Brunch in the Hood

New local blog The Real Fort Greene has an interesting rundown on brunch options in the 'nabe. They tag Olea as their favorite, and as you all know by now, I'd certainly agree.

Olea

Probably my current favorite. Part of the Moe’s, Maggie Brown, Pequena restaurant empire and one of the few spots that serves brunch every day. The menu has all the brunch standards with a Mediterranean touch. My usual order: Green Eggs & Lamb (scrambled with fresh cilantro, tomato and red onion, served with merguez lamb sausage and pita) or the steak and eggs or an omelet. Great mimosas.

I actually didn't care too much for the Green Eggs & Lamb, but that's really my problem, as I'm not a fan of lamb chorizo in general. We here at Clinton Hill Foodie recommend the Savory French Toast. Also, check out the bloody marys. They're among the best I've had.

Cafe Martino

Good morning and Happy April. I've been swamped with a variety of things lately, so the missus has been doing most of the cooking. Since she doesn't really like to write about it, I've had nothing to post. Tragic, I know. Hopefully things will settle down a bit in the coming weeks and I'll have a chance to either make something interesting or go eat somewhere worth writing about. I do want to try my father's pastiera and with a jar of good cooked wheat and a manifesto on how to make that he sent me, I should be all set.

We did finally get a chance to check out Cafe Martino, the swank little place on on Myrtle that a commenter suggested I try a little while back. It's one of those places that tends to blend into the background, so while I always knew it was there, I never went out of my way to go there. Requiring brunch on Saturday, we gave it a try.

The coffee was good (which is important), and Mick had a cappuccino that she liked. The food was good but not great. I had the steak and eggs, and the eggs weren't very easy for being over easy. That's one of my pet peeves with eggs - if I order them over easy, I want a lot of yoke running around for to be lathering up my other breakfast potables. These were a bit disappointing, but thankfully the steak made up for it. They came with home fries which were as standard as home fries get.

Mick had the spinach, portabello, and cheddar omelet, which was a bit more interesting. To say she inhaled it would be an understatement, so I can only assume it was good. The muffled superlative along with a curt nod seemed only to confirm that.

Aside from my slightly overdone eggs, everything else was great. I like that they give you a bottle of water for your table, which eliminates the tendency of some restaurants to either leave you parched, without drink, or to have a waiter constantly hovering near you refilling your glasses. Another great touch was the salt and pepper. No ordinary shakers here! They left us a pepper grinder along with a big container of sea salt. Nice touches.

Cafe Martino's got good coffee, decent food, and what looked like pretty good pastries and empanadas as well. They've recently started serving dinner, although I haven't had a chance to try it. If you're nearby, definitely give them a try for breakfast or brunch.

Cafe Martino Prix Fix Dinner Specials

A reader recently urged me to stop into Cafe Martino, and while I still plan on doing that, I thought I'd relay something I saw over at Myrtle Minutes. Cafe Martino is now offering Prix Fix Dinner Specials in addition to breakfast and lunch.

I've heard nothing but great things about this place but I just haven't had the opportunity to stop in. Now that they'll be open a little later, I hope I'll be able to.

Information:

Cafe Martino
559 Myrtle Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718.636.3966

Google Map

CHB's Take on Takeout

The blogoholics over at Clinton Hill Blog have a post up today about takeout in the neighborhood, which reminds me that I'm overdue on a post I've been working on that was requested in a comment a while back about the same thing (Ed Note: Wow, that was an unweildy sentence). A proper Clinton Hill Takeout post will be forthcoming at some point, but off the top of my head:

Kinara is pretty great. I'm taking my first tepid steps into the world of Indian food, but I'm enjoying everything so far. Try the tikka masala or the vindaloo (if you can handle spicy).

Focaccino makes a unique pizza and their sandwiches are pretty inexpensive and very good. Half of them seem to have goat cheese on them, which is fine by me.

As I mentioned the other day, I'm in love with the toasted monte cristo panini from Bergen Bagels. Everything from them is good, though.

Little Louie's pizza on Myrtle is my favorite straight pie, but Liberty is pretty good as well.

For sushi, I've been ordering from Sushi Tatsu for a long time. Try the Samurai Roll.

I'm still looking for my favorite Chinese place. I haven't had much Chinese since moving in, and we seem to try a different restaurant each time we order, so I don't have a good idea of what's the best. Any suggestions?

New Favorite Hangover Food

Hope everyone had a great three-day weekend. We tied more than a few on during our respite, and twice were in dire need of foodstuffs the morning after. My new favorite Food for Those With Hangover™ is Bergen Bagels. It's hardly a secret to anyone around here, and I've been a fan of their bagels since I moved here. I didn't know (or had forgotten), that they delivered, but on Saturday (and again on Sunday), we gave them a try. Mick had nothing interesting - ham, egg, and cheese on a toasted everything bagel. I tried the reuben (decent but unspectacular) as well as the toasted monte cristo panini. We also tried the Russian panini.

The monte cristo is fantastic. Seriously, order one right now. It's my new favorite thing.

Oh, and one of the hangovers was partially caused by a Friday night at Rustik. We tried the wings and the pizza this time, and both were pretty good. The wings expecially are worth it - they're huge.

