Eating On the Sunny Side

by Kaitlin Barthmaier

 

       Talk to me at 7:30 a.m. I won’t say much. In truth, I’m a passionate proponent of excessive pillows and down comforters to get lost in. Here on a particular Sunday I puff fake Z’s, pretending not to have noticed my man awake and stirring. Bypassing sweet-morning-nothings, I wake to his knowing whisper: "Biscuits". I open my eyes and wonder if I may have just fallen in love.

     Ask me how I feel about breakfast, and I will never lie. For a walnut speckled sticky bun bigger than my head, I would rise before the sun. For biscuits, the same. Thus with fuzzy morning-headed dreams of sweet bread and strong coffee, I tear myself from flannel sheets and head down Bedford Avenue to the small weekend Williamsburg, Brooklyn breakfast spot, Egg.

     We come upon Egg, its entrance camoflaged as if it were secret fort. Passing through the subtle, sunken storefront, the simple white-walled, rustically industrial hideout feels surprisingly cozy. Dark wood stripes the ceiling in thick beams and modish metal chairs are tucked beneath tables topped with sweetly sparse flower arrangements. If I can’t be in bed, it’s here that I want to be.

     The menu reads like a hug; comfort food, plentiful in variety from country ham to brioche French toast, dried fruit-sprinkled oatmeal to broiled tomatoes, cheese grits to biscuits and gravy. Ah, there they are. My biscuits. I order them under pork-sausage gravy (appreciating the option of a mushroom version…no one should be deprived of biscuits). My partner chooses eggs sunny-side up with a side of stone-ground grits and candied bacon. Candied bacon? Potentially the stuff of waking dreams.

     Over individual French-presses, we revive sipping nutty, sustainably grown coffee. We scribble stars and doodles in crayon on the paper tablecloth as we wait and I have passing visions we are a tea party for two…Brooklyn-hipster style. 

     Then, the first bites of breakfast. I am happily awake now. The pork sausage has a peppery bite, spicy and rich, not too thick. The biscuits below are moistly crumbly, just buttery enough. The two elements combine into savory symbiosis; I mop the plate. Across the table well-seasoned eggs are disappearing quickly, a hearty, sharp, and creamy serving of cheese grits evaporating alongside. And the local farm-purchased candied bacon, thick, crisp-edged, brilliantly indulgent in the sticky sweetness of its sugary glaze, makes me wish the serving was more than a teasing two slices.

     We leave after paying an affordable $25 tab for two and I’m already buzzing over items I want to try next time: Caramelized grapefruit with mint sounds like fantasy refreshment; homemade fig jam the next great thing for toast. With plans to return next week, I’m bright-eyed and optimistic that with candied bacon and biscuits in the neighborhood, Sunday mornings just may be looking (sunny side) up.

    Egg, 135 North Fifth Street (Bedford Avenue), Williamsburg (718) 302-5151. Dinner, 6 to 10 pm, Thursday through Saturday. Breakfast, Monday through Friday, 7 am to 3 pm, with the lunch menu available from noon until 3. Saturdays and Sundays, breakfast only, 8 am to 2 pm.