[Pigging by Wilfrid: September 13, 2010]
It had to happen. Yes, despite my skepticism, the crowds, and a previous aborted visit when the only space available was a cramped corner table, I finally ate the meatballs.
Well big deal, in a sense, because anyone who cares has visited already. The Meatball Shop has been an insane success since the beginning of the year. It's also one of those defining restaurants; somewhere which tells us a lot about where we are now and where we're going.
And that's not entirely good news, of course. Okay, the burger boom has been underway for several years now, but the Meatball Shop is flagship for a generalized ground meat explosion. What's coming this fall? More chefs turning to burgers, of course, but also sausages and meatballs and every kind of slider and sandwich. Comfort food crazy is what we are, and the main thing to be said in the Meatball Shop's favor is that it's mighty comforting to alcohol-stressed stomachs and to the anxious spirits of anyone raised on heavy, red sauce Italian food.
The next thing to be said in its favor, although I'm more muted about it, is that the Meatball Shop strives to be something more than a red sauce dive. Chef Daniel Holzman has a fine dining track record, mainly on the west coast. The restaurant fashionably, and doubtless sincerely, boasts its food sources. Bell & Evans birds, La Quercia pork, Creekstone Farm beef, and so on. But what does the skilled kitchen do with these fine ingredients? Hands up? Okay, yes, they make meatballs.
But fancy, gourmet meatballs, right? No. No, no. Let's be real about this. These are good enough meatballs, but no matter how fine the meat, they are loaded also with bread and eggs. They are light but doughy and rely heavily on saucing and spicing for flavor. Myself, I tend to make meatballs which are mainly meat (and making meatballs is the easiest thing in the world; on second thoughts, the easiest after making burgers). But I recognize this Italian-American tradition. British sausages are full of bread too.
The non-meat elements were immediately apparent on tasting, although I've since seen chef Holzman's published recipe. I had ordered the "classic beef" balls from the... well, the "à la carte balls" menu. This is a card you mark with a pencil, selecting type of ball (spicy pork, veggie, chicken are also available) and then framing it with your choice of presentation, sauce and sides. As for presentation, you can have them on a plate; or you can mash them into just about any kind of sandwich. A hero, a slider, a brioche bun. Meatball sandwiches. It is a kind of genius to have a line out the door and people waiting wearily on benches for a meatball sandwich.
I took my balls over a nice white bean stew. A range of carbs are represented on the menu, including of course spaghetti, as well as lighter "market" vegetable sides. Hey, heavy going. With the hunk of foccaccia to mop up the sauce, the beans, the extra bread in the meatballs, this is going to fill your boots. Seven dollars for the balls, four for the beans.
You have to remember that, although I sometimes eat it with pleasure, Italian red sauce dining is not my favorite. The sauce here struck me as standard issue, from-anywhere, red sauce, and the dish was overall boring. But who cares, the shop was packed to the gills with very happy young people; even a couple next to me ordering a bunch of different balls for a comparative tasting. Okay.
Despite the pell mell atmosphere, the restaurant is well run by a predictably knockout hostess and smart bar staff. The well-manned kitchen is fully visible. Trending again, the beer list is very short: Peroni, Guinness and Brooklyn lager on tap, then those increasingly risible symbols of New York nightlife, P.B.R. in a can and Newcastle Brown Ale in a bottle. The latter, cloyingly sweet, is a joke in the United Kingdom; the first beer you drink when you're thirteen. The wine list isn't much longer.
I know, I know; you've stopped reading because you've already been and you think it's great. Make some meatballs yourself, for dinner tonight, I dares you.
Here's the website.
