Some of Lawrenceville’s earliest residents hailed from Eastern Europe.
Chef Brandon Blumenfeld is paying culinary homage to those neighborhood pioneers at Brick Shop, TRYP Hotel’s new street-level restaurant.
With a focus on the Caucasus region, the breakfast menu includes sweet and savory starters and plates. Blumenfeld takes traditional and modern approaches to his scratch-made dishes.
Highlights include the traditional Georgian dish khachapuri, a house-baked bread boat with farmer’s cheese, cultured butter and a poached egg on top, and the cinnamon babka French toast with maple caramel, peanuts and whipped cream.
Chef Blumenfeld is kind of a big dill when it comes to the art of pickling, so the borscht toast is way for him to showcase those skills. The black bread in this dish is topped with a pickled beet “tartare,” red onions, sour cream and dill. More pickled veggies surround the hard-boiled egg, which is topped with aioli and adjika, a spicy condiment found in Georgia and the Ukraine.
If your taste buds aren’t up for an ethnic breakfast, Brick Shop also offers favorites like two eggs, any style, with bacon, kielbasa, fried potatoes and toast. Organic bacon, local kielbasa, fried potatoes and fruit bowls also are available as sides.
Got a sweet tooth? Mediterra Bakehouse and Confections by Casey Renee supply fresh à la carte pastries to the eatery’s quick-service coffee shop, Coffee at Brick, on a daily basis.
For now, Brick Shop is open Monday through Friday 6:30 to 10 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday 6:30 to 11 a.m. Later this fall, the restaurant will offer lunch and dinner.
Brick Shop is the second eatery to open in the new TRYP Hotel, which occupies the former Washington Education Center. Brick Shop is housed in the trade school’s old brick shop. Over Eden, a rooftop oasis offering shareable plates (also whipped up by Blumenfeld), signature cocktails and a beautiful view of the city, opened in June.