Westchester Breakfast Club

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The WBC enjoyed a leisurely Sunday drive up to the country. By country, we mean the village of Katonah, where a visit to Willy Nick’s was on the agenda.

We learned several things that day: Willy Nick’s does not serve Boston Cream Pie, but they do serve four kinds of Eggs Benedict; Pat is very attractive to wasps; and Shelley is an excellent driver.

Oh, yeah, we also ate breakfast and wrote reviews.

17 Katonah Avenue,

Katonah, NY 10536-2103 (Map)

(914) 232-8030 ‎

Attendees: :jump_to_Pat:, :jump_to_Sylvia:, :jump_to_Jeff:, :jump_to_Shelley:

:a_Pat:

What I had: Blueberry Pancakes, bacon, coffee

What it Cost: ~$16 plus tax and tip

Worth it: Pretty much, yeah.

The Rating: 4/5

 The Details:

I had decided going into brunch at Willy Nick’s, a small modern eatery located on the main drag of Katonah, that I was going to order pancakes at every breakfast club meeting I attended until I actually received something resembling a pancake (see the Sonora review for more details). How relieved I was to see that WN’s pancakes are, while not enormous, respectably sized. But how did they taste?

Pretty darn good.

The pancakes were golden-brown, with delightfully crispy edges, and there were four of them. The maple syrup was indeed real, and paired well. There were enough blueberries, though I’ve certainly seem them distributed more generously at other places. If I can levy one complaint, the pancakes, while crispy, were overly oily. Had I recognized this, I wouldn’t have dolloped the butter on as generously as I did, which turned the pancakes into something of a soggy, oily mess.

The bacon, I must say, was nothing special, nor was the coffee. All in all though, I was heartened by our trip to Willy Nick’s, and I’d absolutely go back, both for brunch and for other options.

**A side note: We ate outside, and I was stung by a wasp. After some initial hesitation, the staff provided a cup of baking soda for me to put on my sting, and was altogether quite helpful. I mention this for two reasons: 1. To point out the staff’s adaptability, and 2. Because there are wasps. So be aware when you eat outside.

The Bottom Line: Definitely worth a trip.

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:a_Sylvia:

One of the nice things about being part of the Westchester Breakfast Club is the opportunity to visit restaurants in towns we don’t normally go to. Willy Nick’s is one of them. I don’t normally venture into Katonah, besides the occasional bike ride through some of the roads on the outer edges of town. This was probably my first time in the little town area, and I liked it. Willy Nick’s is located right across the street from the train station. It was pleasantly shaded, so we sat outside.

As we looked through the menu, we were presented with a little dish of mini banana muffins. They were well made and moist and full of banana flavor.

To eat, I ordered the Cinnamon French Toast with a side of Smoked Sausage and an Iced Coffee. The Cinnamon French Toast was made with cinnamon babkah. Intriguing, I thought. It was pretty good. Sweet enough that it really didn’t need the maple syrup at all. The edges were perfectly crisped and the inner areas were nice and flaky. The sausages were adequate, very well cooked, but not the most flavorful. The iced coffee was pretty good and not watered down.

We ended with a dessert of Carrot Cake. What was presented was more carrot cake deconstructed with a crumble on top. It was very good. The thickly poured on cream cheese portion was a touch too sweet and overwhelmed the thinner cake portion. The crumble was a touch too crunchy. I do wish the cake was thicker because it seemed to disappear and serve as a vessel for delivery of the cream cheese frosting rather than being the focal point of the cake.

The czar says: A neat little find in Katonah. It’s nice to visit a restaurant that serves a quality brunch but doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Katonah, I’ll be back!

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:a_Jeff:

Katonah is far for me. It’s very far. I suppose it’s alright to go to Willy Nick’s for breakfast at least once. It’s just not a good idea to make it into a regular thing.

Anyway, we arrived there nice and early since Shelley’s manic driving kept us ahead of schedule. I can say that because she got an 86 on her State Farm Feed Back score on my iPhone app. Apparently, she’s a very heavy brake-r. It’s OK. We’re still alive. [Editor’s Note: The editor would like to say that Shelley is not, as Jeff claims, a “manic” driver. On the way home, Shelley intentionally made a very hard brake, and the State Farm app still awarded her a score of 86. So, the reliability of the app is questionable at best.]

