I’ll let you in on a secret: Frankie’s Spuntino, a cozy spot for reliably delicious Italian fare, serves a pretty damn good brunch. Just a few doors down from where weekend hordes queue up outside Clinton Street Bakery, I had some of the finest french toast in town–without waiting for a table. When I heard Frankie’s was opening Cafe Pedlar next door, I dutifully marched down to Clinton Street to sit in a sunbeam and sample some pastries. Keeping up Snackish is a dirty job sometimes but someone has to do it.

Cafe Pedlar serves Stumptown coffee, a name I hear thrown around so much I’m starting to wonder if they’re trying to annex a little bit of Starbuck’s turf. No matter, as the barista coaxed a fine cappuccino ($3.75) from the La Marzocco espresso machine. The pastries were even better. I sampled a moist and spongey olive oil cake with lemon zest ($3.50) and the pièce de résistance, a slice of crunchy french toast ($4.00). This was french toast imagined as pastry, a piece of eggy bread encased in a crisp maple syrup shell, served room temperature and eatable on the go, if you don’t mind sticky fingers.

The room will feel familiar to anyone living on the Lower East Side–a narrow, ground-floor dwelling with brick walls and few windows. Spartan’s the word when your main decoration is a shelf of wine bottles. But the open tables and mellow Bob Dylan tunes on the stereo invited lingering, whereas many of my favorite coffee shops (sorry Think, Abraço, and Ninth Street Espresso) seem designed to hustle me back onto the street. Next time I’m bringing a book and trying one of their delicately-twisted soft pretzels.

Cafe Pedlar and Frankies Spuntino also have Cobble Hill locations.

Cafe Pedlar
17 Clinton St. between Houston and Stanton. 7am-5pm Daily

If I were to describe my ideal brunch, it would sound a lot like the one I had at recently at Supper. We rolled up at around 10:30am on a Saturday and were seated immediately in a shady spot on the sidewalk patio–no wait list, no hungry mob, and given the lack of foot traffic on East 2nd Street, I could easily imagine I was in a tranquil little spot upstate. Bold, fresh-brewed coffee laced with crema arrived on gleaming white saucers, along with a plate of fresh crusty bread and spicy white beans soaked in olive oil. Most appetizers only seem to fill me up, but this one properly whetted my appetite for some of the best french toast in the city. A pile of plump berries, bananas, and pecans nearly hid two slices of thick challah that were cooked with a buttery-crisp crust while remaining moist and chewy within ($9.95). A pat of raspberry butter–a nice touch–slowly melted its way into the dense, eggy bread. I’ve had superb French toast at both Franie’s Spuntino and Café Condessa, but Supper might be my top pick.

Eating french toast, while wonderful, is a little like having dessert to start your day, so I ordered grilled polenta, which they also serve at dinner. This was the more intriguing, if complicated dish. Two perfectly-poached eggs perched on four bars of rich polenta, served on a bed of prosciutto, under a mass of shaved fennel. With parmigiano cheese angled on top. It makes me exhausted to describe it, let alone eat it. Each ingredient individually was quite good, but I wasn’t quite successful at combining the moving pieces on my fork—they ought to throw this sucker on a sandwich! A side of thick-cut, crispy bacon provided a familiar, savory respite ($5.95). All told, two dishes were plenty to share between two people. With the bacon and with two coffees our bill came to $36 (minus tip).

Perhaps we lucked out by arriving earliy-ish, because judging from the food, the queues at dinner, and the popularity of the other two restaurants from this crew (Frank and Lil’ Frankie’s) I’d expect there to be more lines for brunch at Supper. Fortunately for us antisocially lazy types, you can get all this delivered. A roasted fennel and fontina omlette ($11.95) with a side of bread and mixed greens traveled quite well to my doorstep, while the french toast, in its pool of butter and berries, was a little bit worse for the journey.

Supper
156 E. 2nd Street between Ave. A and Ave. B
Mon-Thurs 8am-12am, Fri 8am-1am, Sat 10am-1am, Sun 10am-12am
Cash only, $10 minimum delivery (212) 477-7600

Think Coffee serves a mean cappuccino any day, but their iced cappuccino is My Drink for the summer. This beverage consists of 3 shots of espresso mixed with a little cold milk (to avoid plastic cup meltage), a bunch of ice, and lots of fluffy foamed milk spooned over top. The fusion of warm foam settling over ice cubes is not to be missed, so be sure to grab yours off the counter as soon as it’s ready. While it’s not technically on the menu—the chalkboard lists an “iced latte” which contains more milk and less foam—it has quite a few fans. “This is my favorite drink to make,” said the barista during my last visit.

