Pancake Month at Clinton Street Baking Co.

As I'd mentioned yesterday, I headed over to Clinton Street Baking Co. to try some of their infamous pancakes since February is Pancake Month in New York. For the ill informed, Clinton St. is rotating a delicious assortment of cleverly designed pancakes every few week days. Unfortunately these inventive pancakes are only served during the week, while their equally tasty blueberry pancakes are served over the weekend (or as an alternative to the special on weekdays).

Out of any day this month I chose yesterday (Feb. 17th) not only because I was available, but because they were serving Crunchy Banana Pancakes accompanied by a Cinnamon-Chili-Chocolate Sauce. I could easily forgo the bananas, but the cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce is just something I couldn't live without trying. As of late, I've been experimenting quite a bit with the composition of brownies and I've been toying with the idea of incorporating a few bars of chili infused chocolate into the brownie mix. I figured a taste of the cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce would be a perfect test trial.

Since Clinton St. does not take reservations, I anticipated a small wait. But, when my friend Diana and I arrived at 7:30pm, there were still a few empty tables seemingly begging for customers to devour pancakes on. Or maybe that was just my stomach talking? We were seated almost immediately and knew exactly what we wanted. I perused the menu, just for fun, and noticed that they offer a few weekly specials:

• Burger & A Beer for $10 (Monday - Friday, 6-8pm)


• 1/2 Price Bottles of Wine on Tuesdays (WARNING, the wine ranges from $38-$60)

After deciding that the wine was a little too pricey to accompany my pancakes, I ordered a Brooklyn Lager and the Crunchy Banana Pancakes. Since Diana isn't a big fan of bananas, she stuck with their Wild Maine Blueberry Pancakes with Maple Butter.

After ordering the two of us could barely contain ourselves. We had planned our pancake outing nearly a month ago and our mouths were watering in anticipation of the fluffy goodness that was merely minutes away. As we eyed the other tables, hoping to get a peak of what we just ordered, we noticed that the other tables had been served miniature biscuits. Hmm, we thought; why didn't we get these? We immediately tracked down the waitress and politely asked for them along with some of their Raspberry (and possibly Lemon) jam.

A few minutes later we were presented with four warm buttery miniature biscuits. Though they didn't truly need any condiments, we figured we'd just smother them anyway. And what a brilliant idea that was! As soon as we had devoured the biscuits, we began eating the jam alone. It really was just that tasty. Luckily, before we made ourselves sick, our pancakes gloriously made their way to the table. The three fluffy pillows on each plate seemingly floated themselves right in front of us, all dressed up for the occassion; one was adorned in blueberries, while the other was covered in chocolate sauce and fried bananas.

I was so excited when they arrived I could barely eat them. I started cutting them up, not sure which section I should choose for my first bite. Finally, I was able to spear a forkful of the pancake, banana, chocolate sauce, and maple butter and immediately plunged it into my mouth. I was speechless. I then proceeded to shove forkful after forkful of pancake goodness into the endless pit of my stomach. After about five consecutive bites I came up for air, and then a feeling of euphoria came over me. All I could think was YUM!

I mean just look at these babies! They taste even better than they appear and I know you all want to get in on it. Tonight is the last night Clinton St. will be serving the Crunchy Banana Pancakes with Cinnamon-Chili-Chocolate Sauce but you pretty much get the Blueberry Pancakes any ol' time. Though I must admit the Blueberry were a little too sweet for my tastebuds. But Diana devoured them all in one sitting, so to each their own.

For a list of Clinton St.'s daily pancake specials check their menu here. Get them while they last!

Also, be sure to grab a to-go bag of mini scones on your way out. Unfortunately we weren't aware of that little perk : (. Silly us, we thought those paper bags were for special people.

CLINTON STREET BAKING CO. & RESTAURANT
4 CLINTON STREET (BETWEEN E. HOUSTON & STANTON)