Yeah, Balthazar is 100% a Soho tourist trap, I've never known anyone here who would actually eat there unless it was paid for by your company or something. (Not that the food is bad, it's just overpriced to take advantage of tourists, not a place locals go.)
A normal, nice popular brunch spot in "trendy" Williamsburg is Egg Shop. Their egg plates are all still $14–16, and coffee is still $3–4:
Yeah, I thought that might be the case. Basically all of the restaurants I’ve heard of in NY don’t do brunch, unsurprisingly. I looked up some breakfast menus at a few reasonably upscale downtown hotels and they had eggs of some kind around $20-$30, but I guess that’s probably not super representative either. I wouldn’t normally go to a local hotel restaurant where I live (though in other places where there are fewer non-hotel options I guess I might).
A normal, nice popular brunch spot in "trendy" Williamsburg is Egg Shop. Their egg plates are all still $14–16, and coffee is still $3–4:
https://www.eggshopnyc.com/menus/#breakfast-lunch