The storefront. Imagine it completely crowded out front.
Ok, I am just going to say it: I do not understand the wild popularity of Good Enough To Eat. This is not the first time I’ve missed the boat of something others consider to be spectacularly awesome, and swoon-worthy. But week in and week out one of the longest lines for brunch on the Upper West Side is at Good Enough To Eat, and each time I can’t figure out why the folks are waiting so long.
Most sucker-like of all, every now and again I get tempted to follow the herd and check it out to see if my previous impression was wrong.
It never is, and wasn’t again.
This is a Wednesday lunch?
Now before you think this is a complete slam on Good Enough To Eat, don’t. The place is fine, just fine. But it gets it right in its name: the food is good enough to eat, in fact it is probably better than that, but certainly not so much better that it justifies the hellish lines. I just don’t get it.
Even for a midweek lunch, the place was crowded. I keep wondering what their secret is. It’s not the price: the place ain’t cheap. Something like $10 or so for most of their breakfast fare (they are known for their breakfast comfort food staples, like pancakes and waffles and such).
Narrow corridors between tables = bumping.
It’s not the decor, which is frankly cramped and filled with tippy small tables and bumpy passersby trying to get past other customers’ chairs.
It’s not the service, which was certainly pleasant and basically attentive but isn’t spectacular. In fact it took quite a while for our order to land at our table, which was left sans snacks or bread or such, so I wouldn’t suggest you go very hungry – especially if you also had to wait on the weekend line. Then again, maybe that’s their secret: hunger is the best sauce, so they say.
So if it’s not price, service or decor, how come the place is so popular? Its gotta be the food, right? So how is it?
Exhibit A. Do they look suspicious to you?
We ordered some fresh-squeezed juices. My wife took a sip of hers and right away knew something was up. Was it squeezed on premises, she asked. Nope. Now to me that’s not a big deal, but it does seem like a bit of a shortcut. If I buy a bottle of fresh-squeezed juice at the supermarket, keep it in the fridge for a few days, should I still be selling it as fresh squeezed? I don’t know if that’s what Good Enough To Eat does, nor am I suggesting that, but I do know if it was squeezed right then and there you couldn’t even ask the question.
Looks good, don
I ordered the Farmhouse Breakfast ($10.25). It consists of two poached eggs atop what they called home-made dill-onion toast and two pieces of home-made sausage. It sounded very good to me, and for the most part, it was.
The poached egg. One was a slight touch overdone... .
It eventually arrived at our table, and as you can see it was very well presented. The home-made bread essentially resembles a thick cut of fluffy white bread. The bread’s flavor was very sweet and rich, quite like challah. The dill and onion flavors weren’t noticeable to me. The egg was suitably runny, though one of them was slightly overdone and the center had somewhat solidified, but just barely. The eggs and toast together were lovely.
The sausage.
The sausage was essentially a proper, old-school meatball. It too was very rich.
The waffles.
My wife opted for her favorite at the place, the waffles. We ordered a side of crispy bacon for the table.
Melted strawberry butter, fresh maple syrup... .
The waffles are served with a signature of Good Enough To Eat, a mixed butter. In this case, I think it may have been strawberry butter – or possibly orange – but it is winning. Unfortunately, the waffle itself was a touch heavier and chewier than you think it should be, especially once syrup was added to it. It is a plentiful amount of bread, so be warned.
Crispy bacon. Overcooked as far as I'm concerned.
The crispy bacon I found to be overdone. It had all the life cooked out of it. One can reasonably argue that by ordering it crispy, we were asking for trouble, and that would be a fair point. I am a fan of non-crispy bacon, but the wife likes it that way, so you do run the risk.
As you can probably tell, I basically like the food at Good Enough To Eat. It lives up to its name. But for the life of me I can’t figure why some folks line up endlessly there on the weekends. Barney Greengrass is just a few blocks away, and I would certainly understand why someone might wait a long time for that. Luke’s Lobster is just across the street! OK, so you don’t get to sit down, but you could be eating something spectacular. Artie’s is just a few blocks away, so is Popover, Alice’s Tea Cup and so on… why are they so committed to this cramped spot? It’s good enough to eat, not great enough to wait on line.
