Despite this being my winter break, I found myself back in New York City this past weekend for A1 auditions. I was nervous about travel given the threats of bitter cold and mass amounts of snow, but the weather ended up being kind to us and only spurted bits of rain throughout the day. However, even though the sky was not giving us the freezing precipitation that was expected, we were not desiring to travel through the cold and the rain. Because of this we found ourselves in the hotel quite a lot when not in the throes of auditioning.
The hotel in question was a new one in the area, The Moxy, and its aesthetic is one that made it extremely comfortable to hang in it during some in-between time. The third floor, which is also open to the public, is home to a bar and eating area along with vintage video game system, skee-ball, shuffle board, and other games that cultivated an alternative 70’s vibe. The best part of this was not the free games however, but the surprisingly outstanding food.
We all know what we expect from hotel food. A sad breakfast bar filled with powdered eggs, a waffle maker no one seems to know how to use, stale bready disks masquerading as bagels, a couple varieties of cold cereal of varying nutrition levels, yogurt in a little mini-fridge along with some milk cartons for that cold cereal that are reminiscent of school lunch. Perhaps you may even find some unfortunate breakfast pastries of undiscernible variety!
But we had multiple meals at the Moxy restaurant and were never once disappointed. From their breakfasts with fruit, granola, kefir, avocado toast, to their everything bagel style flatbread, to their guacamole, they never gave us the feeling of eating at the hotel, but of eating at a quality establishment. One particular stand-out was the honey waffles we had for our final breakfast. Now, when we ordered we only had the simple description of “honey waffles with a maple whipped cream”. This description did not sufficiently impress upon us the glorious flavors of this waffle. We thought we had already experienced the peak of waffle flavors with our New Year’s Day cinnamon apple pecan waffles, but these waffeled disks had a factor that sent us over the moon – salt!
These waffles were the pinnacle of salty and sweet. There was honey, yes, but there was a sort of caramelization situation that created some crunchy clusters that brought a beautiful burst of salt to the sweet honey drizzled over the waffles and the subtly maple whipped cream. It was an utterly perfect combination of flavors and not a single note was misplaced. Each one did its best to help the other sing. There were layers to it. A positively perfect chord.
Another pleasing aspect was the appropriate portion size. I often find when I go out to eat that the amount of food I’m given is far too much and I either end up eating more than I need, taking it home if possible, or there ends up being needless food waste. The portions here were just perfect, filling but not overdone. I wasn’t left feeling like I didn’t need to eat the rest of the day
These waffles were just on a totally other level. They were not the waffles you have at home on a sleepy Sunday morning. Not even the waffles you get on a nice brunch out with friends. These were sublime indulgence. These were waffles with a flavor that said this day was special, that you were special enough to deserve these waffles. They were waffles that gave you energy not only nutritionally but spiritually. These are waffles you simply gotta have. If you’re looking for a new brunch location in FiDi, The Moxy is calling your name.
