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The shortest route to Phoenicia Diner’s buckwheat pancakes this weekend is the L train. The Catskills roadside favorite is taking over Gotham Burger Social Club’s new Williamsburg location at 216 Grand Street on Saturday, November 14, and Sunday, November 15, bringing its pancakes, breakfast sandwiches and Bloody Marys to Brooklyn for just two mornings.
The pop-up starts at 8 am both days and runs until everything sells out. Gotham’s regular menu will give way to brunch during the takeover, though you can still get a smashburger before noon: the two restaurants are serving a Breakfast Smashburger with a smashed beef patty, egg, cheese and Gotham’s Club Sauce on a Martin’s bun.
The pancakes come in both buttermilk and buckwheat and you can get an egg and cheese on a roll with bacon or sausage. There’s also a breakfast burrito and a side of breakfast potatoes and, of course, Phoenicia Diner is bringing its Bloody Marys, too.
The original diner has been in the Catskills since the early 1980s, though the building itself dates to 1962. Under owner Mike Cioffi, it serves familiar diner fare and sources from farms in the Catskills and Hudson Valley when it can. The full menu upstate includes more than just pancakes, with dishes like jalapeño popper-stuffed hash browns and a skillet of scrambled eggs with locally smoked trout and crème fraîche. The Brooklyn lineup is a shorter introduction to the place, with a Gotham burger thrown in for good measure.
There’s no set end time, so if you’ve got your heart set on buckwheat pancakes or that breakfast smashburger, go early. You can always go back to bed afterward—something that’s much tougher to pull off when you’ve driven all the way to the Catskills for breakfast.