By Maura Colley ’19, Features Editor

You see it on weekend mornings, the slow-moving and bleary-eyed groups of students making their way to Commons. After making the most of their weekends, and successfully making it out of bed, everyone is ready for eggs, bagels, muffins and bacon. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, though, the Commons brunch rush can be disappointing, to say the least.

If you want eggs, you can choose between the astronaut-style powdered eggs variety or wait in the painfully long line for made-to-order eggs from the grill. Either way, you’re standing there in your pajamas in a long line full of equally hangry, hungover students.

Your other options include Belgian waffles — not a bad choice, but still involves quite the wait, and some serious precision. There is oatmeal, yogurt and maybe some muffins and cereal.

If we’re being honest here, we all know that if you are looking for really good food on the weekends, you are only going to find it off campus. That’s right, down the hill and into one of the many New Hartford, Clinton or Utica restaurants.

But where do you go? What restaurants are there, and are they good? Once I get there, what should I order?

Not to worry, we at the

Spec

only want the best for you and your hangry weekend self, so we’re going to these restaurants for you. We’ll let you know where to go and why, along with some solid brunch meal choices for vegetarians and bacon-lovers alike.

Every week we’ll be hitting a different spot. This week we visited Carmella’s Cafe, located at 8530 Seneca Turnpike in New Hartford. On Sundays they serve a killer breakfast menu and are open as early as 9a.m.. Early risers, this one’s for you.

When we got to Carmella’s, the first thing we noticed was how friendly all of the wait staff were and how much room there was in the restaurant. We got a seat in a booth and were ready to order as much as we could eat.

I’d have to say, though, the absolute BIGGEST perk of this restaurant was completely unexpected — instead of serving bread for the table, as some restaurants do, the fine people at Carmella’s give you fried dough. If you’ve never had it before, there’s your reason to try Carmella’s right there. We couldn’t have been happier — hangry no more.

But we’ve got you covered on what to actually order as well. Our top picks were: The Mexican Omelet (a pepper and onion omelet that comes with salsa and sour cream, and of course, some truly worth it home fries), their Eggs Benedict (hollandaise on point), and their Blueberry Pancakes. All of which were reasonably priced, with each meal coming to around $7 or $8 dollars by the end. We’d like to throw an extra shout out to the chef for the pancakes especially, because even though Commons’ pancakes aren’t half bad, these were absolutely delicious.

All in all, Carmella’s was a great brunch experience. Not only was there enough seating (a.k.a. no lines or waits — can you imagine??), but the wait staff was friendly, the menu was easy to understand, the food came out on time, everything tasted great AND we got free fried dough. While there are certainly more upscale restaurants around (Ocean Blue, we’re coming for you), and perhaps some that are a few miles closer to campus,Carmella’s provided a lesser-known brunch option where we didn’t feel rushed and didn’t have to worry that what we ordered would be anything less that delicious.

Though there were no outstanding dishes or “out of the box” brunch options, the food was both delicious and well-portioned, and the overall experience was positive. We’d give Carmella’s Café a solid 7/10 for a great Sunday morning brunch.

Stay Tuned for Next Week’s Brunch!