Brunch, Part 4 - Benny Edition

The weekend is fast approaching, and you've got a hankering for some early afternoon dining. You already know where to go for cheap booze, where to find the wildly popular spots, and where to order excessively for no good reason beyond, "But I WANT it!" If you now have a laser focus on one dish, and if that dish happens to be Eggs Benedict, I've got a little something just for you (and you and you and you). The subject of today's post is: where to find a delicious twist on the Benny - a twist so delicious, you'll pronounce it "daylishwoz."

1) Petite Abeille - 44 West 17th Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues

There are several locations for Petite Abeille throughout Manhattan, but the one on West 17th Street is Goldilocks (ie, not too big, not too small. Also not too hot/cold, hard/soft, or inhabited by bears for that matter). It is a Belgian restaurant that is narrow up front, informal in back, and equipped with an outdoor space. The main room is decorated with images of Tintin and luggage racks topped with...(dramatic pause)...luggage. The overall effect is cute without being cutesy.

In addition to burgers, omelettes, sandwiches, and salads, the menu touts Belgian classics like mussels and waffles. Fab, but we're not here to talk about any of that. Today's dish is Eggs Benedict and how the Little Bee (English for Petite Abeille, mon amour) does it so well. In this version, the usual English muffin is replaced with a thick cut of crunchy country bread, and thin slices of Black Forest ham do away with the expected Canadian bacon. Topped with perfectly poached eggs and creamy hollandaise sauce, this is a tasty way to kick off your day...or just soak up what's left of last night's drinking binge. I don't know your life. The bonus is the side of stoemp. The who what huh? Stoemp is a mash of potatoes and root vegetables (often carrot or leek at Petite Abeille) and not to be confused with Schtroumpfs - the original name of the Belgian-created Smurfs. I'm guessing a side of Smurf would be less tasty and more horrifying.

2) Fred's at Barneys - 660 Madison Avenue, between East 60th & 61st Streets, 9th Floor

Next up is somewhere a little, shall we say, pricier. Located on the ninth floor of swanky department store Barneys New York, Fred's is a sprawling restaurant equipped with large windows and white linens. Waiters in aprons make sure your bottles of champagne stay chilled, and the bottles of champagne make sure you don't realize the heft of the bill at the end of the meal.

Menu items include enormous salads, French Toast, and several varieties of egg dishes, but it's that Eggs Benedict that keeps caaaaaallin' my name (much like Clarence Carter's "sassified" woman in his explicit hit song, "Strokin'"). What does Fred do to make his version so daylishwoz? He tops it with a spoonful of salty caviar. Simple, effective, genius - and at $24, more expensive than at most eateries around town. Then again, if you are one of the crowd already buying cashmere sunscreen and $145 ankle socks downstairs, this ain't no thang.

Brunch, Part 3 - Splurge Edition

It is time once again to talk about that cherished New York past time - brunch. (Click here for brunch post numero uno and here for la deuxieme. Also, feel free to be impressed by my foreign language skills in that last sentence). Today's theme is splurging. Now, you can certainly leave the following two restaurants having paid a reasonable amount, but you will most likely walk away thinking, "What did I just do?" The sizable entrees are sufficient to get you through the day, but odds are you won't stop there. Hey, when brunch sirens call, (snacks, baked goods, sides, desserts, and cocktails), nobody blames you for giving in to temptation. Well, maybe some people do, but I would never. [Insert high-five here].

1) Cookshop - 156 10th Avenue, at the corner of West 20th Street

Cookshop feels both industrial and warm. What appears to be a polished cement floor is topped with wood tables sporting white surfaces and straight-backed chairs. This, along with a metal encased light hanging over the bar area, gives the room a modern edge. The cranberry banquettes, wall-mounted chalkboard, and potted plants (not to mention the tree in the center of the room) soften that edge. Then there are the impressive floor-to-ceiling windows that serve as the barrier to both 10th Avenue and West 20th Street - if the coffee doesn't wake you up, all that natural light certainly will.

So what do we have here? Pancakes and egg dishes (Cookshop Scramble, I adore your over sized biscuit, your silken eggs with creme fraiche and caramelized onions, and the option of smoked salmon) will run you $12-$15. However, you might want to start your meal with a snack ($5-$11). Say, deviled eggs or sunchoke soup? But you also like the sound of those baked goods - pecan sticky buns, banana bread, a currant scone. Mayhaps a bakery basket for $12? How about sides ($3-$6)? The white cheddar grits are too good to pass up. Will you have room for dessert ($7-$9)? For a coffee cream donut, you make room. You haven't forgotten about cocktails though, and at this point, what's another $12? After a potent strawberry caipirinha, you probably won't mind at all.

When can you indulge? According to the restaurant's website, brunch is available Saturday and Sunday from 11am until 3pm. Walk-ins are welcome, but you'll be better off making a reservation beforehand. Here's a helpful hint, friends - if you have an opentable account, you can make a reservation mere minutes before heading over (provided they still have room). When you arrive, you'll find patrons waiting for a table at which they could have already been sitting if they had just gone online first. Suckers.

