Schiller's Liquor Bar, 131 Rivington (at Norfolk St.)

Happy Monday (barely) fellow readers! I hope this post finds you well in your office tomorrow morning, cup of joe in hand, perhaps a bagel in the other...

I bring you this post straight from Schiller's Liquor Bar in the Lower East Side. My friend Dernyn and I rolled in about 130pm after an interesting cab ride into the city from Astoria (we got to pick up McDonald's and give it to the cabbie's family on the way in). Schiller's was just starting to pick up, but we were lucky enough to snag a table after about 15 minutes (instead of the 30 they were saying).

We settled easily on a bloody mary and a 30 year-old port to start, followed soon thereafter with eggs benny (the one thing you can't hate on me for ordering nearly ever brunch I attend), and a croque madame.

The eggs benedict were pretty good - I've had some that are bad, but these were fairly standard. The only beef (rather ham?) I had with them was how many onions they fried the potatoes with. I handed over my plate to Dernyn who LOVES potatoes and onions, and they were too intense for even him.

The croque madame was absolutely incredible. Well, incredible for NYC - obviously it was better in France, but still tasty. Proper cheese (sometimes you get the wrong cheese which totally kills the dish), proper ham, proper frying. Only thing, the bread was too big for the egg. If I may get snobbish, I prefer my croque madame to be have an egg that covers the entire piece of bread, so that one may enjoy a bit of egg with every bite.

Also, no salad with the croque madame. What's up with that.

Immediately following, we enjoyed some delicious champagne (what would brunch be without it?) and I had a cappuccino. A fine way to end a delicious meal (and kill off some of the buzz that was slamming me from that bloody mary. Wowee was it strong.)

Another great and notable part of brunch was our service. We had an incredible attentive waiter who was full of humor and recommendations.

All in all, 3.5 forks.