Breakfast Club at Clinton St. Baking Company

February was Pancake Month at Clinton St. Baking Company.

Bennie and I went twice for Breakfast Club. Once for raspberry almond pancakes.

And another time for the spicy chocolate and crispy banana ones.

Always on the menu are blueberry pancakes.

Let there be no mistake. These are the best pancakes in the city.

All American at Du Jour Bakery

Husband and wife pastry chefs Vera and TJ Obias have earned their baking chops at acclaimed restaurants such as The Russian Tea Room and Dovetail (her) and Cafe Gray and Gordan Ramsay (him). This past spring, they opened their own bakery in Park Slope called Du Jour.

Despite the French name, they make plenty of American treats including Monkey bread and cupcakes (no bakery can afford not to have cupcakes, no?)...

... and beautiful muffins, including banana walnut, carrot zucchini and blueberry pecan.

It was a blueberry muffin kind of morning, and it was a knock-out specimen. 

Moist, not crumbly. Generously sized, but not obscene.

And sweet-tart from plenty of berries. 

Lovely. Just lovely.

Du Jour Bakery
365 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn

Brioche french toast at Cafe Cluny

Thick, sponge-like slices of brioche. Patriotic blueberries and strawberries. Just the right amount of maple syrup to hold it all together. A divine breakfast at long-time favorite, Cafe Cluny.

Pancake month at Clinton Street Baking Company

Ten years later, I finally see what all the fuss is about. I’ve tried going to this homey restaurant for their famous pancakes a few times but I always refuse to stand in line.

But being as it is Pancake Month, and having chose to meet there for Breakfast Club on the day crunchy banana with cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce pancakes were being served, Bennie and I sucked it up. We waited in line.

Thank god.

Yes, the special crunchy banana (read: fried banana) pancakes were divine. Especially with the cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce.

But the good old pancakes with wild Maine blueberries were out of this world.

Light and fluffy, moist and buttery. They were perfect.

Mission accomplished.

Breakfast club at Locande Verde

I love breakfasting with Ben. We eat so well together.

After our stellar pastry basket at Morandi, there was no way we weren't getting the "pastry mista" at Locande Verde.





From display of such delights as orange chocolate chip scones, cranberry spice bread, apple cider doughnuts and more, we made our selection of three.


Olive oil cake. Still warm. Moist with a beautiful nutty-sweet crust.


A polenta blueberry muffin. Savory and light with bright berries.


And the rich and lovely chocolate cinnamon roll. Every bit as delicious as it looks.


All gone too quickly.

Big blues

Some mornings just warrant a humble little breakfast.

Cafe au lait and a blueberry muffin.

At Thé Adoré.


17 East 13th Street between Fifth and University
212.243.8742

Make My Cake a Cobbler

It’s not often that I’m in Harlem. But when I am, I always make an excuse to visit Make My Cake (and when Levain opens around the corner this week, it, too, will be on the diet-busting-in-Harlem list). The bustling bakery has been around since 1995, serving ooey-gooey, over the top Southern specialties like hot cross buns, red velvet cake, and cobblers.

Unlike crumbles and crisps, cobblers usually have top and bottom crusts—sort of like deep-dish pies. Sometimes they’re made with pie dough, other times (and/or regions), with thick, cakey biscuits.

Make My Cake’s family recipe uses the former. Their giant pan of blueberry cobbler was crisscrossed with lattice shortbread crusts.

Amply dished into a plastic container, there was no thought to its presentation. It was all about the contents.

Wickedly-sweet, syrupy blueberry filling. It coated my belly. Filled me up. And felt like a sloppy-sweet embrace.

Provencal tarts

I mean, how perfect is this? You couldn’t stage a display of freshly baked fruit tarts from the South of France any better if you tried.

There I was, strolling through Avignon, minding my own business, when I saw this.

Rhubarb, pear, chocolate hazelnut, deliciousness.

Look at this sea of blueberries. Hubba hubba!

The strawberry tart didn’t look so bad either.

Little slices of sunshine, aren’t they.