After what felt like ages, I was finally able to reconnect with my two friends Jon and Lucia over a nice brunch in Williamsburg at Maison Premiere. Because we thought they didn’t take reservations, we tried to get to the restaurant as early as possible near opening time so we could sit, but it turned out that they did [take reservations]. While they were able to seat us in their GORGEOUS back patio, they gave us a time limit because of other reservations that had been made. Luckily, we were able to make good time and leave before said time.

I mean, when you say weekend oyster happy hour, I’m obviously going to get out of bed immediately to experience this goodness, not to mention consume all (okay, one) of the Absinthe cocktails they had on their menu.

Let me just start off by saying that my experience with Absinthe anything has been absolutely horrible. Well, it was just one experience, but that one shot of Absinthe was traumatizing enough to keep me from ever wanting to lay my eyes on anything labeled “Absinthe” for a very, very long time. TL;DR we went for the sweetest Absinthe variation they had on the menu in Prague, and it still made my eyes water and throat burn.

Fortunately, Maison Premiere’s mixologists did a fantastic job of concealing the Absinthe flavor in the cocktail of my choice and the Absinthe cocktail MP is best known for, the Maison Premiere Colada, which consists of Mansinthe [sidenote: thought this meant like MANsinthe, but it’s actually Marilyn Manson’s signature Absinthe. Thank you, Google], Rhum JM, crème de menthe, pineapple, and coconut. The presentation was adorable; it even had a white-red striped straw. Later, our waitress came with a plastic, more practical straw saying, “this ones pretty, but pretty useless.” Agreed. #doitforthepresentation

We asked our waitress to go down the list of oysters available, and she while she mentioned some sweet, creamy oysters, we all agreed to go with all briny, crispy oysters instead. Eating an oyster should feel like you’re sitting in the sand on the beach with the salty ocean breeze going through your hair. Sweet & creamy just didn’t do it for us. Unfortunately, I cannot remember exactly which oysters we got, but they were all absolutely delicious, as if we were slurping these oysters straight from the ocean.

We also went for the Duck Confit Hash and the English Breakfast for our main dishes. Both were tasty and the perfect end to our brunch.

It definitely won’t be my last time here. Can I just live in this back patio though? Please?

Maison Premiere
298 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211

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