Add This Spot To Your Brunch Rotation
When Kristen was in town for a girls weekend a couple weeks ago, in addition to the cookie class we took, we also grabbed brunch at Beauty and Essex on the Lower East Side. We always enjoy this spot, but for some reason we rarely make it there. It’s a bit of a speakeasy vibe, with the entrance off the street posing as a pawn shop. The Beauty and Essex sign is outside on the building though, so it’s not one of those speakeasys that you have to know is there. When you walk through the back door of the pawn shop into the restaurant you arrive at the foot of a grand staircase and sky high ceilings. I think this space used to be a furniture store back in the day, which is interesting because it mostly feels like a mansion that the Vanderbilt’s would have lived in.
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After settling into our booth and perusing the menu we decided to order a bunch of small plates to share. In our opinion this is the best way to go here. Your server can guide you, but they are always very good at making suggestions and pairing things you order to come out in a staggered fashion that makes sense. They portion everything out to accommodate the number of people sharing- so since there were 3 of us there were three portions on every plate.
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We ordered 5 different things and they came out in 3 courses. Our first course was avocado on toast and everything seasoning biscuits. Those. Biscuits. Literally one of my favorite things I’ve ever eaten. Such a good idea that I think would be easy to replicate at home with TJ’s everything but the bagel seasoning.
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Our second course was eggs benedict and spicy chicken sliders and then we ended with the red velvet waffles. We didn’t want to overeat because our next couple stops of the day involved food, but we definitely left feeling full and satisfied.
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This is random, but the bathroom is actually really unique so make sure you pop in there before you leave for a quick mirror selfie with your squad. I love all of the old empty perfume bottles they use as decoration.
Beauty and Essex needs to be added to your NYC brunch rotation. FYI they also take reservations which isn’t super common for brunch in the city.
-Ash
P.S. You may also like our round up of the best NYC restaurants for first-timers, our NYC brunch spot round up, our favorite coffee shops in NYC, or how to eat your way through NYC in a weekend.