Brucie

Placed closed. Hey chef. If you are reading this and open another spectacular inventive and totally out of this planet eatery please post your next move. I’d love to come by and pay homage to your culinary greatness.

That was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time.
The charred artichoke almost convinced my husband to become a vegetarian.
The bread with coffee butter was so creative and delicious.
Every entrée was perfect — the lasagna was unreal. I read on the website that even though Brucie is closing (NOOOO!!!) we can still get our lasagna fix with some pick-​up orders!
Im so sad this restaurant is closing, but Im excited to learn what Chef Jennie Lupo and Zahra Tangorra will come up with next — so much talent. Good luck. xoxoxo

This place feels like home and yet feels so far away at the exact same time. Their ever changing menu may be small, but it offers so much. They have been kind to alter dishes to make them vegetarian friendly (they even transformed an appetizer into a dessert!). Food is always fresh, local, and seasonal. I have enjoyed each and every appetizer, side, and entrée. Every dish is perfectly plated from the sprinkling of herbs to the caramelized popcorn on top of their polenta skillet pancake. Yes, the music is way too loud, but I would eat here every night if I could. Brucie, please stay!

It’s a shame Brucie is closing. Went for dinner last night and it was amazing. Great food. Great ambiance and I loved the music

long time regulars and huge fans, evangelists even, but the quality has dropped off horribly in the last few weeks as the restaurant prepares to close for good.
i don’t know if they’ve lost essential staff but it’s as if the menu has been hijacked by a 13-​year-​old. every dish had an infantile element to it, with its nostalgic nods to the 1990s: a tepid, textureless tuna casserole masquerading as bucatini; a spaghetti and meatball dish that was literally a single, sad, little sphere of meat that seemed hopelessly embarrassed to have been been abandoned on a limp pile of pasta; and then there was the mushy lemon curd for dessert, evidently for people without teeth.
this coming from a kitchen that used to display such a mastery for texture!
restaurants change, so it goes. these choices seemed peculiar. thus, our final visit was a disappointing experience.

We live right around the corner, for some reason we had avoided coming here given the smaller menu… what a mistake that was. We decided on a whim last night to give this cozy spot a chance and we are so glad we did.
Inside you feel like you are over at a friend’s for dinner, loved the ambiance. They were also playing great music and had the lights dimmed to a nice romantic glow.
While we were initially taken aback that they would charge for table bread– we immediately understood when it came out. This bread is otherworldly. Huge slabs of fresh warm peasant bread with the most scrumptious butter. We splurged on the tomato sauce to dip it in and once the bread ran out I was eating the sauce with the spoon. I would come here for the bread and sauce alone.
The artichoke risotto I ordered was amazing. I find risottos can be kind of boring, but this was so rich and full of robust flavor. My husband who had already finished his pasta couldn’t resist scarfing down half of mine as well.
Overall great food and attentive service. The portions are a little on the small/​pricey side but more than make up for it with their unique flavor and quality ingredients. I think we are legit going back tomorrow…

The cuteness factor isn’t enough to make this place great.
Went for brunch to finally try this neighborhood spot. I don’t mind a small menu but there were barely any egg dishes & only single-​pour drip coffee. I opted for the bowl of treats, which is essentially hummus & pesto served without anything to dip in them (no bread & they won’t let you pay extra to add an egg).
Pile on poor service and too loud music & I’m just never coming back.

I came here for brunch over the summer. I wanted to check it out because I had read about it on one of those Refinery29 brunch in nyc articles. My boyfriend and I sat in the back patio, which could definitely be more appealing with some design work, but it was still totally fine. I do want to give Brucie the benefit of the doubt that we just ordered the wrong things, though, because I’ve seen some other really great reviews of it, especially for dinner.
However, I ordered the waffle and my boyfriend got the scrambled eggs. I think I’m more of a classic waffle + maple syrup person, but I just didn’t like this. It came with peach, stracciatella, balsamic, maple. I really didn’t like the mix of the balsamic and peach, but I know others would! The scrambled eggs came with eggplant and romesco. I didn’t try them but I remember my boyfriend mentioning that they were too salty.
Overall, maybe we just ordered the wrong things, but we really didn’t enjoy this brunch! We also felt it was a bit overpriced, given the portion sizes.

Oh. My. God. This place! This place!!! I just fell in love. The food is so well made and tasty. It’s super cozy inside and such a cute neighborhood spot. I highly recommend going or even going early to get your lasagna made for you. BYOD. My husband who is originally from Brooklyn and a total snob about newbies moving in and taking over… LOVED this place!!! We’ll be going back for sure.
For food, we had:
Aranci (just do it, you won’t regret it)
Bread and the wonderful butter
I had the Penne with its wonderful sauce/​cheese and shaved brussel sprouts (AMAZING)
My husband had the spaghetti and meatballs. He was not disappointed.
Our server was exceptionally wonderful as well. Not a bad thing to say about this place.

