Clinton Street Baking Company

Clinton Street Baking Company
4 Clinton Street (just south of Houston)

After hearing about how awesome Clinton Street Baking Company is from my roommate, and seeing the pancake throwdown on Food Network, I knew I had to try them for myself. Recognizing that the line on weekends stretches to multiple hours, I did what any normal person would do. I took the day off from work to take care of a few errands, namely, to come check out pancakes on a weekday when there would be less of a crowd. 9am. Table for one. Right this way...





I was a bit skeptical of the price, as $13 for pancakes is a bit absurd. The margins have to be pretty crazy, but if it's that good and people are willing to pay it, congrats to them for cashing in on a successful product. After my first bite, I understood.

Pancakes:


Pancake Guts:


Sweet, but not too sweet. Tart, but not too tart. Fluffy, filling, fantastic. From what I remember from the episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay, they mix the batter, pour it onto the griddle and then sprinkle on the blueberries, such that they don't break apart as they would if they were mixed into the batter. Clinton Street fires on all cylinders:

1. They are fluffy, with plenty of blueberries.
2. The maple butter syrup is incredibly sweet, yet I couldn't stop eating it.
3. So much pancake! Yeah, it's $13 for pancakes, but they could easily be split with another person if you ordered a couple of $2 buttermilk biscuits which looked amazing ($13 + $4 / 2 is $9 per person for a biscuit and a half order of awesome pancakes. That is a steal!)
4. They offer the pancakes for dinner. Let all who are hungry come and partake of the pancakes, regardless of time of day.

Sure, coffee and pancakes cost $20 with tax and tip which is pretty ridiculous. But forgo the java and split it with a friend and pancake nirvana is much more affordable.

Been to Clinton Street? Want to go with me next time? Post a comment!

Russ & Daughters for Passover

52. Russ & Daughters
179 E Houston

When I wrote about Russ & Daughters a few weeks ago, I was there for the smoked fish and wound up leaving with an assortment of treats including chopped herring salad and pretty much the best whitefish salad I ever had. With the TONY item only served during Passover and the High Holidays, I returned to R&D to sample their whitefish-salmon gefilte fish ($3.50 per piece). Gefilte fish is something of a mystery to those who didn’t grow up eating it with Friday night dinners and Passover seders. Gefilte fish is a fish patty made mostly from pike and carp, usually topped with spicy horseradish, and given its texture I can see why there are many that shy away from this appetizer. I’m more than happy to take their serving. It’s part of my tradition and I remember how much of a grown-up thing it was to start using the white horseradish instead of the red horseradish mixed with beets. While there are homemade versions and already made straight from the can, given how much I enjoyed their other offerings, I was excited for R&D’s gefilte fish. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe it was because it was simply not what I was used to, but nothing about this gefilte fish worked for me. The texture was there, but the flavors just didn’t work. I quickly pacified my dissatisfaction with a spoonful of whitefish salad, knowing that next time, I’ll save the cash and opt for a piece straight from the jar.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine Redemption

After being quite unimpressed last time I tried their cupcakes, I was reluctant to grab another one, but after being convinced by my girlfriend that these were, in fact, better than Magnolia, as she claims, I gave it another try. While it's not at Magnolia level, I'm glad I went again, as their pumpkin cupcake had a homemade cream cheese frosting and just the right amount of spice. For a LES cupcake spot, it's worth a visit.

Russ & Daughters

Russ & Daughters
179 E Houston Street

It’s no secret that it’s easier to make better food with better ingredients. Fresh mozzarella, homemade tomato sauce, and fresh basil go into a better slice of pizza. Pat LaFrieda beef and Murray’s cheddar go into a better hamburger. Ghirardelli chocolate goes into a better cake than Hershey’s. A bagel with cream cheese and lox is no different.

I have a hard time thinking about a meal that I enjoy more than bagels with different kinds of smoked fish and salads. Whitefish, sable, salmon, tuna. I’m pretty happy with any of these comfort foods. With Ess-a Bagel and Murray’s, I had the bagel part covered. For the lox, I set out to Russ & Daughters, Manhattan’s cathedral of smoked fish which opened in 1914 and fresh off of announcing extended hours as reported by TONY's The Feed. While I made the mistake of going at around noon on a Saturday and was subjected to a 30 minute wait for my number to be called, it gave me just enough time to figure out what I was going to order and to snag a free sample while I was at it.

