Beauty & Essex

I'd like to take a moment to nominate the person who first came up with the idea of brunch for sainthood.

No, I don't think that this is overdoing it.  I mean, think of all that we owe this person.

Without him or her, would anyone else have ever said that it was perfectly acceptable to sleep late and then, upon waking, indulge in lots of delicious food, a gossip session with friends, and of course, slightly scandalous quantities of alcohol, all in the middle of the day?

I don't know about you, but to me, the thought of life before brunch seems dismal and bleak.  I'm sure that that's what the Dark Ages were like (in fact, a lack of the possibility of brunch was probably why they were called the Dark Ages).

Thankfully, we don't have to live in such a world and thankfully, my friend S appreciates a good boozy brunch just as much as I do.  When she texted to tell me that she was visiting her brother and would be in the city for the weekend, we knew that we had to make our Sunday into an epic eating event, so we hit up Beauty & Essex.  At first, we were a bit confused, since you enter through a pawn shop, but we were eventually led up a spiral staircase to our table.

The dimly lit interior has a swanky lounge vibe, and reminders of the pawn shop below grace the walls.

There is an a la carte brunch menu, but we decided to go big or go home and get the prix fixe Champagne brunch.  For $55, you get four courses of small plates and two glasses of Champagne, which is a steal in NYC.  The Champers arrived first, much to our delight.

And was followed by a Kale and Apple Salad (apple cider vinaigrette, pancetta, candied pecans and shaved goat cheese) and Grilled Cheese, Smoked Bacon and Tomato soup dumplings.

When it comes to salads, it takes a lot to excite me, but this one was really flavorful and satisfying and a nice mix of sweet and savory.  Even the boy at the table liked it.  And the soup dumplings were a fun grown-up riff on a kid favorite.

Next up was a round of sweets, featuring Dark Chocolate Croissants....

Mini Red Velvet Waffles with cream cheese icing....

and Banana Walnut Bread with Cinnamon Butter.

(This last one was on the a la carte, not the prix fixe, menu, but it sounded too good to pass up).  The winner among the dishes on this course was definitely the waffles.  There have been times in the past when I've gone for the sweet, novelty flavors of pancakes and waffles at other restaurants, only to be disappointed by the unsatisfying, cloying taste of artificial flavors, but this wasn't the case here.

At this point, the DJ turned up the music and the waitstaff handed out glowsticks and flashy plastic cocktail rings, so we knew that the party was really getting started.

Some people weren't quite as excited about the jewelry options as S and I were though....

But everyone was excited about the fact that the bubbly seemed to just keep on coming.

As did the food.

The fourth course consisted of  Skillet Roasted Potatoes.....

Braised Short Rib Huevos Rancheros with sunny side up eggs, black beans and cotija....

and Fried Chicken Biscuit Bites with Tabasco honey butter and red cabbage slaw....

This one was a tough call between the Huevos Rancheros and the Biscuit Bites, both of which were full of interesting layers of flavor with perfectly paired ingredients.

Finally, it was time for dessert:  mini red velvet and Baileys and Guinness cupcakes.

These were super cute, but not super tasty.  Really, all of the food was delicious up to this point, so it was a bit of a disappointing note to end on.

But we worked through the dessert despair by dancing next to our table and singing along to Taylor Swift.  Don't worry, we weren't the only ones.  The place had practically transformed into a club at this point.

And one of the dangers of this place is that, with the club-like atmosphere, the dimly lit interior, and the lack of windows, it's very easy to lose all track of time.  Which we did.  We'll blame it on all the Champagne, but we stayed well into the evening and basically shut the place down. I think that the long lost inventor of brunch, whomever she or he was, would have been quite proud.

If you want to give the Champagne brunch a go, you have to either call or email Beauty & Essex to reserve a table.  Don't forget to bring your eating and drinking game face and be prepared to not get anything else done that day.

But really, epic brunching is enough of an accomplishment on a Sunday anyway, don't you think?

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