Empire State South

I've been behind on posting (as usual) so I'm trying to catch up.

Today, I went with L+H to Empire State South for brunch. Josh is sick, so he didn't come. What a great meal. I would say this is the best new place I've been to in a long time.

We started off with the jar appetizer that they normally only serve at dinner. It comes with toasty bread, a most delicious duck pate with a maple-sherry jelly, pimento cheese, pork rillettes with a fantastic cucumber and pickled mustardseed topping, and flagolet bean hummus. We can put some food away, but after all this, I felt like I could have stopped and still been happy.

I also got a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and L got the grapefruit juice. Quite worth it at $4 a glass. Mmmm, reminds me of my childhood.

We tried each of the brunch cocktails. The bocce ball was amaretto (too much of it), orange juice, and peach bitters. Too sweet for my taste. There were two flavors of bloody marys, a normal one and a caesary one with clam juice. I couldn't really taste the difference. Both had a good kick at the end. I took the normal which had more horseradish. Quite delicious. And on par with the best I've had.

For mains, we had we had the shrimp n grits which was good, but I have to admit that I like a stronger-flavored shrimp flavor. The grits were delicious. We also got the jalapeno and bacon biscuit which comes with pork confit and poached eggs, hollandaise mousseline. I would have never ordered this myself but oh my god, it was so good.

For dessert, our waiter chose the espresso terrine, which I also would have never tried on my own but it was so so excellent with a nougaty center plus some crunchy pistachios to roll it in and some charred mandarin segments. SO GOOD.

We rounded out the gluttony with a selection of housemade cookies: oreos, a honey-ginger macaroon, and a nutter butter. All tasty, but I'm not much of a cookie person.

My verdict? Awesome! I can't wait to go back. We stole a peek at a dinner menu and I already have some things picked out. :)

In other news, we bought a Big Green Egg. We assembled it and haven't broken it in yet, but I can't wait to. Not sure what I'm going to cook first. They recommended something low and slow.

Also, Bocado has steak tartare now. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but it is AWESOME. Steak tartare is one of the reasons I kept going back to H&F but now I can go to Bocado instead. If only the drinks were better...