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First, There Were Muffins
When husband and wife team, Neil Kleinberg and DeDe Lahman, opened Clinton
St. Baking Co. in April 2001, their plan was only to offer the best baked goods
in the city, using the freshest ingredients, hand-mixed in small batches. They
bought dark French-roast black coffee, ground it in house, and hired a college
student to serve it with warm muffins and scones, mostly to go.
Turns out the neighborhood was in serious need of the ideal hang-out. A stereo
system was soon connected and the sounds of Pete Fountain, Django Reinhardt,
and Sidney Bechet warmed the place. Neighborhood rockers, designers, and business
owners stumbled in. Scrambled eggs, Monterey Jack and fresh tomato jam were
served on housemade buttermilk biscuits. French style farmer’s market
omelets and wild Maine blueberry pancakes topped with warm maple butter were
added to the menu. In a blink, the bakeshop downstairs doubled in size and wholesale
accounts were opened citywide.
Then There Was Lunch
“You should make soups,” suggested Dewey Dufresne, who was busy
opening WD-50 down the street. Fresh split pea with chunks of cubed ham, creamy
oyster chowder, and tomato zucchini bisque were added to the menu (with a signature
biscuit on the side). San Diego fish tacos with beans and rice soon followed,
and BLTs piled with double-smoked bacon, beefsteaks, romaine, and mayo pulled
diners in droves. But a lunch spot isn’t the real deal without a great
burger, and when Kleinberg added his classic version—grilled and juicy
on a buttery brioche bun, with housemade chips, cole slaw, and Gus’s LES
pickles— it sealed the deal.
Next, Body Butter?
Weekend brunch was added and, after a few months, people clustered in front
of the store, jonesing for a biscuit sandwich or blueberry buttermilk stack.
“I want to wipe that warm maple butter all over my body!!!!” is
what one satisfied customer actually scrawled in red pen across the pristine
guest register.
Just Delicious Food
When the neighborhood seemed ready to support their upscale diner, Kleinberg
and Lahman stayed true to the idea of serving the best quality simple food.
From a juicy grilled burger to succulent fried chicken, a warm spinach salad
to fresh crispy salmon, the dishes at Clinton Street remained casual—and
quietly special.
Half Your Cake And Eat It Two
Today some customers are known to skip the meal and get right to dessert. For
the undecided, two desserts (split down the middle) are better than one and
favorites include fresh fruit pies of the day, moist carrot cake with cream
cheese frosting, tart Key Lime meringue pie, and a decadent flourless chocolate
cake. And of course, there’s the classic hot fudge sundae, made with ice
cream from the Brooklyn Factory, homemade hot fudge, fresh whipped cream, real
chocolate sprinkles and an amarone cherry.
Neil Kleinberg, Bio
Neil Kleinberg raised himself in a crazy kitchen in Flatbush, Brooklyn, among
4 kids, 2 parents, 16 neighborhood cousins, and 6 aunts and uncles. At 10 years
old, he became a one-boy culinary wonder who’d do anything to avoid his
mother’s “famous” dish: chicken in a pot (the only dish in
her repertoire). His lunches, made assembly-line style for his relatives, were
simple but classic: Tuna fish sandwiches on rye toast with crisp lettuce and
beefsteak tomatoes, fresh corned beef with mustard and sauerkraut, turkey and
Swiss with Russian dressing and cole slaw.
Neil opened his first restaurant, Simon’s, in 1980 at the tender age
of 22, and since then has cooked in the kitchens of a celebrated French bistro,
a world-famous hotel, and two of Manhattan’s premier private party facilities.
After four years at The Water Club under Rick Moonen, he returned to his native
Flatbush to reopen the legendary seafood star, Lundy’s. Three years later,
he helped open Ezekiel’s Café, a take out shop funded by Covenant
House, where he taught culinary arts to runaway teens. Neil is the co-author
of The Lundy’s Cookbook (Harper Collins, 1998), and a distinguished member
of The James Beard Foundation.
DeDe Lahman, Bio
DeDe Lahman calls herself a “retired” journalist. Her articles
on travel, beauty, and sexual health have appeared in a variety of national
print and online publications. At Seventeen magazine, where she was an editor
and advice columnist (from 1993-1998), she covered fitness and food. Healthful
snacks were the culinary scope of her editorial pages, but when she traveled
nationwide to produce lifestyle photo shoots, she made sure to hit the best
restaurant in each city. DeDe is certified to instruct hatha yoga at the beginners
and pre-natal/post-partum levels, and presently teaches at The Integral Yoga
Institute of New York. She is at work on her first book of non-fiction for young
adults.
Neil and DeDe first met randomly as patrons at A Salt and Battery—the
takeout fish and chips shop in Greenwich Village. Together, they were featured
as NY1’s “New Yorkers of the Week” (March 2004) for the free
six-week nutrition and cooking class they offered kids at the neighboring Hamilton-Madison
settlement house.
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