Tipsy Paron Visited 7/14/2012 3.5 Forks

Tipsy Parson 156 9th Ave., (between 19th St & 20th St), New York, NY 10011

Holly and I were originally thinking of getting brunch at the Superdupermarket (a pop-up artisanal farmers market in Chelsea) but after ducking in and taking a quick look, there weren't any stalls that had big enough portions to sustain a full meal.  So instead we opted to go somewhere for a real brunch and then come back to the market (which I highly recommend - but it's only around until Sunday 7/15, so go check it out now!). 

Luckily, Holly had done some research on brunch places nearby and when she mentioned Tipsy Parson, I immediately said yes since it was one of those places that had been on my list but I just never really had a reason to go.  The concept of the menu seems to be cozy, comfort food.  All of their brunch egg dishes sounded great and I was super torn and ultimately decided on the Migas which was soft-scrambled eggs, chorizo, cotija, crispy corn tortillas, onions, cilantro, avocado with pico de gallo & black bean salad ($15) and Holly got the baked crab cake which are two eggs any style, arugula with chow chow relish & old bay aioli ($14).  For some reason I had envisioned my dish to look like a huevos rancheros and to come with tortillas even though it clearly did not mention any.  It was essentially a huge serving of scrambled eggs with all the ingredients above mixed in.  It was pretty tasty and filling.  I haven't had a Mexican-like breakfast in a while and this reminded me how much I do like eggs with guacamole and pico de gallo.  It's a great combination and I realized that this meal was pretty healthy since there wasn't any sour cream or cheese in it and I didn't even miss it.  I didn't try Holly's dish but she did mention that she wished she had something like toast to sop up the yolk of the poached egg.  I did notice that the egg was nicely poached and runny, but I agree that what's the point of having a runny egg if you don't have anything to soak up the excess?  She also only had 1 crab cake and it might have been just a better dish if it was structured more like an eggs benedict.

All in all, it was a cute place, perfectly filled our need for brunch food in Chelsea and had an appealing menu that would lend me to come back.  The woman next to me got a giant order of mac and cheese and it looked amazing.  It looked like it would be the perfect skillet dish on a cold night.   It would definitely pick a place like this over the more trendy restaurants in the Meat Packing district when I'm in the area.  Total bill: $40 with tax

Photo Credit: Yelp