29
Feb

Monument Lane – NYC

MONUMENT LANE – NYC

103 Greenwich Avenue (at West 10th), New York, NY 10014

Date dined: 2.26.12

Monument Lane opened a few months ago and is a quaint little boutique restaurant tucked into a corner of  the West Village.  According to their website, the restaurant is named after the road which New Yorkers would travel down in order to reach the countryside in the late 1700’s. Today we know this road to be Greenwich Avenue and while it is now very much built up, the restaurant serves traditional American dishes featuring seasonal ingredients inspired by regional farmers. The menu changes weekly ensuring the freshest ingredients and also promotes sustainable products.

Upon entering is a small bar and the rest of the space is filled with charmingly battered farmhouse furniture. On each table was a tiny arrangement of fresh flowers whose colors immediately gave me spring fever. Not a seat was left untaken in the tiny space which was brightly lit by large windows on two sides.  On this particular day I had brunch with a small group of friends and we all sampled a few of their dishes.

“Our Bread Basket”: The bread basket is one of the items that changes with the seasons. We had a delicious assortment that included a pumpkin spiced muffin, banana walnut muffin and a buttermilk biscuit. Each of the pastries was fresh and still warm out of the oven and was served with a few different jams. The biscuit in particular was amazing and probably had about 1.5 sticks of butter crammed into. This was not so much a light colored flakey biscuit but more of a rich buttery brown pastry.

Bread Basket

In my attempt to be healthy I ordered the escarole and black kale salad with parmesan, croutons, soft egg, and garlic – anchovy dressing. This was basically a caesar salad and was a bit salty from maybe a few too many anchovies but still a good order to lighten up the meal. The soft cooked egg was absolutely perfect and the yolk was still runny while the white was firm but tender.

Black Kale and Escarole Salad

The splurge of the meal was the buttermilk fried half-chicken with a bissuit and “Claire’s honey” topped with aleppo – a type of Turkish pepper. I don’t order fried chicken very often but this was one of the best I have had in recent memory. Served piping hot with juicy meat the chicken was a very nice texture and was coated by a perfectly seasoned crispy crust. Definitely worth at least sharing with the table.

Check out Monument Lane for a date, brunch or dinner with a small group of friends or even after a workout at Equinox which is conveniently located right across the street- then you won’t have to feel quite so guilty about the fried chicken.

Spring Table Setting

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