It’s official: Ursula opens in Bed-Stuy, adds seating, dinner, booze, and brunch 

By Scott Lynch

It was the breakfast burritos, stuffed with things like chorizo, beans, eggs, bacon, cheddar, vegan queso, hash browns, and always, crucially, New Mexican red or green hatch chiles, that really changed everything.

In 2019, Eric See and his then-business partner Erin Emmett opened Awkward Scone, a modest but charming cafe next to a construction site on the Bed-Stuy/Bushwick border. The plan was to specialize in herbal tea and pastries, but as See tells Brooklyn Magazine, “I kind of got strong-armed into selling breakfast burritos on weekends by some local New Mexicans over there, and they ended up being kind of a saving grace, creating lines out the door.”

Chorizo burrito ahogado, $16.50 (Scott Lynch)

The Awkward Scone didn’t survive the initial pandemic lockdown, and New York City almost lost See entirely, who went on an extended road trip with his doberman Luka and a vague idea to resettle in his hometown of Albuquerque. But when he stopped back here in July of that first Covid summer, See says he remembers feeling “buoyed by the energy of Brooklyn. There was still a lot of community taking place here and I thought, you know what? I’m not actually ready to leave New York. There’s something really special here.”

See became friends with Clair Sprouse of the late, great Hunky Dory (RIP) while doing mutual aid food distribution work. When she offered him a small space she was sitting on in Crown Heights (she had pre-pandemic plans for opening a wine bar there), Ursula, named after his Harley-riding grandma and anchored by those amazing New Mexican breakfast burritos, was born.

See figured he give Ursula a year. The takeout-only setup, with tables on the sidewalk, was a good fit for those pre-vaccine times, but the place proved to be such a hit, even as pandemic restrictions ended and indoor dining returned, that he started looking for a new location that could accommodate bringing even more New Mexican flavor to Brooklyn. “We had a good thing going,” See says, “but we outgrew it.”

And so now we get Ursula 2.0, a whole actual sit-down restaurant on Nostrand Avenue in Bed-Stuy starring all the familiar favorites during weekday breakfast and lunch, plus a full bar, plus dinner service for the first time, plus a new weekend brunch menu with additions like blue corn pancakes and chilaquiles.

“My family’s been in New Mexico for over 400 years, so my roots are really deep in that region,” says See, who ships in beans, blue corn, and chiles from his home state. “But I also like the idea that food is not static, that it’s relative to where you are. At Ursula I’m serving this food from 2,500 miles away but we’re also looking at it through the lens of New York.”

At lunch, for example, in addition to all four versions of the still-incredible burrito — chorizo, bacon, vegetarian egg, and vegan bean, served as is or drowning in sauce — you can, and should, get See’s stunner of a fried chicken sandwich, a very non-New Mexican dish jacked up with tomatillo slaw, green chile jam, and a side of vegetable escabeche.

Green chile fried chicken sandwich, $16 (Scott Lynch)

The lavender brined chicken sandwich is equally delightful, with chunks of juicy bird mixing nicely with some tart pickled fennel, fresh mint leaves, and creamy feta cheese. There’s also a turkey BLT with green chile aioli, a refreshing green goddess tomatillo salad, and a roasted carrot sandwich with whipped ricotta.

Lavender brined chicken sandwich, $16 (Scott Lynch)

See started his cooking career as pastry chef, and there are plenty of delicious treats in that department as well, including his famous rainbow cake, various conchas, a blue corn almond scone, and yeasty glazed doughnuts.

Lemon poppy turmeric doughnut with passionfruit glaze, $4; Rainbow cake, $5 (Scott Lynch)

The Ursula dinner menu is still in soft-open mode, with mostly shareable bar snacks like a trio of plump, chewy beef taquitos and some appropriately sloppy vegan nachos. But See will soon introduce sopaipillas, lamb carnita tostadas, a lamb tartare with quail egg and red chile oil, and “some iteration of aguachile” to the nighttime scene here.

Beef taquitos, $12 (Scott Lynch)

“There will be some stuff that’s rustic and homey,” said See. “And some stuff that gives us the opportunity to flex our creative muscles.”

Vegan nachos, $14 (Scott Lynch)

The new spot also includes lots of alcohol. There are cocktails with fun names like “Angels on Your Pellow” and “Not Even, er What” and spirits, wine, and beer from Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ makers.

This last bit is important to See and the whole Ursula team, “90 to 95 percent of which identify as queer,” he says. But he’s also quick to point out that they are not pioneers in this regard, mentioning Florent Morellet, owner of the eponymous, bygone Meatpacking District restaurant who, back when AIDS was tearing through the gay community in the late 1980s, used to post his daily T-cell count on the board along with the specials.

“I’ve always been very involved in advocating for and fundraising for LGBTQ+ organizations, when I can and as much as I can,” says See. “And being able to create a space like Ursula will maybe inspire other people to do the same thing. It’s empowering for the community to take up space, to be successful, and to celebrate ourselves, which is not something we’ve been granted the opportunity to do very often in the past in this industry.”

Ursula is located at 387A Nostrand Avenue, between Putnam Street and Madison Avenue, and is currently open on Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. for breakfast and lunch, and then from 5 to 9 p.m. for dinner; on Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.; on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for brunch, and then 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner, and on Sunday for brunch only, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (347-365-4905)