Last weekend, The Russian and I left Boston for my hometown of NYC, to visit my friend Tora Fisher, who, as I have written before, is an amazing artist living in the city.

Anyways, before getting on the long journey back to Boston, Tora causally said she would take us to a place that had really good french toast.  She didn’t tell us we would be having a very wonderful breakfast experience (thought I guess I should have inferred it from the french toast comment).

The Smith is this awesome, rustic looking chain of restaurants in NYC, and we stopped by the location in the village (we’re hip). I decided to start off with their rose rose drink. Lillet Rose, basil, peach liquor, and sparkling rose wine topped with a basil leaf.  It was heaven, sweet yet not that kinda sweet where you can only have a sip or two before you start to feel like a kid who has had too much cotton candy.  This was just sweet enough to where I could drink the whole thing (and I did).

The Russian and his best friend (who also joined us) had bloody marys and bellinis. Both were very good, but I think I had the best drink at the table.

Although the drink was indeed lovely, the brunch was incredible.  I had the smoked salmon benedict, which had perfectly poached eggs and lemony hollandaise.

The Russian’s best friend grabbed the rib eye benedict, which I also heard was lovely.

The Russian and Tora both got the french toast, which was topped with caramelized bananas and was some of the fluffiest french toast I’ve seen.  Seriously, I could have slept with these french toasts as pillows. I don’t usually like sweet breakfasts, but this was incredible.  So good.

Above all else, however, was, in my opinion, the star of the show: The sides of sugared bacon we got.  That’s right. SUGARED BACON.

Why has no one thought of this before? Why have I lived my life without trying this? It was lovely, sweet, smokey, slightly peppery bacon that was literally some of the best bacon I’ve had.  It was a happy table.

-L

The Smith East Village
55 Third Avenue NYC
(Between 10^th/11^th)
212.420.9800