Breakfast at Milk Bar

I had the good fortune to go to Milk Bar, (670 Vanderbilt Ave., at the corner of Prospect Pl., 718-230-0844) recently, a bustling little cafe that serves incredibly delicious things. Whether it's the coffee, the baked goods or the main meal, it's all beautiful and tasty.

I ordered a full order of the Full Eggs, which means that I got two slices of incredible bread, each topped with ham, melted cheese, tomato (I also got it with avocado, which is extra) and a poached egg. Fantastic. You can get a half order of this, which is just one slice of bread with all the toppings. They have a vegetarian version, a plain version and a version sans eggs. I recommend going all out though!



The hubby decided to get the Scrambled Eggs on Croissant, which also came with ham & tomato and cheese. The croissant was flaky, moist and yummy, and made for an excellent bed for the sandwich fillings.



I also couldn't resist getting an order of the Cinnamon Toast, thick cut sourdough bread, topped with butter, cinnamon & sugar. It was decadent - just sweet enough to satisfy the need for sweet, and buttery enough to make it a sort of hearty treat.



And like I mentioned earlier, the Latte I had was not only fabulously flavorful, it was also gorgeously presented. I love this place and it's friendly owner, with whom we chatted after our meal. He's also got Cafe Madeline in Ditmas Park. Anyone been?

Breakfast at Four and Twenty Blackbirds

PIE! That'll catch my eye pretty quickly, and so I finally made my way to Four and Twenty Blackbirds, (439 3rd Avenue, at 8th Street, 718-499-2917) a new coffee shop, bakery, breakfast place in the Gowanus neighborhood the pretty much specializes in Pie! It's a very positive addition to this slowly getting life back strip of auto repair shops and various industrial businesses. It's gorgeous inside, with lots of windows, pressed-tin walls and ceiling, wood floors and gigantic wooden tables. It's simple and tasteful but cute, and the scent of freshly baked pies greets you as you step inside.

We got two orders of Egg in a Nest for our breakfast. This is something I know as a fried egg in a hole cut out of a piece of toast, but this, this was one-of-a-kind amazing. Part souffle, part savory muffin, part baked egg, it was juicy, fluffy and flavorful - with thyme and cheese to make it strong and tasty. Isn't it gorgeous?

I also got a Chocolate Chip Scone. It was flaky in all the right ways, dense, slightly sweet and wonderful. So pretty too, served on antique-y floral china.

I couldn't leave without getting a slice of pie, for later. Out of the four flavors (Apple, Strawberry Balsamic) I picked the Rhubarb Crumble. It, too, was delicious. Brown sugar and some cinnamon added just the right amount of sweetness to the oats on top. Fat slices of rhubarb throughout were perfectly tart and the crust was flaky and excellent. It was overwhelmingly buttery either, which was a nice change from the usual heavy baked goods found around town.

They do take custom pie orders, but make sure you give them two days notice. I am looking forward to going back for another slice of pie, and maybe a fig scone? Coming soon...Lunch!

Cookies & Cupcakes

There's a relatively new Coffee Shop/Art Gallery on Atlantic Avenue called Clover's Fine Art Gallery & Cafe (338 Atlantic Ave., between Smith & Hoyt, 718-625-2121). It's a huge gallery space in the back and seating in the front by the large window. I stopped in recently for a little pick-me-up and walked out with a Madeleine. It was dense yet light, and I could note the delicate flavors of citrus & vanilla. Their coffee was decent too - full-bodied, rich and mellow.



Further on down the road you'll find Downtown Atlantic (364 Atlantic Ave., between Hoyt & Bond, 718-852-9945). This is the restaurant that's also a bakery and has all the amazing looking cupcakes in the window. These babies are HUGE, and come in various flavors of cake and frosting (standard vanilla & chocoate, plus coconut, mocha, strawberry and more!), plus they've got cakes and pastries as well. Stop by for a box or call to place a special order for a special celebration.



They're really impressive and will delight young and old.

