One of My Favorites: Brunch at Morandi

I will admit that I don’t tend to get as excited about brunch as the next person.  Once in a while though, I do love brunch on the side walk under the awning of Morandi.  The rustic tables are so inviting and it reminds me the tiniest bit of Paris in the middle of Manhattan.  Well, if they spoke Italian in Paris that is and served dishes from an Italian trattoria.

This Saturday, I was in that mood again and was glad that JL called.  We found a table right at the edge of the awning, half of the table basting in the early afternoon sun.  Some of my favorite dishes at Morandi plus a little something sweet for us both.

A focaccia “occhio di bue” with sunny-side up eggs, pancetta and pecorino for JL.  The pecorino and pancetta gave the crispy, slightly charred focaccia flat bread a subtle salty bite.  The eggs gave the flat bread that brunch feel and a little more body.  This was my first, always will be, favorite here.

It’s so hard to play favorites but I do just love the uova in camicia a smidgen more.  The two perfectly runny poached eggs sat on top of a bowl of artichoke hearts, fava beans and sweet peas.  Each forkful had a bite with just the right amount of all the fresh vegetables and the egg, tasting of spring and sunshine.

Even though I always go for the eggs at brunch, I secretly wish that it is acceptable to get both sweet and savory dishes.  Even splitting a sweet brunch dish feels somewhat of an indulgence but no matter, we went ahead anyways – just to enjoy the view from our seats a little more.  The fazzoletti di ricotta, a warm crepe with lemon ricotta and strawberries, was bursting at the seams.

I alternated bites of uova in camicia  and the crepe, sipping on my Stumptown drip.  Dishes that are just the slightest bit non-conventional (by normal brunch standards) and a surrounding that transports you to another locale, this is definitely one of my favorite brunch spots in the city.  And given the steady stream of people filing in way even as we were finishing up, I would say that they agree with me.

Morandi | 211 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10014 | http://www.morandiny.com