Russ & Daughters offers 9 different types of smoked salmon, each looking better than the next. I managed to try a piece of the Balik which they quote as the “filet mignon” of salmon. More sashimi than lox, it has a rich flavor, not salty, and I would be quite pleased if I received a piece of this kind of quality salmon in a nice sushi spot. For $48/lb though, I think I’ll stick with the “ground chuck” of salmon. I decided to get a ¼ pound of two different kinds of salmon, belly lox and Norwegian. The belly lox ($32/lb) is not smoked, but cured in a brine that adds an intense salty flavor and makes for a softer flesh. If you’re going to eat a slice by itself, you’d better like salt, but on a bagel with cream cheese and tomato, the saltiness is muted slightly and if you’re looking for an intense flavor from the salmon, this is the way to go between the two. The Norwegian ($26/lb) is the least expensive of the smoked salmons, and while it’s certainly better than anything one could get ordering lox in a restaurant, it didn’t offer much flavor and was hard to bite off a piece without pulling the entire slice.

So many of the other offerings looked too enticing for me to leave with just the lox. I opted for some chopped herring salad ($10/lb). I’m a big fan of herring and this definitely hit the spot and a ½ pound of this stuff is a lot. I sat down with some crackers and a fork and managed to take it down in a couple of sittings. An intense fish flavor combined with a hint of sweetness from chopped apples made this a winner.

I came here for the lox, but if I returned for just one thing, it would be the whitefish & baked salmon salad ($13/lb). I left with a ¼ pound which is enough for a generous helping on a bagel. Whitefish salad is certainly not for everyone. The flavor is pretty distinct and even a small taste can be a bit overwhelming, but for those that are fans, I strongly recommend trying the whitefish salad at Russ & Daughters which adds baked salmon in a move that pushes the salad to the next level. They offer any of their smoked salmons as part of a sandwich on homemade bagels and even offer a sandwich called the Super Heeb ($10.45). Whitefish & baked salmon salad, horseradish cream cheese and topped with wasabi infused flying fish roe. Sounds like a plan.

Katz's

Katz’s
205 E Houston Street

Not going to even try. Great food, great atmosphere, a bit pricey, but worth coming to. Some gratuitous pictures of a corned beef / pastrami sandwich below:

Sugar Sweet Sunshine

Sugar Sweet Sunshine
126 Rivington Street

With Amai Tea & Bake House, and Sweet Revenge already marked off from the TONY list, my girlfriend was nice enough to bring me cupcakes from one of her favorite spots, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, a bakery on the lower east side serving homemade cupcakes and layer cakes. At $1.50 each, it’s priced below Magnolia’s $1.75 similar-sized serving and well below the larger in size Sweet Revenge’s cupcake at $3.50. I was treated to two cupcakes, hand delivered to my office on a rough day at work (isn’t she sweet?), one coconut cake topped with satin buttercream, the other, a chocolate cake with chocolate almond buttercream. While the flavors sounded exciting, I was pretty disappointed. The coconut cake tasted like it came from a mix, and the frosting, though smooth, doesn’t compare with a Magnolia creation. The chocolate cake with chocolate almond frosting was noticeably better as the frosting incorporated an almond paste that added a sweet and nutty flavor, but the cake still fell victim to the store bought taste. Given its proximity to Sugar Sweet Sunshine, I would rather spend the $3 on a whoopie pie from Cake Shop.