I don’t get it.
Good Enough To Eat
483 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10024 212.496.0163www.goodenoughtoeat.com
The beef taco from Kimchi Taco Truck.
If you’re a longtime reader of this blog, you’ll know I have a deep affection for Korean BBQ and in particular Korean tacos. It’s a genius fusion of styles, in my opinion. The other day I got to sample the latest entrant to the field, the Kimchi Taco truck.
The line was long, but moved quickly.
I’m not the only one wise to this craze. The line for the truck was among the longest I’ve seen, even during the busy height of lunch hour. Though the line was long, it moved fairly quickly. I was able to make my order after 15 minutes and pick it up just a few minutes later.
The menu looks awesome. I'd like to try them all... .
Since it was my fist time at the truck, I opted for the tacos, although the other items on the menu sound pretty spectacular. They have something on the menu called a Kim-cheesesteak which sounds incredibly brilliant to me. Who would think of fusing Korean kimchi flavor with cheez whiz and a roll? I will be trying that. I guess it is because the operators of the truck have Philadelphia roots.
What you get for $7. Pretty impressive.
You get 3 tacos for $7, which is a terrific deal all in all. I opted for two beef and one pork.
Notice the shape of the pieces of beef.
The beef is prepared in small cubes. That was unfortunate, in my opinion, because the cubes were just a bit tough. I found that style of preparation got in the way, and wondered why they didn’t go with ropier slabs, like Bapcha.
Shredded pork.
The pork however was shredded, making it much easier to munch on in taco form. I preferred it to the beef. The beef tacos had a slightly fuller, rounder flavor than the pork taco, which naturally was a bit sweeter.
Biting into the taco. Asian pico de gallo and kimchi atop the pork.
As far as flavor goes, though, the kimchi atop the protein is the real star. Kimchi is fermented veggies and packs a distinct flavor. The taco truck’s chef Youngsun Lee ferments his own for months with pepper flakes from his grandmother’s farm in Korea. The tacos are served with a piece of pickled cabbage and that and the kimchi flavor just overwhelms the beef and pork. It’s dominant, but in a great way. The cabbage itself is expertly done, crispy, crunchy and flavorful. The pico de gallo adds a fresh zest to the experience. The double tacos add a starch. I got the side of spicy sauce, which added heat but wasn’t thermonuclear. Thoughtfully, the owners also give you a wet-nap to clean up with.
All in all, I definitely enjoyed myself and think there’s a lot of bang for the buck here. It’s a much better bargain than Calexico, for example. I am eager though to try the Kim-cheesesteak, which is what I will get when I return.
Kimchi Taco Truck
Travels around NYC, for more information check their website www.kimchitacotruck.com
Walking into Zucker's...
I was running late to get to jury duty the other day and hopped out of the subway at Chambers Street, set for the significant hoof across town to Center Street. But something in my foodie brain was ringing – I seemed to recall there was some good grub on Chambers. A quick look near the subway exit along West Broadway revealed Zucker’s.
Sweet little seating area... .
Zucker’s looked to be essentially a downtown variation of the most excellent Murray’s Sturgeon shop, which I absolutely adore. It sells smoked fish, bagels and (importantly) bialys. Jewish soul food. As you can see, the small seating area is cozy and looks like a great place to sip a cup of coffee, read the paper, nosh on some food and generally ease into your day. Does anybody get to do that anymore? If I lived downtown, probably I’d move in to this place.
Some of products behind the counter at Zucker's.
I stepped up to the counter and ordered a nova and scallion cream cheese on a bialy. I mean, come on: going to jury duty and getting to fress on some of my favorite food ever? That’s a big win.
The sandwich.
So how was it? After all, not all places get fresh nova, it can sometimes be less delicious than others. Well, I am pleased to report that it was in fact lovely. There are some criticisms, though.
Nice, thick slices of nova.
So the nova itself seemed delightfully fresh and had the appropriate salty zest. It was not stringy or “tough,” as nova can sometimes turn. It gave easily to to a bite and melted away smoothly. The pieces themselves weren’t wafer thin, as they could be, so they had enough texture to give the salty smoked flavor a chance to shine through.
