Brunching with the Ladies
There aren’t many things better than girl time + brunch! This weekend I combined both with some of my favorite ladies on the Lower East Side. I have to be honest, the winter weather has put a serious damper on my city adventures lately so I’m glad my friend suggested we get out of the neighborhood!
Our destination? Sons of Essex. It may have been only 1 in the afternoon, but the spot had the vibe of a cool lounge with dimmed lights and hip hop music. I don’t make it to the LES nearly enough, but when I do I really enjoy the old-New York feeling the neighborhood gives off. SOE stays true to its roots and boosts an eclectic mix of decor within a vintage styled loft that I really loved.
I often find myself falling into my tried-and-true brunch order of eggs benedict – I mean you really can’t go wrong with that order! – but a quick look over the menu told me I needed to try something else. I know my photos aren’t great on this one (dim-lighting!) but after the first glance I found myself already debating between several items. The fun thing about the menu is they have some funky items you definitely aren’t going to find anywhere else – Crunch berry french toast, SOE brunch pizza, and drumroll please… a Mac N cheese omelet. Trust me it was a hard decision! Even harder because this was my “last supper” for awhile before switching to healthy eating before my Jamaica trip next month.
So what did I end up going with? The mac N cheese omelet! I mean.. I had to right? We also ordered up a side of truffle tots, because again, we had to!
So what did I think? Let me tell you! Hellooooo cheesy goodness! You might be wondering how mac and cheese would work with eggs, and I’m here to tell you, it totally works! Just think of an extra creamy cheese omelet. The combination of the gruyere and mascarpone… just perfect.
One of my friends ordered another dish I’d totally recommend, their SOE brunch pizza. Eggs, cheddar and bacon served on a thin crust? Man, I really just love brunch food. We were all really impressed with the food and the portion sizes were just right. I will definite be back to try out more of the menu – after the Jamaica trip that is ;-). If you check it out, I’d definitely recommend making a reservation too. Downtown is a little harder to just walk-in and get a seat and this place was definitely hopping the whole time we were there. Sunday brunch is served all day until 8pm though so you definitely aren’t limited to the afternoon!
We were definitely full after brunch but since we were in the neighborhood we decided we had to pop into one of my friend’s favorite little cupcake shops nearby, Sugar Sweet Sunshine.
Totally a dessert to-go trip for us, but you can’t possibly visit a cupcake shop without leaving with a couple – full or not! Their cupcakes are the perfect amount of sweet with a homemade touch. I ordered up their Strawberry cupcake with cream cheese and peanut butter frosting and it was a nice little PB&J tasting snack for later. That flavor actually had kind of more of a muffin cake texture to me, which I really liked.
They have lots of yummy sounding flavors though that my friend insists are some of the best cupcakes in the city. So even if you’re full from your trip to SOE, do yourself a favor and pick up a couple to go!