El Segundo Debuts New Brunch Menu in South Norwalk and New Haven

The owners of The Spread and El Segundo have had an extremely busy 2020.

Chris Hickey, Andrey Cortes, Christopher Rasile, Shawn Longyear, and Carlos Baez decided to close their Spread sequel in Greenwich at the end of July, an announcement that came on the heels that they relocated their South Norwalk flagship to the former Harlan Publick space in the Ironworks development, adjacent to their global street food concept, El Segundo.

Oh, and that’s not all. Their follow up to a closure and a relocation, was to open a Downtown New Haven double of El Segundo at the tail end of August.

That’s a lot of action.

But with all that comes even more change in the form of El Segundo’s brunch menu.

Brunch was always a thing at El Segundo Norwalk but it’s the New Haven opening that sparked the change according to Hickey.

“The new menu is totally in line with the New Haven opening,” he says. “Brunch was instantly popular in New Haven, so we wanted to bring it to SoNo, too.”

Hickey then laughed about El Segundo’s previous brunch menu’s “add an egg” approach.

“Burger? Add an egg. Spam sandwich with an egg. Churrasco? Toss an egg on top,” he jokes.

Yolky goodness, though, still has a strong presence. Gravy and mozzarella curd covered poutine with two perfectly poached eggs is a holdover from the previous menu, as is a beefy bacon, egg, and cheese burger with smoky, spicy, chipotle aioli.

The hangover cures continue with a better BEC with a crispy, tender, thick cut slice of pork belly instead of dinky strips of bacon, with a ready to explode sunny egg. Get it with a pile of fries to rectify last night’s mistakes.

Brunch rule: French toast has to be on the menu.

The guys are also making sure to keep brunch in line with their contagiously fun atmosphere with pancake “tacos” stuffed with bacon, over easy eggs, and cheese that come with a spicy maple syrup sidecar.

Although brunch isn’t fully in line with their global street food mantra, there are influences from Spain (tortilla Española), the United States (turkey panini, egg salad toast), and a few classic Mexican dishes like a vibrantly bright looking huevos rancheros, complete with crunchy corn tortillas, eggs, beans, fresh salsa, queso fresco, and avocado. Psst! It’s vegetarian and gluten-free if you didn’t pick up on that.

Easily their most creative brunchiness is the Korean crepe, scrambled eggs wrapped in a softer version of a scallion pancake with a drizzle of a savory, sweet, and sour garlic-ginger soy sauce and a bunch of shitake mushrooms. I don’t think you’ll find this anywhere else.

Wash it all down with your choice of brunchy booze, whether you go the bottomless mimosa or Bloody route, or knock back beers like calories don’t count on weekends.

No! Don’t stop! Keep it going with new soft serve sundae creations, complete with nips of peppermint schnapps or peanut butter whiskey. And if not, you can get your sugar fix from milk-soaked tres leches cake or flan.

All of El Segundo’s brunch newness is fun, delicious stuff that weekend dreams are made of. And by weekend, I mean both Saturday and Sunday. Two days to indulge. No excuses.

3 N Water Street; Norwalk
And…
367 Orange Street; New Haven
https://www.elsegundorestaurants.com/