American Traveler

Lobster, Crabcakes, and More…

What great way to start a long weekend in the Hamptons. Happy Hour at the Palm features their bar bites at a super reduced price of $4.50 each, and a buck and half for oysters. And so the two of us were able to enjoy lobster roll sliders, mini crabcakes, oysters, shrimp and a couple of glasses of Reisling for about $50.

I am happy to report that the Age of Brunch is over. Oh, all the folks blithely enjoying their weekend mimosas and Eggs Benedict think that brunch will always be in fashion. After all, it has been more than 100 years since Punch magazine declared in 1896, “to be fashionable now, we must brunch.”

And brunch we do. From sunup to sundown every weekend in New York and cities across America people are going out to brunch. They’re engaging in it, and enjoying it, but can someone please tell me exactly what the heck brunch is?

The simple answer, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is that brunch is a combination of breakfast and lunch. The OED informs us that the word itself was coined by a Mr. Guy Beringer in Hunter’s Weekly in 1895.

But neither Mr. Beringer nor the OED really explains what makes brunch, brunch—as distinct from breakfast or lunch. Is it the food? It’s not the food. Eggs, for example, a brunch staple, are also breakfast food. They are prepared for brunch exactly the same way as for breakfast. Brunch favorites burgers and salads are also served at lunch and dinner. If brunch were a true combination of breakfast and lunch it would combine the dishes as well, e.g. eggs with hamburgers. In fact that is a dish I’ve enjoyed, a regional Rhode island specialty hamburger patty with a fried egg on top. But I ate those on my half-hour lunch break in the Ocean State. That clearly was not brunch because I was on deadline. I had a schedule, I had somewhere to be after I ate, unlike brunch, which is a meal that, in theory, can stretch to infinity—or at least Monday morning. Is it the time? Yes, it’s the time, to a certain extent. Brunch is characterized by a sense of leisure.

Yes, it has to be on the weekend—Saturday or Sunday with a long day and lazy evening stretching out in front of you.

As a boy, growing up on a farm, those long lazy days were non-existent. Even on weekends, there was always work to get back to. So you can understand my bafflement about brunch.

I’m quite sure my Dad, a lifelong farmer, never ate brunch. He probably never spoke the word “brunch”. That’s not to say he wouldn’t like brunch. He would appreciate any excuse to eat. On the farm, my father routinely ate a second breakfast around 10:00 am. As I recall, it was pretty much the same as the first breakfast (or as he called it “breffist”): peanut butter on white bread, folded, dunked in his coffee. Now, you probably won’t find peanut butter on the brunch menu, unless it’s tucked into a crepe or incorporated into some brunch dessert

So does the eater define brunch? To a degree.

My father was a real man. I believe that a regular guy like him, couldn’t care less about brunch. If he’s at brunch, Nine times out of ten he’s there because his girlfriend suggested it. However, he does like the idea of having permission to start drinking in the morning. If that requires ordering a hamburger and calling it brunch. So be it. Girls like brunch. Guys will do what girls like. Straight guys do anyway. And gay guys just plain like brunch.

So just because I am a brunch idiot why do I posit that brunch has reached the apex of its ascendency?

Go to the epicenter of the brunch world, the restaurant Pastis in the Meat Packing District of New York. If brunch wasn’t invented there, it should have been. And you will suppose, from the long lines and the high prices that brunch has never been more popular. Folks will wait for hours for the privilege for paying seventeen bucks for a couple of eggs—the very same eggs that are eleven dollars during the week. That’s a six dollar surcharge for the privilege of calling them brunch. You’ll find l’oeufs on the brunch menu at Pastis. As well as their salades and garnitures. But you won’t find the French word for brunch. Why? There is not French word for brunch. The French do not need a magic work to justify spending all day in a café eating and drinking.

But look around at the outskirts outer reaches of Brunchville and there are signs of unrest. There’s something brewing besides coffee—and that something is trouble. First there was Permanent Brunch, a restaurant in the Lower East Side that promised brunch all day, every day. It seemed like a sure thing. It shuttered soon after opening. Why? Once you experience brunch on a Tuesday at 6:00 pm you realize it’s not so special anymore. It’s not hard to figure out that anything permanent cannot be special. (See marriage.)

But a worse sign of the coming brunch apocalypse is offered by Meat Hook Butcher shop in Williamsburg, Fitting, that the home of the hipster is also home to the first ironic brunch. At the Meat Hook they’ve set up a single table in front of the counter and for $50 a head, guests get to enjoy a “tasting menu” that might include a slice of leftover pizza with Miller High Life, saltines with chocolate and coffee, schnapps and beef jerky followed by lentil soup.

Well, it does meet the main criteria of brunch: alcohol. Plenty of it. But seems to me that once brunch becomes ironic, it’s days are numbered.

