Real Irish Breakfast in Westchester (Yonkers, NY)

Sunday brunch can be a tough ticket to score just about anywhere. Who wants to wait in line when the whole point of Sunday morning is to relax in a way that you can't relax the rest of the week? And then there is the problem of overly sweet items on the menu. Sure, it's the weekend, and I want some indulgence, but not at the cost of having dessert for breakfast. So, I wasn't too hopeful about finding a decent breakfast one recent Sunday morning in Westchester, where my daughter is a student. However, being Lth-born and raised, she had the perfect suggestion: Eileen's Country Kitchen in the "Irishtown" section of Yonkers. Just off the Saw Mill Parkway, it is convenient to lower Westchester and the Bronx.



This chalkboard proposes an anti-brunch for Sundays: The Ulster Fry. It's a platter of breakfast meats, eggs, and vegetables, served alongside moist "wheaten bread." Clockwise, from 12:00: Beans, Irish breakfast sausages, two eggs over easy, potato bread (kind of a browned mashed potato cake), grilled onions, mushrooms, tomato, Irish bacon and slices of black and white pudding. I believe there are some home fried potatoes under there somewhere.



I unearthed the Irish bacon and grilled tomato for a closer look.



This patron had the "map of Ireland on her face," as the saying goes. Out of 42 people at brunch, there were 11 redheads in 4 parties.





I have found something I hate even more than Miracle Whip, if that is possible. Chef Sauce is a thickened malt-vinegar concoction that has no other discernible taste (or any redeeming value, as far as I am concerned.) I welcome dissenting opinions, but I am unlikely to become a convert in 9 lifetimes.





After brunch, step across the street and visit The Butcher's Fancy. It's an Irish butcher shop that makes the Irish breakfast sausage and stocks the wheaten bread and potato cake they serve at Eileen's. They also carry black and white pudding. I learned there that the specialty for St. Patrick's Day isn't necessarily corned beef. Instead, the Irish eat boiling bacon, a house-cured pork roast that is boiled with cabbage. Seeing as it's a while until St.Patrick's Day, I figured I'd better try the boiling bacon for myself. So, I followed the butcher's instructions to boil until tender and then add cabbage. With a few roasted turnips, carrots, and potatoes, it made a nice dinner; the texture was quite reminiscent of corned beef, in fact. Thinking ahead to my own ancestral holiday, I also picked up a couple of cans of haggis (one meat, one vegetarian). Quite tolerant, I'd say.









It's worth mentioning that Eileen's serves boiling bacon on their lunch and dinner menus. However, when I returned there, I had a taste for fish and chips, a good, if not great version.



Eileen's is not the only attraction in this neat little stretch of McLean Avenue, Yonkers, just north of Woodlawn, the Bronx, which appears to be a hub of Irish culture and commerce in New York. There is also the Irish Coffee Shop, which is modestly named, for sure, as it appears to be a full-scale restaurant offering 3 meals daily, full Ulster Fry and other "greatest hits" menu items.



I especially like that they offer something called "custom breakfast" that can include any of the items listed below:



Or how about that Irish Breakfast Sandwich: Egg, Irish bacon, Sausage, and pudding?

It appeared that Sunday is a big day at the intersection of McLean and Martha Avenues. A number of promising looking pub-restaurants appeared to be serving no food this early on a Sunday, but soccer and rugby matches on satellite TV were beginning to draw patrons to bars along the strip with names like "Fagin's" and "Ned Devine's." Just across the street, I ran across the largest potato chip concession I've ever seen. With an Ulster fry under my belt, my stomach might have been able to manage a Guinness and some curry crisps. . .



Eileen's Country Kitchen
964 McLean Avenue
Yonkers, NY
(914)776-2001

The Irish Coffee Shop
946 Mclean Avenue
Yonkers, NY
(914)776-3309

The Butcher's Fancy
961 Mclean Avenue
Yonkers, NY
(914)237-8260
http://www.butchersfancy.com

Josephine -

Greetings! Great post on a very interesting place... I was just recently thinking a lot about foods (and especially sausages) of the British Isles and was lamenting the fact that I've never been to Ulster and would love to have a proper Ulster fry. Now I know where I can get one. We'll be heading east soon to visit the family and I hope to get a chance to get up to Yonkers.