Brunch at Provini

I met up with a friend in Park Slope recently for Brunch, but the place I wanted to try turned out to be just a bar, so we went wandering around and lucky for us, found Provini (1302 8th Avenue, at the corner of 13th St., 718-369-2154). From the folks behind Bar Tano and Bar Toto, comes another cozy pressed-tin ceiling, wood bar eatery serving satisfyingly hearty & solid dishes. Light pours in through the front windows, and a large leather banquet lines one wall set up with tables for two.

I had a hard time choosing between an egg dish or a panini, but settled on the Black Forest Ham & Gruyere Panini with side salad. It was delicious. A substantial amount of ham was layered with cheese and grilled to perfection on delightfully crusty bread. The salad provided a nice, clean balance.



My friend ordered the Mushroom & Gruyere Fritatta which she described as "excellent" with "perfectly balanced tastes". Slices of the same crusty bread as in my panini were served alongside.



I also had a cappucino which was really good. The meal was priced very reasonably, our server was attentive and friendly and the space quietly elegant. I'm glad to know Park Slope is starting to get better dining options!

Brunch at Five Leaves

I've said it many times, Brunch may very well be my most favorite meal of the day/week. So many ways to have both savory & sweet flavors. Coffee is usually involved. Also eggs. And so, we made our way to Five Leaves (18 Bedford Ave., at the corner of Lorimer & Nassau, 718-383-5345) for their breakfast fare (having really enjoyed dinner there about a year ago). The amiable host greeted us warmly and seated us at the bar to wait for a table to become available.



We sat and sipped our delicious (and expertly made) lattes while listening to the first album by The Cure.



My boyfriend and I split two dishes, like we usually do, to maximize the taste experience, and to achieve a good balance of the savory and sweet flavors. I started with my half of the Fresh Sage Scrambled Organic Egg Sandwich served on a Panino Roll with Aged Cheddar Cheese. It was terrific. The sage was subtle yet strong, with flavorful eggs, a light & flaky panino roll and strong cheese.



We also split an order of the Ricotta Pancakes served with Honeycomb Butter, Blueberries, Strawberries, Sliced Banana and 100% real Maple Syrup. These were incredibly light, not very sweet, a bit tangy with a face made out of fruit and rich honeyed butter. They were perfectly browned and altogether wonderful.



I love this place. The food is wonderful, the details are attended to and the atmosphere is cozy and comfortable.

Breakfast at Tazza

I recently had the honor to join The Wandering Foodie for breakfast. He's in NY for his 93 Plates project, wherein he has three meals a day at different restaurants throughout the city, to make 93 meals in 31 days. We met at Tazza (311 Henry St., between Atlantic Ave. & State St., 718-243-0487), and enjoyed the good food and tasty coffee in the quiet atmosphere of the early morning. It's a great neighborhood joint, a coffee shop replete with pastries & sandwiches by day, wine bar by night. I had a latte, he ordered a cappuccino. Neither looked especially pretty, with no image made out of the foam so I didn't snap a photo, but the latte was creamy and strong.

I chose the Homemade Granola with Fruit & plain low-fat yoghurt. I love their Ricotta & Fig Panini, but I wanted to try something different. The granola was crispy & sweet, and was studded with tart, dried cherries & raisins and was topped with slices of strawberry & banana. The yoghurt was great too - thick & creamy and had a nice, strong flavor.



My dining companion chose the Steel Cut Oatmeal with milk, which came topped with slivered almonds, golden raisins and brown sugar. It was very milky, but nicely made. Good for a cold, winter morning. We also tried a plain marshmallow from Baked. We think it was a day old since it was a bit dried out and disappointing. I'm sure they're much better if you get them fresh. Overall I think Tazza is a nice place. The service was friendly, if a bit slow, and the space is serviceable for a casual get together. Just don't bring your computer expecting to hunker down for the day. There's a strict no-computer policy between the hours of 11am and 4pm.

Cafe Pedlar

Crowded on a recent weekday morning, Cafe Pedlar (210 Court St., corner of Warren St., 718-855-7129) had about 6 people behind the counter, none of whom seemed to be actually working, instead they were talking loudly to each other as if performing for the waiting customers. The end result is that you feel like someone not in on the joke. Not something you want to be cultivating in a neighborhood coffee joint. It's too bad, because the space is lovely to be in - the Franks really know how to decorate. The coffee, on the other hand, is a bit perplexing.



