The Lower East Side is slowly becoming one of my favorite foodie places in the city, as recent months have found me enjoying savory (Chinese Dry Pot at MáLà Project) and sweet as well (cream cheese delights at Becky’s Bites). Another space, which just so happens to be in the middle of those two, is Rose and Basil, a delightful and whimsical location that takes you on a wonderfully delicious culinary journey.
The location itself reads nothing like what you see on the streets of Manhattan, as it seems like this would be better suited in the floral district than the LES. The inside is colorful and cheery, with beautiful roses adorning most of the walls as the mixture of the colors with the delicious and gorgeous food we had reads like an almost modern day take of Willy Wonka or something like that.
Self-taught chef Ioana Holt opened the doors to Rose and Basil back in 2016, and things look to be going pretty well for her and the establishment. Since its opening, the spot has been known for its brightly colored cakes and drinks, but she has now flipped the switch and started a delicious new brunch menu, which launched in November of last year.
Ioana’s brunch options are “people inspired dishes” as they are inspired by the people in her life that she knows and loves. That means she treats each dish with some major TLC (tender, love and care) which can only mean that it tastes just as great as she prepares it. And it did.
I stopped by there with a friend on Saturday to try some of her new brunch options, and was quite impressed by what we were served as everything from taste to look was executed wonderfully and left our bellies quite full.
The Pizza Bun that I had was simply delicious. It came with organic eggs, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes and olives. In a way, this felt like a grown up version of a bagel bite of sorts, as it contained a lot of the same elements but tasted a lot fresher and better once you took your first bite.
Another great option was called the Dad’s Omelette, which was superbly colorful due to the pumpkin hash it was served with. It came with scrambled organic eggs, farmer’s market spinach and greek feta as well. The great thing about this is that when you put it all together, it combined to make such a hearty taste in your mouth that made for a great brunch option indeed.
Of course, I couldn’t go there without trying one of Ioana’s world famous vegan cakes, so I beelined for their S’Mores which was dark chocolate cake, Nutella mousse, Graham Cracker crumble and toasted marshmallows. What got me was the toasted marshmallows on top that blended so well with everything else and made for a great brunch type dessert to end my meal. Definitely a spot you are going to want to check out in 2018 for sure!
For more information on Rose and Basil, please check out their official website.