There are other coffeeshops that I like, such as Abraco and Ninth Street Espresso, but I generally don’t linger there. At Think, however, sometimes I’ll settle in and do some reading. If you can tolerate the top 40 they play on weekends, it’s the kind of roomy, laid-back corner locale that seems to invite hanging out in blast of the A/C, or grabbing a chair outside to muse over the yuppified shell of CBGBs. Often enough, there’s someone with a lot of bags who seems to have set up a temporary office/rsidence, although there’s no free wifi at the Bowery location. You have to head over to the Mercer Street locale, deep in NYU country, to have webernets with your Think Coffee.

As for the menu, the coffee is organic and fair trade, and the bagels are the first thing they run out of (around 10:30am). Later in the day Think servers tolerable pre-made sandwiches (about $7), including mozzarella and tomato, hummus and vegetables, and swiss and prosciutto, or toasted cheese made-to-order. A number of diet-busting treats, like rugelah, brownies, and pecan pie, are in regular supply. In the evening they server beer and wine, with $3 pints during happy hour from 7-8. Recently, the listed beer was the mighty tasty Sixpoint Sweet Action.

Think Coffee
1 Bleecker St. (corner of Bowery & Bleecker)
Also: 248 Mercer St. (between 3rd St. & 4th St.)
Mon-Fri 7am-11:30pm Sat & Sun: 8am-11:30pm

French toast is one if my favorite foods, but I get to indulge so rarely. On weekend mornings I’m usually too unsociable to eat out, and cooking is the last thing I want to do. If someone made a tasty take-out version, I’d probably eat it every day.

Abraco Espresso’s version of pain perdu (or “lost bread,” since in France the traditional recipe calls for stale bread) is the french toast sandwich I’ve been missing. A slice of moist, eggy challah is folded over ricotta filling, dusted with powdered sugar, and wrapped in wax paper for no-fuss nibbling. The ricotta is like no other I’ve tasted, creamy and spiked with orange blossom, which adds just a hint of fruity, floral flavor. The pain perdu is pre-made–perfect when you’re on the go, costs $3, and is just the right mount of food to quell morning munchies. At first I was a little hesitant about eating room temperature french toast without syrup and other accoutrements, but now I’m a complete convert.

I’ve written about Abraco Espresso before. This closet-size cafe has great service with great attitude, top espresso and coffee, and delicious edibles like salads, sandwiches, and daydream-worthy frittata. The buttery-salty-sweet olive oil cookies flecked with raisiny dried olives are also not to be missed–mind you, this comes from someone who doesn’t even like olives.

Abraco Espresso, 86 E. 7th St.
Mon-Fri 7:30am-8pm, Sat 8am-8pm, Sun 9am-8pm

I’ve been ogling blow-ups of Dunkin’ Donuts new waffle breakfast sandwich since they started appearing around town, even though I was certain it was bound to be a let-down. I’m not knocking Dunkin’ out of sheer snack snobbery. After-school sojourns to the drive-thru for creamy-sweet coffees are what got me hooked on caffeine back in high school. But the donuts and breakfast sandwiches always had a slightly stale taste, like dashed expectations thrown in a microwave. This morning though, on day eleven of the cold from hell, my resistance crumbled and I found myself standing in a Dunkin Donuts, ordering a #8 combo–a waffle sandwich with medium coffee ($3.99).

The 410-calorie count made sense as I tore the paper away, revealing a sandwich no bigger than my palm, flattened between two slightly-soggy waffles. On the plus side, the waffles were subtly sweetened with maple, the bacon was actually crispy on the edges, the eggs were not nearly as rubbery as I’ve had in many a fast-food breakfast sandwich, and the American cheese was–well, orange and inoffensive. By the time I was finished I felt a surprisingly satisfied. I have to admit, in a pinch or far from Manhattan, I’d order this again.

Seriouseats.com does a side-by-side comparison of the Dunkin’ waffle sandwich and the McGriddle.

Dunkin Donuts 166 2nd Ave - open 24 hours