Get as Bombed as You Want on Sangria at Calle Ocho

Oh don’t bother with that straw. Just pour it in my mouth.

New York is full of brunch-n-booze deals. It makes sense, after all – the only people who really need to get hammered again on a Sunday morning are the ones who are probably still wasted from the weekend. As much fun as starving artists, hard-partying musicians and lushes of every variety have every Saturday night, come Sunday morning we are still all broke. But there are places that will cater to your thirsty nature and feed you for not that much dough.

Most places offer things like 2-for-1 or unlimited mimosas or bloody marys. That’s fine, I guess, but usually in those scenarios the drinks are bottom-shelf and really reek of alcoholism. If I were just going to pour shitty vodka in orange juice, I would have just stayed on my couch.

Calle Ocho raises the bar on this one and is probably my favorite brunch place in the city. They offer a full, unlimited, FREE sangria bar with any entree. They usually have about six different kinds of sangria for the sampling, three each of red and white, and the fruit and spices in the different mixes set them apart. Some are light and fruity and some, like the Spanish Harlem, are deep and complicated and heady. The food, brunch by way of Cuba, is generally excellent too: lots of runny yolks and spice. Entrees are usually under $15, which, when you factor in the ten cups of sangria that will compliment your tostada, seems pretty good.

Even the fact that it is practically in Siberia has its perks – trekking to the Upper West Side from whatever trendy part of Brooklyn you live in sucks, sure, but the plus side of finding yourself tanked on Columbus Ave. in the middle of a nice afternoon is that you can stumble to Central Park afterward and take a glorious nap en plein air.

Calle Ocho
446 Columbus Ave. (at 82nd)
[Upper West Side]
FREE, unlimited sangria bar at brunch