tbsp

By the creator of Spoon Catering, here’s its lesser known, neighboring gem.  Tbsp is a cozy, unassuming storefront that applies the business’s concept of home-cooked love and freshness to restaurant cooking. A rustic country-side aura sets the tone for its spacious seating area, where patrons can enjoy a casual midday meal. At the front, a whitewashed wooden shelf displays jelly-filled mason jars and canisters of buttermilk pancake mix for fans to buy and bring home.

So Alan, Nathalie, Jay and I met up for a little Sunday brunch on the second day of New York City spring. Naturally Jay had the breakfast pizza – melted Manchego cheese on two slices of toasted pan tomat, topped with double-smoked bacon, fresh pica de gallo salsa and two fluffy poached eggs. It’s a farm-fresh alternative to the heavier hollandaise-doused benedict brunch classic. It showcases Spoon’s locally grown inventory of ingredients, trucked in daily to their Flatiron premise.

I, on the other hand, abandoned my poached egg reliance upon seeing the irresistible buttermilk pancakes. You can choose from plain, blueberry, and shaved Valrhona chocolate. And unless you hate berries, get this without a doubt. Fresh handfuls of blueberries are embedded in clusters throughout the pillowy stack, tie-dying each pancake with splashes of deep blue and purple. I haven’t seen flapjacks quite like these – beautifully colored, thick and fluffy.

Then, for a bit of savoriness, two solid strips of double-smoked bacon.

This is the real Friend of a Farmer, tucked away on 20th Street between 5th and 6th, in a district that’s not particularly known for its food. But with spring here, and Madison Square Park just three blocks north, scrap the herd mentality and venture down this all too unobserved block.