This was maybe one the most anticipated trips of all time. My brother in law, Al treated me to what may be one of the coolest foodie havens I have been to. Chef April Bloomfield hit the nail on the head here, it is not the stuffy atmosphere you would expect when eating fine food. The Spotted Pig is two floor gastro-pub decorated with its namesake, pigs! They do have a third floor but that is reserved for people in April’s circle only…Ahh someday.
The dress code is casual; the employees are what I would think of as Brooklyn chic/hipsters, our long legged bartender looked like a pin up girl. They offer a ton of great beers and a sick menu, however I am still wondering why the chick sitting next to us was whipping a piece of jerky out of her back pack every few minutes, (shudder)??
We arrived just before five to avoid having had trouble getting a table (an hour wait is quick) and then decided to sit at the 2nd floor bar. The staff knew there shit inside and out, the souse chef took up a tiny space up behind the bar to produce many of the smaller items.
Onto the food! We tried most of the items on the menu, roll mops, marinated olives, deviled eggs, chicken liver toast, “Devils on Horseback”, and of course the star of the trip and the reason that I made it in the first place, the Pat La Frieda master piece burger complete with Roquefort cheese and shoestrings. Back to the apps, we all know what a deviled egg is, but this is what I dream of when I think of deviled eggs (which for the record is not often), these were not your typical picnic eggs these were delicious with a micro scallion topping and I could easily have eaten a dozen of them. We then moved onto the marinated olives. Yes, I’ve had olives before but for some reason even the olive game was a step above others.
The chicken liver, I passed on, but Al seemed to think it was a little over the top with too strong a taste. He also had some sort of river oyster, which I passed on, as you probably have noticed I don’t blog about seafood because I don’t like it. The last one we tried were the “Devils on Horse Back”, which are prunes marinated in a black tea and then rapped in a delicious thick, flat smoked bacon, this is the kind of dish that The Spotted Pig and April Bloomfield is all about, I don’t recall eating like this in any other spot in the city so if this type of food is your thing you must try the Spotted Pig….
Oh… I almost forgot, all the food we had before the burger came out was top flight but I did say we came for the burger, and she did not disappoint. I’m not sure where this burger falls on my burger list, but it falls somewhere in the top five for sure. Let me digress for a second, so you all know where I’m coming from, here are two of my top rated burgers:
1.) Minetta Tavern, which takes the cake by a LONG shot
2.) Shake Shack, which I consider the perfect fast food type burger
With Minetta clocking in at $26.00 and the shack at $5ish the one thing they do have in common is that they are both made by rock star butcher Pat LaFrieda. “The Pig” is more like the Minetta and by the taste and looks I would guess that the base is chuck, mixed with a few parts, maybe ground brisket, maybe one part short rib and a part rump (sirloin) but Pat is the only one who knows the exact mix. Cooked to a perfect medium-rare with a rich intense loosely packed meaty flavor, this monster (8 oz is my guess) is over the top and in my opinion does not even need the rich cheese topping. The bun was also perfect and house made with trade mark crisscrossed grill marks, and good support. I can’t leave out the rosemary garlic shoestring fries which were out of f’ing control!
The bottom line is that “The Pig” should be at the top of your list to hit next time you are in the city or shit, make it the reason you go to the city ...We did!
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