General Greene - Fort Greene

Today's expedition was to the General Greene, located at 229 DeKalb, in the heart of a restaurant row of sorts in Fort Greene. The place itself is small but light, bright, and airy with wooden tables and whitewashed walls giving you the feeling you are in a barn or in the country. There's some outdoor seating as well as a small store in the back selling various organic and local treats, which was a nice surprise. Initially, you feel very relaxed....yet for me, that initial feeling soon faded. Here's why:

First the food. I had the Pressed Egg & Gruyere mustard aioli sandwich. It was literally a piece of egg with a little bit of cheese and mustard. Justin put it best when asked to describe the egg ‘ they did whatever they do in McDonalds to make an egg sandwich’. It came on a dark, hearty, multi-grain (perhaps pumpernickel) bread that completely overpowered and overwhelmed the egg and cheese. It was a sandwich of bread, bread, and more bread but not even good bread but hard and overly crummy bread. It supposedly came with a small side salad but in reality, it was a few pieces of lettuce doused in some sort of vinaigrette. Not enjoyable at all. I rather eat McDonalds and I’d save money too.

Justin got a ranchero and pinto bean skillet with Monterey jack, lime sour cream, and cilantro. The eggs were overcooked and smothered in the various sauces. To me, it looked and tasted like a bad child experiment where you just throw tons of stuff into a skillet, bake it, and hope it tastes good.

It was also fairly overpriced with Justin's entree costing $14 and my terrible egg sandwich costing $8 - neither of which came with anything additional. The coffee was $3 though the wait staff did come around often and offer to refill the coffee.

Next the service. We walked in and were immediately offered a table by the door, literally in the doorway. When we declined to take the table, the hostess was sort of shocked. I typically take any table but I really didn't feel like sitting in a doorway with constant traffic coming in and out. We got a table by the window, which was fine before a table of adults, and kids took the longish table next to us. Three 7-10 year old boys at brunch = complete and utter insanity. The boys were constantly fighting, moving seats, and leaving the restaurant. A fun dining atmosphere - note the sarcasm. The adults were very apologetic which I appreciated it but it was a rough dining experience to say the least.

So the General Greene’s brunch is not one that I'd recommend, as there are plenty of good brunch places in this area. Save your money and don't dine with the general.

Soigne - Park Slope

As Easter is apparently the day of brunch - we naturally had to give brunch a try. So we headed down to South Park Slope to try Soigne, a relatively new wine bar and restaurant on 6th Avenue (486 6th Ave to be exact). Off the typical Park Slope brunch path, this was a pleasant surprise.

First, the place is really more restaurant than wine bar – it’s a restaurant with a bar really. It's good sized with outdoor seating and tables for two near the windows with larger tables in the middle and back of the restaurant. It's on the dark side with brown and green decor choices but with great natural light and home-y touches of 1930's art deco mirrors, it is warm, cozy, and bright. As it was Easter and in Park Slope, it had a rather eclectic crowd of young professionals, families, and older adults.

Onto the food, I got a crabcake benedict (jumbo lump crabcake over poached eggs with chive hollandaise sauce) as it sounded delicious and I had not had crab cakes in forever. It came with 2 petite crab cakes with a poach egg on top of each. Just the right size! Deliciously flakey and flavorful. It came with a small vinaigrette salad that was mediocre but it was a good compliment to a sort of heartier breakfast. Justin got a mushroom quiche with some sort of bacon which was also quite good. The menus aren't posted anywhere except literally outside restaurant as they change them quite often to ensure they are in season and using fresh ingredients.

The brunch entrees are between $12-16 but come with free coffee which it makes it alot more reasonable since most brunch places charge between $3-5 for coffee. Overall, a lovely brunch spot with good tasty brunch that I will definitely be returning too!