Ess Eff Brunch #1: At Plow

So why did I just up and quit? The truth is, I’d been thinking about it for a while. It had been almost a decade. I took a look at a scrap of paper I wrote when I was 21 years old, that was filled with my future dreams.

#1. Start and run a small brewery- India

#2. Become an international journalist

#3. Marketing and Sales?

Like a good Indian girl, I ranked the choices in order of riskiest, to easiest, and fulfilling, to boring. Guess how they panned out? Indian brewery was marked: “risky, but most fun, potential for good pay”. International journalist: “Risky, little pay, lots of fun.” Marketing/Sales: “easiest to find, safe, guaranteed.”

I was puzzled what I meant by guaranteed. Guaranteed what? Certainly not happiness, or mental stability. Maybe guaranteed income? A guarantee that I could pay my bills? Which in all honesty, I needed to pay when I was 21- coming out of college uber cash poor, with lots of debt, and not wanting to move back home or ask my parents for cash. So I started working immediately, for a mid sized tech company as a marketing associate. And you know what? I didn’t like it. So what did I do? I left, and found a job as a sales rep for an even BIGGER tech company. And I got paid shitloads of money and by shitloads I mean more than was ever necessary. Like the same as some doctors or lawyers I knew. And it felt wrong. But I did it for a few years until I couldn’t any more, and then I quit!

I quit, and I traveled the world for almost a year. But I still hadn’t learned my lesson so I came back, and found a role as a consultant for a large organization in the public sector. And I hated it. The one bonus- I met someone disruptive who ended up changing my life dramatically. But I quit that as well and went on to yet another tech company as another sales rep. And then- finally, I ended up at a small startup that I thought might be a great fit. For once, I was having fun, I was able to be somewhat creative, and I liked my coworkers. However, something was missing. Something had always been missing- and that was passion. That, and the fact that yet again, I was feeling stifled. Maybe even more so than at that one BIG COMPANY I used to work for. So I decided to jump ship, this time for good. And I didn’t really care if everyone thought I was crazy- I knew that by doing this, my sanity maybe would remain intact for at least a couple more years. I was surprised by the overwhelming sense of relief on my last day in the office- however, it was coupled with a new emotion: fear of the unknown. But more on that later.

J and I decided to celebrate my first morning of freedom at Plow, one of the famed brunch places in the City that I have never been to- primarily because wait times are in excess of an hour or two. However, since I wasn’t at work, we were able to go on the Thursday morning, and the wait was a mere 30 minutes. We sat at the bar, and started with the corn chowder- it was clean and delicious- the corn kernels were cooked al dente and every spoonful of soup was bursting with flavor. J asked me if I’d be taking pictures of and writing about this meal and I said – yup, what else am I gonna do with all of this time on my hands?

And the next course arrived, which was the smoked salmon (house made), with cream cheese, capers, onions, and brioche. This was probably my favorite part of the meal. The smoked salmon was salty, slightly sweet and smelled of the ocean. The brioche was buttery and perfectly toasted and I slathered on generous portions of cream cheese onto each piece.

Finally, we ordered the “Plow”, which I guess is the signature brunch dish. It consisted of eggs, home fries, home made pork sausage, and one of their famous lemon ricotta pancakes.

The lemon ricotta pancake was delicious- the pancake was dense and chewy, slightly tart with the dominant lemon essence. The rest- the eggs/homefries/sausage; were good, but nothing remarkable. That being said, I would come to Plow for a repeat visit to try some of the many other items on their menu. Would I wait two hours for it? Probably not. But sometimes, its that 2 hour wait that make it that much more delicious.