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Do you love pancakes as much as we do? Find these flavor-packed flapjacks at breakfast joints around the Hudson Valley.
When is the last time you took a moment to really appreciate the genius of the pancake? The griddle-made goodies are blank canvases in the art of breakfast and, at eateries around the Hudson Valley, chefs customize their pancakes with all sorts of saccharine ingredients for your eating pleasure.
Pancakes have their moment in the spotlight each year on National Pancake Day (February 28), when IHOP offers free flapjacks to diners for one day only. But if you want to get the most out of your morning time meal, we advise you to head instead to one of the following eateries in the Hudson Valley.
Beacon Bread Company
Beacon
What to order: Strawberry Ricotta Pancakes
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There are many zany, over-the-top options for sweet-toothed foodies to try on this list, but if you’re looking for a well-balanced variation on the breakfast-time staple, go for the strawberry ricotta pancakes at Beacon Bread Company. Patrons can also order a classic stack of flapjacks, plain or topped with bananas, blueberries, strawberries, or chocolate chips.
B-Side Grill
New Paltz
What to order: Cinnamon Pancakes
This New Paltz mainstay is perhaps best known for its Notorious B.I.G. burger challenge—wherein diners must eat two bacon cheeseburgers, a pound of French fries, a pound of onion rings, and a large shake in 30 minutes—or its walls lined with classic records, but its breakfast offerings are just as noteworthy. The cinnamon pancakes, for example, pack a ton of flavor on your plate with a glorious synthesis of cinnamon, syrup, and butter.
Related: Flip These Fluffy Gluten-Free Banana Pancakes for Breakfast
Eveready Diner
Brewster and Hyde Park
What to order: Pecan Pancakes
At both locations of the Eveready Diner, there is an entire menu section dedicated exclusively to flapjacks in various shapes and forms. For a heartier meal, opt for the Eveready Breakfast, which comes with three fluffy buttermilk pancakes, two farm-fresh eggs, two strips of bacon, and two sausages. If you’re more in the mood for specialty flapjacks, choose from varieties like red velvet chocolate chip, whole wheat buttermilk, chocolate chip banana, banana foster (caramelized bananas, brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins), blueberry, strawberries and cream, apple cinnamon raisin, and pecan. The pecan option is on the simpler side, but that’s part of what makes it so delicious; the amalgamation of butter, syrup, and pecans calls to mind a warm slice of pecan pie.
Fiddlestix Café
Cornwall
What to order: Fully Loaded Pancakes
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With so much great hiking and sight-seeing around Cornwall, we’re frequent patrons of this little breakfast spot. Luckily, it offers a range of breakfast and lunch staples, so we have plenty from which to choose. In the way of pancakes, you could order a plain stack, but why not go fully loaded? That way, the buttery, syrupy goodness can commingle with your choice of chocolate chips, blueberries, bananas, and brown sugar.
Iron Gate Café
Albany
What to order: Parfait Pancakes
This Albany eatery only offers one pancake-based dish, but that’s fine by us. The triple stack of buttermilk yogurt cakes comes with fresh berries, a topping of granola, and your choice of breakfast meat—what more could a foodie ask for?
Mt. Kisco Diner
Mt. Kisco
What to order: Cannoli Pancakes
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There are too many pancakes at the Mt. Kisco Diner for us to list—let alone sample—which is precisely what makes the eatery something of a mecca for breakfast junkies. Selecting your short stack is a tall order with a menu that includes griddle cakes styled with M&Ms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, churros, and Lucky Charms; but, when in Rome, you’re well-advised to try the cannoli pancakes, which come “rolled and stuffed” with traditional cannoli cream, chocolate chips, and powdered sugar.
Orangetown Diner
Orangeburg
What to order: Strawberry Napoleon Pancakes
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Since its reopening, the Orangetown Diner has been one of our favorite spots for breakfast and lunch in Rockland County with a lengthy menu of creative bites and a traditional diner atmosphere comprising the usual glass, stainless steel, and neon. Tantalizing as the Oreo, quinoa, and “funfetti” flapjacks may be, we recommend the strawberry Napoleon pancakes prepared with sweet mascarpone filling, fresh strawberries, and a drizzling of Nutella.
Stony Point Pancake Factory
Stony Point
What to order: Coco Berry Pancakes
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We’d be remiss not to mention the Stony Point Pancake Factory, which focuses its attention—as you might expect—on the art of the pancake above anything else. It boasts some truly unique offerings like the white chocolate variety (topped with fresh strawberries, white chocolate sauce, and whipped cream) and banana Oreo stacks, but we most adore the fresh and fruity “coco berry” version prepped with blueberries, strawberries, and coconut.
Strawberry Place
Nyack
What to order: Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Pancakes
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This breakfast joint on Nyack’s main drag takes its pancakes quite seriously, and true appreciators of the dish will find it difficult to select from Strawberry Place’s slew of inventions. There are the “crunchy cakes,” stuffed with bananas and nuts; the double berry pancakes, filled with blueberries and topped with strawberries; the pancakes sundae, topped with plain yogurt, strawberries, and a homemade blueberry sauce; the hot apple cinnamon cakes; and lastly, the glorious, decadent, and somewhat sinful peanut butter and chocolate chip pancakes.
Sweet Sue’s
Phoenicia
What to order: Matcha Pancakes
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If customizability is your primary concern, take a trip to Phoenicia and dig into a plate at Sweet Sue’s. The restaurant, which was featured in our March 2023 print issue, offers pancakes prepared in six styles: plain, lemon, matcha, blueberry, Belgian chocolate, and “blue monkey” (blueberries and banana). While the Belgian chocolate cakes are tempting to the nth degree, the sheer rarity of matcha pancakes makes it our go-to pick.
Related: These Hudson Valley Brunches Tempt With International Flavors