La Flaca Cantina- The Homey Brunch
La Flaca Cantina is this cute and quaint brunch spot that I visited last year. This isn’t going to be like our regular brunch posts because La Flaca is closed due to the pandemic. However, before writing this post, I checked out a few pages and saw that they do have plans to reopen once COVID decides to leave. Therefore, Happy First Sunday, let’s save La Flaca.
La Flaca Cantina is a quaint restaurant on Grand Street on the crevice of the Lower East Side and Chinatown. It is accessible by train if you take the B or D to Grand Street and stretch those legs for a block or two. I know a block for a New Yorker is a lot, but this one is worth it. La Flaca isn’t like your regular brunch spots if you’re looking for champagne, sparklers, and club music; La Flaca isn’t that. However, this brunch spot won over my heart with just one visit. A few need to know about La Flaca Cantina, their Brunch is 1.5 hours bottomless, and they’re a Mexican restaurant. Some of the exciting qualities that make this place different are that the place is cash only, hormone-free, and organic, AND they offer vegan and vegetarian options. In a city like New York, if you can appeal to a group as large as that, you’re worth something. You’re telling me that I can go to Brunch AND be healthy? That’s a win for me.
Good Eats
I feel like I have mentioned about 100 times that this place is a Mexican restaurant because if you don’t like Mexican food… yeah. I am one of those people who are super picky about their foods i.e. I don’t like most foods. So, when I found out that it was Mexican food, I was a little worried that there wouldn’t be food for me to eat I was wrong. Although they are closed, you can view the brunch menu here to see what I am talking about. I ended up with the pancakes mainly because I am basic af and picky, but the rest of the people I was with tried a bunch, and their food looked delicious. Usually, when I go to a Brunch spot, there is at least one complaint about the food, but this had none. If you’re going to try their brunch but not do bottomless, their food is actually super affordable, so go at it.
A Little Drinky Drink
Let’s get into the real reason why you’d want to visit La Flaca. This Brunch spot does its bottomless brunch with 1.5 hours of frozen margarita, sangria, Bloody Mary, mimosa, sangrita, la flaca amber ale, or Coors Light for $35. THIRTY-FIVE DOLLARSSSSSSSSSS, forget the food, seriously you’re not here for the food, that is a lot of drink options. If there is one thing I love about a brunch it’s brunch spots that give me more than the option between a mimosa and a regular sangria. I’m a New Yorker, and weekends is the only time I stray from my habitual iced coffee. The drinks were great. I did not try every drink, since you know mixing drinks and taking the train always end up with me Ubering home from an insanely far part of Brooklyn. However, I can tell you that their Sangria, Mimosa, and Margarita were all great. Plus, who wouldn’t love a margarita for brunch?
Vibe Check
Vibes aren’t the most important thing when you go to a brunch spot, but they can still make or break the experience. I already told you guys in the beginning that this was a quaint spot. Like LES right across the street from some housing spots, this is not Magic Hour, but it passed the vibe check. The only con was that this place was small, do not bring your 20 friends for your banging birthday bash. If you’re looking for a Sunday Afternoon, let’s talk about yesterday’s bad decisions brunch, THIS IS IT. There is only one bathroom (yeah.), but those were the only cons I had with this place.
The biggest part of the vibe check was that this is not your usual boujee brunch spot they had games. Like yes, you can drink your heart out for 1.5 hours, AND play some table games. I was too drunk to remember what game we were playing but let me tell you how much fun I had. Like this was a vibe, and if I lived in that neighborhood, I would be there all the time.
They really gave me neighborhood pub vibes, and it really sucks that they had to temporarily close due to COVID. This spot is spectacular for the fact that it is family-friendly and small. The service is phenomenal, and it feels really homey. I feel like this post doesn’t do much justice, but this is the kind of Brunch spot I would spend hungover Sunday mornings at. Even if I’m there to play a game of cards, this place felt comfortable.
If you enjoyed this post and would love to eventually head out to La Flaca, you can visit their Instagram @laflacanyc. Click the link in their bio to donate to their gofundme. Their gofundme explains how La Flaca has been a staple in NYC for nearly a decade and how they survived despite being surrounded by larger establishments with their cozy feels. I am hoping that once COVID is over and it is safe to publically do the drunken things I used to that I can visit La Flaca once more. Don’t forget to check out Brunch with Bri every first Sunday of the Month for a new Brunch post.
