To cross the City Island Bridge  “Welcome to City Island, Seaport of the Bronx”  is to enter an anomaly: a small town that lives within the borders of a great metropolis, an active fishing village with a 718 area code. People like to say that City Island is a slice of New England only 15 minutes from the Cross Bronx Expressway, but in fact its atmosphere is even more peculiar. Less Cape Cod, perhaps, than a tiny, Stephen King-like town on the lonesome Maine coast.

Image Credit... Todd Heisler/The New York Times

8 A.M. Take the 6 train to Pelham Bay Park and the BX29 bus across the bridge, then settle in for breakfast at the City Island Diner, 304 City Island Avenue, at Fordham Street, (718) 885-0362. It’s a little wainscoted place with prints of sailboats and some old-timers in the back discussing dead mobsters and the ponies. Catch up on your local news with the house copy of The Island Current (the feral-cat issue is heating up) and drink the coffee, which is not only strong but practically free when amortized over the number of attentive refills you receive. With a long day ahead, go heavy: the Belgian waffle ($5.50) or the “Man Overboard” omelet ($8.95), which has everything, the menu says, except the kitchen sink.