February is a month of magical things including Chinese New Year festivities, City Bakery’s Hot Chocolate Festival and Clinton Street Baking Company’s Pancake Month. Featuring a lineup of pancake specials, these elaborate pancake concoctions are mouth-watering. Going to Clinton St for brunch is near impossible unless you are one of those people who find great pleasure in 5 hour waits, so I’ve only ever come here for dinner. Breakfast for dinner!

Every table gets a plate of biscuits and butter. They are famous for having amazing biscuits, but I am sad to report that I am actually not a fan of these. I find that these biscuits are, dare-I-say, a touch undercooked for my liking. I want my biscuits to be slightly firmer, especially on the exterior. A bit more salt in the batter wouldn’t hurt either.

Their pancakes are the real deal though. Chocolate chunk pancakes with warm maple butter. The pancakes are super thick and fluffy.

Banana Walnut pancakes, also served with warm maple butter. That maple butter is amazing. It’s silky and smooth and not too sweet. It adds a sweet touch to the pancakes and does not overwhelm it, so you can still taste the actual pancake. However, not everyone at the table agreed. My friend who is a big fan of the Aunt Jemima variety wasn’t too happy with this rendition and felt that it was not sweet enough.

The special for pancake month was the blueberry crumb streusel pancakes. The pancakes are layered with blueberries in between, and it comes with fresh blueberry sauce, vanilla bean whipped cream, and a mini blueberry muffin on top. Everything tasted so fresh. I love how the blueberries will pop out between the layers of pancakes. Add a dip in the warm maple butter, and that is a perfect bite.

We also tried two types of bacon: double smoked and sugar cured. The double smoked bacon was really salty, so you have to alternate it with bites of other things. The sugar cured bacon was crazy good! The hint of sugar pairs really well with the bacon’s saltiness. I can have that whole order to myself. Actually, I think I pretty much did eat most of the bacon at our table. Hahaha

Clinton Street Baking Company

4 Clinton St (btw Ave B & Houston) New York, NY 10002