CLINTON ST. BAKING CO. & RESTAURANT
4 Clinton St.
646-602-6263
An anomaly among all those trendy little crudi huts, panini parlors, and nibblesalons scattered along the Lower East Side’s hippest restaurant row, the ClintonSt. Baking Co.-a.k.a. the Sarabeth’s of the trucker-hat set-makes the bestpancakes in town. Like any self-respecting flapjack flipper, chef Neil Kleinbergladles them out big, each one roughly the size of a whoopee cushion. Folding eggwhites into the batter at the last minute, he says, accounts for theirremarkable fluffiness. They’re light and springy, redolent of fresh butter, andfestooned with enough blueberries (in season, Kleinberg uses wild ones fromMaine) to satisfy a mama bear and her cubs. Demand is such that Kleinbergdoesn’t dare take them off the menu, even at dinner. “We get a lot of peopledown here who wake up at four o’clock,” he says, “At six, they come in, and theywant pancakes.”