Where to Eat | Bar Uni, Greenpoint

brunch is like a security blanket. a comfort. we look to it to help keep our hangovers at bay, to jump start our day drinking with little shame, to fill our liquor-lined stomachs with soft and savory items that remind us of home and when we didn’t feel the need to avoid eye contact with adults and children and people who are dressed like they may have gone to church on sunday mornings. give me eggs. give me gravy. give me champagne with a breath of orange juice and pretend not to notice that i haven’t removed my sunglasses or that my wrists are smeared with inky stamps and my eyes streaked with last night’s liner.

and this brunch experience is one that you can find nearly anywhere. But maybe you find yourself seeking solace in brunch stead of shame. perhaps you’d like your eggs with a side of seduction. maybe you want to elevate your brunch game to surprise your fried little senses with something more than two eggs any style, which even to the most ovular innovator, are simply two eggs.

i realized this weekend that brunch can and should be so much more after spending an afternoon in the backyard at bar uni on manhattan ave. the negroni spritzes, an aperol sprtiz older, wiser, and more potent cousin, did the trick to shake off my hangover and safely remove my sunglasses. our first course, the uni shooters with quail egg and sake, were fancy and a little dangerous; an explosion of color, texture, and flavour. ( <—- that’s the way fancy people who eat uni spell flavor, fyi.) as the shooter slid down my throat i had to pinch myself to remember i was in greenpoint and not some hidden little sushi bar in japan. next, we had the miso grilled cheese, which was cut into easily ingestible strips and grilled crisp, stuffed with oozy cheese and spiked with miso. surprisingly it paired perfectly with my second negroni spritz. finally our main courses were one of each of the bento box adventures, the blue crab eggs benedict and the salmon bento. the miso soup that came with the salmon was both delicate and powerful with silken tofu and sticky rice companions. the salmon was rich and delicate, the powerful ringleader of the dish. the crab benedict made me wonder why we ever thought that canadien bacon was an appropriate landing place for poached eggs. the miso-maple bacon was thick and had that perfect sweet-salty mix i always crave.

the only thing missing from this experience? well… i don’t know, if they add some sort of corn dish to the menu, it could be the bar uni corn. because nothing goes better with brunch than a clever pun.

elevate your brunch game with bar uni.

the salmon bento, the negroni spritzes, and the uni shooters.

674 manhattan ave

tues – sun 530-midnight

fri + sat, until 2am.

brunch

sat + sun, 11-3