Clinton St. Baking

When husband and wife team, Neil Kleinberg and DeDe Lahman, opened Clinton St. Baking Co in April 2001, their mission was to make the best baked goods in the city, using the freshest ingredients, hand-mixed in small batches. They bought dark French-roast coffee, ground it in house, and hired a college student to serve it with warm muffins, biscuits and scones. Soon the locals stumbled in, and mornings on Clinton Street came alive. Rumors of Neil's simple, delicious omelets, sandwiches and soups moved people to cluster, then crowd, and now form lines up the block. We're an unassuming storefront, with just 32 seats, and yet people travel from Tribeca and Toronto, and Tokyo to eat here. New York Magazine voted Neil's blueberry pancakes best in the city ( twice! ). Naturally, we agree, but the locals still come in for no-fuss-just-plain good food: a juicy burger and Brooklyn Lager, fried oysters with a spicy bloody Mary, or a decadent hot fudge sundae made with artisanal vanilla ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. The lore about our brunch lines we cannot deny... but try us at dinner, when the lights are dim, the crowds calm, and the food is anything but ordinary, says the New York Observer. Okay, and Yes: You can still get a stack of pancakes after dark. Co-owner of Clinton Street and Community Restaurant, Neil Kleinberg raised himself in a crazy kitchen in Flatbush, Brooklyn, among 4 kids, 2 parents, 16 neighborhood cousins, and 6 aunts and uncles. At 10 years old, he became a one-boy culinary wonder who'd do anything to avoid his mother's famous dish: chicken in a pot ( the only dish in her repertoire ). His lunches, made assembly-line style for his relatives, were simple but classic: Tuna fish sandwiches on rye toast with crisp lettuce and beefsteak tomatoes, fresh corned beef w/mustard and sauerkraut, turkey and Swiss w/ Russian and slaw.