The Ride-Along Report: First Takes From Last Night’s Dinner

"What It Is: One of our all-time favorite Brooklyn restaurants that just started serving brunch Perfect For: Brunch, Outdoor/Patio Situation Olmsted recently started serving brunch, and we had heard that the walk-in waits had been hours long. This place is one of the highest-rated spots on our site, but still - nothing is worth waiting hours for on a Saturday. Or so we thought. After trying it ourselves, we can tell you that Olmsted’s brunch is an exception to that rule. The food - like duck liver mousse, BEC egg rolls with sweet and sour dipping sauce, maple flatbreads with duck sausage and scrambled duck eggs - is about as inventive as what you’d find here at dinner, and it’s all phenomenal. When you’re done eating, make sure to get another cocktail and take it outside to the back, which feels like an SNL sketch of a Brooklyn backyard - complete with its own quail coop, garden of microgreens, and crayfish farm in a bathtub. The Verdict: Try making a reservation for brunch here - but if you can’t get one, it’s worth waiting for." - hannah albertine, bryan kim, katherine lewin, hillary reinsberg, chris stang, matt tervooren