The scallion cream cheese needed a little bit of work. The scallions, which add a key component of flavor to the sandwich, seemed barely noticeable in the creamy spread. There was enough of them though for one piece to get stuck in my teeth, but mostly it was just cream cheese. Scallions add a strong, pungent earthy note that plays beautifully off the thick cream and the salty, smoky richness of the nova. Perhaps I am just used to the stuff from Murray’s, but this scallion cream cheese wasn’t quite as good to me.
Note the size.
The biggest grouses I had with the sandwich though, are these: first of all, there was a moment of pilot error. I ordered it on a bialy and got it on a bialy, but what I really wanted was a toasted bialy. The gentlemen behind the counter didn’t offer to toast it so my slip-up went unnoticed until I got the sandwich.
The far bigger complaint though is tied to the price. The sandwich rang up at $10, and the whole thing was $12 with a small bottle of water. I do not mind at all paying a premium for this sort of food and this type of sandwich. But when I’ve done so elsewhere (Murray’s, Barney Greengrass to name some places), it seems to me I got a little more food than I did here.
So it is expensive.
That said, I was delighted by the lingering salty zest for the remainder of the morning, and counted myself lucky to have had such a lovely meal on the way to jury duty. As I mentioned, the place seems terrific, and I am sure I would make extensive use of it if I lived downtown.
Zucker’s Bagels
146 Chambers Street New York, NY 10007 212.608.5844www.zuckersbagels.com
The line was out the door.
So one day while on jury duty we were given an extended lunch break – roughly two hours – so there was plenty of time to go exploring. My sojourn took me up through Little Italy, past the excellent-looking Alleva Dairy (where I seriously considered eating) and further north into the Village. I weighed eating an entire pie at Lombardi’s by myself but thought better of it and continued strolling as it was a nice, sunny day, and relatively spring-y out. I’m glad I did, because I stumbled upon Parisi Bakery. More directly, I stumbled upon the line of firefighters queued up out the door of Parisi. For the uninitiated, it is well known that New York City firefighters and police personnel often know of the best local places to eat. I immediately got in line with them.
Not a large shop, but big on portions, and heart.
Parisi is a real throwback to a part of New York that I regret to say is largely dead in Manhattan. The rest of the boroughs you can still find this sort of thing, but as Manhattan has become more expensive and gentrified hole-in-the-wall joints like this have largely been crowded out by places that sell you overpriced underwear. It is a family-run joint, and while I can’t swear to this it sure seemed that the tattooed gentlemen behind the counter was married to another woman who was also serving up sandwiches. They had that type of rapport.
This is not the sandwich I ordered, but I gawped when I saw that monster. It looked like Pac-Man eating gourmet food.
As you can see the sandwiches looked gargantuan and filled with fresh products. There was something about the place that seemed filled with old-world charm and real care for good ingredients and value. That makes perfect sense: it turns out the place has been around for more than 100 years! But even before I found that out I was transported to a different era. There was something about the clowning between the folks behind the counter, the firemen, and some of the apparently regular customers. The place had a great vibe and I was getting excited.
The Italian combo from Parisi.
This is the whale of a sandwich that I ordered and as you can see it looked terrific. I got an Italian combo with roasted red peppers and fresh mozzerella. The most important thing in the above photograph, though, is the sliver of garlic sitting in front of the sandwich. The dressing they pour onto it has fresh garlic in it! For a garlic-lover like me, this is a HUGE win. Of course, fresh garlic alone does not a great sandwich make… .
Just look at it... .
The sandwich consisted of a few different types of pork products (hams and salamis) sliced so thin that at times they seemed transparent. They melt on the tongue when you bite into them. Those roasted red peppers and fresh mozz were both marvelous. The bread was just right: not too heavy, not too light, just enough fight. The dressing was garlicky (perhaps basil too?) and delightful. I think you get where I’m going here: the sandwich was terrific!
All in all, I’d say it was better than Faicco’s, and well worth the $10 it cost me. Frankly as a die-hard NYC foodie I am a bit embarrassed to admit this place had eluded me for so long.
ME LIKE EAT 