Dinner at Brucie is like having dinner in an Italian grandmother’s dining room. The entire restaurant is just so cozy and quaint, with some unique décor, including some unusual odds and ends displayed on shelves, and mismatched wallpaper that somehow just works.
The menu is limited, and substitutions are not allowed… just like at grandma’s! But there are enough choices, and seasonal menu changes, that will keep me coming back.
We started with the House Bread and Butter ($ 5 for two huge pieces of bread). It was fresh and delicious! And for entrees, we both opted for pasta… I tried the Linguini with Clam Sauce ($ 16), which was a surprisingly inky black linguini. The portions were ample, but we did have room for dessert. I ordered the warm pear with popcorn ice cream… the ice cream itself was not amazing, but paired with the few pieces of kettle corn on the plate, it was AMAZING.

Went to Brucie my first night in Brooklyn and what a way to start my vacation. Brucie is a small but trendy Italian restaurant with a small menu that rotates frequently. After ordering a bottle of wine, we started off with some bread and butter. The bread was huge, fresh, and delicious. I’m not really sure what was in the butter but it definitely wasn’t regular butter. Whatever it was, creamy and amazing!
For my main dish, I went with the lasagna which was some of the best lasagna I’ve ever had. Just the right portion. There was no meat in the lasagna but it was cooked perfectly and the sauce was delicious. Our server was friendly and took care of us, couldn’t ask for a better experience!

This is my first review — one could say I felt compelled after all of the positive reviews I’ve read for this place. But all in all, myself and my girlfriend came away from this meal asking how a restaurant could be so popular with such mediocre food? The food was uninspiring and bland, particularly the pasta, which Brucie is supposedly known for. Rather, one could choose a number of other great Italian restaurants such as Locanda Vini e Olili, Al Di La, and even the affordable Scalinos (seriously, this place has great pasta).
Maybe this place is just considered trendy because of the décor… but you know something is amiss when the best part of your meal was the bread.

Very disappointing. I ordered the Parm Sandwich.
$ 14 for 3 meatballs on a piece of bread, I expected magic in my mouth but the sandwich was just too damn salty.
My friend ordered the Chilaquiles and boy oh boy. I promise you, my mouth is not that big and I take moderate bites. I could have literally finished the whole plate in 4 – 5 bites.
I know I know, quality over quantity but the quality wasn’t that great either.
No thank you Brucie.

Loved this place on both visits, and ill look fwd to a third. Ambience is very cute and quaint. The staff really know the dishes, which goes a long way. You can tell they did more than just memorize some words. Theyre also attentive without being annoying.
The menu does simplify the dishes, so I do recommend asking… for example, i got «corn and cucumber,» but there was a lot more to it (LOVED it btw) — yogurty sauce, some onion, 3 different types of corn… it was salty but that didnt bother me.
I rarely drink etoh but thought the brucie cocktail was one of the best ive had — fruity, tangy and actually refreshing.
The penne with ricotta was also amazing — it was kept rather simple (sometimes a good thing btw), in that it was simply penne in a reddish sauce with ricotta… but it was the best penne with ricotta ive ever had.
Same goes for the meatball over spaghetti… that pasta must have been homemade, it was just once again, such a common and simple ingredient brought to its best.
Perfect portions. Me and my gf split 3 dishes… one from the appetizers/​small plates and two from the entrees. We ate it all! Definitely felt full but not that, ick im so stuffed i shouldnt have eaten al that, feeling.
Cant wait to go back a third time!

Love the food, love the hip hop they play, love the lively ambiance and friendly bartenders. Interesting frozen drinks like frozen whiskey… first time for me. The food presentations and preparations are cool.
This is where we come when we want to have good food and still feel like we went to a hot spot.

Brucie has all the elements of a good restaurant… and they almost come together, but not quite. Great cozy but cool-​looking space, a modernized, ever-​changing Italian menu, great location (Granted, I’m biased since it’s in my neighborhood).
But it lacks heart, or something to that effect. When we were there, I felt a certain apathetic attitude that pervaded throughout the entire dining experience. Which is unfortunate because this place has been on my list of places to try for a while.
Our server acted so disinterested in serving us. When we had some questions about the menu, she basically gave us the most bland and minimal information possible. «Can you tell us about the meatballs?» «Well…there’s two of them and they come in sauce.» Um, ok. We asked about the lasagna, and she recited off the ingredients in the most bored way possible. She would probably make the worst salesperson ever.
We ended up getting the meatballs, a smoked salmon and beets dish, a strawberry salad with anchovies, and the lasagna. Two out of the four dishes were very good. The salmon and beets was definitely a winner, and the meatballs, despite being described in a way that sounded like the most boring dish ever, ended up being very tasty. Worth $ 14 though? Probably not. The strawberry salad was sloppy and looked like it had just been thrown on the side of a plate. Also mysteriously lacking in anchovies and had a too-​sweet flavor. The lasagna tasted exactly like none of the ingredients the server claimed was in the lasagna (We were told it was chicken sausage, Swiss chard and asparagus). It wasn’t bad though.
It’s possible that we just went on a off night (the place was practically empty) and I’m willing to give them another try, since they change out their menu daily so there’s always an opportunity to try something new.

