Monica & Jonathan: brunch in Brooklyn.

Egg. This jamming "#1" Brooklyn brunch joint was spot on. The only downside (and it's a biggie, possibly a deal-breaker), is the wait. Jon and I fell upon it while exploring Brooklyn one Sunday when I was last in NY .I plopped down on the bench outside next to a couple from Toronto who announced to me that they were "foodies" that come to New York "alllllllllll the time" (mazel tov guys), and that they did their brunch research, and that finding myself at this little joint by chance was my lucky day. Then they told me they had been waiting for an hour and a half (not angrily I might add). What? No caps lock, no bold and no font size could ever explain how outrageous I find that. I did however, store that little snippit of info to use as ammo for the next time Eric complained about a 15 minute lineup at Beautys. Let me just say, I would never wait for 1.5 hours to eat brunch.

Anyways, Jon put our names down, and within 30 seconds, the lovely (but insane) Torontonians said "ta-ta" and strutted in for their long awaited table. Two minutes pass. Next up, the hostess calls out "Monica, for 4?".... no reply. Again, "Monica for 4?".... Silence. I looked around, and then something came over me. I stood up, without thinking, and said "yes, that's me - but now we're two". The hostess grabbed two menus and told me to follow her in. Look out Toronto, I'm doing the strutting now. If you're keeping score - that's 6 minutes from approach to seated. As we breezed past TO's table, I literally (I mean it), lowered my sunglasses and winked at them. It was an out of body experience. I don't think I have ever lowered my sunglasses, or winked at anyone, ever.

After a few solid minutes of nervous excitement, waiting and imagining the hostess walking up with the real Monica in tow, to boot my sorry ass out onto the curb, my hip-hopping stomach calmed down, and brunch happened.

First up, personal french-press coffee units arrive at the table along with 2 mini warm, light and delicious munchkin/timbit puffs: A great start. 500 points for Egg.

I ordered Eggs Rothko. What you're looking at is two eggs, easy-cooked in two slices of homemade multigrain bread (supposed to be brioche, but I asked for a healthy choice), topped with melted vermont cheddar. Perfectly cooked egg (loose yolk, and tight whites), soft amazing grainy bread, and melted oozing cheese. Wow. The broiled tomato on the plate was bold and flavourful, a nice change from the usual cold, fresh tomato slices, and the well done bacon....well done! A hash brown tater totter went whizzing by, and I knew I needed to have one. Salty, crunchy fried exterior and fresh, soft, hot interior... another 500 points right there.

Egg gets an A+ in my books. No complaints, really. But would I wait an hour and a half for that meal? Absolutely not. 20 minutes would be where I time-out. Or if it was summer, as long as it takes to have a coffee and read the paper in the sun.

Stanton Social in the lower east side is about 1000 times better and the food more creative, and they take resi's ( I am going to blog about them soon, as soon as I can get there and take some proper photos). Anyways, if you happen to be in hipster happening Brooklyn and there's no insane lineup, Egg is a great call. Check out these photos of the hipster nerd types waiting in line.