It looked like a winter greeting card from somewhere deep in Europe: a fresh snowfall on a quiet side street, a beautiful Church directly across from Maysville. As you enter, you’re greeted by a rustic chic decor: Southern but not sappy; modern but not sterile. I wanted to love this place from the moment I stepped through the door, I really did.
Then Maysville started doing things that I didn’t appreciate: there was no hostess to seat us, she was MIA. In fact, we had to wait over five minutes just to be greeted. But things happen, and I still had high hopes.
Come brunch time, I judge a place by how quickly they get coffee to my table. In this case, it took a very, very long time. Our waiter was also MIA, and it was over ten minutes before our drink order was taken by another server (ours still gone). There would be at least some justification if Maysville was busy, but it was a very quiet brunch day with the snowstorm outside.
We finally ordered our coffees: An Americano for me and Skim Latte for my girlfriend. Guess what? No skim milk. How does a respected NY Brunch spot not have skim milk? Officially, I was now expecting the worst.
When the food came out all of the sins committed above were quickly absolved.
-I ordered the Pulled Pork Sandwich with red cabbage slaw and jalapeno aioli. The dish, simplistically served on a wooden plank with a side of barbecue chips, containing pork cooked and braised for over 6 hours. It feels like the food was prepared by a true pulled pork lover — letting the meat speak for itself. And it spoke. It said that it’s okay to eat barbecue for brunch; that good Southern cooking can be found in NYC; that even terrible service can be forgiven with good food. Neither the red cabbage, nor the jalapeno aioli stood out more than as a complement to the dish; nothing fancy about the bun, just a subtle, soft delivery vessel for the meat.
-My girlfriend had the Chef’s Breakfast – two fried eggs, thick cut bacon (substituted for the sausage), potatoes and a biscuit. The eggs were not great; too salty. The biscuit, as with any self-respecting Southern joint, was excellent. The bacon was flavorful, but a little heavy and greasy. The real star here was the crushed potato dish — the almost mashed, and briefly deep fried amazingness. This was my first experience with crushed potatoes, and I hope sincerely that it won’t be the last. Excellent!
–Maysville French Toast with fresh ricotta, honey, orange marmalade – I hate to say it, but I think that I have found my new favorite French Toast (even better than Sarabeth’s). Moist, thick, and perfectly fried; the honey, ricotta and marmalade blended blended precisely to enhance the flavor and sweetness. The maple syrup, while good, an unnecessary nod to tradition. That first bite is something that you don’t soon forget: your brain just kind of shuts down from the goodness, and slowly recovers with the thought of. “yep, they got this.”
tl;dr – A Maysville Brunch Review. Bad service at first, incredible Southern cooking that more than made up for it.
#random – As an afterthought, here’s what their bathroom looked like:
