Juliette--Brooklyn

718.388.9222

So I might be a little biased on this one because this place used to be Red and Black and back in the day that meant dancing and smoking and drinking away my youth. Now it’s a French bistro, and though it’s been open for years I always found myself going to Fada before going to this place. My wife and I decided to risk it for brunch. The place was clean and open, and I wasn’t hung over so it had this refreshing summertime vibe when we walked in and I must say that I was excited, the place looked promising. Three pleasant girls welcomed us, and though downstairs was completely empty we opted to sit outside hiking up to a bustling roof-deck complete with full bar and black-clad servers scurrying to and fro. Again, this seemed promising, so I was content to wait with the weather being what it was and my pretty young wife beaming across from me.

And wait we did. No water, no coffee, no check-in by the server to ask for another minute because she was in the shit and just couldn’t possibly attend to our table. Nope. Nada. Nothing. Disez-vous en Francais? We might have well have been ghosts of dance-club past. The sun turned against us and we had time to dissect the service, struggling to ascertain how two servers, a busboy, and a bartender could be suffering with maybe 30 covers--half of which already served. I don’t know how long we waited, if I had to guess I’d say twenty minutes. Eventually, we discovered the problem: the server was smoking at the bar, along with the bartender and one of the cute bubbly hostesses that lured us in downstairs.

I wish I could tell you how the food is but I had brunch that day at Fabianne’s across the street. Too bad Red and Black closed.