Information:

Bergen Bagels
486 Myrtle Ave
718.798.9300
Google Map

New Restaurant - Square Root Cafe

I'm in Vegas through the weekend, but while I was at the airport I got this email from the owners of a new cafe opening up on the corner of Myrtle and Classon:

We are opening a cafe in January

January 1st we are hosting a complimentary (AKA Free) buffet brunch
featuring our favorite dishes. The free buffet is open to everyone

Come spend a lazy afternoon with us and recover from your New Years Eve
celebrations

We hope you can join us between 1pm-5pm

Happy Holidays,

Eda + Joe

This is right down the street from me, so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not sure how easy it will be for me to get to a brunch on New Year's Day, but I'm certainly going to try.

Information:

Square Root Cafe
584 Myrtle Avenue
Corner of Classon
718.230.7077
www.squarerootcafe.com

Once Again to Olea for Brunch

I know, I know. I need to change up where I go to brunch, especially with so many great places in the 'nabe. Next time I promise some place new, but we headed back to Olea once before before my dad and stepmom headed out of town. They'd heard our praise of the Savory Parmesan French Toast, and we couldn't deny them.

Two orders of the French toast later, along with a Spanish omelette and the cleverly-named Green Eggs and Lamb, and we had ourselves a brunch.

My green eggs weren't as good as I'd hoped they'd be, and I regretted not getting the French toast again. The Spanish omelette didn't disappoint, though.

Information:

Olea
171 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718.643.7003

Google Map

Marathon Brunch at Olea

Sunday marked the third time that the NYC Marathon has been run since I've lived in Clinton Hill. Each of the previous two years I've spent the day laying in bed and having nothing to do with it aside from later regretting not having anything to do with it. This year was a little different since we had cause to be out of the house at 9 in the morning. We'd planned to go to Olea for brunch but both of us had completely forgotten that the Marathon was going to be run that day.

Olea doesn't open until 10, so we took a leisurely stroll up and down Lafayette before settling in to a table outside at about a quarter of. It turned out to be a perfect place to have a great brunch and watch our first live marathon.

Olea's an incredible little Mediterranean restaurant on the corner of Lafayette and Adelphi. This was the third time I've been there and the second for brunch, and each time I've been floored by the food. There's lots of southern French, Italian, and Greek fare all mixed and matched in really interesting ways. This time I had the Savory Parmesan French Toast, which is completely different from what I'd imagined it would be when I ordered it. The French toast is made from a baguette and then covered in two poached eggs and doused with avgolemono sauce - something I'd never had but reminded me of hollandaise. They've also thrown some pea shoots and scallions in for good measure, and it comes with a side of home fries. Really interesting dish that kind of reminded me of an Italian neo-eggs Benedict.

Mickey had a Greek omelet that came with home fries and salad, and while she liked it I could tell she was jealous of my meal. Next time we go back she's definitely getting the french toast, while I think I might try the steak and eggs.

Also of note were the virgin bloody Marys we had - virgin because they couldn't sell liquor before noon. Even without the vodka these were amazing. I love spicy bloody Marys, and these ranked up there with the spiciest I've ever had. The rim of the glass is even coated with what looked like sea salt and cracked pepper. Definitely give it a try if you like them spicy.

The vantage point was perfect as well. The Marathon route runs down Lafayette, and aside from having to look through a bit of a crowd, we could see everything as it passed us by. We had such a good time that we're hoping to make the Olea Marathon Brunch™ a yearly tradition. We'll see if we can wake up in time next year.

Information:

Olea Restaurant
171 Lafayette Ave
718.643.7003

Google Map

Welcome

We spent most of yesterday out of the house and, for the first time in my life that I can remember, had two separate brunches. The first was at a fantastic little Mediterranean place on Lafayette called Oléa that we've enjoyed for a while. We were there at about 9:45 and got a seat outside - a perfect vantage point to watch the NYC Marathon. I had the parmesan French toast and Mickey had a Greek omelette. Both were outstanding, although she admitting being jealous of mine because it was lathered in hollandaise sauce.

Later, after a trip up to Queens to run some errands, we found ourselves having our second brunch at Maggie Brown where we eschewed the traditional brunch fair and each had a cheeseburger. Neither of us had ever been to Maggie Brown although I'd been meaning to for a while. The burger was great, especially notable for the excellent, reasy bun and the horseradish they sprinkle on top of the cheddar.

During the meal I mused out loud that I should start a blog about restaurants in Clinton Hill. There are new ones opening every week it seems, and since we both love food we try and hit as many of them as we can. As everyone should already know, Clinton Hill in Brooklyn is the "bloggiest" neighborhood in the nation. I'm a regular visitor to the fantastic Clinton Hill Blog, and I love when they post about new restaurants. Eating Clinton Hill is another I had high hopes for, but they don't seem to be updating much these days. By the end of the meal I'd decided it would be fun to try my hand at my own Brooklyn food blog. I haven't had a regular blog since 2000 or so, and back then it was about my adventures in web design and technology. I don't know if I'll have the time or the inclination to keep this updated regularly with interesting tidbits, but I'll give it a try in any event. Thanks for stopping by, and if you enjoy what you read, spread the word!