{"id":132747,"date":"2026-02-13T18:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132747\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T18:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:37:07","slug":"nycs-most-eclectic-brunch-is-also-its-most-accessible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132747\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC\u2019s Most Eclectic Brunch Is Also its Most Accessible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph n2hx75i _1knl15h1 _1knl15h0 cej01i1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ny.eater.com\/venue\/90901\/hags\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HAGS<\/a> is one of those truly New York dining treasures, an eclectic fine-dining queer restaurant in the East Village, run by co-owners chef Telly Justice and sommelier Camille Lindsley. Dinner is a tasting menu affair, but brunch is more accessible, with a pay-what-you-can approach on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph n2hx75i _1knl15h1 _1knl15h0 cej01i1\">HAGS often hosts guest chefs; for my brunch, it was Austin baker Mariela Camacho of <a href=\"https:\/\/austin.eater.com\/venue\/96018\/comadre-panaderia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Comadre Panader\u00eda<\/a>. Outside of the guest chef pop-ups, which happen now and then, the mainstay menu often changes, but keep an eye out for these dishes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph n2hx75i _1knl15h1 _1knl15h0 cej01i1\">It\u2019s ridiculously fun. There are heart-shaped table lamps (which kinda look like butts; I\u2019m hoping this was intentional) and a funhouse-style mirror in the bathroom (thoughtfully, there are fentanyl test strips). The hallway goes by the kitchen, which features angled mirrors and a toy cat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph n2hx75i _1knl15h1 _1knl15h0 cej01i1\">Get the booth by the front window for perfect natural lighting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph n2hx75i _1knl15h1 _1knl15h0 cej01i1\">As part of the pay-what-you-can approach, dishes are listed with suggested payment amounts (beverage prices are fixed). You get the receipt totaling the suggested and fixed prices, along with a slip where you can write down what you\u2019d like to pay. After your payment is processed, you can add a tip to that check. Don\u2019t feel pressured to pay the full proposed amount if you\u2019re not able to. \u201cMost people pay slightly less than the suggested price,\u201d Justice tells Eater. \u201cA few people pay more than the suggested amount, and a few people pay nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAGS is one of those truly New York dining treasures, an eclectic fine-dining queer restaurant in the East&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17863,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-132747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-dining-reports","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-ny","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-nyc-headlines","13":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}