.Best Breakfast

Breakfast is an easy meal to get right. Right? Coffee cake … huge pile of pancakes … and who can’t make scrambled eggs? A champion breakfast place, then, has got its work cut out for it. La Note starts out by doing everything your standard breakfast place can do, but better. The coffee’s good, the lattes are better (they’re served in a big bowl), and pancakes? You’d better believe it. Purists can go for the Crème Fraîche pancakes, white and fluffy with a drizzle of crème fraîche over the stack. Or try the oatmeal raspberry pancakes, if you’re feeling frisky. Best of all are the lemon gingerbread pancakes, moist and spicy and topped with pears and blueberries. In addition to American classics, exceptional French fare includes the Tartine Mistral, a toasted baguette covered with goat cheese and roasted peppers: a damn good concoction for anyone who can stomach savories first thing in the morning.