[Photos: Nikki Goldstein]

I certainly can't elaborate on what's already been said about Colicchio & Sons's dinner offerings, but I have no reservations in calling it one of the more interesting brunch menus to crop up as of late. Made up of riffs on lesser-explored American classics, it's full of unexpected comfort, and everything I had on my recent visit was beautifully done.

Though the portion was much smaller than everything else I saw whisk by me in the tap room, the Carolina rice Johnny cakes ($12) were totally distinct from any other brunch dish I've been served. A small stack of rice and cornmeal cakes alongside a red-eye gravy-drowned serving of duck confit, all topped with a poached egg, it's hard to see how the dish would fail. The cakes are gritty but sweet from the corn—something like cornbread pancakes with a little extra bite—and the egg was, somehow, neither runny nor cooked through (how, I wondered, have I eaten so many poached eggs and never had one like this?). Tender as the duck was, it wasn't particularly ducky, and the chickory flavors I associate with red-eye gravy were not quite there, though the strong elements of the dish more than compensated.

Baked eggs with mushroom ragout and crispy ham was a far more generous portion (a steal at $11)—redolent with crunchy, flavorful bits of pork and even meatier stewed chanterelle mushrooms—but it was the lemon cream doughnuts ($7 for 3) that stole the show. With shells of powdered sugar that exploded upon contact, they were good enough that I wouldn't have cared if Chef Tom saw me giddily lick my fingers.

Related:
Colicchio & Sons Tap Room: This Time It's Personal

Colicchio & Sons

85 10th Avenue, New York NY 10011 (map)
212-400-6699
www.colicchioandsons.com