30 Days of Queens: Day Two – Kane’s

Brunch is a big deal in Manhattan. We’ve all heard and witnessed the long lines, the hype, the overpriced lox omelets, the underwhelming fresh juices or mimosas. How about brunch in Flushing? The only line I’ve seen for brunch are for dim-sum joints and soup dumplings. I don’t like to participate in either hype and I hate how loud those places are (I don’t know about you, but when I’m groggy in the morning, I like to sip my coffee and not deal with screaming people). As such I only reserve dim-sum for 10am (early bird) when family is visiting. and I go to the soup dumpling places for dinner on a week day so I don’t have to get with the crowd.

For a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning, and by morning I actually mean between 10:30am-1pm, I go to Kane’s for brunch. My philosophy around brunch is that I shouldn’t have to take 30min getting there and that I shouldn’t have to wait for more than a few minutes getting a seat. The breakfast food shouldn’t suck (if a place can’t do eggs they really should just close down) and the menu shouldn’t cost more than a normal dinner. Kane’s meets my brunch philosophy perfectly and even offers me a booth when I only have party of two. Try that anywhere else and they’ll tell you they only give booths to four or more…

Photo courtesy of a Yelper (placeholder until I take my own photo):

At Kane’s I always start with a pot of coffee, whether I need it or not. Then I take about ten minutes (this drives my companions bananas) to leaf through the colorful laminated menu made out of magazine cutout of celebrities. When I came to Flushing I could swear the menu was more scandalous. The current and newer version is much more tame. Anyhow, in between the celebrity pictures, you’ll find plenty of food options.

In no particular order, various recommendations:

• sunny side up eggs
• garden omelet
• spinach feta omelet
• French toast (their version is superb)
• breakfast sampler
• morning kiss breakfast combo
• bacon (it should be part of most combos, skip the sausage)

Other things I like about the place are the photographs on the walls and the funny looking lights. There also used to be a nude statue holding take-out menus at the entrance which may or may have been removed.

Kane’s, thanks for for all those weekends when I’m too lazy to cook or have visitors from out of town. In my search for my new neighborhood diner, I hope to find a place that has a healthy combo of cozy atmosphere and tasty eats. Maybe I will come back for some French toast when I come for a afternoon Mets game in the future.