Macondo

25. Macondo
157 E Houston between Allen and Eldridge

The aguacate & mezcal at Macondo would represent the first drink item from the TONY list. Three of us sat down at the bar and ordered a half-carafe ($14) of this frozen drink made with honey, avocado, agave nectar, midori, cointreau, lime juice and mezcal, which was enough for three whiskey glasses full. The bartender coated the rim of the glass with a combination of salt and spices which I didn’t like with or without the drink and after one sip had to push them aside. I didn’t think that the lime-colored cocktail was anything special. It was blended properly, without any chunks of ice and was probably prepared as described but the avocado taste with the mezcal didn’t do it for me. That being said, the bar opens up onto Houston and looks like a fun place to go when the weather improves. The restaurant looks like more of a wine bar than a full service restaurant and the Latino-inspired menu looks enticing with selections such as hamburguesa cordero (lamb, tetilla cheese, foie gras terrine, fried egg and grilled onions; $15.00) and siete potencias ceviche (oyster, shrimp, clam, octopus, mussel, scallop, calamari, tequila, carrot-aji amarillo citrus sauce; $10.00)

Cafe Katja

24. Café Katja
79 Orchard Street between Broome and Grand

We didn’t know what to expect when we sat down at Café Katja, a small and inviting Austrian wine and beer bar on the lower east side, but we were quickly met with a bartender who was ready to help us navigate through a menu with a number of intriguing appetizers and sandwiches and a list of European beers on tap. We were there for the herring salad ($8.00) served with buttered brioche and wound up also ordering the bartender’s suggested appetizer, the aufschnitt teller ($14.00), a plate of cured meats and spreads.


Pickled herring in cream sauce is standard fare at diner salad bars in Jersey and my family dining table on holidays. I wasn’t sure what the herring salad was going to be but it looked like the herring salad I was familiar with. I am a big fan of herring. It’s fishy, salty, has a meaty texture and the onions that are served with it add a bit of crunch. The salad at Café Katja met the mark. The herring is served atop a cucumber-potato salad that counterbalanced the saltiness of the fish, and there wasn’t too much dill sprinkled on top. It’s certainly better than anything I could find at a normal supermarket and to be able to sit at a bar and order herring salad is an enjoyment in and of itself.



The bartender steered us in the right direction with the aufschnitt teller, which is a perfect appetizer to split and snack on at the bar. The platter included liverwurst, which I found to be somewhat tasteless though my friends enjoyed it, three or four slices of four different kinds of cured meats including prosciutto, bacon and pork belly, shaved horseradish, pickled vegetables and a spoonful of creamed cheese. I’m not sure what kind of cheese it is but with the added paprika and sautéed onions it tasted like the Hungarian cream cheese, a winner.

Café Katja is certainly worth checking out, if only to come in for a couple of beers and appetizers before dinner. The service was excellent, the food is a great value and they have boot-shaped beer glasses. I’m always down for some more herring.

Cake Shop

22-23. Cake Shop
152 Ludlow Street between Rivington and Stanton

I would have walked right passed it if it wasn’t for the chalkboard sign on the sidewalk. Cake Shop is a narrow café with a number of tables and couches in the back that serve as an antithesis to some of the more pretentious coffee shops selling $8 cappuccinos. The walls are painted using a palette of bright colors with band posters on the walls (After going on their website it looks like they have a basement with local band performances). When we approached the counter and told them that we heard about their vegan whoopie pies and peanut butter bomb cakes, the server’s eyes lit up. It was as if he was excited for us, and as I would later discover, this was for good reason.

After receiving a slice of the peanut butter bomb cake and two whoopie pies ($12), we grabbed a table and forks and dug in. The cake is circle-shaped with a hole in the middle so slices are slightly curved. A chocolate cake, topped with smooth peanut butter cream and covered in a chocolate shell drizzled with thin peanut butter stripes. It tastes as good as it sounds. The cake forms a solid base for the cream and the intense peanut taste remind you that this is a peanut butter dessert and not a chocolate cake. Light and satisfying, it’s well worth the time to stop by, grab a table and share a slice.

The whoopie pies, one chocolate and one pumpkin were pre-packaged so we saved them for later. I’m still baffled how they can be vegan. The vanilla cream filling, the same for both pies is smooth and trumps a Hostess cake any day, but what’s in it? No eggs, no cream, no milk. Crazy. I feel like a bit of a traditionalist with the pies since I preferred the chocolate one despite the fact that the pumpkin cake was much more moist and flavorful than the chocolate one but I don’t think you can go wrong with either of them. Score up another victory for Cake Shop.

