“I’m bored out of my mind,” comedian Jerry Seinfeld muses on a recent episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” A recent one, part of the 11th season of the show that launched on Netflix late last month, featured somewhat recent SNL cast member Melissa Villaseñor getting brunch in Bushwick.
The twosome end up at Forrest Point, a local joint on Flushing Avenue and Forrest St, that is known to be nice and spacious with surprisingly tall ceilings and a plant-heavy patio.
“This is the best day of my life,” Villaseñor tells Seinfeld shortly before they begin. They drive around in a pomo chic Nissan Figaro and Villaseñor does a great, even commendable job at laughing at Seinfeld’s jokes in time.
Villaseñor is known for successful celebrity impressions. While on the show, Villaseñor plugs in her Natalie Portman, part of a medley of impressions that she performed on America’s Got Talent in 2011. It was a breakthrough moment for the “retail worker with the dream of becoming a comedian” at the time. “I watched Garden State…that thing where’s she’s just ‘you wanna listen to some music,’” she recalls to Seinfeld.
Their first stop, curiously, is at Williambsburg’s Museum of Food and Drink, where Seinfeld asks Peter Kim, the museum’s director who shows up to give a tour, why it exists. Later, he does his joke about chopsticks. He seems unimpressed by MOFAD. “We’re eating in a museum of food,” he moans.
Forrest Point turns out better. They opt to eat indoors, instead of the lush patio Forrest Point is known for, and the show does a great job of expressing the subdued art gallery look that the folks at Emporium Design had put together.
Watching Villaseñor banter with Seinfeld is more arresting than watching Seinfeld wax nostalgic to his celebrity friends, the show’s original premise. It’s like watching a deconstructed talk-show, with Villaseñor literally pitching the entire act of her personality, which is, as an impressionist, takes the form of a collection of personalities reduced to their most recognizable gestures.
In some way it brings to mind Bushwick itself, a neighborhood where class politics are omnipresent but often buried in politeness and bright colors. And cups of coffee.
“Everyday is Saturday in Brooklyn,” Seinfeld says.
Watch the full episode here.
Editor’s note: Address was corrected from Forrest Avenue to Forrest St.
Cover image screen shot from Netflix’s show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”
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