Hop to Brooklyn Fire Proof for a really good cheap brunch! (Photo by Therese Maher for Bushwick Daily)

Brooklyn Fire Proof East has a $5 brunch(!). And it’s actually good.

It used to be you could get a pretty good breakfast sandwich with some potatoes and a salad at Brooklyn Fire Proof for five bucks. But now Estafanie Baca is the new general manager of Fire Proof, and she’s added her family secrets to the ordinary Brooklyn brunch fare.

Her mother is Cecilia Baca of Cecilia’s Cafe, in Albuquerque, NM. Cecilia’s has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Drives and I’ve actually had Cecilia’s delicious chile-rich burrito. I was delighted to find out that Estafanie used to help her mom in the kitchen ever since she was a little girl and is now implementing all those family secrets here in our neighborhood.

Chiles are important to New Mexicans—the best ones are desert-grown along the banks of the Rio Grande in the town of Hatch. That’s where Estafanie gets hers. She prepares all of her food fresh and daily, rich with love, so much that she won’t let any ordinary sous-chef touch her food unless they’ve had serious training in New Mexican delicacies, or they spend a month working under her caring supervision.

Estafanie plans to change the menu seasonally and keep adding bits of New Mexican flava into her weekly menu. For brunch she recommends the huevos rancheros— traditional style, with corn tortillas and hash browns, drenched in Christmas sauce (a blend of red and the spicier green chiles). The breakfast burrito is another popular favorite, full of beans, egg, and cheese, and more flavorful chiles. Try the calabasitas too—green squash, corn, onions, pico de gallo. Then there’s biscuits and gravy, with pinot noir added to the drippings to give the sausage a little somethin’ extra. The fifth option on the five dollar menu is silver dollar flapjacks with real maple syrup.

Quality food for a quality price. It’s possible to have a $5 brunch when you go to Brooklyn Fire Proof East. So go ahead. Meet Estafanie, enjoy her delicious home-cooked food, and keep that cash in your pocket.

Brooklyn Fire Proof East is at 119 Ingraham St (between Knickerbocker Ave & Porter Ave)

Brunch is served every Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4.