Go raibh maith agat!
A

Yes, Antonius and I were just lamenting the woeful dearth of proper Irish bangers on this side of the water, but if your find has the Real Thing Josephine, we'll be beholden unto to you for the longest time. My BIL lives near Westchester, so it's not going to be a stretch.

One question: that Irish bacon looked like proper back bacon. Is it, and how did it taste?

Oh lucky you, Josephine, you've added another notch to an already impressive coup-counter!

Geo

Geo -- Your post just jogged my memory of a place in the old country... that is, Jersey... that sold a decent range of Scottish/British meat items, including bangers (of some sort)... I must see if the butcher section there is still going when I'm back East this winter...

A

Antonius, I wonder if your place in Jersey does online sales? I know a place in Denver with the best veal brats, bocks, and Weißwurst in America—and they will sell online and do 24-hour delivery during the Winter. It would be super to find a place like that for British/Irish goods.

Geo

Ha ha, Geo, you see I am still a pre-webbian at heart... Good idea... I'll look into the matter forthwith!

A

There's always this place in Jersey, which I used to visit in my youth when it was located in Kearny. Too long ago for me to vouch for the current quality of its products.

http://www.cameronsofkearny.net/

rickster wrote:There's always this place in Jersey, which I used to visit in my youth when it was located in Kearny. Too long ago for me to vouch for the current quality of its products.

http://www.cameronsofkearny.net/

rickster -- Yes, I remember that place too; thanks for the reminder of it and the link. But I'm thinking of one of the other Scottish places in Kearny which, as of a couple of years ago, was still there and going strong. I have some photos of it in the archives which I'll try to find.

When I go back to the old country this winter, I will be going to Kearny at some point but not to Brick, so I'll look up the other place too...

Antonius

Note: I edited the original post to reflect the correct web address of The Butcher's Fancy.

I'm glad that this post has created some interest, fellows. Geo, I can't say I know what "back bacon" is supposed to taste like, so I can't comment. In fact, the boiling bacon reminded me of nothing so much as corned beef- it kind of came apart in shreds, though I suppose it was finer-textured than a brisket. As for the sausages, I can vouch for their authenticity. They have the mild, soft, spammy interiors and slick skins of the breakfast sausages I was served daily on a visit to Ireland in 1980. To be honest, I preferred the texture and spice of the black pudding to the sausages.

And guys, if you do decide to check out Irishtown, you should not miss the Woodlawn commercial district. Although I couldn't find it, a woman with a lilt in her voice stopped me in front of The Butcher's Fancy (she saw me taking pictures) and told me to check out Woodlawn for all things Irish.

My BIL got me a couple pounds each of Butcher's Fancy bangers and back bacon. The bangers were right on: taste, consistency, cookability. Yesssss! Josephine, tnx sooo much for the recommendation.

The bacon was the proper cut, properly cut. But it didn't seem to be cured—it was just an extremely thin, rather nice pork chop. So I cured it with some bacon cure I had sitting around, and now it's exactly right. Yum-eeee!

It's nice to be in Montréal, eating, of all things, a Proper British Fry-up! The irony is tasty.

Geo

Geo wrote:My BIL got me a couple pounds each of Butcher's Fancy bangers and back bacon. The bangers were right on: taste, consistency, cookability. Yesssss! Josephine, tnx sooo much for the recommendation.

The bacon was the proper cut, properly cut. But it didn't seem to be cured—it was just an extremely thin, rather nice pork chop. So I cured it with some bacon cure I had sitting around, and now it's exactly right. Yum-eeee!

It's nice to be in Montréal, eating, of all things, a Proper British Fry-up! The irony is tasty.

Geo

lol... Mon vieux, the ghost of General Wolfe is laughing along with you!

A