Rosé Filled Summer Brunch at Amali

The Mediterranean diet, which places an emphasis on vegetables, olive oil, cheese, grains, and fish, served as the inspiration for Amali. Its name is taken from a Turkish phrase that refers to the similarity of the regions west of Istanbul. Amali's dedication to sustainability is exceptional for the Midtown East neighborhood in which it is located and has won praise from the Obama White House, Slow Food Society, New York Times, and James Beard House. Since 2011, Amali has led the way in introducing customers to Greek wine, female winemakers, and the biodynamic/organic/vin natural wine movement.

With a "New York City spin," the meal at Amali pays homage to the rich historical traditions that contemporary Greece, Italy, France, Israel, and Spain share. At Amali, the trip starts with mouthwatering sesame bread with whipped feta butter and continues with fresh pastas, a variety of seafood dishes, including tableside flambéed salt-baked market fish, quinoa-crusted duck, filet mignon, spice-grilled chicken, and more.

With the summer heating up, Amali is helping out with their Summer of Rosé promotion, where diners can purchase half-off bottles of Rosé during brunch now through Labor Day Weekend.

Capacity: Main dining and three private dining rooms offer seating for up to 135 guests.

Days & Hours of Operation: 

Lunch is offered Monday - Friday 12pm - 3pm Brunch Saturday - Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Dinner is offered Sunday - Monday from 5pm - 9:15pm and Tuesday - Saturday, 5pm - 10:30pm 

Instagram Handle: @amalinyc

Gray Hawk Grill

If there’s one thing to thank Gossip Girl for, it’s bringing the Upper East Side back into the limelight. What was previously a haven for wealthy trust fund families is now a trendy new hotspot for young professionals looking to live large à la their favorite Upper East Siders. Our pick if you’re looking to spend time above 60th? The Gray Hawk Grill, a New American restaurant located at 1556 Second Ave that’s the ultimate food stop for anyone looking to eat authentically UES.

 Owned by UES resident and native New Yorker Steve Millan, Gray Hawk Grill is the pinnacle of the classic New York food scene. You won’t find trendy doughnut burgers or copious amounts of cheese here—taste takes precedence over flashy social media food anyday. Instead, get ready to bite into one the best burgers I’ve had in a while: a Double Truffle Burger loaded with delicious truffle aioli and crunchy fried onions. If you’re a truffle lover, this burger is a must-have—along with being slathered in truffle sauce, it comes with a ramekin of even more truffle aioli for dipping your hand cut fries. Not a truffle fan? No worries, there’s plenty more perfectly seasoned dishes to pick from, including a very hollainsidey Eggs Benedict and a first rate Steak & Eggs. 

In addition to being a truffle haven, Gray Hawk Grill is the perfect place for eating through half of the city in a single meal. From Master Purveyors for beef to Orwashers for bread and The Little Pie Company for desserts, all of the ingredients you see are sourced from top-rated New York businesses. The result? A memorable dining experience that’s the finishing touch to a day on the UES.

So if you find yourself around the Met one day, feel free to walk a few avenues over and try out the Gray Hawk Grill. From cocktails to brunch to dessert, it’s the ultimate place to satisfying all your city cravings—and maybe even find some new things to be a fan of. 

Make a reservation for Gray HawK Grill at https://www.grayhawkgrill.com or follow them on Instagram: @Gray_Hawk_Grill Facebook: @GrayHawkGrill Twitter: @GrayHawkGrill. 

Freehold Brunch

The word “brunch” holds a special meaning in the hearts of New Yorkers. Brunch is a weekly tradition for those who live in the city, typically celebrated on Sunday with a good group of friends. There are places all over Manhattan that offer a tasty meal and cocktails to beat the “Sunday scaries.” But head down to Brooklyn and you’ll find  Freehold - the refined yet urban restaurant that can do it all.

This well-rounded restaurant checks most of the boxes one looks for in choosing a place to eat, drink, and have a good time. The Freehold has mastered creating a space that has a unique aesthetic and artistic feel. While the Freehold operates day-to-day as a restaurant, coffee shop, and bar, special events offer live music, dancing, and special performances that transform the space from day to night.  Sundays at the Freehold usually start off quiet as guests gather for brunch and by mid afternoon- the music turns on.

