Wilfie & Nell’s Bloody Good Brunch
The winner and new heavy-weight brunch champion of the West Village: Wilfie & Nell. The W 4th Street spot, a relative newcomer that just began brunch this winter, would be a serious contender based on the strength of its eye-openers alone.
The traditionalist’s bases are well-covered by a champagne cocktail (with elderflower and orange bitters), the Spicy Bloody Mary (with a drop of Guinness and a splash of McClure’s Pickle juice) and, our new favorite breakfast drink, the Bloody Bull (the same as the aforementioned but with beef bullion). For those of you more into juice in the a.m. there is a Lagunita’s with grapefruit juice and ginger (a beermosa if you will),and the transcendent Breakfast Negroni (Compari, Compano, fresh lime and grapefruit juice).
Now it’s a well known fact, that brunch is a meal best accompanied by HP Sauce, and W&N does right on this score. The menu is not long, but it hits all the right notes — with shrimp and champ (scallion and potato tossed with seared shrimp and bacon crisps — real ones), an Irish back bacon and goat cheese sandwich, potato cake with ham steak and two fried eggs, and a standout corned beef hash and eggs (above) that bares no resemblance to the diner staple. Thick hunks of actual corned beef are mixed with potato wedges with red cabbage on the side and topped with poached eggs.
If you go off the brunch menu you won’t be disappointed either. The Scotch egg might stop your heart, and if that doesn’t do the trick the pigs in the blanket will. These are not sausages wrapped in some flaky puff pastry, no sir; that is an amateur’s blanket. These sausages are wrapped in bacon, thank you.
