Breakfast spot ECC Eatery opens in Patchogue

Hidden gem, diamond in the rough, choose your own jewelry metaphor to describe ECC Eatery in Patchogue.

The pint-sized, freestanding building is only a short walk from the village’s Main Street, but it feels like it’s miles away. Inside, the contemporary decor and extensive breakfast-lunch menu might give you an inkling of what you are in store for, but nothing will prepare you for the care and skill that chef-owner Charles J. Drayton puts into everything he cooks.

Let’s start with the bacon-egg-cheese sandwich. You could have it on a kaiser roll, but Drayton urges customers to go with his homemade focaccia with its tender crumb. "A kaiser roll is a vehicle for the filling," he said. "The focaccia brings something to the sandwich."

While he toasts a split square of focaccia with clarified butter, eggs are cooked to order and center-cut bacon is griddled under a weight so the three slices lay flat. When the eggs are almost done, Drayton does not drape a slice of American cheese over them, he covers them with a mixture of shredded Cheddar and Monterey Jack. Then he folds the egg and folds the bacon so that they fit perfectly onto the focaccia.

This is not the quickest or the cheapest BEC on Long Island but, at $10, it’s a great value. And, Drayton noted, "If you want a great sandwich, it’s going to take a few minutes."

He lavishes this kind of care on the pancakes: The homemade buttermilk batter is subtly spiced, and the cakes are cooked low and slow to avoid brown spots. For French toast, he eschews challah in favor of a firmer bread that won’t soak up too much liquid and get soggy. Both dishes come with a light dusting of powdered sugar, whipped butter and real maple syrup. The platings are aggressively simple, devoid of unripe strawberries or twisted orange slices, And the flavor profile is uncompromisingly savory: "We don’t believe in dessert for breakfast."

Coffee is his own special blend; decaf is made in a French press because he doesn’t sell too much of it and doesn’t want it to languish in a carafe.

Drayton’s regular menu features breakfast sandwiches ($5 to $12), eggs and omelets; pancakes, waffles and French toast, breakfast bowls, grain bowls, sandwiches, burgers and homemade desserts. Most items are less than $15, none is more than $20. Every day brings specials — perhaps a peanut butter-and-jelly waffle; a chicken sandwich topped with bacon, avocado, basil aioli and a fried egg; Jamaican jerk chicken soup.

On Mondays and Fridays, he serves dinner from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The menu changes every week but recently included a salad of blistered shishito peppers and corn ($20), a rice bowl topped with blackened salmon and charred zucchini ribbons ($26) and 14-hour smoked brisket with sweet potato puree ($34)

Drayton has been cooking since he was 12, when he started helping his father, Charles E. Drayton, the executive chef at The Snapper Inn in Oakdale. During the ensuing 33 years, he worked in many sectors of the hospitality industry (high-end restaurants, barbecue trucks, personal cheffing) but the longest-running gig has been as a caterer. He started Exquisite Catering Cuisine in 2005 in Greenlawn and moved the operation to this location in January 2025.

"I live in Patchogue," he said. "Originally, this was just a commercial kitchen for the catering." The community, however, had other ideas. "Local clients who hired me once or twice a year asked me to open something where they could get food every day. And folks around here said there was nowhere to get a good breakfast on this side of Patchogue." "Exquisite Catering Cuisine" lent its initials to the new retail enterprise and, by March, he was open for business.

ECC Eatery, 140 River Ave., Patchogue, 631-730-3585, Instagram: @ecceatery Open Thursday to Tuesday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday and Friday 4:30 to 6 p.m.