The massive, magnificent Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine has long (like: more than a century long) been an integral part of the Morningside Heights community, that mini-neighborhood within the Upper West Side that includes Columbia University. In addition to regular (30 times a week!) Episcopal worship services, St. John's Cathedral provides numerous social services and outreach programs; runs the Cathedral School, one of Manhattan's most sought-after K-8 private schools; and hosts many hugely popular annual events, such as the Blessing of the Animals on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the screening of the classic vampire flick Nosferatu, and the Winter Solstice series of concerts starring the Paul Winter Consort. It's also just a really amazing building, with an interesting history, and dozens of cool things to look at and marvel over both inside and out on the grounds.

Anyway, we've been to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine countless times over the years, but it wasn't until last December that the folks over at the excellent art, architecture, and design blog CollabCubed clued us in to the Cathedral's "Vertical Tour", in which you climb through the walls, perch ridiculously high out over the floor, and get to climb out onto the Cathedral's roof. After a couple of failed, sold-out attempts to check it out, we finally made it last weekend and, with a couple of caveats, highly recommend what turned out to be a very cool experience.            

Although St. John's Cathedral turns out NOT to be the "world's largest gothic cathedral" (a "fact" which we've been told all of our lives, and have subsequently relayed to countless visitors and New York City newcomers), it is still awesomely enormous, and it's never felt more that way than when we were gingerly peering over the highest balcony out onto the cavernous interior, up there next to the highest stained glass windows. To get to the top you have to climb steep, narrow, winding stairs (which run counterclockwise, as is traditional in churches and cathedrals we learned, a practice begun in Medieval times to discourage right-handed warriors from sword fighting in the stairwells), so sensible shoes and a bit of stamina are definitely required for the Vertical Tour.  

In addition to the incredible, birds-eye interior views, the Vertical Tour at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine also offers close-up exterior views of the Cathedral's buttresses; takes you into the granite and limestone building's dark and vaguely spooky "attic" (it never occurred to us that the Cathedral's ceiling is not, in fact, its roof); and then, gloriously, out onto the terraced roof itself, for a spectacular view of the Cathedral's grounds (including the freaky Peace Statue… also: you can play "spot the peacocks" here), Manhattan Valley, and the Upper West Side beyond. 

So what are the caveats? The first 15 minutes or so of our tour were (mis)spent on the Cathedral's floor, as our guide put on her grammar-school-teacher voice and somewhat patronizingly taught us about the stained glass and such. We have zero patience for things like this, but everything completely changes once you enter the wall and start climbing. Also, after weeks of sell-outs, we had only one other person on our tour, which gave us plenty of freedom to move around and take pictures and the like. Had there been the full complement of 20 people on the St. John's Cathedral's Vertical Tour, we fear the experience may have been different. But if you get lucky, this a really fun and different New York City adventure. 

Cathedral of St. John the Divine Vertical Tours details 

The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine offers Vertical Tours on Wednesdays at 12:00 noon and on Saturdays at both noon and 2:00. The Vertical Tour last about 90 minutes and costs $15 for adults. The website says you need to bring a flashlight, but you really don't. Definitely don't wear heels, though. For more information about the Vertical Tour as well as the numerous other architecture and "symbolism" tours offered, please see the St. John the Divine website, here.      

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For months the signage outside promised that Motorino's Chef Mathieu Palombino would be opening his intriguing-sounding Bowery Diner "soon". Our eagerness was understandable: could Chef Palombino do for traditional New York City diner food what he had done for pizza at his excellent Motorino? Early reviews were mixed after Palombino finally opened The Bowery Diner doors last month, but by the time we finally got there last weekend the place was respectfully crowded though not over-loud, and we had a (mostly) first-rate, thoroughly satisfying diner-ish dinner — and will likely be back for more.  

Bowery Diner Offers Staples of Downtown Restaurants & New Gourmet Selections

The Bowery Diner's menu is extensive (as befits the genre), and though, thank goodness, it has plenty of classic NYC diner items (the always-welcome milkshakes, grilled cheese, burgers, chowders, etc), the classically-trained, food-loving Chef Palombino also throws in a number of unexpected treats (whelks! duck salad! choucroute! baked goat cheese!) just to mix things up. We tried to order a bit of the old and new, starting with Palombino's take on that New York City classic, the Rueben… but instead were given the Bowery Diner Smoked Meat Sandwich. Since we had gone back-and-forth between the two before ordering, we decided to just keep what they had brought, and were rewarded with a fine example of that once-ubiquitous Lower East Side staple, the meat remarkably rich and almost butter-tender, the mustard sharp, the bread chewy, the side slaw nicely crunchy and carroway-y. 