Known for their savory dishes, the Freehold recently unveiled their newest brunch menu.  The selection offers gourmet dishes of both breakfast and lunch favorites such as the “Smoked Salmon Scramble,” cooked over an English muffin; the “Brunch Burger,” a ground patty stacked with Munster cheese, fried egg, and the works, and a simple egg platter, scrambled with meat and made to perfection.  Yummy vegetarian options now include the “Housemade Yogurt”, with berries, granola, and honey, the “Everything Salad”, and a plant-based veggie burger named the “Impossible.”

Also introduced were a range of cocktails perfectly crafted for the afternoon.  The “Dirty Chai” tastes of chai, cinnamon, and tequila. A fruitier choice is the “Bloodhound,”a vodka-based drink disguised with a splash of grapefruit.

To celebrate, The Freehold generously hosted an intimate brunch in their private dining space.  Tables were served courses of each dish, family-style to share and taste throughout the course of the afternoon.  Both the food and cocktails were well received by guests, leaving no plate untouched. Overall, the event was very successful in launching their new menu.

Heading to Brooklyn? Make sure to stop by the Freehold to check out their new menu.  Or make a trip; it will be well worth it. Brunch at the Freehold is served both Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 4pm.

Photos courtesy of FreeHold

Barano: An Argument for Brunch

In his 1999 article, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” Anthony Bourdain breaks down the emotional mechanics of being a restaurant chef. Butter is a cook’s best friend, he reveals, while brunch is a word “dreaded by all dedicated cooks.” Bourdain claims that chefs “despise hollandaise,” along with “home fries, those pathetic fruit garnishes, and all the other cliché accompaniments designed to induce a credulous public into paying $12.95 for two eggs.”

But in the years since Bourdain’s dismissal of brunch as a bastard breakfast, the meal has had a resurgence in popularity. The word ‘brunch’ is now a verb used by both poor college students wishing for an adulthood in which brunch is a regular occurrence, and well paid hipsters reminiscing about their days of student poverty. And while it’s true that it is far too easy to brunch at a place that charges an absurd amount of money for an omelette you could make on a two burner stove, in recent times, there seems to be an increasing amount of innovation within the brunch market -- a suspicion proven true by my recent visit to the nuovo Italian restaurant run by Chef Al Di Meglio: Barano.

Barano is -- there’s no other word for it -- classy. I’ve been to brunches where the sole purpose is to be boozed up by the meal’s end. This is not the case at Barano, where the cocktails serve as a complement to the food. Who knew that homemade, rhubarb pop-tarts would pair so well with mimosas? Eating this dish, I fell into a natural routine: bite of pastry, swig of mimosa, enjoy, repeat.

Other options for Piattini, or small plates, included a house made coconut and cherry granola with sheep’s milk yogurt and honey, Pizza Bianca, and the “Little Gem Lettuce” salad, composed of roasted and raw peaches, Sicilian pistachios, smoked pecorino, and a red wine vinaigrette.

After having our expectations blown away by our first couple of dishes, my friend and I went all out and gobbled up a total of four more entrees from the new brunch menu: an Italian pork sandwich topped with crispy onions, semolina pancakes drizzled in lemon curd, the Benedetto, or poached eggs served in a rosemary biscuit with prosciutto, radicchio, and honey, and an avocado and salmon pizza.

Now, all of these dishes were well crafted, flavorful, and beautiful to look at. But if I had to pick a must try, a top of the pack, a dish above the rest (if only by a few hairs), it would be the Avocado and Salmon Pizza. I don’t like bagel and lox -- there’s something thick, doughy bagels in conjunction with paper thin, slippery salmon that puts me off. But I LOVED this pizza, and so did my friend, who’s normally opposed to fish of any kind. I don’t know what it was -- the toasted sesame seeds? The avocado mascarpone mix? Whatever it was, this pizza beats your standard bagel and lox any day. As an added bonus, the huge pie clocks in at only $18 and can feed two people, which means this dish can officially be added to food under ten dollars that is worth one hundred. An unbelievable bargain.

Barano’s new outdoor patio and extended Brunch service (Friday-Sunday, 11:30-4 p.m), has officially kicked off for the summer season, so be sure to get down there and gorge on all the delicious new dishes they have to offer. For more information (and pictures of Barano’s excellent food), check out their website, http://www.baranobk.com/, and their instagram, @baranobk.

Photos courtesy of BaranoBK