Brunching in the Hands of Fate By, Lisa

Well… I have good news and I have bad news.  The good news is that I’ve spent the last few days cooking, going to restaurants and taking pictures for your reading/viewing pleasure.  I’d planned to post FOUR times tonight so that you’d have several wondrous adventures to read about come Monday morning.

The bad news is that my computer died (it’s not entirely unfixable, but it’s certainly not going to be working tonight), thus I have no access to the beautiful pictures that should accompany my posts.

Lucky for all of us, my roommate has a computer and I can re-upload the pictures that are still in Ricky’s camera, but that means we can only access pictures from my most recent outing. So we’ll have to survive with just this one Sunday night post for now, but I promise to work hard to get my computer up and running so that I can share my weekend eating tales with you sometime soon.

So let’s get on with the show…

Today my Sunday brunch friends and I had originally planned to go to the Sunburnt Cow on the lower east side (highly recommended by all), but instead of their regular menu, today they were having a special barbecue.  We opted not to participate in that due to the non-brunchy nature of it and the 450°/99% humidity weather.  Fate pointed us instead to Three of Cups – just blocks away at 5^th St. and 1^st Ave.

 

The Three of Cups card in the world of Tarot signifies feeling exhuberant, enjoying friendship and valuing community (no, I didn’t know that.  I just looked it up), and I would say that the restaurant Three of Cups hits that nail on the head. 

After about ten minutes of enjoying our friendship and valuing the community at our table (and some forceful prompting from Annette), the waiter brought us our menus.  The first thing we all noticed was a brunch special that included TWO mimosas or Bloody Mary’s AND coffee or tea with your choice of one of thirteen egg/french toast-type menu items.  All of that food and drink was offered for the bargain price of $11-13, depending on your order.  I believe all ten of us opted for that combo deal, as it’s clearly too good to pass up (I think this was the point at which we felt the most exhuberant).

Look at the delicious beverage choices – how could we say no?

 

I opted for the Bloody Mary, which was a little watery, but was easily improved with the addition of some pepper and Tabasco sauce.

My choice for the main course was the “Ouva Al Omelet Alla Florentine” which was stuffed with spinach, onions and ricotta.

Overall I enjoyed the meal – I’d never had ricotta in Eggs Florentine and I think it was a positive change of pace.

The other most popular choices at the table were the “Benedict Alla Tre Di Cuppa” (basically Eggs Benedict on foccacia with roasted red pepper hollandaise sauce) and the “Polenta D’Amore” (poached eggs served on polenta with sautéed peppers, onions and Italian sausage). 

Here is Annette looking beautiful with her Benedict:

 

She was pleased with it for the most part, but her eggs were over-poached (ick):

 

Here are Adam and Kate modeling the Polenta D’Amore (no no, NOT the A.G. Adam – I have another friend Adam. I know it’s confusing, but I promise Adam the A.G. will be back soon and we won’t have issues like this anymore):

 

Unfortunately, Adam and the others who chose this dish did not feel much amore for it. They said the polenta was too mushy and it just wasn’t what they were expecting. 

I realize that doesn’t sound like the greatest experience, but the Three of Cups tarot card never indicates a phenomenal meal.  That’s not what this place is about.  The service was notably slow, even though there were only three other occupied tables in the restaurant.  The hostess/bartender/water refiller seemed crazy and was caught talking to herself on multiple occasions.  The food was decent, though definitely nothing to write home about.  BUT, the brunch special was definitely a good deal, and the restaurant was cozy and easily accomodated a party of ten.  The food wasn’t exceptional, but it fit in well with the laid back, homey feeling of the restaurant. 

So as long as you enjoy the people you’re brunching with and don’t mind lingering for a while over your brunch special beverages, I’d say Three of Cups is a good choice.  Just beware of the Polenta D’Amore.  You should never trust anything that throws out words like "amore" when you’ve only just met anyway.