I wanted to like Brucie, I really did (not a lot of positive reviews start that way, unfortunately). I like that they’re Italian, but also «experimental» or «modern». I like that they have a different menu every day. And I love the location. I just wish I liked the food (and the service) more.
So let’s start from the beginning. There’s a hostess stand near the bar, which isn’t readily visible when you walk in. I originally walked in to see if I needed a reservation. Didn’t see the hostess stand and one of the waitresses looked at me, and then proceeded to ignore me. The place was empty, so I figured we could walk in later on and left (it was a Tuesday night).
Came back an hour later, again ignored by the same waitress, but this time saw the hostess stand and was seated immediately against the wall.
Some of the items on the menu didn’t have any useful descriptions (like the meatballs or the lasagna), so we asked the waitress about them. She literally described the meatballs as «there’s two of them and it comes with sauce». No mention of the meat or anything else. I don’t know if she could’ve been any more unenthusiastic.
Anyway, shared a couple of plates.
The smoked salmon and beets was a wonderful dish. Fresh fish and nice flavor pairing.
The aforementioned meatballs were big and tasty, but at $ 7 apiece, a bit on the pricey side.
The strawberries with anchovies sounded interesting on paper, but the execution wasn’t great. First of all, it was plated really weird (on one side of a metal plate). And there wasn’t too much anchovy taste (more like essence of anchovy), so it ended up being overwhelmingly sweet.
For our main, we went with the lasagna. It was described as chicken sausage, with Swiss chard and asparagus. I thought for sure they messed up the order because it tasted like none of those things. If I had to describe it, it tasted like shredded duck with collard greens. Also a hint of Method soap. Maybe they used Bergamot orange. Anyway, wasn’t a fan.
Giving them three stars because I believe they can do better (maybe it was just an off night for the menu) and I genuinely enjoyed half of the dishes. It’s kind of pricey, but it comes with the territory.
Also, they charge anywhere from $ 5 to $ 15 for bread and butter. Granted it’s rhubarb butter, but that’s just like totally not right for an Italian restaurant.

Brucie, I love you.
Especially at brunch, when I get to sit in your backyard. There’s always a pancake on the menu, and it is unfailingly stunning. Over the winter it was an inspired concoction of bacon, chevre, butternut squash and walnuts, topped with some sort of flavored butter and maple syrup. Last week it was charred ramps, bacon, and strawberries folded inside, topped with some sort of flavored butter and maple syrup.
The common elements? Butter, maple syrup, bacon (three of my favorite things) and the fact that both were impossibly delicious. I never go for sweet brunch, except for here, because it’s also so very, very savory.
I still love Brucie at dinner, but since the pancakes are usually unavailable, less consistently so. If you have the opportunity, order the specials.* They seem to churn out weird and (usually) wonderful combinations on the regular, and I find it difficult to believe anyone is making more interesting food.
That said, interesting is not always what you want when you drop a solid amount of cash on dinner, because sometimes wacky doesn’t equate to delicious. If you’re worried that something sounds strange, go for whatever lasagna they are serving at the time. I’ve never been less than ecstatic about their lasagna. Or their bread.
Part of me does miss when the menu used to be divided into Biggies and Smalls, because the One/​Two/​Three format has nothing to do with our old friend Chris Wallace. Also, the Threes are meant to be shared between two or more people. This is fine when we’re with a larger group, but when it’s just Me & My Bitch,** sometimes I want to order the chicken parmigiana, but I don’t need $ 50 worth of it, because then I can’t really get anything else.
But these are really small nitpicks. As long as you continue to ply me with pancakes, Brucie, we’re going to be best friends.
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*And Brucie, if you’re listening, bring back the Hot Brown you had for the Derby!
**Relax honey, it’s another Biggie reference.

Now here’s an adorable spot in Cobble Hill worthy of your hard-​earned dollars.
My friend group and I came for brunch, where we gorged on sandwiches, pancakes and bacon (definitely order a side of it!). We luckily scored the large table up front, which had a nice view and good light. The pancake creations here are to die for, as my butternut squash one just hit the spot.
I think this place probably shines for dinner since it’s shadowy and romantic at night, so it’d be fun to come back on a date.

Bruce rocks! Like eating at Grandma’s. Get the antipasti salad which is lightly dressed with a fresh vinegarette. The menu changes weekly so hurry to get the Chicken fra Diablo– roasted chicken with siracha mozzarella