Counter, East Village, NYC

This is an organic and vegetarian bistro on 1st ave and 7th st in New York City. To be perfectly honest, I was not convinced that veggie brunch was such a good idea.... In addition, the lack of waiting that many of my friends argued as a positive quality was, to me, a bad sign. I have to accept now that I was just prejudiced against a meatless meal; the food was delicious! The lack of a crowd was probably due to the neighborhood being widely associated with nightlife (11 am seems too late for the after-club crowd to wait awake for).
We started off with a basket of pastries (it came with three of each type, which was perfect because there was three of us, but I don't know whether the number would change depending on the number of brunchers). A blueberry loaf, a biscuit with home-made nutella on top and a mini blueberry Madeleine were served with a side of nutella (small pieces of nuts could be seen in the mix) and soy berry butter. I was starting to get the hang of the place. However I was not ready to commit to the organic/veggie style one hundred percent. I cringed in disgust when my request for a tofu-free frittata was met with a "without tofu there's no frittata" response. Apparently, the tofu replaced the eggs and would hold the frittata together. The waitress was very friendly about the whole thing. She could have snarled at me for my ignorance on all things vegan but she very patiently made sure I understood how the dish was made. I have no idea how they gave it a sponge-like texture that only eggs can give, but it was really good. It came with perfectly caramelized leaks and roasted red peppers. It also had ripe grape tomatoes and a delicious and slightly sweet tomato sauce. It was accompanied by a potato and a carrot hash and a mesclum of baby greens. These looked and tasted as if they had just beenpicked up from the upstairs terrace/garden where they grow most of the vegetables used in the restaurant's meals.
The two other brunchers (Pablo and Vicky, Diego being in Buenos Aires on his own brunch experience) had biscuits with gravy and veggie burger with French fries respectively. The biscuits were great, although the gravy was a bit heavy. The French fries that came with the burger were amazing. Hand cut and perfectly golden, crispy but not burnt. They had the exact amount of saltiness to make you keep eating them despite drinking coffee rather than water.
I cannot bring myself to think of this as the perfect brunch just because I have been raised to associate meat and perfection together....
But maybe it's just a matter of coming back to Counter a few more times!