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This NYC Restaurant Pays Homage Via Brunch

On a quest to ramp up their brunch scene, one New York City restaurant does so in the most comforting of ways. The Bennett, a swanky cocktail-driven lounge from the Raines Law Room and Dear Irving team, recently unveiled their new brunch menu, giving a nod to the restaurant that previously housed the space in Tribeca. 

“Brunch was their most successful service,” says co-owner and bartender Meaghan Dorman of Petite Abeille, the popular Belgian restaurant that had a solid 16-year run at 134 West Broadway. “We didn’t want to fix what wasn’t broken, so we added several French staples to the brunch menu that people in the neighborhood wanted.” 

Old favorites from Petite Abeille are on the new menu, including eggs cocotte with bacon, roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and Gruyère, traditional Belgian waffles, Croque Monsieur with jambon de Paris and Gruyère and the Ardennaise omelet, featuring bacon, mushrooms, onion and spinach. Also on the menu, the widely-popular and Instagrammable avocado toast. “We put the right components together in the menu,” adds Dorman. “We put newer things that people want with the addition of classic brunch staples.” 

One new addition to the menu is a Bennett creation, the aptly-named “Cheese Burger.” Created by Dorman, the Cheese Burger features a grass-fed beef patty topped with creamy chicken liver mousse, pancetta and mango chutney, all nestled between a buttery brioche bun.

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“We’ve made this chicken liver-foie gras mousse plenty of times before,” says Dorman. “It was one of those moments where we looked at each other and said, let’s put this with something else we love and see what happens.” Though it may seem over-the-top, Dorman insists it isn’t too rich. “It’s a smaller burger, and the acid of the mango chutney really cuts through it,” she says. “We wanted it to be satisfying, but not a challenge.”

Since kicking brunch into high gear, service has doubled. So it seems that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, indeed.

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