brunchkill

Location: 92 Calyer St, at Franklin, Greenpoint

Menu: http://www.calyerbrooklyn.com/brunch-2/

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 11a-3p

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: Since this place is a sister restaurant to Anella, I would have to say run, don’t walk.  The food is creative and amazing.  Can get a little pricey if you let it, because you’ll want to literally try everything, but if you can control yourself… more power to you.  Oh and the bloody was amazing and garnished with cornichons. yum.

Long Story Long: 

I was super-psyched about this place for the one week in between an AMAZING dinner here with Monster and P-nasty et al and our scheduled brunch here last saturday.  Sadly, M & P had to bail, but luckily I had my long walk into Greenpoint (and some gaga) to help me deal with my lame passive-aggressiveness and change my attitude.  By the time I arrived at my destination, I was in a much more pleasant state of mind to meet my brunch companion – let’s call him Muse (mostly because the direct result of his urging/discipline/commitment to a monthly brunch date in 2012 is what served as my inspiration to start this blog up again…).

In any case, as a result of my dinner, I knew this to be a small-plates-sharing-type place.  And I am NOT good at sharing, especially during brunch.  Ask my siblings. Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 499 Grand St, corner of Union, Williamsburg

Menu: http://cafeargentinony.com/menu.html

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 9am-4pm

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: The food is really good and reasonably priced.  I liked the bloody (I had 2 even though they were $9).  The space is really great too.

Long Story Long:

Ah, a nice, warm, early spring day. About fucking time.  As I was walking to this place passsing Dumont & Elote, wistfully recalling their beautiful outdoor gardens, I thought – wow, this blog seriously needs a category for “outdoor space” so I can go somewhere outside…. So, yeah.  That’s what I did.  In a fortunate turn of events, Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 556 Driggs Ave @ N. 7th St, Williamsburg

Menu: http://www.acquasanta.com/menus.html

Brunch Hours: Sat, 11am – Midnight, & Sun, 11am – 11pm

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: $20 prix fixe gets you a mimosa, entree, coffee & dessert.  Since I hate mimosas and rarely get dessert, this isn’t exactly what I would call a great deal.  Feel free to disagree if that’s your thing and I suppose I could have also ordered a la carte… but honestly the food was pretty mediocre.

Long Story Long:

Oh how you woo-ed me with your $20 prix fixe and your beautiful garden…

I should have known something was amiss when BFFF & I were greeted by a sparsely decorated main room, a giant creepy picture of an altar boy looming in the background.   Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 45 Richardson St @ Lorimer St, Williamsburg

Menu: http://becobar.com/menu.htm

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 10am – 4pm

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: $15 for an ample entree plus a cocktail & amazing coffee or tea.  The food is excellent, the bloodys were great as was their signature cocktail – a passion fruit capiroska.  You have to try this place, trust me.

Long Story Long:

Fucking holidays… seriously.  I didn’t realize so many places closed down for so damn long during this time of year.  Annoying…. but please don’t think I went bloodyless for nearly three weeks. Heeeell no.  I took the opportunity to revisit some of my favorites like Lokal & give others a second chance (thanks but no thanks Flying Cow.  I stand by my original opinion).

In any case, as it was a new year, I was anxious to try a new place.  BFFF and I chose Beco.  Actually, we had been trying to go there for about 2 weeks but they were closed for the holiday – argh.  We finally managed to make it there for dinner one night and… amazing.  As frustrated as I had been trying to go there in the first place, this was definitely the place we would be having brunch at the following weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 557 Driggs Ave @ N. 7th St, Williamsburg

Menu: http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/el-almacen/menu

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 12pm – 3pm

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: Entrees under $12.  Drinks are good, but only wine & beer based or mimosas – and cost around $8ish, $9ish

Long Story Long:

It was yet another very rough Friday night that preceded this trip to El Almacen, and the fucking terrible weather was not helping at all.  As I stumbled my way through the streets with the world’s cheapest, most asinine $5 umbrella, strongly reconsidering my choice to leave the house, I get a text from BFFF (who, incidentally does not believe in umbrellas, and I was beginning to understand why) that she was already at the restaurant and sitting outside in the back garden.  Interesting…. but as I am never one to turn down one last brunch outdoors before winter, I decided not to ask questions and just trust her.  Plus, I learned my lesson from the Fada incident…. Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 2 Hope St @ Roebling, Williamsburg

Menu: http://the-flyingcow.com/

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 11am – 5pm, amex & cash only

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: Overall not bad, but I never thought ordering a burger at a steakhouse would make me wish I had tried an egg dish.  Good bloody, but I spent a LOT of cash here.

