Chubby Bunny

Spring Street Natural

So yesterday was spent in SoHo having brunch that was pleasure and hardly any business with my eboard. My first experience coming here was a memorable one. While the menu impressed me with how unique the items were and how fresh their ingredients were, what really stayed in my mind was not the omelette with salmon and other goodies that I had ordered that day. Nope. What I remember most distinctly is sitting in the corner by the window with Jen and a fly kamikazed into my water glass.

And it twitched and it twitched.

And I told the waiter.

Did they serve it to you like that? He asked.
No, sir. It just dove into my drink out of no where.

In retrospect, I think they left my water glass there for me, got me a new one, then took my undrinkable glass away. Perfect way of knowing they really replaced it.

Back to present. Spring Street Natural as summer later was just as inviting as I last remembered it. And their menu is vast enough to have a good variety of unique choices. But the problem is, everything sounds really good, so it’s hard to decide.

I was in the mood for protein since I only had fruit after some exercise in the morning. So after much contemplation, I decided to get the frittata with asparagus, zucchini and red bell peppers, served with a side of home fries. This was chosen over the omelette, the tuna sandwich and the grilled salmon sandwiched.

At Spring Street Natural, they always start you off with a bread basket, usually with a good hearty bread and a quick bread. Last time I came here, they gave us zucchini bread. This time it was pumpkin. And that made me very happy.

Props to the people who made the quick bread, because it was very tender and very consistent in texture. Soft, moist and no major air bubbles, though I did spot large pockets in the last uneaten sliced. Also, good, even browning which made a nice crust at the perimeter of each slice. As for the 7-grain (?) bread, also nice chewy texture.

Since the bread was actually good, I wasn’t too concerned about my deepest fear: recycled table bread. If you ever watch A Cook’s Tour, host Tony Bourdain once talked about the dirty secrets of restaurants on the Today show. Bourdain’s emphasis was restaurants do not waste anything. And this includes, among other things, recycling uneaten bread. But hey, if the bread is good I don’t see why some people wouldn’t touch it. And there wasn’t bread pudding on the menu so I wasn’t too concerned.

Side note: Bourdain has a book out, that is probably worth getting, but I don’t have that much shelf space at the moment. Anyway, this guy is amazing, because he goes everywhere, eats anything (snake’s beating heart, anyone?) and is just so brutally honest about things, he’s just someone I find admirable.

But I digress.

Enter the entreè!

I forgot to mention the melted brie.
Let’s just say, I’m in love with brie now.

My only complaint is that the zucchini should have been peeled at least a little bit. Anyone who has ever cooked zucchini would know that the skin can give off an unpleasant, bitter taste, unless you have a high flesh to skin ratio of the squash. So that was the only set back. Frittatas are sometimes served at supper in Italy, because they tend to go light on dinner over there and heavy on lunch.

The fries were a little greasy and I would have been happier if they made them into thicker wedges instead of a standard julienne. However, I would give points for the fact that they left the skin on and also, it was cut and cooked evenly. The ketchup was undersalted, which was great because you could taste the tomato. Also it helped downplay the saltiness of the fries.

The restaurant was a lot larger than I remembered it, since the last time I went it was crowded and we sat in the very front corner. Anyway, this time, we had a round table for the five of us and got a good luck at the man of the hour, as featured on their magazine.

Steven said it looked like a hobo.
::shakes head::

It was a good dining experience that everyone at my table seemed to enjoy. I’m not sure if the waiter satisfied Steven’s request for going heavy with the guacamole on his Mayan eggs, but the service overall was good. They refilled out water glasses and checked up on us occasionally; they also brought out our dishes pretty much at the same time (the waiter only has so many arms, right?) While Melanie was not a fan of the cilantro in her sandwich, she told me the bread was good when I asked. My general rule of thumb is if a restaurant can master making bread and cooking chicken breast properly, they probably have everything else under control. After tax and tip, a brunch for 5 on a Saturday afternoon could easily be sponsored by the Bank of Loretta.

Spring Street Natural was first introduced to me by Jen after an afternoon of walking from Union Square to SoHo. It’s at 62 Spring Street, which is just at the corner of Lafayette and Spring. Closest subways are the 6 to Spring St., R/W to Prince Street or D/F/V/B to B’way-Lafayette.