Always gorgeously presented, the taste is slightly different each time. Sometimes it's great, but sometimes it's burnt-tasting or a bit watery, and many times it's been slightly & mysteriously sweet. On this particular visit it was great - creamy and full-bodied.

I also ordered an Almond Croissant, which was very good. Flaky, sweet, filled with almond paste and covered in confectioners sugar. It's a pretty large serving as well.



So, like I said, I often find it frustrating to be in there, but a well-made latte is sometimes worth it.

Breakfast at Ortine

Happy New Year Everyone! It's good to be back.
I am making a slight change to the publication of Eat It Brooklyn.
There will now be posts twice a week, on Mondays and on Fridays.
Happy Eating!

On a semi-desolate stretch of Washington Ave., with repair shops and construction sites, sits the warm, welcoming Ortine (622 Washington Ave., between Dean & Pacific, 718-622-0026). There are three tables in the front area, where the counter and tea assortment live which is connected via a long hallway to the larger back dining area. Mix & match cups and saucers lend a playful & colorful vibe, and the free wi-fi and nightly happy hour (closed Tuesdays), complete with Hot Wings from cage-free & organic chickens make for a round-the-clock goodness. They also boast having their own in-ground vegetable garden out back, a first for NYC.



I met a friend for breakfast recently and loved everything about our time there. I had read complaints about the menu being overpriced, but the prices quoted online were higher than they were on our visit. Perhaps Ortine's owners responded to their customers and adjusted? The latte was perfect - creamy, slightly bitter yet smooth and hot. I hate a tepid coffee. I ordered the Homemade Granola & Yoghurt (local), which came in a lovely ceramic jug. The granola was delicious, with pumpkin seeds and pieces of dried apricot. It was quite filling as well.



My friend ordered the Eggs Florentine which came baked in a dish with toast on the side. The eggs were wonderful - creamy, flavorful, with plenty of spinach and cheese.



The staff was friendly, the space bright and cheery and the food wonderful. I'm eager to try Ortine for dinner, and definitely will be back in the warmer months to enjoy the produce from their garden!

Breakfast at Naidre's

I've written about the breakfast sandwich at Naidre's (502 Henry St., on the corner of Sackett St., 718-596-3400, and there's one in Park Slope) before, but there are other great breakfast treats to get there, available until 3pm everyday. I do have to mention the breakfast sandwich since it is a Classic. Here it's made on a bagel, roll or croissant, with eggs, cheese and either bacon, sausage or tofu bacon. If you eat it in house, it comes with a side of hash brown potatoes. The sandwich is good, best on a croissant, but the potatoes have always left me disappointed. Not salty enough, too greasy, and kinda boring.



The coffee is strong at Naidre's, but since there's a never-ending rotating cast of characters behind the counter, nobody seems to ever master that art of barista-ing. This latte was supposed to have a heart on it, but it ended up looking more like a butt than anything else. Maybe a butterfly?



On this occasion there was an order of the Vegan Scramble with tofu bacon and potatoes. The report was that they were fine, NOT as good as the Vegan Scramble at WaterCourse Foods, in Denver, where, while my friend was last eating them lasy year on Election Day AND saw two members of the Beastie Boys, perhaps adding to the scramble's yumminess. Naidre's version was a bit dry & bland, but OK.



My favorite breakfast item is the Yogurt, Granola and Fruit. This one was presented in a smiley face and was as tasty as it was happy. Tart, plain yogurt, crunchy granola and fresh blueberries & strawberries with dried cranberries and walnuts. Such a good combo, and totally hearty & filling. Depending on the season there can also be melon, banana & grapes.



It's a good neighborhood place, and usually there's a place to sit in the morning, although it does get pretty crowded with people and their small children. The work-at-home crowd comes in later and stay throughout the day. Great mac-n-cheese is on hand for dinner.

