Clinton Street Baking Company

I have had a killer sweet tooth lately, and last night I got an overwhelming urge to have chocolate chip pancakes.  I even considered making a batch late last night, but seeing as it was 9:30pm I figured that was not the best option.  So, instead I spent the night thinking about chocolate chip pancakes and trying to figure out when I would be able to have them.  Since I finished my summer class last week, my Tuesdays and Thursdays are now free so I decided that I would take the plunge and have chocolate chip pancakes for lunch today.

When you want pancakes in the city, you must go to Clinton Street Baking Company.  I went there for the first time three years ago after reading about them incessantly online.  Since pancakes are my favorite food, I had made it my mission to find the best pancakes, and kept seeing Clinton Street's blueberry pancakes pop up.  I have never ordered blueberry pancakes because I don't like the tart flavor in my pancakes, so at first I was a little skeptical.  They also have banana walnut and chocolate chip offerings, so I decided that I would go and try out one of those options.  The first time that I went I chose to go for dinner because I had read about the crazy long waits, and the only pancakes offered at the time were blueberry.  Since I had traveled all the way to the lower east side, I put my doubts aside and try the blueberry.  They were so delicious and fluffy, that I chose to order the blueberry pancakes every time I went back, instead of my usual chocolate chip or banana.  I even went here for my birthday dinner just to have the pancakes.  While they are expensive for a stack of pancakes, they are SO worth it.  With the exception of Thomas' Diner that I previously posted about (I have hometown loyalty to them) these are the BEST pancakes I have ever had.

Anyway, to get back on point, I knew that a visit to Clinton Street was the perfect way to satisfy my chocolate chip pancake craving.  I even made sure to work out for an extra half hour this morning so that I could fully enjoy the pancakes without feeling the guilt.  When I arrived at 1130 (on a Tuesday morning) there was a 35 minute wait for one person!  While it is pretty small inside, it still goes to show you how good everything is here, because there are not many places that have that long of a wait on a weekday, and the location is pretty off the beaten path.

After waiting for about a half hour and dreaming of the pancakes, I finally got seated.  I looked at the menu simply to see what else they had for future reference, but there is no way I could ever come here and not get the pancakes.  I sat close to the kitchen, and I probably saw more than 10 stacks of blueberry pancakes leave the kitchen before I even ordered.  While it is clearly the most popular dish and what they are famous for, they also supposedly have great eggs, biscuits, and actual lunch/dinner foods like fried chicken, in case you are going with someone who is not a huge pancake lover.  I ordered pretty quickly, and after about 15 minutes my pancakes finally arrived.

Not only were there chocolate chips in the pancakes, but there was a huge pile of chocolate chunks on top of them!  You really can't get much better than that.  After I took my first bite, I was in pure bliss.  The pancake on its own is amazing, and the chocolate just makes it that much better.  All the pancakes here come with not maple syrup, but maple butter, which is basically a maple syrup/butter hybrid.  While it is very good, it is very rich so I never really use too much of it, especially since the pancakes themselves are pretty rich.  I would probably rather have maple syrup, but the maple butter is one of their signatures. 

The best part of the pancakes is the mountain of chocolate chunks in the middle that get all melty from the heat of the pancake. It is so delicious and sweet, and puts every other chocolate chip pancake to shame.  The chocolate chips were pretty concentrated in the center, so even though the outsides of the pancake were delicious, it was a bit disappointing that the chocolate wasn't more evenly distributed.  

Since they are so sweet and decadent, I was only able to get through about 1 1/2.  I, of course, was very strategic about it and ate the top pancake (the best one) and the center of the second most chocolatey one, leaving over the outsides and the third pancake.  I could not let the pancakes go to waste, so I took the rest to go.  I left feeling stuffed, yet happy that I satisfied my chocolate chip pancake craving. 

In NYC, if you want a great stack of pancakes, you really must come to Clinton Street.  There is a reason that they are on the top of every "Best of" list and have a 2 hour wait on the weekends.  The pancakes are the stars in my eyes and are the best I ever had, but they also have a ton of other delicious breakfast offerings to appeal to everyone.  They also sell baked goods that you can take home, like cakes, cookies, muffins and scones.  I have had the banana chocolate chip muffin in the past and it is delicious, but I of course could not get one today since I made basically the same thing for breakfast!  They also have "Pancake Month" in February where they feature a different specialty pancake every few days.  I didn't get a chance to go this year, but when I went two years ago they had coconut pancakes with passion fruit syrup.  Needless to say, they were heavenly.  

If my rave review of the pancakes isn't enough, just go on Yelp and read all of the reviews and look through the 1,000 pictures, and I'm sure you will be convinced to pay them a visit!

Thomas' Diner

Since this weekend is Fathers Day weekend, my sister and I came out to Long Island to stay at our dad's house.  I alway love coming to Long Island because in addition to seeing my family that is out here, I get to go to a lot of the food places that I grew up with.  One of my all time favorite places is Thomas' Diner in Carle Place, which is a small diner that is near Roosevelt Field Mall.