The Bowery Diner Duck Confit plate came next, which we both loved–talk about rich and tender!–even though some might have claimed it was too salty. This is a lot of duck for $21, and it arrives almost buried under a pile of what turn out to be pretty decent curly fries. Plus: a bouquet of fresh, lemony greens. More than enough food to make a meal, this dish. Our side order of Three Squash Puree continued the thick-and-heavy theme, especially as it was topped with maple syrup and melted cheddar, the cheese adding a nice hit of salt to sweetness. Really, the only dud in our otherwise pleasing Lower Manhattan meal was, surprisingly enough, the milkshake. We ordered a banana-chocolate milkshake thinking chocolate ice cream and a bunch of bananas all blended together, but instead received vanilla ice cream (maybe?) with a few fresh cut bananas and a bit of chocolate syrup for a decidedly unexciting $7.50 dessert. Not sure whether the barkeep (or whomever) blew it here, or whether that's their recipe, but either way, we'll probably try the Cherry Pie next time we go. 

 A Bite at The Bowery Diner in Downtown New York:

The Bowery Diner is located on Bowery, just south of Stanton Street, next door the New Museum, and is open on Monday through Thursday, and on Sunday, from 7:00 a.m. until 12:00 midnight, and on Friday and Saturday until 2:00 a.m.. For a look at all of the Bowery Diner menus, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, please see the restaurant's website, here. 

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We have mixed feelings about the Standard Hotel, located smack in the middle of the Meatpacking District. Yes, the Standard Hotel and its New York hot spots–bars, clubs, restaurants, roof decks, beer gardens, etc.–tend to attract the sort of wannabe high-rolling party-people that can make the neighborhood insufferable at times. But we do love the architecture and design of the place; and it is nicely integrated with the High Line, one of our favorite destinations in the city; and, honestly, every time we've patronized one of the Standard's establishments–notably the roof deck bar and creperie, as well as the namesake Standard Grill–the staff couldn't have been more warm and welcoming. And now, another example: the Standard Hotel Ice Skating Rink, heading into the stretch run of its second season, and where we went, and kind of had a blast, for the first time just last week. 

The first thing you should know about the Standard Hotel NYC Ice Skating Rink is that it's tiny. As in 3,000 square-feet tiny. As in three-or-four-long-strides-and-make-a-left tiny. This is not an ice skarting NYC  rink on which to get a workout, or practice your double axels. But unlike a few other smallish pop-up rinks around town (at the W in Battery Partk City, for example), the ice at the Standard Hotel New York rink is real, not synthetic, and it's well-maintained, and as slick as you would want it to be. Plus–and fortunately, given its size–whenever we've walked by (which is often) or skated upon (which is once) the Standard Ice Skating Rink, it's been delightfully uncrowded. 

Of course, many people come to the Standard Hotel Ice Skating Rink, do a couple of laps around the ice, and then settle into the outdoor, heavily heat-lamped terrace for snacks and treats from the Kaffeehaus, including warm, often boozy beverages (crushed candy cane hot chocolate with a spike of bourbon, anyone?) as well as soup, sweet or savory crepes, and desserty waffles. There are even blankets provided, under which some serious cuddling can done. And though it's not free to skate at the Standard Hotel Rink, your $12 admission plus $3 rentals is still cheaper than an evening at the "free" rink in Bryant Park can be, what with the $14 skate rental price and $7 bag check up there. All in all, definitely worth checking out before it closes mid-March. 

The Standard Hotel Ice Skating Rink details 

The Standard Hotel Ice Skating Rink is located on the corner of Washington and West 13th Streets, right in front of the main (cool-yellow-doored) entrance to the hotel. The Standard Rink is open on Monday through Thursday, and on Sunday, from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 midnight, from 12:00 noon until 1:00 a.m. on Friday, and from 9:00 until 1:00 on Saturday. For more information, please see the Standard Hotel website, here. 