So if you’ll excuse me, it’s the weekend, and I’m going out for a late morning meal. I’m in the vanguard of the next fashionable thing. Eggs over easy, home fries and bacon. And a big mug of coffee. I’m calling it breffist.

John Leguizamo does it again with his electric one-man show at the Lyceum. For more than 2 hours he prances, dances, and rules the stage, holding the audience totally rapt with his funny, exuberant, poignant stories. He even throws in a hilarious Al Pacino impression. IN rat-tat-tat style he chronicles the ups and downs of his career and personal life. I didn’t cry, but i laughed out loud at his family portrayals. What energy! What smarts! Go see it before it closes in July.

We’re so glad that Turtle Crossing in East Hampton has reopened for the season. and not just reopened but with a refurbished interior, and a new menu. No, don’t worry, they still serve those fabulous wings. We had an order along with their new unbelievably addictive Shrimp Tickles and sweet and juicy pulled chicken sliders. What a pleasant way to spend and hour or two, sitting at a picnic table and enjoying great food. Oh, their wide list as long and deep too!
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P1010146, a photo by wjsvt on Flickr.

Looming over the landscape like an otherworldly spaceship, this dome, designed by Fuller also stops traffic in the midst of this lush garden populated by works of art by Yoko Ono, Chihuly, Roy Lichtenstein, and many more. Fuller’s plan was to fit the dome out as a residence and have someone live their for a year and document the experience, by local zoning lawns blocked the project.

Table of Distances in Saratoga County., a photo by New York Public Library on Flickr.

Here’s a map of the town of Ballston in Saratoga County. up in the right hand corner you’ll see the Village of Ballston Spa, former location of Schultz’s V Corners Farm. That’s where my father built and ran a farm, greenhouse, market until he died in 1983.

Weiner Schnitzel, a photo by wjsvt on Flickr.

Yum! Lunch at Borschadt in Berlin. It was our first day. The weather was beautiful and we ate on the terrace. Lauren enjoyed the fruit de mer.

Our first stop in Berlin was the World Clock, just outside our hotel, the Park Inn

The Park Inn looms over the Alexanderplatz in what was once East Berlin. This is no quaint old town square. Instead, it is crammed with “modern” soviet-style buildings, mostly marred by construction. The Park Inn is a 20-something story monolith, hard up against the TV tower. The lobby is like a mall. Our room was nothing special—clean, large enough, totally adequate. But the breakfast? OMG!!! Included in our nightly rate was a breakfast buffet that blows away any we have seen. Scrambled eggs, soft-boiled eggs, fried eggs, bacon, sausage. That was just the first table. there was an entire table of sliced meat: salami, liverwurst, thuringer, ham. another table of sliced cheese. Christ, there was even salmon with all kinds of sauces. Croissants, jams, fresh fruit, cereal, dried fruit. We totally pigged out.

What $16 Gets You at Rowdy Hall

I’m thinking that Rowdy Hall’s half an acorn squash stuffed with spinach is a bit pricey at 16 bucks. Agree?

Next stop: Nick and Toni’s.

New Year’s Eve 2010: Early dinner at Nick and Toni’s. Started with cocktails, of course. A hot pepper infused vodka martini for Lauren and for me, a Rosemary’s Baby—organic gin with homemade limoncello and rosemary. Delicious! Lauren had a wild mushroom and frisee salad which she loved. I chose the warm cauliflower salad which blew me away. Cauliflower was al dente and perfectly cooked. They snuck some bacon in there too. Main course, whole branzio stuffed with citrus for her. Osso Bucco for me. Lauren finished hers down to the eyeballs. Me? I couldn’t get through mine. Too much moist tender, delicious meat.

Reasons why this hotel is so inexpensive

As much as we enjoyed our Thanksgiving stay at the Gideon Putnam, we couldn’t couldn’t resist the $75 a night rate at the downtown Hilton in Saratoga. Really, how could you pass it up? The place, attached to the under-construction City Center is huge. The lobby is refined, large… and empty. There’s no restaurant, bar, coffee shop, just the front desk and a small gift shop. Room service is provided by the Old Bryan Inn, across the parking lot. You can get a cup of coffee in the gift shop. On our first visit they nice lady behind the counter told us that they serve “delicious breakfast sandwiches in the morning.” We had a gift basket of muffins, so i eschewed the delicious sandwiches the first day and the second. The third i decided to give them a try. but when i arrived i didn’t see any sandwiches so i decided on a banana and a coffee instead. Charge? $5.00. What?! How much is the banana? $2.50. Well, needless to say, i made the poor fellow behind the counter refund the charge and left him with the banana.

The final morning i decided i wasn’t going to leave without enjoying one of their delicious breakfast sandwiches, so around 10:00 i meandered down and asked for one at the gift shop. Easy, the counter lady pulled a box of Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen breakfast sandwiches from teh freezer and popped one in the microwave. Voila! I took one bite and tossed it in the trash.

But the room was nice. The pool water temperature was 86 degrees. And parking was free.