Archives for brunch

Peter’s Since 1969 Brunch

I was wondering why I’ve never seen this restaurant before if it’s been here since 1969. Apparently it hasn’t and just paying homage to the butcher shop that was there before. I walked by with some friends and stopped to stare at the customer’s food. The guy eating in the window went on and on about how good it was and to come for brunch for their pulled pork. That’s when I learned my friends ditched me.

Todd and I came for brunch. We split the Slow Cooked Pork over Old Fashioned Grits ($10.95) and Malawach Yemen Crispy Dough ($11.95). The food looks really good, probably much better than it tastes. It came with orange juice, coffee and a salad. A really good deal and a lot of food for the price. The food unfortunately just tastes okay.

Peter’s Since 1969 – 168 Bedford Ave (btwn N 7th & N 8th St) Brooklyn, NY 11211

Corner Oyster House Bar & Grill

Woke up bright and early after a night of walking around Bourbon St. with Sam. Waitresses rubbing their boobies on us trying to sell shots and lots of dudes fighting in the street. Maybe it was good I didn’t bring my camera.

Rusty and I walked around the French Quarter at 9am looking for some breakfast and a beer. Barely anything opened. Just a street cleaning truck roaming by. Russ wanted to go to this place that he had grits and a beer one morning years ago. He didn’t know the name or where it was, but somehow we found it. I don’ t know how without an iPhone, but we did. It was Sergio’s Po-Boys & Deli, decorated with heavy LSU colors and a sign that said Bobby Flay lost a muffaletta throw-down there. It looked pretty awesome, but it was closed.

So we walked around Bourbon St. Probably not the best place looking for a divey breakfast spot, but that’s all we knew for out-of-towners. We found one spot open where we could get a beer. It was hot out and not much luck finding cheap grits. We gave up and went into the Corner Oyster Bar & Grill. Seems like a place where tourists and families would go …where I’d probably eat with my parents. Rusty’s breakfast kinda looked like shit. And I really wanted to eat some Jambalaya while was I down there, so I had to get it. For $10, it wasn’t bad for this type of restaurant. Probably what you would expect, but not what you’d expect for being in New Orleans. It looked like rice with tomato sauce poured on it. I guess this place isn’t bad for what it is. The bloody marys were fine. I can see why tourists and families go here, but it wasn’t what we were looking for.

We walked backed to the hotel, turned the corner and there it was. The type of hole-in-the-wall were were looking for –Johnny’s Po-Boys. Looked great and cheap. One of the employees was outside and saw our expression. He could tell that this was our kind of place. Fuck. I need to get an iPhone to tell me where to eat.

Serio’s Po-Boys & Deli – 133 Saint Charles Ave. New Orleans, LA 70130
Corner Oyster Bar & Grill – 500 Saint Peter St. New Orleans, LA 70116
Johnny’s Po-Boys – 511 Saint Louis St. New Orleans, LA 70130

Wombat Brunch

Met up with friends for brunch at Wombat (where we got the $13 lobsters). They have some interesting items on the menu like Stuffed French Toast and Duck Hash, for which I went for the latter. Not too bad, but maybe not enough salt. Then I realized how much salt I kept adding. I wonder what that says about what I normally eat.

I was worried all morning about my band’s new album cover …if I can get the rights to the artwork. Then a man selling African carved/leather animals on the street came up to our table. I saw it right there. A deer that looked totally stoned. Turns out my photographer friend saw that guy too and really wanted to take a photo of that same deer. So now I got the deer and the photographer. The world works in mysterious ways.

Wombat – 613 Grand St (btwn Lorimer & Leonard) Brooklyn, NY 11211

Laura from brunch sent me her Zampa diet chart. I’m not sure what she said about it and why she said she was going to send it. I think my mind was occupied with the African leather deer.
The%20Zampa%20Diet Wombat Brunch

Brunch at Fanny (Brooklyn)

Brunch with Bonnie. We were craving pancakes and sat down at a place we thought would have them. They didn’t and we were sat in awkward corner in the shade on a nice sunny day. That was the first time I’ve ever walked out of a restaurant. So we went up the street to Fanny. My first time there. Bonnie got the Baked eggs over Ratatouille and I got the Fried Fish Sandwich, even thought I really wanted the ratatouille. It’s weird how no two people are allowed order the same thing. I understand why I do that, but why do other people when they don’t share in the first place? I ate both anyway and it was good.

Billy, who we ran into over at the Blue Stove bakery, says Fanny also makes a pretty respectable burger. I should try it. It was funny running into him. I walked into the bakery and stared at the pie he was carrying out and didn’t even realize it was him. That’s what happens when you become a food blogger. It’s like being distracted by boobs, but a cherry pie instead.

Fanny – 425 Graham Ave (between Frost St & Withers St) Brooklyn, NY 11211

Brunch at Diner (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

The weather’s so nice to walk over to Diner and meet friends for brunch. The Bourbon & Toffee french toast –awesome looking. The omelette was huge. The burger looked nice. The fried chicken sandwich that passed our table looked delicious. Three of us ordered the pork belly because it sounded awesome. It didn’t look as awesome as the other food, but it was pretty good tasting. Came with some tangy applesauce and scrambled eggs with pieces of baguette in it. The bread was mushy extra texture to it. I tried to Photoshop the pork belly. Hopefully it’ll be good enough looking for Tastespotting.

