Breakfast

Cooked to order

Eggs, any way you like them

Fried, scrambled, poached or boiled, with sourdough toast and butter.

Eggs with smoked fish

Scrambled eggs, hot-smoked trout from a smokehouse in Greenpoint, chives, brown bread.

Buttermilk pancakes

Three, with maple syrup and whatever fruit is worth putting on them that week.

Mushrooms and greens on toast

Chestnut mushrooms, garlic, spinach, lemon, on sourdough. The default vegan plate.

The full plate

Eggs, bacon or a mushroom, tomatoes, potatoes and toast. Ordered about twice as often at weekends.

On the table already

Bread and pastries

Sourdough, rye and a croissant or two from the bakery on 39th Avenue, in at half past six.

Fruit and yoghurt

Whole milk yoghurt, whatever fruit is in season, honey and toasted oats.

Preserves

Made here in September from what the garden and the greenmarket produce. Plum and quince, usually.

Coffee and tea

Filter coffee brewed by the pot, espresso if you ask, and loose-leaf tea. Refilled without being asked.

Dietary requirements

Tell us when you book, or the night before, and breakfast is straightforward to change. There is a vegan plate on the list rather than as an afterthought, gluten-free bread is kept in the freezer and toasted separately, and the kitchen is small enough that the person cooking is the person you spoke to. What we will not do is claim an allergen-free kitchen. It is one small room and everything is cooked in it.

One small kitchen, and we will not pretend otherwise. Everything served here is cooked in one room, on one hob, by one person. We will change a plate, keep gluten-free bread separate and toast it separately, and tell you exactly what is in something. What we will not do is describe this kitchen as free of anything, because it is one room and it is not.

Breakfast is cooked and it is in the rate. Breakfast is cooked and included for every person in the room, children included. There is no tray, no voucher and no better breakfast to upgrade to.

Where breakfast comes from