Sandwiches at Brooklyn Standard

I read about the Brooklyn Standard Deli back in March on Brooklyn Based and have been itching to check it out ever since. The still-new shop bills itself as the new bodega, offering the neighborhood everything it needs - convenience, food (both made to order and packaged), snacks, drinks, even condoms and smokes, but with the majority of their products being natural, organic and as local as possible. They use organic milk in their Stumptown coffee, and boast a whole line of vegan dishes to choose from, in addition to meaty breakfast and lunch deals and various pastries and desserts. I also saw a huge selection of sodas made with real sugar, not nasty high fructose corn syrup.

We got The Greenpoint (seemed fitting) which is Ham, Broccoli Rabe, Pepper Jack Cheese, Fresh Arugula and Arugula Oil on Grilled Foccacia. It was sooooo good! Melty, spicy cheese, salty ham, delicious bitter greens and a nice, soft bread, grilled to greasy perfection.



I also made sure to get a Cloud Cookie - a chocolate, chocolate chip cookie that so soft in the middle it's almost melting. It was so rich, it lasted me two days!



We also had a Stumptown latte that was pretty good, and cheaper than most of the other places serving Stumptown. I loved Brooklyn Standard and would go there many times a week if I lived in Greenpoint.

Breakfast at Prime Meats

I've said it before, but I really love going out for breakfast, especially in the middle of the week when you're one of maybe two or three tables in a place and it's quiet and mellow and peaceful. I had the luxury of having some time off, and took advantage by having breakfast at the lovely Prime Meats (465 Court St., at Nelson St., 718-254-0327). It's been decorated so nicely, with hand-painted wallpaper, dark wood and delicate-looking light fixtures, and the food is top-notch as well. The menu is similar to Frankie's, the other spot owned by the Franks, just a few doors down, but that's OK, cuz their brunch is delish.

On this day, I chose the Granola with blueberries and yoghurt, which is oaty, nutty and has bits of dried fruit. The yoghurt is tangy and creamy and the fresh blueberries offer a burst of juicy, sweetness.



My boyfriend got the French Toast, of course, because it's just so amazing. I don't know what they do to it (well, I think it has something to do with butter), but its crispy, slightly burnt outside and fluffy, chewy inside is perfect. With real maple syrup and more of those fresh blueberries, it's one of my most favorite dishes out there.



The coffee is worth mentioning here too - they serve Stumptown coffee which I really like. I know there's a major division of opinion out there, but I find their lattes to be exceptional, and the iced coffee to be flavorful and not watery at all.



Definitely a great spot any time of day. The hours are great - they're open really early so you can stop in before work, or in the evening for a drink and dinner.

The Bagel Store

There seems to be a lack of good bagels in Brooklyn. I'm not happy with any in my neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, that's for sure (if you've found a good place, please, let me know!). However, there is an amazing place in Williamsburg called The Bagel Store (754 Metropolitan Avenue, between Graham Ave. & Humboldt Ave., 718- 782-5856). There's always a line and since they do such brisk business, the bagels are usually warm and fresh.

On this particular visit, we got two, very different bagels and spreads. One was a toasted Poppy Seed bagel with Lox Cream Cheese. The cream cheese was good; nice and salty, with big chunks of lox, but it was a little on the orange side, so it makes me think that there's dye in that spread, or the lox that they use. The bagel was perfectly crusty on the outside, loaded with poppy seeds, and nicely soft on the inside. They were also well proportioned - not too big or small, and not too over-loaded with spread.



We also got a French Toast Bagel with Raisin and Walnut Cream Cheese. This is not the kind of bagel I normally get, since I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to bagels, and anything sweet that's not Cinnamon Raisin just doesn't seem right. But it's a new world in terms of bagels, and I'm ready to try new things. This bagel is nicely sweet, with sprinkled sugar on the bottom, powdered sugar on top and swirls of cinnamon throughout. There was something off with this bagel though - I think the raisins had turned which lent the whole thing a slightly alcoholic flavor. Not necessarily bad, like sour, but off. I'm willing to chalk it up to a random bad luck day, so you shouldn't necessarily stay away from this combo in the future if you're wanting a dessert bagel.



You can also get Egg Sandwiches at the Bagel Store, and lots of different spreads depending on your mood. I highly recommend this place!