A few months ago, after years of the weekend busy-ness of single motherhood and caring for aging parents, I found myself alone with my husband one Saturday morning.
Robert looked at me and said, “What would you like to do today?”
What the hell was he talking about? Didn’t we have to run around and do a thousand chores? No, he said, we did not. He even suggested that I putter.
“Putter?” I said.
“Yes,” he said, “putter. I love puttering around on a Saturday morning.”
Jesus H. Christ, I thought, who was this man I married? Apparently, while I have been at my parents’ home every weekend, he has been puttering.
Most of my weekends over the past two decades—the height of the pandemic excepted—were spent caring for my parents at their home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. So after my father passed away in 2021 and my mother passed away at the end of last year, I wasn’t sure what I should do with my newly free weekends. But I did know one thing: I was hungry.
I don’t remember my first breakfast sandwich. I’m not even sure we were a breakfast sandwich family. I do remember tiny me sitting in the ridiculously small back seat (if you can call it that) of my father’s Jaguar XKE on Sunday mornings with my sister, each of us in our nightgowns. We were holding a stack of Sunday papers and two brown bags, one filled with buns and one with rolls. They were purchased at the Gaston Avenue Bakery and were used to feed the troops (we were a family of seven) while we read the papers. Even as a baby, you were handed the comics to review while you ate your salt stick or coconut twist. This was our Sunday morning routine.
As I grew up, other carbs, like bagels and bialys, were introduced and mornings were no longer so leisurely. Years later, after I moved to New York City in January of 1988, I had my first bacon, egg and cheese on a Kaiser roll and there was pretty much no going back. It was the perfect sandwich for people on the go, and I was on the go. Leisurely Sundays had been given over to working weekends spent raising kids and taking care of family members. Time set aside for morning indulgences had disappeared. Until recently.
Back to Robert and that fateful question—what did I want to do?
I decided while scrolling on Instagram that the answer was Agi’s Counter in Crown Heights. I’d always wanted to go. And so I said that, and he said we should. And so we did! And now it’s “a thing.” I putter with Robert on weekends, which often includes, but is not limited to, long walks, strolling through the farmer’s market and picking up a new breakfast sandwich—which, it turns out, is the best thing to eat on a weekend morning while puttering.
Here, I present to you our recent breakfast sandwich discoveries--along with a schmear of opinion. All hail from Brooklyn, because that’s where we live.
Agi’s Counter: Pogasca with Speck. $17.
Agi’s takes a Pogasca, a Hungarian cheese biscuit, and fills it with a fried egg, more cheese (in the form of lacy alpine cheddar shreds), dill and mayo. I chose the option to add speck (cured, lightly smoked ham).
I didn’t want to have a favorite in this survey, but this is my favorite breakfast sandwich, not just because Agi’s is Hungarian, like my Magyar father, but also because the texture and flavor is actually thrilling. However, just like the critic in the movie, Mystic Pizza, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. This sandwich got bonus points because the cheese biscuit miraculously doesn’t fall apart when you eat it. (This, also, is a mystery.)
Cafe Volkan: “The Bergen” Omelette Grilled Cheese. $13.
The “Bergen” is made from eggs, sourdough bread, bacon, cheddar, scallion, bell pepper, and spinach. I really loved it, and for some reason, I put ketchup on it, something I have never done in my life. Because this is more of an eggy grilled cheese, like a Monte Cristo sandwich, than a traditional egg sandwich, it is a bit of an outlier here, but it’s still really good.
Fini Pizza: Bacon, egg and provolone cheese on a homemade everything bagel. $14.
Fini, known for its amazing pizza, just started making breakfast in the form of homemade bagels, either topped with cream cheese or holding together fried eggs, bacon and provolone. Fini is coming out of the gate very strong on this front. My only complaint is that bagels, however delicious, are so thick that they squeeze out the insides of the sandwich when you bite into it. And if that happens, you may end up looking like DeSantis eating pudding by fashioning a fork out of your middle three fingers to scoop up the insides. Just sayin’.
Edith’s Sandwich Counter: BEC&L. $13.50.
Yup, BEC&L. The “L” stands for Latke, freshly fried. The eggs are Japanese-style egg omelettes. Then Cooper American cheese is added and topped with lots of crispy bacon. You can have this on your choice of various toasted sourdough bagels—Chicago-style everything, sesame, plain, Baharat Golden Raisin or Za’atar. My advice on this one is, if you are weak like H.R. Pickens, do not get the super spicy Chicago-style everything bagel because you think you can “handle it.” You will spend 20 minutes picking off half of the red pepper flakes just so that you can eat this delicious sandwich.
Ciao Gloria: BEC. $12.
Ciao Gloria has all-day breakfast. All. Day. Breakfast. And I love breakfast for any meal, so this is perfect. They have a BEC made with bacon, frittata-style eggs, and cheddar, all slathered with Calabrese aioli on a house-made brioche roll with everything seasoning. The photo above is missing a bite of the sandwich because I couldn’t wait.
Fort Defiance: Egg Sandwich. $10.
