Meatballs: The New Burger?

Critics always argue over who has the best burger in the city, but the burger's meatball cousin rarely seems to get any attention. The new-ish Meatball Shop aims rectify that, and so far I'd say they're doing a pretty good job. Their spicy pork hero was recently mentioned on Grubstreet's 101 Best Sandwiches in New York, which is pretty awesome since that's exactly what I ordered. I sure know how to pick 'em!

Speaking of which, the unique ordering system here is one of my favorite aspects of the Meatball Shop. The menus come with dry erase markers so you can mark up the combination of sliders, heroes and plainly dressed meatballs you'd like to see on your plate. Say you'd like three kinds of meatball sliders -- a salmon slider with a mushroom topping, a vegetable meatball with tomato, and a classic beef topped with parmesan cream. Hard to remember? No problem -- just mark it all up on the slider grid. I'm waiting for tapas places to adopt dry-erase menus like these. I get a little bossy when a bunch of us dine together and I'm sure they'd appreciate not being assigned 2-3 items to remember each.


You would think that this whole setup makes servers' job as simple as possible (just collect and hand to the cooks?) but the service here needs a lot of work. Maybe I'm being a little harsh as they'd only been open a few weeks when we went , but the food took forever and when it DID come, the waitress had no idea what was what. There were colored toothpicks in each one, so we assumed they were representative of the type of enclosed meatball. Unfortunately this assumption is false, and everyone who ordered sliders ate most of someone else's before even realizing it.
Luckily, the tasty meatballs overshadowed the service. I had the spicy pork with parmesan cream and lots of mozzerella. The unexpected amount of cheesiness hit the spot, although the pork was a little bland to be labeled as spicy.


The meatball heroes, sliders and dishes were all tasty, but the homemade ice cream sandwiches were easily the highlight of the meal. You choose from five ice cream types to sandwich between five kinds of homemade cookies. I had vanilla on ginger snap, but I bet caramel on walnut meringue is equally amazing. The only unfortunate part is ordering the ice cream at the same time as the meatballs. I've never been to a place where I felt so pressured not to fill past the dessert line (an actual line in the stomach that some less experienced eaters may have trouble locating).
The Meatball Shop
84 Stanton St
(between Allen St & Orchard St)
New York, NY 10002

Note: It appears I spoke too soon on the popularity of meatballs. Check out this upcoming Meatball Madness event hosted by none other than Giada De Laurentiis!

Burger Fridays

There are so many good burgers to be had in the city. Just ask the Burger Club from the NYTimes, read one of the latest articles from NYMag or check out Grub City's list of the city's 82 most notable burgers. It seems sort of overwhelming, as I want to try them all and not compromise my recent attempts to eat healthier. I think I've found the perfect plan of attack though: Friday afternoons, one new burger spot. I have half day Fridays in the summertime so its a great time to just sit and relax. Plus, I've found a burger with lots of bacon and cheese to be a pretty good reward for eating well during the weekdays.

I had my first burger of the summer at Dumont Burger. This place is fairly well-known as Williamsburg's favorite spot for a good bun and patty, so of course I felt the need to verify this loose claim. But honestly I wasn't terribly impressed, though it was a good, high chunk of meat. The ingredients were all very fresh (I tried mine with guacamole and grilled onions) but the meat was a bit overcooked. The saving grace here was the mac 'n' cheese -- simply incredible. My favorite kind of pasta (radiatore) that perfectly holds the thick cheese and crispy bacon in its folds, saturating it with cheesy perfection. I'm not usually a fan of heavy duty mac 'n' cheeses, but this one was amazing.

Dumont Burger
314 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 384-6128
DumontRestaurant.com

Next stop was Joy Burger Bar in Harlem. Rob works near here and comes here a lot for lunch, so I joined him one Friday after work. Maybe I'm a tough burger critic, but again I wasn't all that impressed. There's no table service, you just wait in line and order at the counter. Very similar to Goodburger, although I have to admit I like Goodburger more (even though its crazy overpriced). Even if its slightly crowded when you get there, you'll have to wait forever because they make each burger to order. Munch (3 oz), midi (5 oz) or maxi (8 oz), then topped with whatever sauce you want (and they do have a nice selection of those). On my first visit I got the midi with garlic mayo and sauteed onions. The garlic mayo was pretty watery, and I couldn't even detect any garlicky taste. The burger was flat and the overcooked parts were gray and dripping with grease. My stomach didn't feel so great afterwards. On my next trip I swapped the mayo for some chimichurri sauce, which definitely improved the overall taste, though the meat was still flat and grayish. I think the medium-sized patty was too slim for it to have any hope of pink after it was ordered to medium doneness. It's too bad, but my stomach fared much better this time, even with a half order of mozzerella sticks. And at about $6 for a medium sized burger, the price is right here.

