The best breakfast sandwich in NYC is hidden in a popular tourist hotspot
It’s hard to feel like a “local” in New York City.
We’re a city of immigrants, of neighborhoods in constant transition. Even our most famous foods — pizza and bagels — are being reinvented regularly.
Ben Gilbert/Business Insider
DiFara’s Pizza in Brooklyn is a NYC classic, but it’s being challenged by (comparative) newcomers like Roberta’s and Lucali.
Yet, it’s food that ties so many New Yorkers to their neighborhoods — that makes a place constantly in flux feel like it has some stability. It’s what gives your neighborhood character, and what makes you feel like a “local.” Having heard of or eaten at a spot is the social indicator that you’re part of the community.
At the same time, New Yorkers revel in knowing about a particular spot before anyone else — especially before tourists find out. I fall into this category, which is why I was so delighted to find the secret-best breakfast sandwich in Manhattan.
Ben Gilbert/Business Insider
Not only is it tremendously delicious, there’s almost never a line. And here’s the kicker: It’s located smack in the middle of one of Manhattan’s most touristy areas. Here’s the deal.
If you’re visiting New York City, you’re likely to spend the majority of your time in Manhattan. And if you’re in Manhattan, you’re likely to visit the Flatiron Building.
Between Madison Square Park (above, left) and the Flatiron Building (above, right), the Flatiron district of Manhattan is a major tourist destination in Manhattan. Rightly so, as it’s a gorgeous neighborhood. It sits at the crossroads of Broadway, 23rd Street, and Fifth Avenue — you can look in any direction and stare down a tremendous stretch of Manhattan.
I’m admittedly biased toward it, however, as Business Insider’s main HQ is a few blocks south of the Flatiron Building. But with all the good of the neighborhood comes the bad as well: Due to the high volume of tourists, there’s a ton of ripoff tourist food that tastes bad and costs a lot of money. And if you’re one of those visiting tourists, how are you to tell the bad from the good?
Unbelievably, there’s a bastion of great food in the middle of all this — and that bastion is a tourist destination unto itself. It’s called “Eataly.”
Eataly is the brainchild of Italian entrepreneur Oscar Farinetti; the one in the Flatiron is notorious for its association with famed chef and restauranteur Mario Batali. It’s essentially a massive Italian supermarket/food hall, with a full grocery selection alongside various food stands and full-on restaurants. You can buy some tomatoes; you can eat some hand-made pasta with a glass of Italian wine. It’s a pretty amazing place.
Between its location and the kind of store it is — an upscale food hall featuring imported Italian foods — you’re right to guess that it’s also an expensive place.
But I’ve discovered an amazing exception to this logic! Eataly’s breakfast sandwich counter is full of incredible sandwiches at (mostly) reasonable prices. Best of all: It’s seemingly never busy.
Every day, from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m., Eataly’s sandwich counter is dedicated to breakfast sandwiches. Here’s the full menu:
To be clear, paying $6.80 is a lot for a breakfast sandwich — even in NYC. On the low end, $4.80 is a lot more standard; you’re likely to pay anywhere from $3.50 to $5 for a standard bacon/egg/cheese sandwich.
The difference in quality, however, is absolutely ridiculous.
Look at this incredible breakfast sandwich.
The standard kaiser roll breakfast sandwich in New York City is a classic, and I don’t want to infer that these fancy breakfast sandwiches are in any way a replacement. Both have their place. But if you’re in the Flatiron, you’re just as likely to spend $7 at a corner deli for a breakfast sandwich. You’re also likely to run into a huge line as people scramble to get breakfast on their way to work.
Instead, you can opt to grab an Eataly breakfast sandwich and enjoy it at your leisure in Madison Square Park.
There are six sandwiches in total on the menu, and they all essentially riff on the classic breakfast sandwich options.
-The Trento (above) is basically a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich.
-The Aosta is basically an egg and cheese with tomato.
-The Roma is basically a bacon, egg, and cheese.
-The New York PLT is basically a BLT (with pancetta standing in for bacon, arugula standing in for iceberg lettuce, and…tomato standing in for tomato).
Every sandwich, like the “New York PLT” here, is served on a fresh-baked ciabatta roll — a major step up over the traditional deli kaiser roll.
Not all of Eataly’s breakfast sandwiches are created equal. The New York PLT above, for instance, is a bit of a pancetta overload in my opinion. It’s a well-known fact that the actual star of the BLT is the tomato, not the bacon. And in this respect, the PLT could use, say, heirloom tomatoes to make it stand out.
That said, I’m nitpicking here — I’d happily eat the PLT again, for breakfast or lunch (or really any time you want to give me one). And at $5.80, it’s a steal compared with even the average NYC corner deli — especially in the more touristy parts of Manhattan.
Hungry for a breakfast sandwich yet? Good! Here’s how you find Eataly’s shockingly accessible breakfast stand:
Don’t be intimidated by the crowd of people upon entry. You’re walking past them.
Head past the coffee area toward a seemingly empty hallway, into the belly of Eataly.
Keep an eye on your left side for the “I Panini di Eataly” stand. It’s not too far into the store, and it’s likely to be the only area you’ll see staffed with people without a big line in front.
In my quest to eat through the entire breakfast menu at Eataly, I’ve been visiting the store in the morning between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. or so. It’s possible that the breakfast counter gets outrageously busy at 10:15 a.m., but based on my experience (and that of my colleagues, who are now on their own breakfast quests) that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Enjoy!
BONUS: If you’re okay with a bit of a wait, the coffee area at the front of Eataly has a killer selection of pastries that are made on-site, that morning, and the prices are pretty decent.
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