"SATURDAY BRUNCHES ARE the new Friday nights.”
That’s how one New York restaurateur put it. Meatpacking District hotspots Merkato 55 (now Le 55) and Bagatelle hit it big with their extravagant Saturday brunches.The venues, profiled in the New York Times, added nightclub DJs and dancing to the traditional mid-morning meal. They then—recession be damned—doused their daytime parties in lavishness.
The expensive daytime excess of the Meatpacking scene—$750 magnums of champagne, as much as $20,000 spent at a table—is gluttony that would give Marie Antoinette pause, but some city venues, many within the past few weeks, have stripped away the ostentation and high cost of the party brunch and added their own flavor.
In Greenpoint, “The Lean” brunch at the Red Star Bar (37 Greenpoint Ave., at West St., Brooklyn, www.redstarny.com), started a few weeks ago. Beginning at noon on Sundays and going as late as 7:30, patrons work through French toast, bloody Marys and other brunch fare while nightclub DJs play thumping house music. “The Lean” is a lot tamer than its Meatpacking forerunners, with people bobbing their heads to the music rather than dancing on the tables. The prices are much tamer as well, with two mimosas-for-$7 specials, instead of exorbitantly priced alcohol.
“They don’t have to go crazy with spending like in Manhattan,” Red Star executive chef John Manzo says.
The relaxed atmosphere in Greenpoint gives the DJs, hung over from work the night before, a chance to play stuff that would never fly in a club. Two weeks ago, the DJ Dances with White Girls threw on some Santana and R&B while former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke lounged in the back of the room. Matt Safer, from post-punk band The Rapture, has DJed there, and glob-trotting DJ Lauren Flax, another Lean regular, is comfortable playing George Michael on Sunday afternoons.
A few blocks away in Williamsburg, My Moon (184 N. 10thSt., at Driggs Ave., Brooklyn, www.mymoonnyc.com) just opened its “Billyburg” party brunch on May 31.The My Moon brunch also brings in house music DJs, including Alex English, though it’s a bit more expensive than Red Star. The larger brunch is outside, and the drinks of choice are pitchers of margaritas, mojitos or sangria instead of mimosas and bloody Marys.
The Brooklyn venues are more than the Bagatelle model with a lowered price. Le 55 and Bagatelle are about consuming as conspicuously as possible; going to Red Star or My Moon will actually be an enjoyable afternoon.
Other venues have taken the idea of a party brunch and completely transformed it, going from brunch and a nightclub to brunch and a show. (le) poisson rouge (158 Bleecker St., betw. Thompson & Sullivan Sts., www.lepoissonrouge.com) is going to start up a monthly “Radio Happy Hour” this coming Saturday.The music and art venue is bringing in special hosts for the hour-long comedy/music variety show that will run while the audience brunches.
Dave Handler, co-founder of the club, labels his brunch “our alcohol and food infused homage to old time radio drama.” So you can enjoy entertainment just like grandpa and grandma used to love, except you’ll be drunk by 3 in the afternoon.
Norah Jones is slated to host the inaugural Radio Happy Hour on June 13, and comedian Michael Showalter and rocker Andrew WK are taking the stage later this summer. The show is cheap, and all dishes under $10. So if you exercise a little nutritional restraint (probably not happening, but whatever), you’ll get brunch with a side of culture for cheap.
A bit farther downtown, Michael Dorf’s City Winery (155 Varick St., at Vandam St., www.citywinery.com)—which hosts evening events with artists like Joseph Arthur, Rufus Wainwright and Leo Kottke—also recently started a brunch event, playing Klezmer, traditional Yiddish music, on Sundays.
“It’s the full gamut of Klezmer,” says Dorf—or at least as much of a gamut as there is in Klezmer.
While the Brooklyn, Klezmer and variety brunches show no sign of slowing down, there’s a chance the whole concept will get cold faster than a plate of eggs Florentine. Nero, an Italian place near Bagatelle, tried to get a party brunch going, but the feeble attempt folded after a couple of months.
“Everyone in the area is trying to do it,” said a restaurateur, explaining Nero’s failure. None of the new party brunch hosts interviewed realized that similar events are popping up around the city, so the parties could crowd each other out. In the meantime, these venues all offer a damn good way to while away a weekend afternoon for the non-Bagatelle crowd: that is, those of us who aren’t I-bankers or their Xanax-popping girlfriends.
Let them eat pancakes! Party brunch is back, these folks are not.
