Blondie and Brownie: Weekend Brunch: When the Line's Too Long at Clinton St.
Weekend Brunch: When the Line's Too Long at Clinton St.
I've gotten really bad at heading out early on the weekends, and if you want to visit the 'magical pancake place' aka Clinton Street Baking Company for brunch, you need to get there around abouts 9am. Needless to say, I have yet to eat their pancakes. I tried again recently, this time with Silly in tow, and we didn't make it. Shocker. So we started searching for brunch food.
We waltzed down Clinton Street, I was hoping to make it to Schiller's, but Silly spied The Clerkenwell first. This British gastro pub does have a more modern British feel, like an old pub that was finally cleaned and polished after 100 years of smoke and booze, then modernized a bit. Though they theoretically specialize in English pub food, there is a good amount of regular American on the menu.
Silly ordered the Grilled Banana Bread with Carmelized Bananas, Strawberries, and Vanilla Syrup. Above average, unusual brunch food-I don't usually see banana bread served like French Toast-a good replacement for the pancakes she wasn't having. A friend of ours choose to try the Eggs Benedict on ham. For $13, I'd expected a side, but he appeared to enjoy the meal. The Hollandaise sauce was shockingly yellow and appeared expertly made-no separation or thinning. The eggs were also well poached, another plus.
I really wanted French Toast though, theirs comes as cinnamon and raisin with raspberries and apples. I felt the toast needed more toasting, but it was acceptable. The usual with a slight twist. I thought about the pancakes down the street.
Now, I wasn't leaving until I tried the Sticky Toffee Pudding. I think I need to do some sticky toffee pudding trials and explorations since I love saying Sticky Toffee Pudding, and the dessert can be quite delicious, or go horribly wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, the cake was extremely moist, the sauce very buttery and caramelly, I did wish the cake soaked up a bit more of the sauce, but then again, I dug in as soon as the plate hit the table. The dessert was very decadent and rich, and did get cloying by the end.
Banana bread looks excellent. By the way-- try Clinton St. Bakery for supper- the pancakes are still on the menu then!
Clinton Street is one of my favorite places, but we haven't been for a while. You do definitely need to get there early.
Your review of Clerkenwell seems mixed. Maybe we'll try it for the stickey toffee pudding some time.
Essex is also a great place for brunch in the area.
Go to Trinity Place restaurant (near Wall St.) for sticky toffee pudding! It's delicious there!