One of our favorite spots for a lazy sunday brunch is Public on Elizabeth Street in Nolita. We like to leave the apartment around 10 minutes before noon—this way we get there just after the dining room is full but before the first table turnover, so we can beat the wait times.
We love to spend our brief wait (typically 15 minutes or less) reading through the Sunday New York Times in their cozy sitting room, adjacent to the bar. Their dining room is flooded with natural light and refreshing to be in, especially compared to some of the small, cavernous restaurants in the city. However, most of the time, if we’re lucky, they seat us out on the terrace.
We are also quite fond of Public because of their prix fixe brunch, which includes coffee or tea, a brunch cocktail and a brunch entrée.
The menu is small, but each dish is so good (they are Michelin-starred, after all), that you can’t really go wrong. We are particularly fond of the tea-smoked salmon, spinach and poached eggs on toasted sourdough with yuzu hollandaise and the grilled venison burger on a miso bun with tomato chili jam and cassava chips. Although, today, a new addition caught our eyes:
On the left are Ryan’s black pudding waffles with red wine poached pears and whipped foie gras butter. The waffles were slightly savory, but still maintained plenty of sweetness, complimented by the creamy fattiness of the whipped foie gras. The ruby-tinged pears were ripe with cherry notes from the wine and almost seemed as though they had been macerated in sherry rather than red wine.
It seems as though we’ve found a new favorite dish—the perfect marriage of breakfast sweet and lunch savory. And isn’t that the true definition of brunch?
We wish you a very happy Mother’s Day to you and yours!
– Laura and Ryan
Smith & Ratliff 