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Part bakery, part hot-chocolate bar (there's coffee, too), part sandwich spot, and all with the distinct flavor of Spanish cuisine, the new La Churreria on Mulberry Street does a great job of offering weary Soho and Nolita shoppers and on-the-go quick-bite seekers cozy relief on a dreary February day. Opened in December by Jesus Manso, aka Lolo, of next-door Socarrat renown (by the way, one of our favorite meals and nicest nights of 2011 was spent at the bar here, falling in love with a platter of paella), La Churreria has a pedigree that should at least get you in the door. And though La Churreria may specialize (and, mostly, excel) in frying up its namesake doughy, chewy, cinnamon-y sticks, there are also enough other things on the menu here, both sweet and savory, to earn it a permanent spot among our top picks for snacks and treats.   

We stopped in to La Churreria on one of the coldest, rawest afternoons of this so-far mostly fake NYC winter, and had a very pleasant hour or so chatting and sipping and snacking. The space at La Curreria is tiny–just a few elevated tables, a few stools before a narrow counter on which to perch your food and drink–but we're guessing that a good deal of the business comes from on-the-go "breakfast rolls" (the Huevos Con Chorizo sounds especially appealing) and take-out lunch baguette-built Bocatas, or, to the laymen, sandwiches. If you do stay, the La Churreria staff is friendly and flirty (not inappropriately), the seats comfy, the neighborhood ideal for people-watching. 

Anyway: the food. We were hungry, so split one of La Churreria's "Pierna De Cerdo En Adobo Pan Blanco" sandwiches, which featured mounds of juicy shredded pork, caramelized onions, melty manchego, and was salty, spicy, and completely satisfying. And, of course, we had an order of Churros, a six pack which, while fine texture-wise, definitely needed the thick cup of, in our case, Double Dark dipping chocolate (you can also get hazelnut or "spicy aztec" flavors) to achieve the proper sugar intake level such a snack requires. And so, properly fueled, we left La Churreria re-energized and ready to take on the rest of our day.   

Stop by La Churreria in Downtown 

La Churreria is located on Mulberry Street just south of Houston Street, and right next door to Lolo's Soccarat paella restaurant (the original Soccarat, in Chelsea, is smaller than the one here but, we hear, just as good). La Churreria is open on Sunday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday until 11:30. For a look at the complete La Churreria menu, please see the restaurant's MenuPages page, here.  

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We've seen three of Jon Kessler's wild installations over the past few years–the first, the massive Palace at 4:00 a.m. at PS1, was incredible–and even though they've been thematically and mechanically similar, we really don't get tired of the man's work. Take Jon Kessler's The Blue Period, which he created in 2007 but is now being shown for the first time in America at Salon 94 Bowery. Here, in one glorious explosion of whirring, splattery, flickering madness, are all of the elements that make a Jon Kessler installation such a pleasure: spinning surveillance cameras, stacks of monitors, miniature worlds, kinetic machines. And tons of blue paint. And cut-out people and tiny faces. And spectacle to burn.    

Part of the fun (and interactive-ness) of a Jon Kessler installation is trying to match up the many closed-circuit cameras with the screens on which their images are being projected. And even though Kessler's Blue Period is fairly small (as compared to the Palace at 4:00 a.m., anyway), most of the surveillance cameras in the piece are in constant motion, or are tucked away inside a diorama-ish structure, and the monitors aren't always placed in logical positions, or they're part of a pile, so unless you have a friend (or an eager child) willing to be "camera bait", the visual stimulus can be a little too overwhelming to figure out the work's internal structure. Not that you need to understand The Blue Period in order to appreciate its energy and creativity… 

In addition to the whole camera/monitor interaction, our other favorite part of Jon Kessler's Blue Period is his liberal use of life-size photographic cut-outs of hip young men and women, often splattered (or decorated) in blue paint. When you're the only viewer at the Salon 94 Bowery, wandering through the piece in the gallery's downstairs room, the corner-of-your eye presence of all these other "people" can be a bit unnerving. And, finally, there's Kessler's great double-barreled, zoetrope-ish, mini-head sculpture, which spins somewhat frantically in the back and throws shadows to match the blue splatter that covers the walls. Very cool, all of it.  

