Pancake House Near Me by DUMBO: Vinegar Hill House's Sourdough Apple Pancake

The apple sourdough pancake at Vinegar Hill House comes in two sizes, $18 small or $24 large, served with maple syrup and butter during weekend brunch from 10am to 3pm at 72 Hudson Avenue in Vinegar Hill, the tiny Brooklyn enclave just east of DUMBO. Unlike most places that turn up in a pancake house near me search, this one takes reservations on Resy, and the York Street F station is about a ten-minute walk away.

Brooklyn Magazine reported in 2016 that the sourdough starter behind the pancake had been in use at the restaurant since it began serving brunch in April 2009. Chef and co-owner Jean Adamson, who cooked at Freemans before opening here, inherited it from Angela Sherry of Billings, Montana, and the starter was estimated at more than 60 years old. That history is why this is a sourdough pancake rather than a buttermilk stack.

The magazine described the result as the size of a baseball mitt, with apple slices cooked into the batter and the whole thing finished in cast iron. It is a single, thick, slightly tangy cake rather than a pile of thin rounds, which is worth knowing before you order the large size for one person.

The small at $18 is a reasonable solo plate if you also want coffee cake on the side; the large at $24 is better split between two people as a shared sweet course. The rest of the brunch menu leans savory: a French omelette with caramelized onions and goat cheese at $23, an egg sandwich for $15 with bacon for $3 more, and smoked Arctic char at $25.

Coffee cake is $10 and a side of bacon $8. An honest call: if you are only two people, order one large pancake and the egg sandwich rather than two pancakes, because the sourdough's richness builds quickly and the savory plate makes the meal far more balanced.

Vinegar Hill House books through Resy, and in October 2026 the platform was still showing open tables for the weekend of October 25. The rules are strict and printed clearly: tables are held for only 15 minutes, and changes to the time or party size cannot be accommodated once you have booked. Arriving late on a weekend morning can mean losing the table entirely.

The restaurant has several rooms depending on the season. Indoor dining runs year-round, a downstairs Fireside Room opens in the colder months, and an uncovered garden under a cherry tree is used when the weather is warm. Well-behaved dogs are welcome, but only in the sidewalk seating area, not inside the dining rooms.

Brunch is only Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the week Vinegar Hill House is a dinner restaurant, open Sunday through Thursday from 5:30 to 9:30pm and Friday and Saturday until 10pm, with final seating 15 minutes before closing. The kitchen is built around a wood-fired oven, which the official About page highlights.

For pancake hunters that matters because the restaurant feels more like a neighborhood dinner spot that happens to do one celebrated breakfast dish than a dedicated pancake house. If you want an all-day stack on a weekday, Café Luluc in Cobble Hill serves its fruit pancakes from 9am until night and is a short ride away on the F train toward Bergen Street.

Vinegar Hill is a handful of quiet blocks with Belgian-block stretches and old rowhouses wedged between the Con Edison plant and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, so few people pass by on the way somewhere else. Brunch tables tend to be booked by Brooklyn couples and friends who planned ahead, plus visitors combining the meal with a DUMBO waterfront walk.

Because reservations are held so strictly, this is a good choice for anyone who hates gambling on a walk-in line; you know when you will eat. Parties of four or more should book early in the week, since the small rooms fill quickly once the weekend nears and the restaurant does not move times around after booking.

The restaurant takes its name from the neighborhood, and the neighborhood takes its name from Ireland. In the early 1800s the landowner John Jackson developed these streets and named the area after the 1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill in County Wexford, hoping to attract Irish immigrants who worked at the nearby shipyards. Several surrounding blocks are now a landmarked historic district, which is why so much of the 19th-century streetscape survives around the restaurant.

From Hudson Avenue it is roughly ten minutes west along Front Street into DUMBO, where Brooklyn Bridge Park opens onto the East River. Pebble Beach, the small stony shore under the Manhattan Bridge, and Jane's Carousel in its glass pavilion near the Brooklyn Bridge are the classic stops, and on a clear morning the views of the Manhattan skyline are wide open.

Going the other way, the Brooklyn Navy Yard sits immediately east of Vinegar Hill along Flushing Avenue and Navy Street. The old shipyard is now an industrial and creative campus, and simply walking its perimeter gives a sense of the industrial history that shaped this corner of the borough long before brunch arrived.

Address: 72 Hudson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Subway: York Street (F); the restaurant's directions say to walk west on Jay Street to Front Street, then three blocks to Hudson Avenue. High Street (A, C) is a slightly longer walk. Brunch: Saturday and Sunday 10am to 3pm. Dinner: Sunday to Thursday 5:30 to 9:30pm, Friday and Saturday 5:30 to 10pm.

Reservations: Resy; tables held 15 minutes; no changes to time or party size. Dogs: sidewalk seating only. Prices in this guide come from the brunch menu on vinegarhillhouse.com, where the apple sourdough pancake is listed at $18 small and $24 large. Book a late-morning slot, arrive inside the 15-minute window, order one large pancake for the table, and leave enough time afterward for the walk down to the river.