Smorgasboard @ Stanton Social & Some Really Good Nuts

My favorite neighborhood in New York is the East Village, which might have to do with my general East side pride (Plano East, hollah!). 

So when my old roommate asked me to decide our brunch destination, the likely choice was The Stanton Social for a few reasons:
1. They take reservations for brunch via Opentable (a godsend in a brunch-crazy place like NYC)
2. They offer brunch tapas. 
3. Did you read number 2?  Do you really need a third reason??

So Stanton Social it was.
The restaurant is on a cute strip of Stanton St enmeshed by clothing boutiques and vintage shops.  Inside, the restaurant was nicely decorated in dark woods, high ceilings, grand light fixtures and adorable, round cloth-covered booths. 

The friendly waitress explained to us how tapas worked (I do enjoy listening to people explain things that I already know), recommended we order 4-6 plates for sharing and let us browse the menu offerings.

The menu selection was extensive including a variety of baby benedicts (seriously the cutest menu item I have ever heard), breakfast sliders on biscuits, pancakes, chicken and waffles and fresh doughnuts in caramel sauce.  Seriously.  A menu item for everyone !

We opted for:
1. Warm Banana Walnut Bread with cinnamon butter
2. Caramelized Banana Pancakes, candied pecans, vanilla brown butter & maple syrup
3. Stanton Social Slider, double smoked bacon, egg and cheese on a buttermilk biscuit
4. Breakfast Bruschetta, soft scrambled eggs, ovendried tomatoes & asiago on warm crusty bread

Here is the parade of items ! 

The banana bread was not that warm, but had distinct banana flavor (yum!) and lots of walnuts.  The cinnamon butter was nice and soft; I slathered it on my slices but could not discern the cinnamon flavor.  Still.  Butter on banana bread is hard to beat.

The banana pancakes were so adorable and looked as fluffy as my beloved at Clinton St.  Though they were not Clinton-St-dreamy, they still tasted pretty good.  The bananas were hot, tucked between the light, doughy layers, and the candied pecans were sweet and crunchy.  I soaked up the maple syrup with each layer and ate these quickly. 

The slider !  The size of a baseball.  A soft, delicious, buttery baseball.  The plentiful bacon was thick and flavorful; the eggs nice and light.   The biscuit was extremely soft, crumbling with each bite, but nothing a little fork action couldn't clean up.

I had convinced my roommate to get the breakfast bruschetta because I found it so intriguing.  Bruschetta !  For breakfast !  It was actually a great combination.  The tomatoes, tart and tasty, were diced into tiny bits and blanketed by more light eggs.  After eating this bruschetta, I think I might start ovendrying tomatoes myself! 

Then when we thought we were done, my roommate's friend stopped by and ordered a few more items !
He ordered:
1. Ricotta fritters with raspberry jam
2. Grilled cheese, Jasper Hill Farms cheddar, house cured jalapeno bacon, fried green tomato and lemon aioli
3. Kobe beef burger

The boy kind of demolished the Kobe beef burger before I snapped a shot, but here's some bonus shots for your hungry eye:

I liked the ricotta fritters a lot more than I thought I would, including the raspberry jam!  Extremely light and and airy.

Grilled cheese beauty accompanied by

House made potato chips.  I stole a couple of these, and they tasted vaguely like sour cream and onion.  In other words, they tasted like love (yuuum).

All in all, cannot wait to go back to try their highly praised warm doughnuts with caramel along with the baby benedicts !  Sigh.  So much to eat and so little time !!

Oh.  And for no explicable reason, here is a picture of some complimentary nuts I later ate at Faustina, at the Cooper Square Hotel, a glassy, architectural delight.  The cocktails may set you back $12, but the investment may be worth it as they are accompanied by slightly sweetened nuts packing a fairly spicy chili-powderesque punch.

The Stanton Social

99 Stanton Street

New York, NY 10002

Faustina

25 Cooper Square

New York, NY 10003