It is a pretty small and understated place, and from the outside looking in it looks like a typical diner.  However, it is much more than that.  There is always a long wait there because the food is just that good.  The owners and workers there really make an effort to get to know everyone, and the owner knows me and my family by name whenever we go.  Since I live in the city now, it has sadly been about a year since I have been back and I have been waiting for the opportunity to go.  Upon reaching my new weight loss goal and knowing that I was going to be on Long Island for the whole weekend, I decided that going to Thomas' was going to be my reward.

Everything there is so delicious, and you really can't go wrong with anything.  My favorite thing is obviously the pancakes, and you can custom order them to whatever you want.  Once, I even got three different pancakes in one order (one chocolate chip, one plain, one banana chocolate chip), and they made it for me without even hesitating!  This time, I went a bite more traditional and got the banana chocolate chip, which is my favorite combo (I figured that if I was going to have these pancakes as my reward, I was going to go all out), and my dad got whole wheat blueberry pecan pancakes.  They also have a really great selection of waffles (the chocolate almond chip ones are amazing), french toast (nutella stuffed, banana stuffed, etc.), and eggs.  They do have an extensive lunch menu as well, but I can't imagine coming here and not getting breakfast food.

Today we arrived at about 1145 and got a table right away, which pretty much never happens.  Right after the owner, Thomas, sat us, he asked me and my sister how school was, what we have been up to, etc., which really shows that he makes the effort to get to know his customers.  The fact that we hadn't been back in over a year and he remembered us is really a testament to how friendly it is there.

We were all pretty hungry, so after we sat down we ordered right away.  Between the four of us at our table, we had one order of banana chocolate chip pancakes, one order of whole wheat blueberry pecan pancakes, scrambled eggs with toast, hash browns, and extra crispy bacon, and an egg white omelet with toast and hash browns.  I don't like eggs, but I always like when my family orders them because I get to steal a bite of bacon, hash browns, and toast.

When the pancakes came to the table, they were huge and fluffy, and had a lot of chocolate chips and sliced bananas in them, so I could not wait to dig in.  After taking my first bite, I remembered why I love going there so much.  The pancakes are just so delicious, and you really can't go wrong with the banana chocolate chip combo.  They are very large and I do admit I got full after eating just one, but I powered through and ate a second because I could not let two pancakes go to waste!  The last one got devoured by others at the table, so luckily it was not wasted.  The hash browns and bacon were also delicious, and according to my sources the eggs and whole wheat pancakes were just as good.  The eggs come out on their own hot skillet, which also adds a nice touch.

(The pictures show the progression of the stack of pancakes.  They come to the table with the bottom side up so that you can see all of the toppings, and they are sprinkled with powdered sugar.  I then spread all three pancakes out to cover the plate so I can choose which ones look the best, and then I dip them in maple syrup instead of pouring it on top so that I can control how much goes on each bite.  As you can see in the last picture, after I gave away the last pancake I just left a few bites of the outside of the pancake over and ate the middle, which is the best part.)

Of course, a visit to Thomas' is never complete until you leave with a muffin, so my sister and I both bought one for tomorrow morning.  They have a really nice assortment that are homemade, like Blueberry Banana, Cinnamon Coffeecake, Lemon Poppy, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate Cheesecake, and many others.  I opted for the cinnamon coffee cake because it is my all time favorite (it has a nice layer of crumbs on top and a few chocolate chips on top as well), and my sister got the lemon poppyseed.

Even though I left Thomas' feeling super stuffed, I was also very satisfied and happy that I finally got to fulfill my pancake craving from my favorite place!  My house on Long Island is about 30 minutes from Thomas' but we never hesitate to make the drive there, so if you are in the vicinity I HIGHLY recommend that you go and you won't be disappointed.  I do caution you, however, to be prepared to wait, because when we left there was a herd of people standing in the doorway waiting for a table.

Trader Joe's Silver Dollar Pancakes

There's nothing better than waking up on the weekend to hot off the griddle pancakes, right?  Well, that involves waking up and immediately starting to prep the ingredients, making the pancakes, and then doing a full clean up, which always makes me steer clear of making them.  So, I resort to the next best thing--frozen pancakes.  On my recent trip to Trader Joe's (I think you can sense the trend in my posts, that I absolutely love Trader Joe's) I noticed they had a box of frozen silver dollar pancakes for $1.99!  I figured that I had to try them since I love pancakes and this was such a great deal.  The serving size is 11 pancakes, which may sound like a lot but they are super small.

I ended up having about 9 and it was plenty.  These were good for frozen pancakes, but seeing that pancakes are my favorite food it did not nearly come close to fresh pancakes.  I guess if I want to satisfy my pancake craving the best bet is to either make them myself or go out and get them.  For now, this is a decent frozen option, and they are very convenient if you are on the go because you can literally pick one up and eat it in two bites.