2) Freemans - End of Freeman Alley off Rivington Street, between Bowery & Chrystie Street

First off, Freemans is in a unique location on the Lower East Side. With no real address, you find it by first going to Rivington Street between Bowery and Chrystie Street. When you come to an alley about halfway down the block, turn into it and walk to the end. This will lead you to a country style, wood-and-glass door beneath a web of strung-up lightbulbs. It's hard not to feel like you're in on a secret here, and depending on your mood, it can all feel a little magical. Once inside, however, it's all hipsters and taxidermy - but in a good way.

Sitting next to plaid button-downs and Keds while under stuffed geese and antlers, it's time to get down to business. Main dishes include frittatas and sandwiches, pancakes and waffles, which come in at a reasonable $10-$14. You know you're not going to stop there, though. First off, there are Devils on Horseback ($6) and salad options ($10-11), but I'm personally going to order the hot artichoke dip with crisp bread ($10). It is so good that if it wasn't such a waste, I'd want to rub it all over myself - especially after it cools down. (Awkward pause). Brunch may not be complete without a side of thick-cut bacon ($4) or stone-ground cheddar cheese grits ($5), but what about dessert? Don't mind if I do. I'll order the hot chocolate brownie, while you get the bananas foster with rum butterscotch sauce (both $9). We'll wash it all down with Stumptown coffee, and, sure, let's get finely crafted cocktails. They're $12 unless you go for something straight up off the extensive liquor list. I like to mask my mid-day booze with juice and various accoutrements, but to each his own (and other cliches).

According to their website, Freemans is open for brunch on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 10am until 4pm. They only accept reservations for parties of six or more, so if you can't wrangle that many reliable dining partners, your best bet is to walk in with a small group and be prepared to wait. Parties will not be seated until all are present, so tell that one friend who's always late an earlier time than need be, or just cut him out of the equation altogether. Sounds harsh, but there's excessive dining to be done, and that artichoke dip waits for no man.

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.

Brunch, Part 1 - Crunked Edition

As we head into the weekend, I thought now would be a good time to share a couple noteworthy brunch spots. There will be more in the future, so this is just Part 1. Today's theme is "Urrbody in the brunch gettin' tipsy." You see, brunch in NYC is a great time to catch up with old acquaintances, spend time with the in-laws, and recap last night with your best friends. It's also the perfect opportunity to get moderately intoxicated or flat out sloppy in the middle of the day with no one judging you. Here are two places where that can happen inexpensively.

1) Essex - 120 Essex Street, at the corner of Rivington Street

For $18*, you get an entree and three cocktails. The selection of entrees is extensive, ranging from multiple egg incarnations (benedict, baked over ham with vegetables and cheese, scrambled with chorizo and onions, matzo brei, etc) to pancakes to mac & cheese with chicken apple sausage to french toast with fruit to house-cured gravlax and beyond. The choices are many, and the portions are large.

As for the booze, you have a selection of bloody marys, screwdrivers, or mimosas. The first three are included in the price of brunch, and any additional ones you may choose to knock back after that are $3*. Then again, I once had a frazzled waitress who just left the pitcher of mimosas on the table for us to handle - and handle it we did.

So here are the particulars: brunch is served Saturday from 11:00am until 4:30pm and until 8:00pm on Sunday. Alcohol is not served on Sunday until noon, so coffee (iced or hot), tea (iced or hot), espresso, cappuccino, and soda are complimentary until then. You'll want to make a reservation ahead of time (via phone or opentable.com), as the room fills up with a quickness, and you'll want to bring cash, as that is the only payment Essex accepts during brunch.

2) Fiddlesticks - 56 Greenwich Avenue, between Perry & Charles Streets

For $10, you get an entree and two cocktails. Ten dollars?! Ten dollars. The entree selection is rather basic - omelets, eggs benedict, french toast or pancakes with fresh fruit, burger with various toppings, fish and chips (this is a pub, after all) - but you get a decent portion for the money. The egg dishes come with hearty homestyle potatoes, and when you ask for ketchup, it comes in a squeezey bottle shaped like a fat tomato. Charming!

As for the drinks, you have a choice of bloody marys, screwdrivers, mimosas, kir royales, Bud draught, or wine (red or white). The menu states the brunch drinks are complimentary, and Fiddlesticks will not substitute. Between vodka, champagne, beer, and wine, I don't know what else you're trying to drink, but I guess they've been asked enough times to warrant the disclaimer.

The particulars: brunch is served both Saturday and Sunday from 11:30am until 4:00pm. When the weather is nice, outdoor dining is available on the sidewalk out front. If you would rather sit at one of these tables than inside, get here early, as they tend to fill up quickly. Hey, if you're tired, you can always catch a drunken nap when you're done.

*UPDATE: The prices have increased. I repeat. The prices have increased. Brunch at Essex is now $20 for the entree and three cocktails, and any additional cocktail you may wish to purchase beyond the first three is now $4. (sigh) and so it goes...and other Billy Joel lyrics.