The Breakfast You Have to Sit Down For
Most weekday breakfast in Bay Ridge is handheld. It gets wrapped in foil, it goes into a bag with a coffee, and it gets eaten on the way to the R train or on a bench at the pier. That is a real and useful kind of breakfast, and we have written plenty about it in our guide to breakfast sandwiches in Bay Ridge.
Pancakes and French toast are the other kind. They need a plate, a fork, and about twenty minutes you were not planning to spend. You cannot walk with them. That constraint is the entire appeal: ordering a griddle breakfast is a decision to stop for a while, which is a different thing from deciding to eat.
Our breakfast menu lists Double Pancakes or French Toast with bacon, and the choice between those two is the only real question. It is worth taking seriously, because the two plates do very different things.
Pancakes and French Toast Are Not the Same Breakfast
They arrive looking like cousins, both golden, both under syrup, and people tend to treat the choice as a coin flip. It is not. The difference starts with what is actually being cooked.
Pancakes
A pancake is poured batter. It sets on the griddle into something cakey and open-textured, which means it behaves like a sponge: syrup goes in rather than sitting on top, and the whole round stays soft to the last bite. That absorbency is why pancakes feel sweeter than their ingredients suggest, and why they are the more forgiving order if you are sharing with someone who wants a few bites of something and not a full breakfast.
Order pancakes when you want the lighter, sweeter plate, when you are eating with kids, or when the breakfast is really a vehicle for coffee and sitting by the water for half an hour.
French Toast
French toast is bread, soaked in an egg custard and then griddled. The custard is the difference. It sets inside the slice while the outside browns, which gives you a firmer exterior and a softer, richer middle, closer to a baked dish than a cake. Because there are eggs in it, it eats heavier and holds you longer than the same volume of pancake would.
Order French toast when breakfast is also lunch, when you have been walking the waterfront promenade already and are genuinely hungry, or when you want something sweet that still has some protein doing work in the background.
Pancakes absorb. French toast sets. One is a sponge for syrup, the other is a custard with a crust. Pick based on how hungry you actually are.
The Bacon on the Side
Both come with bacon, and the salt is not a garnish. A plate of griddled sweet food with nothing against it gets monotonous about two thirds of the way through, which is the real reason so many people stop eating pancakes before they finish them. Alternating bites with something salty keeps the last third of the plate as good as the first. If you are the kind of person who eats the bacon first, consider saving half of it.
Why the Waterfront End Changes a Slow Breakfast
A sit-down breakfast is mostly about where you are sitting. We are at 10 Bay Ridge Ave, at the bottom of the hill where Bay Ridge runs out into the Narrows, which is a few minutes from the 69th Street Pier, the NYC Ferry landing, and Owls Head Park. That geography is the difference between a breakfast and a morning.
Our hours are built for it: 6 AM to 9 PM Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 9 PM Saturday and Sunday. The 6 AM weekday open means a proper plated breakfast is available before most of the neighborhood is awake, which our guide to early morning coffee in Bay Ridge gets into in more detail. The 9 PM close means nobody has to rush, and that a late-afternoon pancake is a legitimate option if that is the day you are having.
The move we would recommend on a weekend is to eat first and walk second. A griddle breakfast and then twenty minutes along the water beats the reverse order, because the walk is better on a full stomach and the plate is better when you are not already tired.
What to Drink With It
Sweet food narrows your drink options more than people expect. Our coffee is La Colombe and our tea is Rishi, and a few pairings hold up reliably:
Black drip coffee is the classic for a reason. The bitterness cuts syrup directly and resets your palate between bites, which is exactly what a sweet plate needs. A cappuccino works similarly but adds milk texture, and if you are deciding between milk drinks our breakdown of cappuccino versus latte covers the difference. A cold brew is the better choice in warm weather, since its lower acidity sits more comfortably alongside something rich.
If you would rather not stack coffee on top of sugar, the Rishi tea list is the better direction, and a plain black tea does the same cutting work as drip coffee with less weight. Juice is the other option, though a sweet juice with a sweet plate tends to be too much of the same note.
Feeding a Table
Pancakes and French toast are family food, which is why they are usually the first thing ordered at a table with kids at it. There is a Double Pancakes or French Toast option on our kids menu as well, which is the right size for younger kids. Our guide to the kids menu in Bay Ridge covers the rest, and family-friendly cafes in Bay Ridge is worth reading if you are planning a morning with a stroller.
For a bigger group, the honest advice is to order ahead. A table of eight ordering individually at the counter on a Sunday is slower than a table of eight whose food was placed in advance. Our catering page is the right starting point for anything built around a group breakfast, and office breakfast ideas covers the work version of the same problem.
If You Would Rather Not Sit Down
Delivery through GetSauce works for griddle breakfasts with one caveat: eat them promptly. Steam is the enemy of anything griddled, and a pancake that sits in a closed container for half an hour gives up its edges. Ordering for pickup at 10 Bay Ridge Ave and eating at the pier is the better compromise if the weather is cooperating. Our rundown of food and coffee delivery in Bay Ridge has the full picture, and you can always call (718) 777-6969 instead of scrolling.
A Simple Weekend Version
If you want a plan: come down to the water at 7 AM on a Saturday, before the neighborhood starts moving. Order French toast if you are hungry and pancakes if you are not. Take black drip coffee with either one. Save half the bacon for the end of the plate. Then walk north along the promenade toward the 69th Street Pier for twenty minutes and come back up the hill having had a morning instead of a meal.
More on the breakfast side of the menu is in our guides to the best breakfast on the Bay Ridge waterfront, Belgian waffles in Bay Ridge, and weekend brunch in Bay Ridge. If you want the neighborhood pages instead, we are a breakfast spot in Bay Ridge and a coffee shop in Bay Ridge at 10 Bay Ridge Ave, open 6 AM to 9 PM on weekdays and 7 AM to 9 PM on weekends.
Pancakes, French Toast, and a View of the Narrows
La Colombe coffee and Rishi tea at 10 Bay Ridge Ave, steps from the water. Open 6 AM to 9 PM weekdays, 7 AM to 9 PM weekends. Call (718) 777-6969 or order online.
