Weekend brunch is a highly coveted activity for many New Yorkers. Thus, it is not uncommon to walk down any street in Manhattan on Saturday or Sunday afternoon with every Brunch spot packed to the brim. It is uncommon, however, to wait several hours for a table at the brunch spot of your choice—in my case it was Clinton Street Baking Company. I finally convinced InterSportsWriter to come down to the Lower East Side and meet me for a taste of their infamous pancakes only to learn the wait time was over 2 hours.
With his passport in hand (being from the Upper West Side), we walked 2 blocks south to Schiller’s Liquor Bar, owned by the same people as Pastis and Balthazar. The restaurant was nearing capacity when we arrived, but we had no trouble obtaining a table.
For our meals, we ordered the gorgonzola omelet w/ home potatoes and a sour cream & hazelnut waffle topped w/mixed berries.
The omelet was amazing (as many things with blue cheese usually are); the waffle, however, left me confused. There was no sour cream to speak of, and it was not until InterSportsWriter dissected it that the hazelnuts clumped together in the middle made themselves known. The maple syrup is made with bourbon, adding a nice change of pace to an otherwise standard waffle.
Overall, I was pleased. It’s hard to go wrong with an omelet featuring gorgonzola cheese as the main attraction or a waffle with alcoholic syrup for that matter.
One last thing worth nothing about Schiller’s Liquor Bar is the bathroom. It features a large communal wash basin reminiscent of a 50’s diner, which is probably what the owners intended.
Of the three, I still prefer Meatpacking’s Pastis, but Schiller’s is not a bad second.DAMAGE ~ $30
VERDICT: Go
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