Maite, the seasonal New American restaurant with Colombian, Basque and Italian influences, will celebrate New Year’s Day by serving their first-ever brunch with $4 Colombian beer, a soundtrack of cumbia music, and both new and signature dishes from chef Ella Schmidt.
Opened in March, Maite has thus far served dinner, but on January 1 will have brunch with dishes from Schmidt’s native Colombia. While this brunch is a one-off event, the restaurant plans on rolling out regular brunch sometime in January. Expect to see menu items like puchero, a hangover-cure soup featuring potatoes, yucca and plantains in broth made from beef, pork and chicken. Bowls of the soup are accompanied by the three meats on a platter: chicken leg topped with ahogo sauce (tomatoes, scallions, cheese), a tender, slow-cooked beef rib with a crispy crust, a slab of pork belly, and half an avocado. It’s enough to feed two hungry people, so best not to come solo.
There’s also the duck egg atop a thick Colombian-style arepa filled with melted gouda and surrounded by manteca, a Spanish sauce made from butter, lard and smoked paprika.
Other New Year’s Day brunch dishes will include Maite’s popular burger (the patty is made from organic rib eye trimmings ground in house) topped with mozzarella and a soft-boiled egg that’s lightly battered and fried, served on a bun slathered in an aioli spiked with mustard seeds and pickles.
No respectable brunch would be complete without booze, and Maite’s got you covered. Enjoy $4 bottles of Aguila Colombian lager and $7 glasses of Byhur, a sparkling cider from Spain. Combined with a soundtrack of cumbia and gut-busting dishes, we think this is a pretty solid start to the new year. Just don’t tell your waistline.
Maite is located at 159 Central Ave. Hours: Mon. closed, Tues. & Sun. 5-10 pm, Wed-Sat 5 -11 pm. Brunch on Jan. 1 from 11 am – 5 pm. Regular brunch service TBA.