Last weekend we practiced one of our favorite weekend rituals: walking across town to 202 for breakfast, followed by a stroll through Chelsea market before heading out to wherever the day might take us (the nearby High Line, the West Village, the WestSide parkway…). On this particular day we happened to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on a walk to the Red Hook Ikea, but that’s a story for another time.

We first tried 202 after spying it on New York Magazine’s list of best breakfasts–they won the honor of best French Toast, a menu item which Aron was obsessed with at the time. (Now we both are.)

This is the article’s description that sent us running over: “The secret is the whole vanilla pods she uses to infuse a mixture of heavy cream, a restrained measure of confectioners’ sugar, and free-range eggs from upstate New York, left to sit overnight. Once the brioche wedges have absorbed every last drop, they’re gorgeously browned in clarified butter and crisscrossed with three strips of Applewood-smoked bacon for a smart salty contrast.” It did not disapoint (even if, believe it or not, we still think Frankie’s French toast is the best): it’s like having bread pudding for breakfast and it is deadly good.

I love sitting in the midst of Nicole Farhi’s racks of clothing (it’s an in-store cafe filled with dark woods and marble surfaces), sharing eggs then dessert (bread pudding, er, French toast) with Aron. There are delicious cocktails for a true brunch, but I also appreciate that you can eat there at 9am if the mood strikes, whereas most of our brunch favorites open at 11am. And in the summer, when it’s warm, you can eat outside.

202 belongs to a complex or restaurants and retail shops that make up the Chelsea Market. In the ’90s, the National Biscuit Company’s original factory was re-imagined as an indoor market and dining space. (It reminds us of San Francisco’s Ferry Building.) At one time, the factory produced Oreo cookies, Saltines, and Fig Newtons. Today, you can see Amy’s bread being made…

order milkshakes at the RonnyBrook Dairy milk bar…

 

pick your fish or order a lobster roll at the Lobster Place…

choose your cut of beef at Dickson’s…

or go for a meal at one of the many restaurants–like 202, Friedman’s, or The Green Table. (Del Posto, Morimoto, and Budakan are also part of the market.)

Today, the market fills the lower floor of the block between 9th and 10th avenues and 15th and 16th streets. There were originally two buildings, connected by an elevated pedestrian walkway and the elevated railway known as the High Line–now a greenway well worth a stroll. Makes for a perfect morning…