The egg sandwich at 27 Cafe has been thought through with an intensity usually reserved for suspension bridges. The eggs are seasoned and steamed until set. The cheddar mornay gets aerated in a pressurized canister for a silky texture. The bun is baked in-house each morning, and a pickled scallion salad cuts through the richness. For another $4, tomato-and-tamarind-braised pork belly joins the proceedings.
Grace Brannigan, who owns the Catskill café, has a precise visual reference for the finished object: SpongeBob’s Krabby Patty. “It’s like anatomically perfect,” they say. “Perfect circle.”
At $11 before the pork belly, the sandwich anchors a new food menu launching October 23 at 27, which opened at 18 West Bridge Street in September 2025. It also represents a development Brannigan had hoped to avoid: They appear to be running a restaurant again.
After years in professional kitchens, including Lil’ Deb’s Oasis, West Taghkanic Diner, and The Hereafter in Hudson, Brannigan wanted something of their own that wouldn’t consume them. A coffee shop offered the chance to apply the same rigor to a more contained undertaking: fewer moving parts, a smaller operation, a craft they could pursue without exhausting themselves.
The reason for expanding into food is straightforward. “We don’t have enough of it,” Brannigan says of money. “We need more of it.”
Their coffee program depends on a level of attention that doesn’t lend itself to selling enormous quantities cheaply. Food offers another reason to visit and another way to sustain the business. But Brannigan waited to find someone whose cooking made the prospect exciting.
That person is Morgan Brill, whose background includes Mirador and Chleo in Kingston and a sous chef position at Manor Rock in Hudson. Brannigan had followed her pop-ups before hiring her; she spent about a month developing the menu.
The framework is familiar enough: an egg sandwich, something pancake-adjacent, a potato dish, a salad, something sweet. Within those categories, Brill has considerable room to wander. A griddled cornmeal crumpet ($12) comes with carrot shito butter and an herb salad. A potato mochi waffle ($9) shares the menu with black rice porridge ($13), served with sweet potato, puffed grains and coconut, and sesame coconut milk. Cabbage and smoked trout salad ($14) brings white poppy vinaigrette, a soft-boiled quail egg, and pickled wax bean.
“There’s an inherent playfulness to Morgan’s cooking,” Brannigan says.
Consider the chou kuku ($10), an herb omelette with charred cabbage and beet yogurt. It fills the savory, premade role previously occupied by purchased quiche, while taking inspiration from kuku sabzi and chou farci. Wrapped in cabbage and cut into wedges, it gives the café its own answer to a familiar request. Breads and pastries are now made in-house, including a malted banana d’orzo cookie ($5.50) and a chocolate-and-lemon-curd bun ($7).
Giving a cook that kind of creative latitude connects 27 to the place where Brannigan received their formative education. At Lil’ Deb’s Oasis, owner Halo hired them without kitchen experience and allowed them to take on responsibility, experiment, and learn through mistakes. Brannigan eventually ran the kitchen.
“Lil’ Deb’s birthed me as an adult and a professional,” they say.
That experience shaped their understanding of hospitality as both a creative practice and a workplace. They don’t expect everyone who joins 27 to stay forever. They want the job to offer an education, something an employee can carry into whatever comes next. Lil’ Deb’s also demonstrated the value of pursuing an idea boldly enough to discover whether it works.
The same thinking runs through the beverages. Brannigan favors pourover because it allows individual coffees to express themselves, and the rotating selection gives regulars a chance to explore different origins and processing methods. The supplied menu includes roasters SEY, Luna, Helm, and Prodigal, with pourovers ranging from $6.75 to $10. Head barista Aidean Feliciano helps make the exacting work behind the counter feel easy to the customer. Both menus build wages into their prices; tipping isn’t expected.
The listening room follows a similarly personal logic. Brannigan loves recorded music but finds concerts overwhelming. They wanted somewhere to experience music among other people without having to attend a show. Guests can read, talk, eat, or simply sit while the room offers a more attentive encounter with whatever’s playing. The cafe opens daily from 8am to 3pm, with evening events on selected dates. Natural wine is available during the day on request.
With Lil’ Deb’s recent closing, its influence has acquired a physical presence in 27’s kitchen. Brannigan bought equipment from their former workplace, including a blender they once used there.
They describe feeling grateful to work with those familiar tools again. A new menu, a new collaborator, and the same blender: There are several ways to carry a kitchen forward.
27 Cafe, located at 18 West Bridge Street in Catskill, is open every day from 8am-3pm.