Diner – 85 Broadway (btwn Berry St & Wythe Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11211
Ramen and Friend’s cross post (so much better written than mine)

Elote’s Brunch

Rusty and I were walking around Grand & Union for food when we ran into a friend. We said “hi” and then she introduced us to her friend as “weird guys.” Then I started acting even really weird …I’m not sure if intentional. They recommended the Mexican restaurant, Elote, right around the corner. So we went.

From the outside, Elote looks like a real Mexican hangout with the beer special posters on the window. In actuality, it’s very much a hipster joint. $11 brunch special comes with a cocktail. My pulled pork sandwich was pretty good. I enjoyed it. Nice to sit in the sun out back and enjoy some brunch. I can’t wait for the rest of the Spring.

Going back to being weird. I get why she might have said that, but wasn’t that more weird to introduce us as that? It really got to me though. I felt like it destroyed my new mindset of confidence that I’ve been building the past few years. …Then I realize what if I didn’t run into her or didn’t know her –I wouldn’t have felt down on myself at all. So it has nothing to do with me, right? Meaning I shouldn’t make this random encounter my identity.  And what if I just thought it was funny, which I initially thought until I dwelled on it? It was all in my own perception. I decide for myself how I feel and if I want to be weird. And that’s my self-therapy of the day. New self-development/food blog? …Me So Positive

Elote – 366 Union Ave (btwn Grand St & Hope St) Brooklyn, NY 11211

A Walk Around the Burg

Brunch with Ashley at one of my new favorite spots, Sel de Mer. No whole lobster this time, but I did get the whole Bronzini fish. I asked the waitress for her recommendation and she said the baked eggs because of all the bones in the fish …but that’s what sold me. Yeah a lot of bones, but I like to put in the effort.

Then we walked around the neighborhood. We tried looking into a sausage shop with cartoon pigs on the windows. The place has weird hours and I never see it open. Then an older man walking his dogs yells out, “You looking for sausages?!” He came over to tell us that the owner of that sausage shop had recently passed away and told us where we should go to get sausages, along with a bunch other food stops down the street. Ashley thinks the guy had already passed us and came back across the street to talk to us. Maybe he saw us poking our heads where they don’t belong.

We stopped in at the Blue Stove bakery that the gentleman mentioned. We almost got a slice of pumpkin pie, but then I wanted to get one of those small enclosed pies. It turned out to be a chicken pot pie. We didn’t get anything, but the baked goods looked and smelled real good.

A stop over at the old charming Caffe Capri coffee shop. It looks like what you would imagine a 1970′s coffee shop in an Italian Brooklyn neighborhood would look like. They even have shirts with their name for sale. I got the Coffee Float, which turned out to be what I thought it would be –coffee and ice cream. After the ice cream melted a bit, it sort of tasted like a Manhattan Special (coffee/expresso soda), which the factory is only a few blocks away.

Before we ventured off to check out the factory, we stopped in front of the weird storefront window close to the coffee shop. There’s an old Apple computer, a Betamax tape deck in the box in the window and a sign that says “If you don’t find it in the window, you will surely find it inside.” You couldn’t see through the window, but it looked like the door was possibly open. The gate in front of it was open. We tried to look in, but then another older man walked by and said, “Yeah, I don’t know what’s in there.” with a wink and a smile. He proceeded to enter his apartment building two feet away. He looked like he could have lived there for years, but apparently he didn’t know or didn’t want us know what was going on in there.

Walking over to the Manhattan Special factory, we passed by a bodega that had a big menu of sandwiches with Presidential names. I can understand the Obama, the Jackson, the Grant …but the Buchanan? What was his legacy? Salami, Provolone, L/T, Oil, Vinegar …I suppose.

Then over to Fortunato Brothers where we split a cannoli. I’ve only had a few in my life and this was surely the most enjoyable. The cream wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet like I’ve had before. It tasted almost like a Bavarian cream doughnut …one of my favorite doughnuts.

Before Fortunatos, we walked by a sketchy basement with no signs that looked like a bar. There were people drinking and we were trying to figure out what it was. Then a guy above us sitting on his second-floor window sill shouts, “They’re playing cards” also with a smile and perhaps a wink.

We also walked into a few other places (wedding trinket store and pizzeria) just to look. No other guys were around to make these places seem sketchy, but I know what I want on my birthday cake –a naked girl wedding trinket and maybe a pizza.

Sel de Mer -374 Graham Ave (btw Skillman Ave & Counselyea St) Brooklyn New York 11211
The Blue Stove – 415 Graham Ave (btw Withers & Jackson St) Brooklyn, NY 11211
Caffe Capri Coffee Shop – 427 Graham Ave (btw Frost & Withers) Brooklyn, NY 11206
Fortunato Brothers Cafe Pasticceria – 289 Manhattan Ave (@ Devoe St) Brooklyn, NY 11211

Cafe Colonial

Brunch with Marcellus Hall at Cafe Colonial, the cute Brazilian restaurant I’ve passed many times on Houston. I got the Cowboy Rice – rice sauteed with beef, served with black beans and two eggs. I don’t know if beef fried rice is worth $15, but it was decent and I left stuffed. I believe the beef was made from skirt steak.

The waitress switched Tobasco bottles on us, when the one we had was pretty full. I had a hard time getting the sauce out of the new bottle. I thought we were X’d. She’s like Jamie Kennedy, but a lot prettier.

Marcellus sketched me studying the menu. I’m grateful he didn’t give me a double chin.

Cafe Colonial – 276 Elizabeth St (@ Houston St) New York 10012