Minimalist Brunch at Market, Boston, MA

When you think of Brunch, do you have baroque images of big dishes filled with bacon, fries and other forms of grease based food in your head? Is your idea of the most important meal of the week a type of comfort food where quantity and overall goodness are more important than presentation? Do you like to sit at a spot where you can see right into the kitchen where a 20 year old is flipping your pancakes and poaching your eggs? Then you have no business visiting Market at the W hotel in Boston's Theatre District.
Ani and I have been meaning to visit this nicely setup establishment for a couple of months now. We first discovered the place when our friends Javier and Nicole (who have just happened to visit Boston again last week and have been immortalized in the previous posting!) visited Bean Town before their wedding and decided to stay at the W. If you visit their web page you'll see they describe themselves as "wicked cool". Well,... They are right. While waiting for Javier and Nicole at the lobby we were admiring the place and were very surprised to discover that Jean-Georges has a restaurant in the hotel. Apparently, Ani read about him in a New Yorker article so we decided to make a mental note to visit the place for Brunch sometime. That time was today.

Market has a very quiet and sophisticated atmosphere. It does not feel as a hotel restaurant at all. Tables are very nicely setup and the menu matches the wide range of offerings you can find at any top Brunch destination at Soho in New York. Prices are just a little steep but nothing to cry about. Also, how expensive can Brunch be?

On to the food and drinks! Besides our usual cups of coffee we decided to share two drinks. One was Ani's favorite mix of OJ and Grapefruit Juice in equal parts. The other was a drink that caught our attention: Lychee-Raspberry Bellini. I have to say I am not a big fan of Bellinis, but this one was quite tasty. Ani was not sure about the Lychee, but in the end she ended up having the whole drink for herself! I barely tasted it and heard that it was good...haha.

Ani decided to have a gruyere omelette with roasted potatoes (as always) and fresh tomato salad. It looked quite tasty and the vegetables were fresh and flavorful. Oh, there were also some toasts. But I took care of that...guess I was trying to compensate for the lost Bellini. On my side I went minimalist all the way. I decided to try a deconstruction of Eggs Benedict (I am also predictable, I guess). It was fresh smoked salmon served on top of hollandaise covered poached eggs resting over nicely cut baskets of brioche. Wow! The dish also came with a great side of fresh greens salad which included fennel as an ingredient. Just great.
Maybe we did miss some human warmth. Maybe the lack of students/actress/singers/poets/waitresses was noticeable. Maybe they called us "M'am" and "Sir" instead of "dude". But our servers were fully trained and efficient and everything was just right. We had a great Minimalist Brunch experience and recommend you have one too. Make the most of the weekend!