Clinton St. Baking Company

We went to Time Out’s 2007 pick for best brunch for our weekly brunch date: Clinton St. Baking Company. I read a bunch of reviews saying that this place is absolutely amazing….and it IS. Clinton St. Baking Company is on the Lower East Side where patrons line up BEFORE they open, just so they don’t have to wait around for a table. Since I usually wake up pretty late on the weekends – don’t even think about calling me before 12 on Sundays – we had to wait. When I put our name down, I was thinking, okay, maybe 45 minutes…but no, we were told an hour and a half! Seriously?…we questioned if it was worth it. I put our name down and went outside to wait and to discuss whether or not it was worth it for food. While we were waiting, the hostess came out…with little pancakes and maple butter:

NO JOKE! She came out and offered samples for all the people waiting (how nice is that?! And look at how many people were willing to wait at least an hour for food!). One bite of the fluffy pancakes and we sat down and started reading our magazines to pass the time…it was DEFINITELY worth it and we were willing to wait. One little pancake the size of a quarter convinced us to wait an hour and a half for food…but then it got better because another waitress came out with THIS:

A waffle with fresh strawberries, lemon marscapone, graham cracker crumbles, and chocolate drizzled on top. Oh.my.god. It was SO incredibly good AND they only had ONE waffle, so there weren’t that many samples, but Chris and I EACH got our own piece! The waffles were so crispy and browned on the outside and yet so warm and fluffy on the inside….have you ever had waffles so good?

We were seated an hour and a half later and luckily, got a seat right by the window – perfect for a sunny afternoon to people watch. Clinton St. Baking Company is probably most famous for their blueberry pancakes – they’re warm, fluffy, and the syrup that comes with the pancakes is so buttery-and-bad-for-you-but-you-eat-it-anyway-because-it’s-so-tasty. A full menu in case you wanted to check it out for yourself. We ordered blueberry pancakes:

How delicious do those look? The secret, apparently, is to add egg whites RIGHT before you put the waffles on the griddle. Also, you have to make sure the temperature is just right (just right being hot but not too hot…how can you tell?!). The maple butter is out of this world and I usually don’t like too much syrup on pancakes because it’s too sweet, but I doused my pancakes with syrup because I seriously couldn’t get enough of it – sweet and buttery – the worst combination for your health! Another shot of the pancakes:

Chris ordered the southern breakfast (since we always switch plates halfway through the meal, we try to get something we’d both like to eat). The southern breakfast includes two eggs (we chose scrambled), grits (yum-oh!), four pieces of honey cured bacon, and fried-green tomatoes:

The eggs were slightly runny (in a good way…maybe they were just moist?) and so fluffy (how do they do it?!), the honey cured bacon was probably the fattest thing I’ve ever eaten but so delicious I ate all of it, the grits were cheesy and stick to your ribs/thighs good, and the fried green tomatoes were ok. You can’t be perfect, right? I think the fried green tomatoes could’ve used a little kick – maybe a little Tabasco sauce to make them spicier.

We also shared a biscuit, warm and fresh out of the oven:

Chris thought the biscuits at The Waverly Inn were better and I thought the biscuit needed more honey or sugar in their recipe. The biscuit was good, but not memorable. I think it was a little too crumbly and if they used more butter, it would’ve stayed together better (but I’m glad they didn’t because I consumed so much fatty food that as I write this, I still cannot force myself to eat anything). It also came with raspberry jam, which was delicious and homemade:

Brunch was definitely worth the hour and a half (but only once in a while) and afterwards, Chris and I walked around the lower east side and enjoyed the wonderful Sunday afternoon. This Thursday night is our birthday celebration and then we’re headed to Martha’s Vineyard to celebrate our birthday’s! I can’t wait!!!!!