Five Leaves, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

A few year's ago, over too many whiskeys in a NY Hotel, a friend of mine and I pledged to open a beach bar one day. The location? Well Brooklyn of course.

Considering I have never been to Brooklyn and it's not famous for its beach vistas, this was a bold sweep in the dark, but let's just say I had a feeling I would love it. And I was right.

Having being nudged awake at stupid O'Clock by my jetlag, I was unusually perky and on time for our early morning rendevous to walk the Williamsburg Bridge with the view to working up an appetite for a Bigass Brooklyn Brekkers. It was a glorious blue sky Winter's morning and the walk put us all in a great mood. Until we realised that the abundance of yellow cabs in Manhattan dries up completely on the Brooklyn side and my carefully researched restaurant in Greenpoint, was a not a few blocks from the bridge after all. We were knee deep in a Plan B hike to the nearest Subway Station when we found the unfindable - a cab!

And so at Five Leaves we arrived. My online research had lead to to CBS's best 5 Breakfast places in New York and there I found Five Leaves standing proud, flying the flag for Brooklyn with their Ricotta Pancakes.

For me, Breakfast is as much about atmosphere and as food. A perfect place in my book, is somewhere that feels  like a friendly neighbour that you make your weekend haunt and invite your best friends to as often as possible. Well it's safe to say that I wish I lived round the corner from Five Leaves. Scrap that. I wish I lived AT Five Leaves.

It's quirky and shabby and warm and cosy. And just a little bit cool. Despite the early hour and regardless of it being a Friday, it was already full of interesting Brooklynites. As full as it was, they cheerfully squeezed us into a table dressed with beautifully fragrant flowers and maple syryp in antique glass bottles.

The romance continued as my latte arrived in a gigantic mug (not a bowl sadly, but just as big) and we browsed the menu finding more and more delicious things.

What we ate:
I have a sixth sense for finding breakfast dishes which involve spice and avocado and so the Moroccan Scramble was a no brainer for me - a tower of scrambled egg on sourdough , laced with avo, spicy sausage and chick peas. I really enjoyed it, but truthfully if I had it again I would ask them to hold the sausage - it was more mince than wurst and didn't really work with the egg.
Mr Beedub opted for the Big Breakkie - a Brooklyn translation of a full English. The side order of steak was a melt in the mouth must.
Fee chose an unusual dish to start - the Brûléed Grapefruit with house pickled ginger and mint. A refreshing take on what I normally consider as diet food.
She and Yankee then went onto the legendary Ricotta Pancakes - spectacular mounds of fluffy pancakes, bananas, strawberries and blueberries topped with honeycomb butter and maple syrup. The green eyed food monster surfaced and I wished I'd ordered them. Luckily Fee was too full to finish hers, so I polished them off and wow! The butter was utterly butterly delicious.

The most expensive dish is $12 so the food is really reasonable and as it's fabulous to boot this is a must go to.

Oh and there is no real time limit on breakfast. 

And according to Fee the loos have amazing soap...

Five Leaves
18 Bedford Avenue
Greenpoint
Brooklyn
11222
Website and Menu
How to Get There