Falai

21. Falai
68 Clinton Street between Rivington and Stanton

Just across the street from Falai Panetteria is Falai, a small Italian restaurant with a décor that reminded me of an indoor pool; mostly white, small tiles on the floor. If not for the open kitchen and the bar I would have thought to bring swimming trunks. For all of the issues with the décor, I was gracious that the hostess let us sit at a table after we told her we just wanted to try the pappardelle. After being seated, we were offered a selection from the bread basket which included black cabbage rolls, onion rolls, and slices of rosemary-raisin bread. I guess we didn’t have to pick up the whole loaf across the street to get a taste. The black cabbage roll was forgettable but before we received our order, we were given an amuse bouche. Barley with a parmesan crisp with cauliflower soup poured over it. If I’ve learned anything from five seasons of Top Chef, it’s that an amuse bouche is supposed to be one bite. Not only was this more than one spoonful but I had a hard time getting it into the spoon. It tasted like a tater-tot that had been cooked for a third of the time required; falling apart such that not even the crisp could help after being drowned in the cauliflower. I’ll try the pappardelle now.

The waitress had informed us that the tarragon pappardelle from the TONY list was swapped out for a different pappardelle. We went with it. Thyme pappardelle with crimini mushroom ragu, ricotta and fig puree ($16). What’s nice about pappardelle is that it carries sauces well. Just like at Le Cirque, the pappardelle served as a fine transportation vehicle for the ragu placed on top. The mushrooms didn’t overwhelm the dish and the fig puree had an intense fruity flavor that went well with the mushrooms. The amuse bouche, the bread, the décor, eh. The pappardelle was worth the experience, though I’m not convinced the price is justified.

Falai Panetteria

I think that part of what I’m discovering about the list as I try more items is that each is very good when judged against its own category. When I think of the best things I ate this past year, most will probably be very similar things that I really enjoy like sushi or steak. But what kind of list would it be if it was just different sushi and steak places? What the TONY list does is make you look for what’s new that year and, relative to other items in their category, determine the best. Pickle pork soup wouldn’t be in the top 100, but was it a good soup that was different and made we want to go back? Yes.

20. Falai Panetteria
79 Clinton Street at Rivington

Chef Falai used to be the pasty chef at Le Cirque until opening up a couple of spots on the Lower East Side including Falai Panetteria, a café-like corner store with a few tables, waiter service and a pastry counter. Paneterria serves lunch and dinner with menu items using the same flavors Falai across the street (Italian). Rosemary-raisin bread from the list sounded very tempting and for $4.00 I was expecting a small roll or some flat-bread but for $4.00 we got an entire round loaf, probably about 8 or 9 inches in diameter. The bread was light and airy on the inside, while the crust was pretty firm, to the point that tearing the loaf in half became quite a challenge. The rosemary taste wasn’t overbearing at all and the raisins were littered throughout the bread, instead of just lumped on top. If this was sliced or made into individual rolls and served in a bread basket at a restaurant I would be very pleased. I’m sure that serving small pieces with some olive oil or making toast (French toast?) out of it would be wise. At the end of the day, it’s bread and it’s not in sticky bun form from Amy’s. In the realm of bread it’s a winner but I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick up a loaf, even at $4.00

Doughnut Plant - Kossar's - Gus's Pickles

19. Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street at Norfolk Street

Doughnut plant has been getting a ton of press since it first opened in the mid 90’s, serving freshly made donuts with unique flavors and filling combinations such as pistachio and peanut butter filled with raspberry jelly. With a line wrapping around the small store-front it is clear that there is a reason for all of the publicity. After seeing all of the different donuts, peeking through the kitchen window and smelling all of the cinnamon and chocolate I wanted to try all of the flavors they had that day, but I ordered the donut I was coming for, the coconut cream doughnut ($2.75) Biting into it released the liquidy coconut cream center (liquidy because it had just come out of the oven) and it was topped with a coconut glaze sprinkled with sweetened coconut shavings. The crust is flaky like a krispy kreme donut but isn’t greasy or oily, the donut isn’t too sweet and the coconut isn’t overbearing.

