Williamsburg’s beloved brunch spot Egg (RIP) is reborn as Little Egg in Prospect Heights 

By Scott Lynch

It was as good a run as anyone could have dared dream for a breakfast restaurant that started life as a pop-up in a hot dog spot. But after feeding Williamsburg for 15 years, the iconic, beloved Egg closed for good in September 2020.

Or did it?

Evan Hanczor, who was Egg’s chef for 12 years and a partner in the business, wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “I was kind of gently looking at spaces for awhile, through 2021, 2022, and then put up a random note on Instagram last year, like ‘if anyone knows of anywhere let me know,'” Hanczor tells Brooklyn Magazine. “It was kind of a last ditch effort, but Libby [Willis] hit me up, saying ‘what about here?'”

“Here” was the Prospect Heights home to Willis’s MeMe’s Diner (pre-pandemic) and KIT (a Covid-era incubator specializing in queer businesses), both of which had been vital community gathering places before closing. “I had done a couple of pop-ups at KIT with Table of Contents, a food and art project that I run,” says Hanczor, “and loved the energy of the space.”

And so not only does the neighborhood get the lovely and vibrant new Little Egg, a smaller but no less appealing version of the original, complete with a couple of exciting updates, but Hanczor also gets to “carry forward a bit of the legacy of what was in this location before.” It’s a win-win on Washington Avenue.

Little Egg’s menu has about “two-thirds of the dishes” from Egg, says Hanczor, including the legendary Eggs Rothko, a slab of brioche topped with a runny egg and melted Grafton cheddar, plated with a mound of roasted tomato for some sweet, acidic bite, and either kale, bacon, or, my choice, a pile of funky, frizzled Newsome’s country ham. This is a glorious way to start your day.

Eggs Rothko with country ham, $19 (Scott Lynch)

Hanczor’s French toast is another classic, the brioche soaked in a luxuriant nutmeg custard before frying. Pour on every drop of that high-quality Deep Mountain maple syrup, obviously. There are also pancakes the size of frisbees, an Anson Mills grits bowl, caramelized grapefruit, a couple of lunch sandwiches (try the hot ham and pimento cheese), and a “Big Salad” with crispy rice and tahini dressing.

French toast, $17 (Scott Lynch)

The signature dish at Little Egg, however, might be Hanczor’s newest creation, a swoon-worthy egg katsu sando which he first conceived of while visiting the Egg in Tokyo, and a kushikatsu restaurant nearby was running a tamago special, the traditional Japanese omelet breaded and fried on a skewer. “I thought, this is insane. It’s so good,” he said. “And it would make the perfect breakfast sandwich.”

He was right. Here in Brooklyn the fluffy, almost custardy steamed eggs are encased within a crackling fried shell, stuffed into a brioche bun with pickled shallots and arugula, and made exactly messy enough with a slathering or two of spicy yuzu kosho mayo. You can add cheese, mushrooms, bacon, and/or ham to this beauty, but it doesn’t really need it.

Egg katsu sando, $15 (Scott Lynch)     

Pastries at Little Egg are made by Tanya Bush, the popular baker, writer, and co-founder of the independent print publication Cake Zine. Bush, who also works with Hanczor at his Table of Contents project, provides a rotating series of sweet and savory goodies to the restaurant, which on opening weekend included a tangy lemon cruller with rhubarb glaze, a hearty maple pecan scone, and, the stealth winner, an excellent Cara Cara orange olive oil with poppy seeds, so moist it was almost juicy and packing a potent citrus punch.

Roasted pecan maple scone and a lemon cruller, $7 each (Scott Lynch)       

The layout of Little Egg will be familiar to anyone who spent time at MeMe’s wolfing Willis’s patty melts, and, thankfully, Hanczor kept the disco ball hanging from the ceiling. But the seating is all new, and he told us that they’re just about finished converting the backyard into an outdoor dining area.

Cara Cara orange olive oil cake, $7 (Scott Lynch)

One thing you should not expect from Hanczor anytime soon (or ever) here is dinner, though in keeping with the community-building spirit of Little Egg he will be opening up the space to pop-ups in the evening, as well as groups and activities like phone banking for an election, book clubs, or writing workshops.

“I want to be a part of the neighborhood in a way that makes sense, to bring things here that are actually desired, and helpful,” Hanczor said. “Building a restaurant is a long period of slog where you don’t even see all things you love about restaurants, because you’re focussed on tearing up the floors and getting lightbulbs. But we just had about a week of friends and family meals, and now we’re really open, and just having people in the space and feeling the warmth of that, and the fun of cooking for people and serving people, it feels amazing.”

Little Egg is located at 657 Washington Avenue, between Bergen Street and St Marks Avenue, and is currently open on Friday through Monday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Little Egg is a gratuity-free business, and all prices include service.