Jon Kessler: The Blue Period at Salon 94 Bowery details 

Jon Kessler's installation the Blue Period will be at Salon 94 Bowery until March 10. The Salon 94 gallery is located on Bowery between Stanton and Rivington Streets, just north of the New Museum, and is open on Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. On Tuesday Salon 94 Bowery opens at 1:00 p.m. For more information about the gallery and Jon Kessler's The Blue Period, please see the Salon 94 website, here.

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Chef Christos Christou of the Upper East Side's brand new Yefsi Estiatorio knows what old-school Greek dishes should taste like. As a child in Cyprus, he apparently spent years poking around his family's Taverna, learning from this grandmother how to get that magic combination of olives and lemon, garlic and oil, that makes rustic Greek cuisine really sing. Here in New York City Christou did his time at the Upper West Side neighborhood Greek favorite Molyvos and Milos, as well as honing his chops at the French Culinary Institute. And now Chef Christos Christou has opened an old-world-looking spot on the far Upper East Side, a neighborhood that can always use another solid dining option.

Yefis: New Greek Restaurant New York Will Love for Classic Greek Cuisine

One of theNow, you should know that our baseline for Greek food is Symposium, the vaguely hippie-ish spot up near Columbia that's been around forever (since 1969, if you want to get specific), and where we spent many long nights devouring huge platters of all the Greek all-stars and talking about whatever 19 year olds talk about after more than a few glasses of Retsina. So when we stopped in to Yefsi Estiatorio the other night, as when we eat at any Greek restaurant, it's as much a nostalgia trip as it a desire for sustenance. Needless to say, though the Yefsi menu is appealingly large and varied, we stuck with the classics, and were rewarded with a (mostly) delicious trip down memory lane. 

Our pair of starters really nailed it. The Taramosalata, a creamy fish roe dip that, when done correctly, is one of our all-time favorite dishes, was just the right consistency–not too thick, not too fluffy–with a lovely balance of flavors: salt, sea, oil, olive. Perfect with the accompanying chewy charred pitas. The Avgolemono soup was also first-rate, with plenty of tender chicken floating in the lemony, oily broth. And if the Mousaka was under-seasoned, at least the textures were right (this eggplant/bechamel/potatoes/ground beef dish can be a goopy mess), so fingers crossed Chef Christou will continue to tinker with his recipes. All in all, though, Yefsi is a welcome, grown-up-but-reasonably-priced addition to the Yorkville neighborhood.      

 Say Yes to Yefsi Estiatorio

Yefsi Estiatorio is a Greek restaurant located on York Avenue between 78th and 79th Street, and is open on Sunday through Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday until 11:00. For more information and a look at the complete Yefsu menu, please see the restaurant's website, here.   

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Sure, it's pretty normal for food- (and fun-) loving New Yorkers to impersonate a flash mob when an on-fire chef's restaurant opens in the trendy precincts of Soho, the West Village, the upper Bowery, et al. The Dutch. The new Acme. Tertulia. Miss Lily's. Dozens more, mobbed from day one. But out among the stroller pushers of Park Slope, Brooklyn, it's highly unusual to see the kind of energy and excitement that recently greeted Chef Dale Talde's spanking-new "asian-fusion" spot, Talde, right near the F train on 7th Avenue. In fact, there was so much gushing and internet chatter about Talde Park Slope that we had to go check it out.  Talde isn't quite a destination restaurant, but the Asian fusion food is quite good, the long, many-windowed room pretty, the atmosphere buzzy without being too frantic. The next time you're passing through these parts, Talde is well worth a visit. 

We sampled a few items from the short but appealing Talde menu (at least half of the dishes involve some sort of bacon; almost all are temptingly low-priced), and enjoyed every bite. Chef Dale Talde, who you may or may not remember from Top Chef, seems to have a deft way of combining strong ingredients without everything overwhelming everything else. Take the Perilla Leaf amuse-bouche-y starter, for example, for which Talde Park Slope serves up a quintet of those unsubtle bits of foliage topped with a tiny but intense (and chewy!) toasted shrimp, some spicy peanuts crumbs, bits of coconut, AND a dollop of tamarind-caramel. That's a lots of flavors and textures in one bite, but it works.  