One Saturday morning, my son and I found ourselves at the Fort Defiance General Store. This shop has so many amazing things to buy, and one of these things is a scrambled egg sandwich on a homemade biscuit, topped with cheddar cheese, and jalapeño jam. We added bacon for $2 more. That jalapeño jam should be put on everything everyone sells everywhere. I love it so much. The sandwich was great, but I do have to make my “every biscuit sandwich” complaint—the biscuit falls apart.
Compton’s: The Little Italy (The Balboa) $12; and The New Yorker. $8.
This popular Astoria sandwich shop recently opened a Greenpoint spot at 99 Franklin—so recently that the location isn’t even on the website yet. It was fun to visit the new shop, which was a total dog party that Saturday morning, with patrons and their pups picking up giant egg sandwiches. Robert had the Little Italy, which was two eggs fried medium with sharp provolone, hot and sweet sopprassata, hash browns and Mike’s hot honey. (Even though Mike is a local guy, and we want to support him, Robert isn’t a “sweet” guy, so he asked for no honey on his.) This is all served on a toasted brioche bun. Mine was The New Yorker: two eggs over medium, bacon (you could also have sausage, ham or turkey bacon) melted American cheese, roasted red pepper aioli all served on a toasted poppy-seed Kaiser roll. Both were great. I liked mine better—the aioli got me.
As You Are: Taylor Ham, Egg and Cheese. $13.
I was really excited to try the Taylor Ham, fried egg and cheese sandwich at As You Are, the restaurant inside the Ace Hotel in Brooklyn. They make their own English Muffins, cut the Taylor Ham thick and cook it up crispy. Topping it with salt, pepper and ketchup. Now I cannot stress to you enough that I have never in my life had ketchup on my breakfast sandwiches, but this was so good. (Ketchup for the second time in as many months! Bizarre. My mom liked ketchup on her eggs. Maybe she wasn’t wrong.) Robert would like me to point out how good the English muffin was. He’s right, they should sell them by themselves. They may; they sell Saturday morning bread, so I’ll report back.
Breakfast by Salt Cure: Sausage, Egg and Cheese. $12.
Last week, we were out with Robert’s friends, Bob and Lora, at Gus’s Chop House and we started talking about my new weekend adventures and they told us about Salt Cure. They go there for the griddle cakes. (Since this is their fifth location, it seems a lot of people go for the griddle cakes.) But they thought we would like the sandwich. Sausage, egg and cheese on a brioche bun. They grind the sausage there themselves. You can have pork or chicken sausage and so we had one of each. Bob and Lora were right, we really liked it. Mine reminded me of the taste of Thanksgiving, which is never a bad thing. Oh, and non-meat eaters can get a garbanzo sausage instead. One thing: they may want to change their name, because I keep wanting to called them Salt Bae.
Ursula: Stuffed Sopaipilla $12; Breakfast Burritos $11.
Before I tell you about this meal, I have to say two things:
Ursula’s is moving. The LAST service at the Crown Heights location is April 2. Then they plan to reopen at 387A Nostrand Avenue on April 12. I do not know what is happening with their weekend hours. Keep your eye on Ursula_brooklyn on IG for the new hours.
That being said, right now on weekends, burritos are served until 12 p.m. and Sopaipillas are served from 11:30 a.m. So if you go at 11:30AM, you can order BOTH. Total sweet spot.
The Sopaipilla is fried New Mexican pastry dough, stuffed with beans, chile, rice and meat (mine was carne advovada) and then topped with cheddar, red chile, lettuce and tomato. We got the burrito with chorizo, scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheddar and New Mexican red chile. Both were so good, we kept switching meals. I know, the Sopaipilla isn’t traditionally a breakfast sandwich, but it is really good to eat for breakfast, trust me.
—Mary Kate
Odds and Ends…
I wrote something for Grub Street about a new flaming cocktail at the new Austrian restaurant Koloman that pays tribute to the king of flaming cocktails, Albert Trummer. The article will be published in New York magazine this week… The New York Times published an interesting new article about American amaros, with quotes from one of our favorite Bar Regulars Sother Teague… The Bon Vivant Festival, showcasing some of the world’s best bartenders and bars, will take place in Barcelona from April 27 to May 1… Boutique Wine, Spirits & Cider in Fishkill, New York, will play host to a tequila and mezcal tasting organized by PM Spirits on May 6 from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets begin at $95… Padma Lakshmi declared that the hot dog is a sandwich. We stand with her… Speaking of hot dogs, if anyone wants to send me to cover the Kalamazoo Hot Dog Walk on May 26, I am interested… The owners of the Seattle restaurant L’Oursin are opening a bar next door called Bar Bayonne. It will open this summer… Hart Island, New York City’s long-standing potter’s field, has always been inaccessible to citizens. But now it is finally being opened to visitors. Cemetery tourism!
I have to be honest—my favorites were the ones at Agi's and As You Are.
If you two ever make it to the Compton's in Astoria you must let me know. It's like 6 blocks from my apartment. They have a sandwich at lunch called The Louise that I have convinced like 10 people is named after me. (It used to be called The Debbie - one day, as I was getting ready to order it I noticed that it's name had changed and I have chosen to subscribe to the delusional belief that I am the reason ever since.)