Brunch in New York

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DuMont is the go-to spot for brunch in the upwardly mobile Lorimer stop section of Williamsburg, which during a earlier era was considered East Williamsburg (the pioneering DuMont opened a decade ago, before anyone really wanted to live there). These days, it’s a secondary main drag to the Bedford stop and the crowds are about interchangeable, though Dumont is less likely to draw curious Manhattanites. Read the rest of this entry »

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Beauty & Essex is, quite simply, a fantastic and innovative brunch experience—absolutely worth putting on your brunch ‘bucket list’ whether you’re a hip local Brooklynite day-tripping into the city or an Arkansas traveler just passing through.

Brought to you by Portuguese-American chef/owner Chris Santos, he of the equally-uber-hip Stanton Social eating club nearby, this place takes “speakeasy” to new heights: you actually enter through a pawn shop that looks like a real pawn shop. (On closer examination, it is real. You can actually buy the guitars hanging up on the wall and the books stacked up in a corner, for the prices indicated on the tags.) But, truth be told, this pawn operation is mostly just a cool façade—and a mighty convincing one, too. If you didn’t know there was a restaurant here, you’d probably walk right on by it. In fact, even knowing it’s here, it’s a little hard to believe this is actually the place given the drab surroundings. But it is. Read the rest of this entry »

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There are five rules to brunching at Beaumarchais, which changed names recently but not its vibe—a crazy, club-like scene that repeats itself every weekend and now goes under the name “Le Grand Brunch”:

1. Dress up. Everyone else will be wearing club gear anyway, even at noon in mid-summer. This especially applies to women: cocktail dresses are practically required. Guys tend to go jackets-‘n-jeans, Cote d’Azur white suits with Panama hats, and the like. It’s all France, all the time here. So don’t come in jeans and a ripped tee, okay? Read the rest of this entry »

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Buttermilk Channel came highly recommended it to us, and we have to say: the recommenders were right. This is simply the best-value brunch we have been lucky to eat in New York. Why the name? Buttermilk Channel is the mile-long tidal strait that runs between Brooklyn and Governor’s Island. When the area was still farmland, dairy farmers would cross it by boat to sell milk in Manhattan markets. Smith Street (where the restaurant is located) was defined by this channel, just a few blocks west. Read the rest of this entry »

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Opened in 2001, db Bistro Moderne is a relaxed and fast-paced Manhattan restaurant, located in the City Club Hotel, at the Midtown crossroads of fashion and theater. This is Chef Daniel Boulud’s contemporary interpretation of the Parisian classic, and a restaurant where traditional French cuisine meets the flavors of the American market.

The restaurant is comprised of two dining rooms linked by a panel wine bar, which also connects the restaurant to the adjacent hotel lobby. When stepping in, eyes are drawn to a series of sensual, larger than life, floral photographs by Christopher Beane. Read the rest of this entry »

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Were the interior of Nougatine at Jean-Georges a musical composition, it might be called The Gracious Living Symphony.  Designer Adam Tihany has waved a magic baton with blonde woods, ceiling-height windows, space around the tables – (and being as this is New York, let us repeat that)  – space around the tables, and a terrazzo tile and white marble hand-laid floor with a nougat-like appearance that inspired the café’s name.  When the weather cooperates, brunch is also served on the Mistral Terrace, which has unforgettably scrumptious “We are here and you are not” views of Central Park. Read the rest of this entry »

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For such a great neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights has always been curiously devoid of truly great places in which to dine. Subtract the Grimaldi’s pizza joint under the bridge and the River Café and ice cream place on the river—probably those all belong to DUMBO geographically, anyway—and what do you have left? Jack the Horse Tavern? Okay. We’ll give you that one. A bakery or two? But that’s about it. That’s what makes Colonie, new as of February 2011, such an interesting and daring entry in the Great Brooklyn Resto Sweepstakes. They’ve gone all-in with brunch offerings like foie gras (!) doughnuts, Long Island white wine on tap, and oysters on the half-shell. Hard to tell if this place will survive the brutally competitive BK dining scene, but it’s certainly not gun-shy. Read the rest of this entry »

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There’s no more famous place, perhaps, to brunch in all of New York than at Keith McNally’s Balthazar. Or at least there wasn’t when this place first opened to much fanfare in 1997. The stars started coming… and then they stopped, lured away by other McNally ventures and a ton of newer, hipper places. That hasn’t stopped Soho locals or tourists from scoping the place out, though. McNally fell all over himself doing up the French brasserie thing here: tiled floors, reddish banquettes and chairs, wine bottles stacked high behind the bar; a bit of lit glass paneling (in a stained-glass effect) adorning the thick columns; heavy leanings toward French food…heck, the waitresses are even by turns gorgeous, ditzy, and snooty. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you did not try them here, you don’t know really the Eggs Rothko ! You have to come in this hip Williamsburg’s spot close to Bedford Avenue to order this dish :  an easy-cooked egg in a slice of Amy’s brioche and topped with Grafton cheddar. Served with broiled tomatoes and a side of meat (the best bacon we had in town !) or seasonal vegetables, it’s just fantastic and so cheap ($9). Maybe one of the best dishes we ordered in New York. Moreover, the rest of the menu is pretty varied ; the food always amazing.

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New Yorkers are pretty sharply divided about Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Asian street food-concept fusion restaurant Spice Market. Half of them see it as a smashing fusion success, blending exotic ingredients and ideas with French culinary excellence to great effect. The other half feel like the place is just a little (or a lot) too précieux—the gorgeous servers wear bright orange, vaguely Buddhist tunics—and overpriced (you can’t get a cocktail here for less than $12).

All that may be true enough. But we’re about the food… and, for the most part, Jean-Georges delivers on that count in spades. Read the rest of this entry »

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Finding an upscale, friendly place to brunch just behind Port Authority doesn’t seem like an easy thing to do. There aren’t a lot of attractions in this area, but it’s worth the trip to to discover 44 1/2, a bright and modern restaurant where you can also have a seat at the bar or in the nice Japanese garden on a sunny day. Read the rest of this entry »

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Casa Lever, the restaurant, is on Park Avenue at 53^rd Street, within the landmarked Lever House, New York City’s first curtain-wall skyscraper, later imitated in Paris and Berlin.  A gracious Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden is situated within the Lever House courtyard.  The restaurant interior, meanwhile, beckons with opulent, 1960s retro-chic.  Andy Warhol prints of Dennis Hopper, Giorgio Armani, Jerry Hall, Sly Stallone and Alfred Hitchcock enliven the space. Before Casa Lever even officially opened, Madonna threw a party in it for her friend Penelope Cruz. You can picture Warhol himself, nonchalantly sitting in one of the parallelogram-framed booths, looking out and up at a Venini glass chandelier to quip “I was just joshing about those fifteen minutes.” Read the rest of this entry »

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The recently opened Graffit restaurant feels a bit out of place in the Lincoln Center area of the Upper West Side – and this is a compliment. The restaurant’s website defines its name as “an unconventional fusion of art and food”, and that is exactly what you will find. Chef Jesus Núñez was a graffiti artist in his native Spain, and the walls of the dining room feature murals that fuse graffiti and fine art to showstopping effect.  The restaurant’s design is truly breathtaking and transportive. Read the rest of this entry »