Next up at Talde was maybe our favorite Asian fusion dish of the night, the Heirloom Squash and Silken Tofu salad, the roasted roots and creamy curd complemented by crispy flash-fried kale, apple slices and a terrific citrusy ponzu dressing. We are definitely getting this again. And if Chef Talde's going to be kind enough to put Pad Thai on the menu with fried oysters (four of them!) and a seeming-rasher of chewy bacon, you're kind of obligated to eat it, right? Well, that's the way we felt, anyway (especially at $15 for a huge plate), and were more than satisfied with the results. This food at Park Slope's Talde is well-conceived, and nicely executed. The crowds, we predict, are here to stay.     

Talde in Park Slope details 

Talde is located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on the corner of 7th Avenue and 11th Street, two blocks from the F train. Talde is currently open every day from 5:00 p.m. until 12:00 midnight, with plans for a weekend brunch in the works. For more information and a look at the complete Talde menu, please see the restaurant's website, here.     

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You can be forgiven for not feeling too excited about the grand reopening, after a year of rethinking and redesigning the galleries within its historic building (and figuring out how the near-bankrupt institution can pay its bills), of the South Street Seaport Museum. Yes, there is an actual museum down there, right in the thick of the chain stores and bad restaurants that make the stretch one of the most mallish in all of Manhattan. Even more surprising: the South Street Seaport Museum, at least now, post-renovations (we admit, we'd never been before), and with lots of new exhibitions, is actually pretty cool. It's interesting, well thought-out, mostly entertaining, and features lots of artifacts and information the likes of which we've never before seen. And they've kept the admission price low at Seaport Museum NYC, at only $5 for ages 9-and-up (8 and under are free), so you can pop in and spend 30 minutes or so and not feel like a rube in your own town. 

So what's the South Street Seaport Museum all about? Some galleries–there are 16 now open to the public–have on display things you might expect, such as intricate replicas of famous ships, presented both in bottles (kind of amazing) and out (less amazing for us landlubbers), as well as an incredible assortment of hand tools. The design of these galleries is terrific, and had us staring at. for example, rusty awls and planes and compasses for far longer than we would have predicted (this room also has an interactive video element, which describes the workings of most of the tools). And don't miss the newly-revealed remnants of the 1890s Sweet's Hotel, which are delightfully creepy, as well as the historic graffiti wall, covered with the creative expressions of 1870s sailors, presumably drunken.  

But there are also several galleries at the South Street Seaport Museum which we would never would have predicted, some a good deal more successful than others. We loved the Edward Burtynsky Shipbreaking room, which showcases about 20 of the photographer's brilliant prints from his series on the Bangladeshi beach that serves as a landfill for monstrous, decommissioned ships, which are then stripped by bottom-of-the-rung workers in what you can imagine are pretty horrific conditions (one quibble: none of the most hellish of Burtynsky's images in the series are here). Powerful stuff. Also a bit of a shocker: the South Street Seaport Museum's Occupy Wall Street exhibition, featuring photographs from the ongoing political movement's time in Zuccotti Park. We also really liked Eric Sanderson’s "Manhatta" room, which shows in stunning, back-lit fashion what the island of Manhattan looked like prior to 1609 (hint: there were tons more trees). Definitely worth a visit.   

South Street Seaport Museum details 

The South Street Seaport Museum is located on Fulton between Water and South Streets, within the cobble-stoned, pedestrian-only plaza there. The Museum is open each week from Wednesday through Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. For (slightly) more information, please see the South Street Seaport Museum website, here.      

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There's never a bad time to eat a big bowl of first-rate ramen as far as we're considered. Heck, one of our favorite ramen bowls last summer was at Midtown Manhattan's Totto Ramen, on one of those miserable muggy evenings, when the last thing in the world you want to do is to pour hot broth into your belly… unless said the hot broth in Asian cuisine tastes really, really good. Anyway, that said, clearly the best time of year to sit down and slurp your way through a steaming bowl of thick noodle soup is right now, so it's good to know that Tabata Noodle Raman exists, and, more important, that it is excellent.  

Midtown Manhattan Ramen Restaurant Near the Port Authority Brings Burmese Food to their Unique Asian Cuizine

Tabata Noodle is a cheery Midtown restaurant on a dreary block, sitting just south of the rear end of the Port Authority, a bright and friendly no-frills eatery that, as it so happens, serves up one of our new favorite ramen bowls in town. That'd be the Burmese-inflected (the owner and much of the staff are from that part of Asia) Tabata Ramen, a complex and oh-so-satisfying bowl of soup in which coconut milk has been added to the dense, creamy broth, the noodles are firm and chewy, the chicken spicy and tender, the eggs cooked in that wonderful hard-boiled-yet-runny way that the best noodle shops do. Delicious.   