It was such a nice day and we got there early enough to look at the menu posted outside the restaurant. Shelley and I got very excited about the Boston cream pie listed under the dessert section. But more on that later. I looked at the menu for a bit and decided on some Chesapeake Eggs Benedict. They’re just regular Eggs Benedict with crab cakes instead of the Canadian bacon. They also had some nice homemade hollandaise sauce. It was delicious. The eggs were poached perfectly and the crab cakes weren’t dry. In the middle of the crab cakes were, to my surprise, a small pile of potatoes with onions. I love potatoes. I was so happy to see them! They were cooked nicely and seasoned with salt and pepper. My meal was very filling.

Now, on to the dessert. We asked for Boston creme pie, but our waitress told us that the menu posted outside the restaurant was outdated and Willy Nick’s no longer had any Boston creme pie, not even any leftover in the back of the freezer. THE AGONY!!!!! Oh well, carrot cake it is. Three of us split a carrot cake. Notice, I didn’t say slice because it came out as a “deconstructed” carrot cake. It was actually very delicious.

Willy Nick’s is a nice place to eat breakfast if you’re in the area. The outdoor seating makes it a comfortable affair if it’s a nice day out. Price wise, I suppose it’s acceptable.

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:a_Shelley:

After last week’s non-brunchy brunch, the WBC was in need of a solid brunch experience, and Willy Nick’s in Katonah delivered.

After a lovely drive up to Katonah, we found ourselves at our destination earlier than expected. We were among the first patrons there, and as such we got our pick of tables. We selected a perfectly shaded round table outside. From our table we got to people watch as suburbanites boarded trains to spend a Sunday in the city.

Our waitress got right down to business and promptly asked us what beverages we wanted. Note to self: I really need to remember to pay attention to the prices of cocktails before I order them. The Cranberry Fizz seemed like a good idea. Cranberry juice? Good. Champagne? Good. However, at $9 a glass, it was an expense I really didn’t need in hindsight.

I chose this morning the smoked salmon bagel platter. I was presented with a large plate overflowing with food. The portion was quite generous. In fact, there was a little too much lox and lettuce for me to handle, so some wound up on the side of my plate. I apparently was served a runaway bagel, because one minute I was putting cream cheese on the top half of my bagel, and the next thing I know, it flies out of my hand and lands *plop* on the ground. I felt a little silly asking for a new top half of a bagel, so I simply made due with my remaining bottom half. While the lox wasn’t overly fish, it did have a somewhat slimier consistency than I like. The bagel was nicely toasted and was, I think, a multigrain bagel. Our shared side of hand-cut French fries (or, according to the menu, “fies”) was delightful, well salted and not greasy. Everyone else’s meals looked delicious.

For dessert I had been looking forward to a piece of Boston creme pie, which Jeffrey and I had spied listed on the menu posted in the front of the restaurant. Sadly, our waitress informed us that they had an outdated menu posted and that Willy Nick’s no longer serves Boston creme pie. This revelation triggers the following message on my part:

Dear restaurants: You should have the courtesy to your diners and potential diners to have a current version of your menu posted either online or at the front of your restaurant. Displaying an outdated menu is just lazy and sloppy.

I’d say the Boston creme debacle was not really a debacle, and was a very minor bump in our meal. (Certainly not as big a bump as the one Pat experienced, and that wasn’t Willy Nick’s fault.) We instead chose carrot cake for dessert, and it was interesting. Instead of a thick slice of carrot cake, what was presented were two cake disks, if you will, topped with a gooey warm cream cheese frosting with some crumbles of pecan on the side. It was tasty, although I think my personal preference is for a more solid frosting.

Start to finish, we were done with our meal in just under an hour. I was surprised, it initially felt fast to me. But then I realized, no, this was a perfectly acceptable length for a meal. It’s just that we’ve been getting used to unusually long meal times in the last several weeks. The price was pretty reasonable, with my lox platter coming in at $12 and change. Bee stings and absent Boston creme pies aside, the experience at Willy Nick’s was all in all a pleasant one. I love Katonah’s main street, it’s just kind of the embodiment for me of a relaxed, leisurely country main street, with a dash of sophistication. I’ll be back to Katonah, and chances are good I’ll be back to Willy Nick’s, although I would try one of the other hearty, classic breakfast offerings.

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