Red Rooster had been on my list of places to try for a while and even more so after I read his Memoir, Yes Chef. But since it's was up on 125th street, it's kind of a tough sell for lots of my downtown or Brooklyn living friends. Holly and I thought that it would be a fun Sunday afternoon activity and it looked like on their website they had a Gospel Brunch which sounded neat. Honestly, the trek up there really wasn't that bad, only about 35 minutes from the 2/3 stop at 14th street and it's right off the 125th stop. I had read that Gospel Brunch was some $40 extravaganza and was usually very crowded, so I was totally ready to shell out some big bucks and wait in line. So much to my surprise, we got seated immediately and the menu was a regular a la carte menu. The only gospel part to the meal was that there was a live band in corner singing blues/soul music. Not sure when they changed the format, but I was a bit relieved and disappointed at the same time.
My first impression of the space was that it was really beautiful. It was spacious, bright and a bit more formal than I expected but overall it was a really pleasant place to eat. The crowd was pretty diverse with a mix of locals, families and tourists. The menu was a combination of typical brunch items such as omelettes and more soul food like mac and cheese and fried chicken. I was tempted to order an egg dish but I figured I came all the way up here and I should go for something that they were more well known for. So I opted for the mac and greens ($16), Holly got the shrimp po'boy ($16) and we split the corn bread ($4) and the shrimp and grits ($8). I suspected that I was going to have a super high calorie meal but once I saw the food, my fears were confirmed. The cornbread came out and it looked much more like thick pound cake than cornbread. It was sweet and good but it didn't have that kind of grainy texture (and I say that positively) that you usually get with cornbread. It tasted like it already had butter on it, but of course I had to put more butter on it. I think my heart may have stopped beating at some point. Very shortly there after, our entrees came out. The mac and greens was a hot skillet of shell pasta with gouda, gruyere, and NY white cheddar cheese mixed with some sauteed collard greens and then served with a side bowl of arugula topped with what looked like okra and pickled cauliflower. It's really hard to go wrong with mac and cheese and this one didn't disappoint. It didn't have that super gooey consistency look and feel but that as actually fine. It was a solid dish and I really liked the shell pasta as it made it seem more hearty. It was just incredibly heavy and rich that I could only finish about 1/4 of the dish and had to stop. I tried to be healthy and eat as much of the salad as possible but honestly it wasn't dressed at all and an entire bowl of arugula topped with pickled vegetables was too bitter for me. Of course ordering a side of creamy grits didn't help my health cause. The grits were extremely creamy and rich and heavy as well. There were only a few bites of small shrimp, so that was a bit disappointing. I didn't try Holly's dish but she said she really enjoyed her sandwich and commented that the bread tasted like it was on a buttery roll which add more to the deliciousness. She also noticed that her salad (which was mostly spinach) had little to no dressing as well. Weird, usually most restaurants have a problem with over dressing their salads, but it seemed like here they don't like dressing their greens at all.
All in all, it was a pleasant brunch at Red Rooster and it was made even more pleasant by the super nice and friendly waitstaff. While I can't fault them for the richness of the food (I mean, I did order mac and cheese and grits - so what was I thinking?) but it would have been nice if my salad tasted better to help cut all the fat I was eating. Total bill with tax, tip and drinks: $42/pp
Photo Credit: Yelp
