This Little Piggy went on a Brunch Adventure

On a happier note (from the below Bloomberg post), I must have gone on one of the most amazing brunch excursions ever this past Saturday.  Initially, we were just grabbing brunch at some place I'd never heard of in the West Village, but the plans changed.  We started our adventure off at Choptank (on Bleeker @ Grove) for a Bloody Mary and oysters and decided it would be fun to track down the best BM in the West Village.  This turned into an all day drinking and eating affair, eventually ending at a friend's apartment in Tribeca.  I'll let the pictures tell the story.  Enjoy!

The Choptank Oysters and Bloody Mary were awesome!  We surveyed four types of oysters, and though I can't remember what my favorite was called, the most clever name was the Naked Cowboy Oysters, which were from LI.  The BM was different than the standard Bloody Mary.  Besides using a secret spice they call "grains of paradise", they also drizzle the top with EVOO, which adds a surprisingly delicious touch.

At this point, we had decided to make this a Bloody Mary challenge, and headed over to Joseph Leonard (Waverly Pl @ Christopher).  We ordered the Bloody Mary No. 20, which came with a beer chaser, and the Lyla’s Mama’s Lemonade (maker’s mark, lemonade and cayenne).  This BM was smokier than the one at Choptank.  I thought both drinks were good, though I wouldn't write home about the BM.  We also ordered some french fries and the frisee and lardons (fried egg, brioche and red wine vinaigrette).  This was absolutely exquisite!

The fried egg clearly sparked conversation about the Truffled Egg Toast at 'Ino (Bedford @ Downing), so there we went!  This was fantastic as usual and went very nicely with the Chardonnay and Trebbiano we ordered.  Not much else to say about this, except that we had a table by the window and it was lovely.

Then we were off to Lure Fish Bar (Prince @ Mercer).  Obviously we ordered a Bloody Mary, as well as some sake, to accompany an array of sushi and sashimi.  Everything was great, especially the toro and kanpachi!

 

Between the oysters, egg toasts and sushi, clearly we had worked up a sweet tooth, so we stopped into Kee's (Thompson @ Spring) for some coconut and rosewater macarons and champagne and tiramisu truffles.  Then we paused briefly in Walker's (North Moore @ Varick) to share a beer, before heading to Turks & Frogs Tribeca (Greenwich St @ Desbrosses) for wine and a snack (Sigara Boregi - Phyllo scrolls stuffed with Turkish feta, cooked till golden brown).

All of this leading up to a girlfriend's Mexican-themed house warming party in Tribeca.  What an amazing Saturday!  Oink oink!