One of my favorite things about staying in hotels is ordering room service. But during a city stay at the new Andaz 5th Avenue recently, I couldn’t tear myself away from the restaurant off the lobby. After a delicious dinner there the night before, I called my best friend (another Aussie) to meet me at the hotel for brekkie. The restaurant and coffee/retail space in front is collectively called the shop (yep, all lower case), and while it’s devoted to the hottest restaurant trend around—farm-to-table, local, fresh, seasonal ingredients—there’s something much more subtle about the menu that gives it an edge here in New York.
It’s not a brunch menu, and it’s not an omelette any way you want it. No, the shop serves a proper breakfast, the menu chock full of amazing options like Organic Fried Eggs, Schaller & Weber Mini Bratwurst, Roasted Tomatoes and Griddle Hash Browns, Potato and Gruyere Griddle Cake with Baked Apples and Sour Cream, and Toasted Banana Bread with Walnuts and Strawberry.
It took us about 10 solid minutes of silent contemplation to settle on our dishes—I went with the Pop’s Skillet Scramble with Chorizo, Tomato, Potato, Cilantro and Griddle Bread—and it was ah-mazing. Fresh and flavorful and unlike so many American breakfasts that sit like a tub of lard in your stomach all morning.
The range and types of dishes on the menu should have given it away but didn’t, not that day. The word ‘cilantro’ (coriander to you and me) only disguised it even more. The secret to the shop’s magical breakfast, I’ve since discovered, is that it’s actually a brekkie.
It’s a proper breakfast menu conceived by the general manger of the hotel (an Australian) and the chef—inspired by the kinds of dishes you get at the local coffee shop in Sydney or Melbourne. Fresh eggs, tomato, avocado, banana bread. Of course! (You can even order tea.)
Nothing is billed as Australian—on the contrary, the shop has a strong focus on New York classics (bagels with lox, pastrami sandwiches) and local suppliers. But rest assured that if you’re in New York and longing for a cuppa and a nice piece of avocado toast or banana bread, you can get it at Andaz.
The hotel is easy to find—it’s right on 5th Avenue across from the New York Public Library. You can also get that rare find in Manhattan here—decent coffee. They brew Blue Bottle Coffee, and you can grab a cup to go or sit and watch flashes of yellow cab zoom by through the black wood shutters in the shop.
And if you decide to stay, I can tell you that the rooms are gorgeous. They’re around USD$375 a night and up. But that brekkie? It’s more than reasonable, with dishes averaging $12 each. Bon appetit!
For more info, visit http://newyork.5thavenue.andaz.hyatt.com