drumroll): The food at Tia Pol is great.

Sometimes the food at tapas restaurants has a commercial feel to it. They offer croquetas which may or may not have come from a box, patatas bravas, a tortilla with egg, potato, and onion, and then there is usually a bowl of mixed olives and/or almonds. Now, that is all well and good (and offered at Tia Pol too), but thankfully Tia Pol realizes there is more to Spanish cuisine than that. Here you will find sweet peppers filled with potato salad and topped with imported white tuna (piquillos rellenos de ensaladilla rusa), a fava bean puree with beyos cheese on toasted bread (montadito de crema de habitas con beyos), razor clams and cockles (navajas y almejas), chorizo finished with sherry (chorizo al jerez), and unexpectedly addictive fried chickpeas (garbanzos fritos). Soups, salads, cheese plates, and cured meats make the menu too, as does a selection of desserts that cover more ground than just the expected flan. It is also wise to pay attention to the daily specials, as this is where you may find gems like flash fried peppers with sea salt and indulgent bone marrow toast.

Lunch is when the menu is more limited but includes sandwiches of crispy squid, serrano ham, pork loin, and chorizo with chocolate. Yep, chocolate. Lunch is available Tuesday through Friday from noon until 3:00pm. The weekends are the time for brunch (11:00am until 3:00pm) when chocolate couples with churros, serrano ham pairs with watercress and a poached egg, and a croissant is warmed a la plancha and served with orange marmalade and sweet cadi butter. Is it wrong that I could maybe eat that butter straight with a spoon? Probably. Not to worry, new friends, I won't. Probably.

Now that we have reached the awkward butter-confession portion of the tour, it is time for us to part ways. Be sure to make a reservation for your next meal at Tia Pol, as you have surely observed seats are fairly limited and customers are not. Come back with that scruffy professional before catching a show at the nearby UCB Theater, on date night with your girlfriend of four years, or by yourself when you are craving juicy, tasty lamb skewers so badly, you could physically harm anyone who obstructs your path to them.

Tia Pol - 205 10th Avenue, between West 22nd & West 23rd Streets