I'll be honest and say that despite being a huge food lover and fan of all things related to food, I'm not a huge fan of celebrity chefs. They've really sky rocketed to fame in the past few years and now have huge followings from their shows on Bravo or Food Network. I totally get why people are into them and some of them are very easy on the eyes and have great talent, but in general I've kind of always thought of them as having huge egos and being more interested in increasing their brand and fame than anything else. I respect the more low key ones who don't mind using them fame in to advance their food passion but once you start schilling for stuff like Taco Bell or I Cana't Believe It's not Butter, then I can't help but be skeptical. So that's why I've always shied away from places that are tied to big name celeb chefs, but my good friend Vivi was in town and staying Midtown and wanted to grab brunch Sunday morning. I don't really equate good brunch with Midtown, so I was having a hard time finding a decent place for us to eat, so when she said that she made a reservation for us at Bar Americain, I decided to go for it since I couldn't really come up with a better alternative. Bar Americain is part of the Bobby Flay empire and he's probably one of the earlier celeb chefs out there. I've never been to any of his restaurants before (although I have heard very good things about his newest place, Gato) so I figured what the hell.
Unlike his more casual Tex-Mex place, Mesa Grill (which closed several years ago), Bar Americain is closer to a brasserie style restaurant. It's a bit higher end than what I would usually like to go for in a brunch setting but the food still sounded tasty. We were the first people there at 11:30 and it never really ever got crowded the whole time we were there. The menu reflects the decor - they had a full on raw bar for brunch and then their nicer twists on typical brunch food such as a ratatouille and goat cheese omelette. I opted for The Preakness Benedict ($25) and we split a side of hash browns ($9) and beignets ($14) for the table. We didn't know that they give you a huge bread basket assortment in the beginning, otherwise we probably wouldn't have ordered the beignets, but it was actually for the best because the beignets didn't actually come out for a long time so it was good to have the bread basket to nosh on first.
The Preakness Benedict was 2 Maryland crabcakes with poached eggs on top and Old Bay holliandaise sauce and a salad. I gotta say that I was pretty impressed with the quality of the dish. The eggs were poached well, nice and runny, and the crabcakes, while small, were of very decent quality. I appreciated that it didn't come on a English Muffin like benedicts typically do because it really lets you enjoy the crabcake without any extra bread or carbs. The only thing that I didn't love on the plate was the salad. It was overdressed and had some bitters in there that I didn't really enjoy at all. The potatoes were more like smashed potatoes, but they were a good carb compliment. We were all so busy enjoying our meal that we didn't realize that our beignets never come out. Our waiter was very apologetic about it and said that they would take a while. Since Vivi had a plane to catch later, we were tempted to just cancel the order but they finally came out after they had already cleared our plates. They were pipping hot and there were only 3 of them, which I thought was a bit ridiculous for $14. But the actual beignets themselves were nice and fluffy and sweet with a nice coating of powered sugar on them. They were served with these adorable jars of jam and I particularly liked the huckleberry one.
I have to give a shout out to our waiter who was super friendly and nice. He had told us that the bar wouldn't be open until noon but as soon as it turned 12pm, he had Erik's bloody mary ready and waiting. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed my dish but that still doesn't really change how I feel about celebrity chefs. I'm not entirely sure what Bobby Flay has to do with this place besides probably lending his name and maybe having some influence on the menu. I'd say that if you are ever stuck in Midtown and have to get brunch and don't mind spending way more than you need to on brunch, then definitely check out Bar Americain. It's just might surprise you as it did me. Total bill: unknown, kindly paid for by my friends
Photo Credit: Yelp
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