Having brunch at midnight with Google New York and Mouth of the Border

On one recent Saturday night at 11 p.m., we gathered up 30 of our most enthusiastic Google Places users in the cozy events space above Casa Mezcal on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. We were all there for the Google Places edition of Midnight Brunch, an underground supper club run by our friend Emily Cavalier of Mouth of the Border — and, boy, were we in for a treat!

Midnight Brunch is exactly what it sounds like: craft cocktails and comfort food — at midnight. Emily draws the inspiration for her menus from the various cuisines found in such a diverse place as New York City. For the Google Places edition of Midnight Brunch, she took her culinary cues from several Manhattan neighborhoods and the cuisines they call their own.

We started off with the appetizer course, down in Chinatown. We enjoyed Emily’s “Chinatown Spareribs,” which were marinated for three days in a special Chinese Five Spice Hoisin Honey Sauce (the ribs were superfine St. Louis cut spareribs from Bayard Meat Market).

We also enjoyed craft cocktails created especially for us by Max Messier of Brooklyn’s soon-to-be-opened Whiskey Tango Foxtrot cocktail bar. The main ingredient in those cocktails was, of course, Brooklyn Gin.

Next we had “Dumplings Three Ways” by RedCook.net’s Kian Lam Kho, a James Beard Award nominee. He gave us an homage to dim sum: crabmeat & dill shu mai, pork balls coated with glutinous rice and delicious pea shoot dumplings. For the ground pork, Emily and Kian suggest the famously fatty Hungarian Mangalitsa variety provided by Mosefund Farm, which can be found in the city each Sunday at the New Amsterdam Market (catch the Places crew there on October 9!).

 

Next, we traveled to taste the various Indian-influenced neighborhoods in Manhattan — namely the East Village and Murray Hill (sometimes known as “Curry Hill”). There we enjoyed a savory starter: Kosambri Crostini, adapted from Chitra Agrawal of ABCDs of Cooking, which Emily describes as “a spicy, yet refreshing grated carrot salad that skews a little Thai.” She got the supplies for this dish from Kalustyan's (spices) and the Union Square Greenmarket (fresh produce).

For our main course, Emily drew inspiration from the historically Jewish neighborhoods of Manhattan, in particular the East Village and the Lower East Side, as well as the Upper East and Upper West Sides. We enjoyed cheese blintzes with sour cream and caramelized onions, as well as salt and pepper kugel bites with roasted garlic, which Emily dubbed the ‘Google Kugel.’ For this dish, she got her supplies from New York City’s beloved Fairway Market (farmer’s cheese, local eggs).

Finally, for dessert, we traveled up to Spanish Harlem and Washington Heights, neighborhoods known for their Mexican, Dominican and Puerto Rican communities. To celebrate their culinary heritage, we had a delicious Tres Leches cake with fresh mango, prepared with milk and cream from Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, whose shop can be found inside Manhattan’s Chelsea Market. We also had coffee from Cafe Grumpy, an NYC favorite.

We want to thank everyone who came out and made such a special evening possible. If you missed the Google Places edition of Midnight Brunch, don’t fret: There’s plenty more fun where that came from! Just be sure to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date.

Posted by Esther Brown, Manhattan community manager. Photos courtesy of Clay Williams.