THE PRICE HIKE

baddeal:

Andrew Carmellini, the guy behind The Dutch and Locanda Verde, has a clever little cookbook called “American Flavor.” In it, he has some choice words about the vile phenomenon known as BRUNCH:

• “There’s a famous t-shirt that reads “BRUNCH IS FOR [EXPLETIVE THAT STARTS WITH A]HOLES.” Lots of times, it’s easy to see why a person might want a shirt like that: in my experience, brunch can mean long waits, lousy service from hungover waiters, cold rubbery eggs, undercooked pancakes, and bad coffee. I always said that if I ever did brunch in one of my restaurants, it would be game-changing.”

I’ve been one of those bleary-eyed waiters at brunch, with last-night’s-bachelor- party-Bacardi-151 eating through my stomach lining at 8:30am while I brought customers cream chipped beef. Who eats cream chipped beef? Not me. 

Anyway, that was back in 2002, and I can count on two hands the number of times I’ve enjoyed brunch in the 10 years that have followed. One of those rare exceptions was at Carmellini’s Locanda Verde in 2009. Lemon ricotta pancakes with meyer lemon curds were involved. Dude got it right. 

Read More