Friday 15 April 2011

The Clinton Street Baking Company, New York

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Want a brunch of epic proportions that will stretch your stomach three-ways? Feeling organised? Get ready to queue here – at least one hour before you want to eat. Obviously if you’re going to come on a weekend, allow perhaps an hour and a half. But it’s worth it – the ambiance is great, and the food is pretty decent. Plus this place ends up rocking the top of many ‘best places to eat brunch’ lists in New York. Make sure you wear very forgiving jeans – or some kind of stretchy lycra – if you plan to eat here. Even the coffees are the size of a pillar box, and cookies the size of a lumberjack’s fist.

It’s not the most challenging or exciting food (as much as many people would have you believe on all the websites raving about this place) but it’s decent, hearty and well put together. It just lacks a bit of seasoning, a few herbs and a bit of punch. But really not to be sniffed at as a once-in-a-while experience. And they make bloody good Bloody Mary’s…

A lake of mocha coffee hanging out next to an ocean of Bloody Mary:

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Spanish scramble with chorizo, hash browns and sourdough bread:

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Buttermilk biscuit (that’s a savoury scone to us Brits) with roast tomato sauce, scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns. The cheddar melted onto the eggs tasted of nothing, which was a shame:

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Country plate: ham, biscuit, scrambled eggs and hash browns:

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If you can actually polish off the whole plate of food here, you have something in common with Elvis. All four of us were totally defeated, and we are greedy mo-fos. It’s definitely worth coming here once, as it has such a buzz, but the food isn’t THAT amazing.

I really do wonder about the logic behind the portion sizes in the US and how much food waste they have in this country. I know there is a strong culture of taking leftovers home, but I haven’t seen many people taking cold scrambled eggs with them to eat later…

Clinton Street Baking Company
4 Clinton Street (btw. East Houston & Stanton)
New York, NY 10002
http://www.clintonstreetbaking.com/

1 comment:

  1. I could eat a whole plate, lemme tell you!

    ReplyDelete