Was it a good donut, considerably outflanking Krispy Kreme and Dunkin? Yes. But, the $2.75 price tag is a little too hefty for me to be able to justify coming back for it. I also sampled what I believe is the blackout donut (I just asked for the one that the guy in front of me ordered). Chocolate cake topped with cocoa powder and filled with chocolate pudding. Awesome, and probably better than the coconut cream. Cake donuts are typically too dry for me but that’s what made the chocolate pudding such a solid compliment. Still a bit pricey but I can see what the fuss is about and don’t fault anyone for picking up one or two. Maybe a dozen.

Kossar’s Bialy
367 Grand Street

I hadn’t planned on stopping here but Kossar’s is constantly ranked as having one of the best bagels / bialys in the city. Picked up an everything bagel and a bialy to taste. Maybe it was too late in the day (2pm) to really be able to judge Kossar’s, (though Ess-a Bagel is still good in the afternoon on a Sunday), but I was very disappointed. Not only was it nowhere near Murray’s or Ess-a but it wasn’t even a good bagel. Marginally better than the random bagel I could get from any deli. I took a couple of bites and threw the rest out. If you know me, you can’t even imagine me throwing out food and yet Kossar’s wasn’t worth it.

Gus’s Pickles
87 Orchard Street at Broome

It’s pretty awesome when you can be a famous pickle store and just sell them out of barrels on the street with a small storefront to use as storage. Gus’s sells 2 pickles for a dollar ($6.00 for a quart), offering full-sour, ½ sour and a handful of other pickle varieties. I went with the full sour. It’s a pretty small pickle but it is quite tasty. Garlicky, sour, crunchy. What more can you ask for from a pickle? It’s not worth a special trip, but if I lived in the area I’d pick up a couple for a snack.

LES Tour - Dumplings

This past Sunday marked an epic chapter in the TONY quest. Joined by a couple friends and blessed with Spring weather in the middle of February, we set out to conquer the Lower East Side in one day. I had received my camera from Amazon and with an empty stomach and a map from Google, we began our walk. Note: Since there were so many places covered on Sunday, I decided to enter each one separately for archiving purposes.

18. Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle Shop
144 E Broadway between Pike and Rutgers

When I think about cheap dumplings, I think about Fried Dumpling, a small place on Allen Street and Delancey that sells 5 fried pork & chive dumplings for $1. Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle is another 10 minutes Southeast and the first thing you see when you enter is a table in the back with a huge pile of dough (hence the “handmade” part). For most of the time we were there, there was a person kneading, massaging, and even pounding on the dough, slamming it into the table. We ordered exactly what was on the list, “dumplings.” Eight boiled dumplings for $2.00. Needless to say, they were not very happy with us that that was all we ordered, but it was going to be a long day and we weren’t ready to fill up on dumplings. When they arrived, they were steaming hot with paper-thin semi-transparent dough, beautifully crescent shaped, where you could see the fingertip marks where they were sealed. Covering them in soy sauce and vinegar, we dug into the first bite of our Sunday journey. They were very good, but I’m not ready to say they’re on the same level as Fried Dumpling and certainly not worth the extra walking. That being said, the place was pretty crowded with people ordering the noodle soups ($4.50) and they looked very good. I am definitely willing to come back for a cheap lunch on a nice day to get some noodles and stop at Fried Dumpling on the way back.

Fried Dumpling
99 Allen Street between Delancey and Broome

After all of the praise I just bestowed upon Fried Dumpling while talking about Lan Zhou, I felt it necessary to comment on this whole-in-the-wall immediately. I will start off by saying that after hitting up a number of spots yesterday on the TONY list, one of my friends insisted that we stop here since the dumplings are just that good. There are probably 6 seats in the entire space with most of their business coming from a large lunch crowd getting it to go. The menu is simple and their specialty is obvious. 5 dumplings for $1 is what I would spend my last buck on. Talk about affordability during hard times. They also serve slices of sesame pancake for $0.50 and pints of hot & sour soup for $1.00 though I haven’t been impressed with either and would rather put the money towards more dumplings. They offer vegetable dumplings also so feel free to bring everyone you know, just don’t count on snagging a table.