I tried this new (less than a month) breakfast and lunch (7am-3pm everyday) spot in the old Ash location on Saturday. I needed to knock off one of the two new openings in this category and the other one (Ace) seems to have better hours and parking options, so, it didn't seem like it had to be done on Saturday. This is going to be a long assessment. Not one that I particularly care to craft at this time. However, I'm doing it with the hope that it leads to a turn around. Because the people seem good.
You can break down the menu into two sections. French (more of a Nawlins/Cajun variety if I had to guess) and Brazilian. I erred and frolicked on the Brazilian side because it was "new". I'm glad I'm not a cat because nine lives wouldn't be near enough for my curiosity. I tried the Vatapa (the special) at $14. It was described as a North Brazilian shrimp and rice stew over white rice. Something akin to a Thai or Indian curry dish. I'm not sure if this is what it is supposed to taste like, but, they should leave this dish to the Thai or Indians if it is. This attempt was a mostly tasteless (less coriander), pasty, luke warm brown roux over overcooked and over fluffed, clumpy rice with frozen, supermarket quality, pale, gray shrimp. A small portion at that and served on a paper plate with plastic cutlery! And at $14, it was twice as expensive as the rest of the menu. Boo. The best thing in it was a single pickled spring onion (scallion). Fail number two and three came in the form of empanadas. Another stab at the Brazilian side of the menu. The cost $6 for two. I tried a banana and a barbacoa. The first bite of the banana exposed an unmixed white powder in the dough. There was also some salt there too. WTF. The bananas were devoid of any sweetening and tasted like that. Sour bananas in a greasy envelope. Boo. I had the barbacoa at home and it was tasteless cubes of beef. Too many fat cubes as well. They didn't even flavor the meat. It came with an acceptable chimichurri sauce. Boo. Fail number four was the shashuka I ordered. It is a Middle Eastern dish of poached eggs, preserved lemon, feta in a tomato and pepper and sumac sauce. I was still hungry from the Vatapa fail and I was trying to give them every opportunity because they were offering more than the run of the mill fare. The first mistake was that they somehow thought that I wanted this to go. That meant it became dinner. That probably (at the very least) resulted in the eggs over cooking. I'll grant them that. But, I didn't see any evidence of lemon or feta in the container. Not sure If they forgot or in the case of the lemon that it was too big to make the container. There was also too much sauce. I'm not sure if they drown it when it is served in house, but, they did in the to go order. This was also kind of small portion. Even at a more reasonable $7. Maybe they think the one piece of toast they serve with it satiates the hungriest of customers? It appears that the owner (Brazilian) has a chef that can't handle that side of the menu. I'm ASSUMING he handles the other side. They have to either practice cooking the Brazilian side, drop the Brazilian side or hire a chef that can handle the Brazilian side. I would hate for them to lose this part of their identity. It helps differentiate them. But, it can't be at the expense of everything else.
The other side of the menu is more nouveau and French. You have a benedict and a florentine and an egg sandwich on a croissant and a normal two egg dish and another egg dish (in a crock?) that are a bit French. And two of those "toasts" that are en vogue. An avocado one (of course) and an interesting sounding bacon pate one. They also have a burger.
The real problem, as you can see, is that the menu SOUNDS interesting. They need to make it TASTE interesting. I tried alot more dishes than the regular customer would and they didn't make their case to me. The shashuka was even on the "other" side of the menu. Add in that the parking situation is tough and they did nothing (went backwards) to the already aging space and I really should be lambasting the place. What saved them was the warmth. The people seem to care. It's a limited "band of brothers". There was one waiter, a chef and an owner. The chef and owner were serving. That's either sweet or unprofessional given your mood. I was in a good one, so, I liked interacting with the the primos. I'm not sure what is going on withe tableware.
A little more on the decor. They did something to let in more light and that didn't help the ambiance. You see all the defects. Scratches, dust, exposed nails and screws, old paint, empty (except for some LBGT lit) baskets. It needs a face lift. The crowd was really sparse until 1pm. It was four lesbians and me. Then two breeding couples came in. The younger guy looked like he wanted to slink out and I'm not sure they didn't. Which is a shame because I like that it isn't the eggs and bacon place you would expect from a place called the Brooklyn Coffee Shop (called that because the owner met his wife there) and the prices are quite reasonable ($6-$8). It's more like a place Gianni Versace would get a newspaper at before he got shot (Miami reference). They have two types of gourmet coffee for Christ's sake. I'm surprised because they said that they have rolled out a few of these in Brazil. They should have hit the ground running.
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