http://www.clintonstreetbaking.com
Description: Ultra-popular brunch hot-spot that serves the best pancakes in town.
Burdie Approved Rating:
Pros: full-stocked brunch menu (makes it hard to choose), legendary pancakes
Cons: prepare to wait at least an hour for brunch
If ever you need evidence that evolution has its flaws, just tune-in to a newscast that shows lines of drooling half-wits waiting outside Circuit City or Best Buy for the new Play Station 17 or whatever the hell its called - a full three days before its release date.
There's nothing more soul-destroying than seeing an elderly man or woman wasting the remaining time they have on this earth by queueing in minus 16 degree weather to get the latest copy of Grand Theft Auto: Slutville.
So when we rolled-up outside The Clinton Street Baking Co. and saw a line of about ten people on the sidewalk, for a teeny tiny split second the prospect of a Taco Bell Big Bean Ball Busting Breakfast Burrito seemed like only a marginally suicidal choice. But just for a second.
Since I'd heard such great things about this place - and since it's slightly smaller than Pee Wee Herman's left testicle - we decided to put our name on the list, bugger off to Duane Reade to play a game of "Guess Which Assistant Is Actually Clinically Alive", and then head back.
About an hour and fifteen minutes passed before we were finally seated, and by now my stomach felt like it was full of helium. I'd heard a lot about the pancakes at this place, so I immediately opted to order the banana and walnut variety - along with a biscuit on the side. Burdie opted for the Spanish Scramble - which contrary to popular belief is not a Portugese Military Exercise, but a spanish influenced omelette served with home fries and toast.
Pancakes are great when they're done well, but awful when they're done badly (i.e. pretty much any diner you'll ever go to) so i was ready to see if these really were the Rolls Royce of the breakfast dough world. The first bite revealed the glorious truth - these were perhaps the best pancakes i've ever eaten.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a man for high drama or histrionics - so let me repeat myself. These were the best pancakes I've ever eaten.
Lighter than a humming bird and fluffier than cotton candy, when served with the delicious maple butter (which we later found out consisted of maple syrup and clarified butter) these discs of joy simply came alive in my mouth. With bananas layered between the pancakes, and walnuts sprinkled on top - it was really hard to fault them in any way.
To the right of me I was able to distract Burdie's attention and grab a forkful of the scramble - a flavor-packed omelette stuffed with cheese, sauteed onions, peppers and chorizo. The chorizo was first class and the whole omelette was satisfying, yet without the heavy-as-a-brick feeling that often plagues our friend the egg.
Apart from the wait, it's very hard to fault The Clinton Street Baking Co. If I was to be picky, the biscuit tasted like it had been hand delivered by Betty Crocker's cryogenically frozen mother - but that's just me being grumpy. The service was friendly, the prices reasonable (about 10 bucks each) and the food was truly amazing. In short, it's the best breakfast i've had for a long, long time.
Paying a visit may require some advanced tactical planning, but if you don't mind waiting or if you have the discipline to get out of bed before the sleepy students on a Sunday morning, you won't find a better place to satisfy your breakfast cravings.
Pancakes are my favorite things to cook for breakfast. Although I haven't quite graduated from using pre-made baking flour mixes like Bisquick, my pancakes are pretty darn tasty. Right Hillsy?
So I'm always on the lookout for the perfect pancake. Hillsy and I googled "best pancake in nyc" and Clinton St. Baking Co. came up as one of the results - winning some sort of New York Mag award in 2005. I've passed by this place tons of times, but the mobs of people waiting outside always scared me off. We tried eating here a month ago but the 1 and 1/2 hour wait for brunch was so ridiculous we ended up eating at Stanton Social (which gets
in my book).Since I declared Sundays as our "chillax" day - I made that word up two weeks ago (Hillsy hates it, so I continue to use it but only on weekends to bug him) I was prepared to wait it out. We were told 45 minutes, so we bought a few essentials at Duane Reade and headed back to the apt. to pick up a jacket. Unless it's 80 degrees out, I require a scarf/gloves and a jacket, which Hillsy failed to realize for the 100th time when he suggested that I would be fine without one. We had another 30 minutes to go when we got back to CSBC (45 mins. became a little over an hour). Waiting was tough, specially when we were gawking at a couple sitting in the front... the girl practically ordered the entire menu. She started off with some cream-based soup with some sort of fancy butter drizzled on top. The waitress then plopped down one of their famous 8lb. buttermilk biscuits, at which point the boyfriend had this look of disbelief as he watched her hoover it down. She then washed it down with the buttermilk biscuit sandwich ($8), which consists of scrambled eggs, cheddar, homemade tomato jam and hash browns, with bacon (add $2.5). Not to mention the Bellini.
Our name was finally called, only to find out that we've scored the worst seat in the house- right up in the front facing the sidewalk. That'll teach me to make fun of people eating!! Hillsy and I decided to split our orders and we went for the Banana Walnut Pancakes ($11), Spanish Scramble - three eggs, chorizo, tomatoes, sauteed onions, scallions, Monterey jack, with hash browns and toast ($12) AND a side order of their famous buttermilk biscuits.The biscuits were no better than Hillsy's homemade Bisquick biscuits. The pancakes were one of the best pancakes I've ever had. No trace of that flour taste that most pancakes have. Fluffy, light and just plain perfect. The bananas were a perfect match. The maple+non-clarified butter concoction was out of this world, it really made the dish. On it's own the pancakes were good, but once you dipped it into the sauce it was pancake heaven. I would really love to know the secrets of these pancakes, the consistency and flavor are both right on. The omelette was another winner, light fluffy eggs with tons of flavor.
As for the ambience, it was low-key and wasn't trying to be anything unlike most east village/LES establishments. I guess there's really no need to wow you with the frills since the food speaks for itself.
Overall this place was well worth the wait, I'd stand in line for brunch here on any given Sunday.
photos courtesy of http://www.clintonstreetbaking.com
No comments:
Post a Comment