We also tried one of the posted-on-the-wall specials, a Deep Fried Squid Leg (don't worry… they give you a pile; not just one), which made for a fine companion to our ramen, the cephalopods reasonably tender with a tasty, crunchy coating. Given its somewhat out-of-the-way location (unless you work for R/GA, or the Times, or live in Glenwood's Emerald Green), Tabata Noodle's clientele seems to be made up mostly of regulars, who are often greeted by name, with "usual" dishes remembered. But it's not overly clubby at Tabata Noodle, and first-timers like us were also treated with warmth and attention. Put Tabata Noodle on your list of pop-in places that are a sure thing. 

Have a Taste for Asian Food? Try Tabata Noodle's Ramen Bowls

Tabata Noodle is located on Ninth Avenue between 40th and 39th Streets, as is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. The Tabata Noodle menu has more than a dozen different ramen dishes, most for under $10, as well as an appealing assortment of sides and starters. There's a noodle bar up front at which you can eat and watch noodle-masters at work, or sit at one of the ten or so tables in the back. 

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Even though it's so far been kind of a fake winter here in the big town (which, by the way, we'll gladly take over last year's epic frozen slog of a season), there are still plenty of reasons to get excited over two of our favorite cold-weather New York City February festivals, both starting tomorrow, both guaranteed to satisfy your wintertime desires for welcoming warmth and sweet treats made with love. We go every year, as often as we possibly can, to the Hot Chocolate Festival at the great City Bakery, and the National Pancake Month celebration at the also-great Clinton Street Baking Company, if only because it gives us an excuse to introduce friends and share (for the hundredth time) with loved ones what we consider to be NYC's best hot chocolate, and NYC's best pancakes, respectively. 

City Bakery NYC Brings Back Hot Chocolate Festival in February 2012

FIRST: the Hot Chocolate Festival at City Bakery NYC. If you've never had the hot chocolate here, a primer: this is unbelievably rich, insanely thick and sludgy stuff, exploding with honestly earned real cocoa flavor. We always add one of City Bakery's sweet and gooey house-made marshmallows, and we suggest you do the same (we also always add one of their salty, crunchy, flaky, buttery, AMAZING Pretzel Croissants on the side… but then, we tend to go bit overboard). Anyway, every day for the City Bakery Hot Chocolate Festival 2012 there's a different special flavor in addition to the regular-that's-anything-but. This year's City Bakery NYC Menu for the Hot Chocolate festival has some old favorites (Caramel Hot Chocolate on the 12th; Love Potion Hot Chocolate on, when else, the 14th; Banana Peel Hot Chocolate on the 26th) as well as plenty we haven't yet sampled, starting with the intriguing Super Bowl Hot Chocolate (Big Blue(berry)-colored? Pigskin-flavored?) next Sunday, and also including On a Peanut Butter Barge Hot Chocolate (the 18th), and Espresso Hot Chocolate (the 27th). You can find the full City Bakery menu for Hot Chocolate Festival 2012 here. 

Lower East Side Clinton Street Baking Company Celebrates Pancake Month 2012

SECOND: the Clinton Street Baking Company's Pancake Month celebration at their mega-popular (especially for brunch) Lower East Side spot. Every two or three days all February long superstar owners Neil Kleinberg and Dede Lahman will serve up one of eight different pancake flavors, available all day and well into the night. The pancakes themselves are excellent here at the Clinton Street bakery–just the exact right combination of crispy, cakey, and fluffy–but add on the special toppings and you have a treat you won't soon forget. We'll be there for the Japanese pumpkin pancake with pumpkin seed streusel and warm maple butter (the 10th through the 13th); the ones with the crunchy bananas and cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce (the 1st and 2nd, the 20th to the 22nd); and the stack filled with chocolate chunks, fresh raspberries, and topped raspberry-caramel sauce (the 27th through the 29th). You can see the full schedule of special Clinton Street Baking Company Pancake Month flavors here.

The bonus? Leap Year gives us all an extra day for both the Hot Chocolate Festival and Pancake Month!  Festivals in February are especially delicious here in NYC, and we are looking forward to enjoying both of these all month long!

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