Brunch at Park Avenue Winter

by Jessie on December 6, 2009

After flaking on me for dinner the other night, Sabrina actually made it out to our “celebratory” brunch this morning at Park Avenue Winter. Yep, that’s right- in less than 3 weeks, I will be done with college and in a bit over a month, I’ll be out in the real world working full time. Hence why, for the time being, I’m trying to eat out as much as possible before I crawl back into my hole in Jersey.

For those of you that haven’t heard about Park Avenue Cafe, it’s this magnificent restaurant that changes its decor, dress attire, colors, and of course menus to reflect the changing seasons. Immediately after Thanksgiving, they turned the hues of orange and red from Park Avenue Autumn into blankets of white (from the tableclothes to the white suits) to celebrate Winter.

Their prix-fixe lunch is set at $35 and includes a “bread basket” of assorted pastries with your choice of an appetizer and main. It’s a really good deal especially for the quality of food and the event given.

Sweet Pastries & Breads for the Table: Golden Raisin Walnut Roll, Glazed Banana Bread, Brioche & Pecan Sticky Bun, Spiced Sugar Doughnut, Pistachio Scone, White Cranberry Muffin

When the bread plate came out, our eyes expanded to limits unknown before. We went through it pretty fast, finishing three of them before the appetizers came out. We gazed around to find that most people had barely touched their bread. Guess we like our carbs and sugar!

Glazed Banana Bread: This… was heavenly.

White Cranberry Muffin

Porcini Ravioli, Swiss Chard with Gorgonzola Cream

I was torn between the Prosciutto & Asian Pear with White Balsamic Creme and the Porcini Ravioli, but as we saw the plates that were rolling out, I got hooked onto the Ravioli. It was the perfect balance of cream even though it looked like the ravioli was drowning in the cream. You could tell that the ingredients were really fresh since everything just had this lightness to it.

Butternut Squash Soup with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Sabrina opted for the soup. She said “it tastes just like sauce!” Ew, I say. Sorry, I’m not a soup person.

Salt! Isn’t that awesome?

Sabrina!

Filet Mignon, Roasted Shallot Glaze with Sunnyside-Up Eggs

After making fun of me for initially contemplating getting the filet- “It’s 12:30, and you want steak?!”- what do you know? She ordered it herself. It was only after she took a peek at our neighbor’s that she realized the filet looked alot more appetizing than she had imagined in her mind.

And it was. I had a bite. The filet was juicy and everything that a filet needed to be. I also thought the flat square potato on the bottom of the sunny side up eggs was ingenious- a play on toast.

God, look at those green onions

The Upper East Sider: English muffin with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and tomatos + Eggs benedict with truffle

Our server sold me on the Upper East Sider. I’ve never ordered eggs benedict and so thought this was the perfect opportunity. Actually, what really sold me was the smoked salmon on the toasted english muffin. But everything work so harmoniously together. The truffle shave added that extra zing. It doesn’t look like a big dish, but it was quite filling.