Spicy Bloody Mary

The big news in my life these days is that I’m leaving New York… temporarily anyway (more on that in upcoming posts). My lease ended on Saturday so I had to be out by then but because I’m not leaving the city until Wednesday, my friends in Astoria were kind enough to put me up for a few days.

After a day of moving out of my apartment and into a storage unit in Brooklyn, then trekking out to Queens, all while trying to mentally prepare for living in a new city and having my boyfriend be in a different continent, I was more than ready for the Bloody Mary coming my way. (Make that plural.) And of course the food.

DiWine, where our gracious hosts took us on Sunday morning, was more than I could’ve asked for. While I would’ve been happy with plain ol’ mimosas and omelettes, everything here was a little bit cooler, a little more jazzed up. And the drinks endless, like they should be.

Before any food decisions were made, I ordered the first of several drinks, a Bloody Mary. Nice presentation, good consistency (not too soupy but not watered down either), little kick of spiciness— ah, to start all Sundays like this.

From there we all got to eating and I started to think Astoria was a pretty cool place. Flaneur’s plate alone was enough to convert me, and after a few bites of his banana bread french toast, I started to think that maybe that 20 minute subway ride into the city wouldn’t be so bad if I could eat this every weekend. When it first came, it looked like a row of brownies but upon closer inspection, they definitely were fat squares of sweet, moist banana bread, lightly battered and fried into french toast. Maple roasted bananas and tart strawberry slices added even more fresh fruit flavor and with a dollop of crème fraiche and a rammekin of thick maple syrup this was possibly my favorite french toast variation.

Banana bread french toast

Since Flaneur went with the sweets, I opted for savory and went with the poached eggs and salmon. Two potato cakes topped with poached eggs covered in a creamy hollandaise sauce and then all of it topped with thinly slice cured salmon… in a word: delicious. And just to make me feel like less of a glutton, a nice little arugula salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Who’s guilty about pigging out at brunch? Certainly not this girl.

Poached eggs and salmon

The direct route into my heart is definitely through my stomach and after this brunch, Astoria definitely found a spot there.