Joy Burger Bar
1567 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10029
(212) 289-6222

Well, I guess the third time's the charm, because Prune absolutely blew me away. Maybe its because Prune figured out the perfect calculations for an ideal mound of ground meat: 80% beef and 20% lamb. Maybe its because I felt confident ordering the burger the way I really like it: medium rare. Maybe its the parsley-scallion butter that pares so well with the cheddar. Or maybe it's because of the English muffin. I've never been a big fan of bready hamburger buns -- they never add much to the burger equation anyway -- and I found the English muffin to be a great bun substitute. The greasy pink juices (which squirt out every which way upon every bite) settle into the crevices nicely, and the thin halves take up minimal room, so much of your bite is straight up beef and lamb. Put a small slice of cheddar cheese on top and a strip of bacon on the bottom and I think I found my favorite NYC burger yet. Much better than Five Napkin. Better than Luger's, even. Yeah... I said it. And I'm not taking it back.

Prune
54 E. 1st St.
New York, NY 10003
212-677-6221
PruneRestaurant.com

Churning Out Winners at the Doughnut Plant

Sunday was such a gorgeous day that upon stepping outside, Rob and I immediately abandoned our movie theater plans to wander aimlessly around in the (finally) rainless day. Not knowing where we were headed, we followed our feet down Greenpoint, into Williamsburg, and across the Williamsburg bridge. Before we were halfway across, I think we both knew what stop was next. Last time we were on this bridge, it was a Sunday afternoon. We were in a car with Adib and Kelly. And we were headed to the Doughnut Plant.

I'm not a donut connoisseur by any measure of the word, so you can bet I wouldn't know a good donut from a bad one. So I have to wonder that if a place so consistently crowded (like the Donut Plant) is actually good or just clever hype. I've examined my donut statistics and come up with a

few interesting, if meaningless, pieces of info. First, I've noticed a trend: people flock to places where they spell "doughnut" the longhand way. I guess it makes it look more traditional, and therefore more desireable? But these donuts are

anything but traditional. Some of their donuts are even square. Edgy, right? I don't think I'm giving them enough credit. New Yorkers are generally uninterested in gimmicks. I think this place has genuinely earned its true fried dough wings on product alone.

Well, strange marketing speculation (and my inner monologue rambling) aside, these donuts (or doughnuts) are pretty darn good and might be worth the hype. The consistency is different from any donut I've had before because of its chewiness. It resists your bite better than any Krispy Kreme ever did. The dough themselves are not very sweet, but the sticky glaze on top makes up for it and reminds you of what you're eating. It's not so much that it's the best I've ever had. It's just donut, redefined. And the flavors are not typical either. Where else can you get a PB&J filled donut?

On our last visit, we tried the myers lemon glaze (sweet and bitter at the same time), the vanilla bean glaze (my personal favorite), and a chocolate cake donut (I'm not a cake donut fan). This time we tried the cashew. The dough again is what surprises you, I want to call it "extra chewy" but I know that's not right, so I'm going with "slightly springy" and "donut al dente" for lack of a better phrase. The cashew-studded glaze, though, was forgettable. Next time, I'm trying the creme brulee. The only reason we didn't get it this time is because its literally the smallest donut they have, but they sure rave about them on yelp.

Unfortunately, this place is really tiny, so if you don't get a spot on the bench outside you're SOL, that is of course unless you have a friend to drive you back over that bridge.

The next step, obviously, was to make our way down to Chinatown for some pork soup dumplings at Nice Green Bo. Still a great bargain and decent dumpling, but I'm open to suggestions on a new pork bun spot if anyone has any ideas.

Doughnut Plant

379 Grand St

(between Essex St & Norfolk St)

New York, NY 10002

(212) 505-3700