Our children are going to replace us. Just look at what happened to Oedipus’ dad. And check out O’Shea Jackson Jr. pretending to be his real-life father in Straight Outta Compton. Something similar is happening in East Williamsburg, and it involves an extremely good restaurant called Win Son and its excellent counter-service offspring, Win Son Bakery.
Win Son is a Taiwanese-American restaurant on Graham Avenue that pretty much always has a wait, and it’s a spot we’ve liked since day one. Then Win Son Bakery opened across the street, and we realized that if either of these places were ever taken from us, we’d cycle rapidly through all five stages of grief before feeling compelled to take an extremely long nap. If you’ve deduced from the name that Win Son Bakery makes baked goods, you’re 100% correct - but this counter-service spot is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner serving a bunch of things, like sandwiches, salads, and fried chicken. Sure, it’s more of a daytime place than the original Win Son - but the food is just as good, and, in some cases, even better.
Stop by Win Son Bakery before 2pm, and you can eat what is, without a doubt, one of the single best BECs in the city. It comes on a milk bun with raclette, but for an extra $4, you can get it on a warm, chewy scallion pancake. The result is the equivalent of the opening bars of Tchaikovksy’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” or any doo-wop song in which a young man with a high-pitched voice expresses unrequited feelings. Once dinner starts at 5:30pm, there’s also a messy and delicious burger, a chop cheese on a scallion pancake that’ll stalk you in your sleep, and some crispy fried chicken with a sweet, sticky glaze.
Is this the kind of spot where you bring a date or some relatives who want to catch up over a meal? Not so much. Think of it as a neighborhood coffee shop that happens to serve food so good it’ll make you angry and confused, like a dog confronted with a mirror. In the daytime, you’ll see people hanging out with laptops in the bright, open space, and, at night, things tend to stay pretty mellow (although the pending liquor license might change that).
There are already plenty of fancy restaurants where you would take a date in NYC, so it’s important that you appreciate Win Son Bakery for what it is: an exceptional neighborhood cafe that deserves to have more locations than Dunkin. We still love and appreciate Win Son, but we see ourselves coming here more often, because it’s just so easy. You can walk up to the counter, say a few words, and walk away with a meal that’ll remind you how New York City does food the way Switzerland does watches. So the next time you don’t feel like waiting for a table at its parent restaurant, use this place as a plan B. Once you eat here a couple of times, it might just become your plan A.