This little spot on the lower east side specializes in what can best be described as Italian hot pockets or stuffed pita bread. The bread itself is actually pretty unique. It’s a toasty triangle of puffy yet crispy goodness, and inside is filled with something delicious – in this case, oxtail and tomato:
I also tried their chic pea salad, which is a pass. The peas were a little undercooked. Otherwise, fun spot. The fig negroni is great.
TRAPIZZINO
144 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002
This joint opened recently and is connected to the 9 Orchard hotel. There’s a lot I want to try here, but on this first trip my wife and I just stopped in for a couple of cocktails and some snacks.
The cocktails are great. I had a Gibson that used basil syrup in the mix. Very herbal and unique.
I also tried their amari-based old fashioned, which was really strong at first. But as the ice mellowed it out, it was perfect.
We had the Oysters Rockefeller, which were quite expensive at $24 for four. They were delicious, however, and reminded us of the flavor profile of escargots.
We also had an order of their perfectly cooked fries, which come with ketchup, mayo, and dijon. I love that they give you dijon automatically. It’s my favorite condiment.
Based on this trip, we will definitely be back to try more of the menu. Stay tuned for updates!
UPDATE 10-15-2022
On a second trip, after a LOT of hype in the food media world, I noticed a decline here.
First off, the nice ice cube in the old fashioned is gone now, and they replaced it with a bunch of small regular ice cubes. Bad move!
We started with the steak tartare, which was fairly good although it was very heavy on the onion and vinegar. The parm crisp on top was nice though.
The burger is no longer on the menu. I was excited to try it but they had a steak on special, so I went with that.
$185! Get the fuck outta here for 32oz!
It was just okay. Cooked perfectly, nice crust. But the meat itself was pretty dense and tough in places, and a good amount of connective tissue that was inedible. The best parts were along the bone, and edges, where some aged flavor managed to creep in. 6/10.
My wife’s duck was better, but parts of the dish were insanely salty.
The bread and butter here is fantastic, and complimentary. Get it.
Fries were still great, so there’s that.
CORNER BAR
60 Canal St
New York, NY 10002
If you’re like me, bread is something you love to eat, but you try your hardest to ignore at restaurants. You don’t want to “fill up on bread” when you’re about to sink your teeth into a massive hunk of delicious beef.
But sometimes the restaurant gets you. The bread is so good that you just can’t fucking resist. I always like to mention the bread in all of my steakhouse reviews, just out of habit. As a result, over time I’ve come to really respect the effort that gets put into this unassuming meal opener. Who does it the best? See below.
1) BLT Prime
Hands down the best, because it’s a double whammy. Not only do they give you a few slices of country style bread with a jar of velvety chicken liver pate, but they also bring out hot, fresh-made cheese popovers with a recipe card for how to make them at home. That’s pretty incredible. I mean, honestly, if you eat all of that, you and your date can go light on the rest of the meal. But why would you? Everything else they serve is fucking great!
2) American Cut
Iron Chef Marc Forgione has created one of the greatest biscuits known to man: the everything biscuit. That’s everything seasoning, as in “everything bagel.” This biscuit has gotten such praise that he even used it as a vehicle for a delicious fried chicken sandwich.
3) Peter Luger
The simplicity of their onion rolls is mind blowing. They’re warm, soft, incredibly aromatic and tasty as all fuck. Go for lunch. Eat the bread basket and dip the rolls into their steak sauce while you wait for one of their incredible burgers to come out. Then wash it all down with some schlag.
4) Quality Italian
There are a lot of great versions of these fresh-made dinner rolls (aka Parker rolls or “pan bread”) floating around in the steakhouse sphere, but no one quite nails it the way Quality Italian does. Similar to monkey bread or pull bread, these babies are perfectly sized bites of buttery, warm, herby, garlicky, soul-fulfilling carbs that will have you craving more and more.
5) K*Rico
I always have to do something wacky when I make these lists, so I’m including K*Rico’s fried pasta snacks here. They’re spicy and perfectly crisp. Really unique. I’ve never seen this at a steakhouse before, let alone anywhere else for that matter.
NON-BREAD HONORABLE MENTIONS
When you want to say FUCK YOU to bread, check out Keens’ crudite with pickles, Bob’s Steakhouse’s jar of half-sour pickles and red peppers, or Arthur’s Tavern’s tray of pickles and cherry peppers.
Another alternative is Gallagher’s Steakhouse’s homemade potato chips at the bar. They serve bread at the table, so if you want the chips – which are fucking incredible – you have to ask the waiter and be extra nice to get them. Otherwise just be a man and sit at the bar for a bit before you dine. Have a fucking drink.
My wife and I tried this joint out today for a quick dinner. When we entered, we were hit with this beautiful staircase. Who knows where the fuck it goes, though…
We thought it was odd that no bread was served to us, but the app came out pretty quick, and it had some sliced pieces of toasted bread with it. Steak tartare:
This was pretty good. It was coarsely hand cut, which I am usually not a fan of, but it was soft and had good flavor. We didn’t realize there was a quail egg yolk sitting in it for mixing until we were halfway done with the dish. It was sorta buried under the meat. The tartare had a good spice to it from some cherry peppers. Nice touch.
For her entree, my wife ordered the appetizer mussels. This was a good sized portion, but it came with one lousy piece of bread for soaking up the delicious green coconut curry sauce at the bottom. It was topped with sliced garlic, pickled chili peppers and cilantro.
Definitely a winning dish, so I recommend ordering it. We asked for more bread and were finally given our table bread, which we should have gotten earlier when we were seated. Soak up all that delicious sauce shit at the bottom!
I had the burger, with added cheddar. The burger, as-is on the menu, does not come with cheese. They had either cheddar or gruyere when I asked.
There was some slight slippage when eating due to the slippery tomatoes (one slice would have been fine), but the burger had a great beefy flavor and the toppings were excellent. Pickled red onion, so I wasn’t dying of thirst all night long. Pickles, lettuce. Nice and simple.
As you can see above, they were wise to dig out some of the bread so as not to have a burger stacked high to the sky. Good shit. The bread was nice too. Strong yet soft. And it came with some really tasty golden crisp French fries.
Not bad! I think we ordered the right sort of shit here, so if you stick to these items I’m sure you will be pleased. My wife has been here before, and she said the octopus app, which I was thinking of ordering, was not that great – nothing special.
THE NATIONAL
557 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10022
Smith & Mills is a tiny little joint in Tribeca that’s known for serving up great cocktails. They use herbs, fire, egg whites, spices, the whole nine. But what is less known is that they serve up some really great food as well. My wife and I came here and we sampled some of the stuff.
Mussels. Packed with flavor, delicious broth for dipping the bread too. Sop that shit up.
Burrata. Absolutely perfect. Soft, savory, sweet, tomatoes were juicy and flavorful, and the bread was again fantastic.
Plus, if you can get one of their pull-back toy cars to ride across the entire length of the bar, you get a free drink! Beware of the Corvette though. Getting it to generate enough speed is difficult, and it likes to pull to the right.
SMITH & MILLS
71 N. Moore St.
New York, NY 10013
