Since New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, many places are opening for brunch—a great way to help with a January 1st hangover. Will we ever learn? Let the healing begin!
~FOREIGN CINEMA~ is doing it classic-style for their first-ever New Year’s Day “Hangover Brunch” from 11am-3pm. They’re serving Foreign Cinema faves like hangover soup with a poached farm egg, croque-madame, Dungeness crab Monte Cristo, Llano Seco braised pork with fried eggs, and sausage and herb biscuits with gravy. They’ve got a roster of “restorative cocktails” too, so order up a Steel Magnolia, Persian Bloody Mary, or Pride to ease the pain.
Another first, ~ABSINTHE BRASSERIE & BAR~ will also open for New Year’s Day Brunch with a special menu, including “My Noni’s” pastina soup, brioche french toast, duck confit ragout, a crispy pork belly breakfast burrito, and lunch dishes like the Absinthe hamburger and coq au vin. 11am-3pm.
Always a great spot for brunch, ~OUT THE DOOR~ on Bush Street is open for brunch on Saturday December 31st (New Year’s Eve) from 9am-3pm but closed for dinner, then open again on Sunday January 1st (New Year’s Day) with normal business hours (9am-3pm brunch, 5:30pm-9:30pm dinner).
On New Year’s Day, ~LAFITTE~ will be featuring a hangover à la carte menu and a bloody Mary bar all day. Bolster your belly with choices like bacon, duck, or beef stew; pot au feu; Grande Aioli seafood platter of crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, oysters, potatoes, root vegetables, and poached eggs; Kobe butter burger on brioche roll with foie gras, duck egg, and bacon chile; or parsnip-celery root quiche.
~PIZZERIA DELFINA~ ‘s California Street location is staying open January 1st to serve hangover helpers like purgatorio pizza (that dream pizza comes with egg), a selection of fried food, the meatball hero, and Linden Street black lager gelato. Also expect a couple of new dishes, and Peroni Pomodoros (bloody beers) to drink.
How ‘bout a Mexican brunch at LA VICTORIA on New Year’s Day? Starting at 10am, indulge in starters like chips and dip (with choice of salsa), assorted pan dulce with seasonal jam, and mini beignets with cinnamon cajeta; entrées like pollo rojo flautas, tortilla soup, Tecate-braised goat, Fatted Calf Basque sausage, and squash and mushroom hash; and sides like hash browns with brown butter hollandaise, and vegetarian black beans. It’s quite the lineup. 2937 24th St. at Alabama, 415-642-7120.
SEASONS will offer New Year’s Day buffet brunch with holiday dishes by executive chef Mark Richardson and a pastry display designed by pastry chef Jeffery Wurtz. 10am-2pm. $85/adult including bloody Mary and mimosa bars; $30/child. Reservations are required. 757 Market St. at 3rd St., 415-633-3838.
FYI, DYNAMO DONUT AND COFFEE is closed December 25th-31st, but they reopen on New Year’s Day 10am-4pm for donuts and coffee.
Down in Menlo Park, MADERA will offer a Bottomless Bloody Mary Brunch from 9am-3pm. Order from the à la carte menu, and add a bottomless, custom-crafted bloody Mary for $15. Children 12 and under eat for half price. Reserve online or call 650-561-1540. 2825 Sand Hill Rd. in the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel, Menlo Park.
Here’s a fun and amazing (but expensive) option from PEKO-PEKO: the deluxe New Year’s Osechi Bento filled with auspicious foods to eat on New Year’s Day or Eve. The Osechi Bento comes in a hand-made, three-level cedar box and contains special New Year’s treats like kuromame (sweet black beans), ikura (sake-cured salmon roe) in a yuzu cup, Dungeness crab, miso-cured black cod, handmade kamaboko (steamed halibut cake), and house-cured kazunoko (herring roe) from Bay-caught herring. This year, it also includes special Year of the Dragon sweets from the 17th-generation Toraya Confectionery in Tokyo. Order by December 26th, pick up the afternoon of December 31st in San Francisco or Oakland. $250, serves 4-5. One of these days I’m gonna order this thing.
Attention industry folks in the 510: OaklanDrinks is presenting the first annual BARE BALL on January 2nd, 2012 (BARE = Bar and Restaurant Employee). It’s a chance to get a little New Year’s action going for those who have to work New Year’s. Enjoy complimentary cocktails and food, plus a cocktail showcase, music from DJ Lexx Jones, and a fashion show from Iditate Clothing and Goorin Bros. Hat Company. It’s industry-centric, but bringing friends and family is encouraged. Mad Men-era attire is also encouraged, with prizes for the best-dressed guy and doll. And finally, an iPad2 will be raffled off with proceeds going to the Alameda County Community Food Bank. $40, tickets online. 8pm-midnight. ERA Art Bar & Lounge, 19 Grand Ave. at Broadway, Oakland.
Photo of Foreign Cinema’s croque-madame from Flickr.
Event Info
Sunday Jan 1, 2012