Long Story Long:

Ok, that description sounds negative I know, so in their defense, I should mention that I was in a pretty crappy mood on this particular morning after being ditched by my BFF (for the third time that week!) because she needed a nap after her Saturday morning class.  Lame.  So we ended up in a kind of passive aggressive fight; i.e., I was silently angry for a couple hours until I decided to let it go and move on with my life.

Anyways, luckily we had included a third party in our plans because I really hate dining alone.  Doubly lucky – it was Mr. Awesome Table Manners – a newish friend of mine who, as it turns out, I still didn’t know that much about so we had lots to chat about.  He’s great to eat with not only because he’s polite, but also because he likes to (as I do) impulsively order menu items based on cool sounding names.  Thus our choice of appetizer: INTENSE warm aged goat cheese.  Interesting….
Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 284 Grand St, between Roebling & Havemeyer, Williamsburg

Menu: http://www.fiorebk.com/menus.htm

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 11am – 4pm, cash only

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: $7 bloodys, mimosas, or bellinis, HUGE really delicious plates, great service even for pains in the ass such as we were that day

Long Story Long:

This was not a good morning.  For some reason my friends and I thought it would be a really great idea to stay out until 5:30am.  I have no problem admitting that I just might be too old to still be doing that at this point.  In any case, even walking to brunch was a chore – I was attacked by pigeons, assaulted by a random street fair which turned out to be, of all things, a fucking health fair wherein a young child walked up to me to ask if I wanted to know how healthy I was.  No thanks, Junior… Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 291 Grand St, between Havermeyer & Roebling, Williamsburg

Menu: http://www.caracasarepabar.com/brooklyn.php

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 12pm – 3pm

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: Huge platters or individual, ready-made arepas- up to your appetite.  I really liked the food a lot.  Bloodys made with fresh cherry tomatoes…. interesting.  Gorgeous backyard.

Long Story Long:

On this particular Sunday, I was late meeting my friend for brunch – I overslept (thus her half finished cocktail pictured below).  Sadly, she had somewhere to be, so we didnt have much time to waste.  I sat down and quickly scanned the menu – cocktails first, natch.  I was super curious about the cocktails as, at the time, Caracas had just gotten their liquor license.  I was thrilled, but at the same time daunted, to see not one, but TWO bloody mary options.  Of course, my issue was not having 2 bloodys at 1pm on a Sunday – it was strictly the time-crunch. Yikes.  With barely even reading the distinction, I went with the traditional bloody and food-wise, ordered whatever it was that my friend had ordered (in my frenzy to read about cocktails, I wasn’t really listening to her).

With our order in, I was finally free to peruse the menu….FUCK. Read the rest of this entry »

Location: 253 Grand St @ Roebling, Williamsburg

Menu: http://www.walterfoods.com/brunch.html

Brunch Hours: Sat & Sun, 11am – 4pm

My Rating: 

Long Story Short: Hearty & greasy plates, very nice atmosphere. A bit under-whelming overall though.  Bloody was not great for the price ($11).

Long Story Long:

I have heard a lot about this place and when I first walked in, I immediately fell in love with the look of it.  Very charming & old-timey looking, wait-staff in white shirts, bow ties and aprons. Cute.

I ordered a bloody and my first sip was vaguely familiar…. It tasted just like <<gasp>>  Mr. & Mrs. T’s bottled mix.  Woah.  The rest of the meal (aside from a complimentary blueberry mini-muffin) delivered more of the same.  Just… ok.  How can I explain this?  I guess it seemed to me like a place that is really only doing brunch because everywhere else in the hood is doing it so they wanted in on the action.  Honestly, it almost felt like a bit of a throwaway, and a kinda expensive one at that Read the rest of this entry »