Murray’s Cheese Bar
Stumptown Cold Brew
Ham and Brie French Toast
The Weekender – VBC Chevre with Honey, Green Hill with Preserves, Prairie Breeze Cheddar with Apple. Bread and Multigrain Crisps
On one hand, Murray’s cheeses are generally excellent and the new “Cheese Bar” is one of those rare places in New York that actually take reservations for brunch and yet on the other hand, what good is a reservation when the place is so crowded that the customer cannot be seated on time, so warm that it is uncomfortable, so loud that you cannot hear your friends…and so unprepared as to have run out of not only specials, but menu items an hour before the end of service? Perhaps all of this would have been a bit more tolerable had the French Toast been truly exceptional, but using dense unleavened bread left me unimpressed no matter how good the cheese; something my server clearly must have noticed as a young woman named Julia appeared at the end of the meal with The Weekender ‘compliments of the chef’ – a nice gesture, particularly considering the quality of the Prairie Breeze.
