120 Essex Street Essex Bar Restaurant Visit their website

The sandwich board sign on the street advertises some of the special feature of Essex Restaurant.

Located at 120 Essex Street in the lower east side of New York, Essex Bar & Restaurant is one of the most popular restaurants in the city for brunch. All you can drink mimosas, bloody marys or screwdrivers make this a raucous restaurant and a lot of fun!

Essex is a fun room, but a real surprise at first when you walk in. The room looks enormous in the photos, doesn't it? But it is not. It's a good size and if you never saw the photo, you would not be disappointed. The height of the camera does wonderful things for a photo: lesson learned.

The peach martini and the pomegranate martini are both well done and went down nicely. Calamari appetizer was perfectly done but not enough habanero-avocado dip. I knew it the minute the calamari came, 'That's not gonna be enough.'

Duck breast with Israeli Cous Cous were flavorful and perfectly done. The Red Reviewer wrestles with salt and salty food. RR loves salty food but wonders if salt is a chef's excuse for bad food or a lack of confidence in the food's flavors. So, yes, the meal was salty and I liked it. (RR is not a pro reviewer, just a person.)

Companions both opted for the filet mignon and sweet potato fries. Not a single item was left on any of our plates.


A soaring ceiling is one of the hallmarks of Essex, this wild and raucous restaurant on the lower east side. Opened for dinner during the week and brunch on the weekends. The generous alcohol policy (three drinks included with the $15 price for brunch), makes this one of the best brunch values in the city. Even if you make a reservation, be prepared to wait. People line up and wait on Sundays for a chance to have the Essex Brunch Experience. It's loud during brunch and the wait staff can be very busy, making the thin skinned customer think they are being mistreated. No, its just wildly popular and that comes with the territory.

Essex has a lot of things right -- one of them is that the times, they are a changing. Their menu is a fusion of Jewish and Latin food. The old Jewish neighborhood has left and in its place is a large Hispanic population.

Don't believe us, read the citysearch reviews here.

Of course, the menupages people chime in too! Here.

Even the gothamist was seduced by the charms of Essex. Review.

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red reviewer

Reviewed by Red Reviewer,
October 2006

 

Essex Street Establishments & Charms
49 Essex Street East Side Company Bar Bar, Lounge
49 Essex Street The Pickle Guys Pickle Retailer
103 Essex Le Lupanar Restaurant
115 Essex Boss Tweed's Saloon Bar
120 Essex The Essex Restaurant, Jewish Latin
137 Essex Rewind Restaurant, Nightclub
133 Essex Evan Ford Restaurant,
139 Essex Khushie's Indian Kitchen Restaurant, Take Out Indian
149 Essex White Furniture Industries Furniture Modern
151 Essex Laugh Lounge Comedy Club
155 Essex Wholesome Foods  
159 Essex Mi Salon Salon, Nail
179 Essex Essex Kitchen Restaurant, Take Out Noodles

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
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Did you know?

October 2008 - Desires Hotel, a boutique chain of small hotels announces their plans to open the Hotel Ludlow next to the Darkroom bar on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side in 2010. Its address will be approximately 167 Ludlow Street.

September 2008 - The NYC Landmarks & Preservation Committee has now designated two additional buildings East Village buildings as official landmarks of New York City. The buildings are north of the lower east side in Alphabet city in the east village. The buildings are the Wheatsworth Bakery and the Public National Bank. This brings to six the total number of Lower East Side buildings that have been designated as landmarks during 2008. Located at 444 E. 10th St. between avenues C and D, the Wheatsworth Bakery, completed in 1928, served as a cracker and flour manufacturer. The Milk Bone dog biscuit was invented and produced there. The seven-story brick building was designed by J. Edwin Hopkins and closed in 1957. It now serves as a public storage warehouse. The Public National Bank is situated at 106 Avenue C, at 7th Street.

August 2008 - Did you know that the Broadway musical, "West Side Story" was originally set on the Lower East Side. Yes, it's true. The composers intended to write a musical based on the themes of Romeo and Juliet but featuring tensions in this New York City neighborhood between Catholics and Jews. It was to take place between Passover and Easter. The composers felt no inspiration from this setting and the project went nowhere. Arthur Laurents stepped in and suggested the setting change from religious to racial tension and a move to the upper west side and 'West Side Story' took shape.

   
 
 
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