Quick Bites: Pig Face At Roberta's

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 22, 2010]

Roberta's, which still has http://www.robertaspizza.com as the URL for its website, is going through one of those phrases where it's the only restaurant to be seen at.

And the pizza is scarcely the reason any more, although they still serve it, and it still has nice, chewy, blistered crust.

No, Roberta's isn't a pizza joint these days.  It's more a hipster version of La Pyramide.  An expedition to a remote spot (okay, not far from the Morgan Street L stop) discovers a country idyll. Sage and oregano grow in the back garden.  There's a greenhouse and a cat on the roof.  You sit on a rustic bench with your jam jar and the sounds of peasants strumming their loots begins to waft through the unseasonably warm air. 

Okay, that would be guests in the Heritage Radio Network studio, also in the back yard.  Meanwhile, the farmer's wife breaks down pig's heads and kneads fresh bread.  Okay, there's no farmer's wife, and the widely advertised bread has usually sold out.  But the kitchen is honing a menu encompassing all current trends - Benton's bacon, tripe, guanciale, home-made biscuits, fried chicken from the Pies-n-Thighs folks, sea urchin, duck ham.  It's so now, and it's pretty well executed.

Don't be fooled into thinking this is a small sandwich.  It isn't.  It just comes with a hell of a lot of lettuce.

Witness the pork jowl sandwich.  Thick slices of pig face, wonderfully crunchy ciabatta-style bread, pickled onions, a tangy mayo dressing, fresh parsley - and in a hopeless attempt to balance the vast fat content of the pork, a heap of fresh lettuce.

In fact, the thickly sliced jowl leaned a little heavily in a fatty direction.  Makes pork belly look lean.

But this is how we eat now, and increasingly people are choosing to do so at this unlikely Bushwick - or far east Williamsburg - landmark.

Comments

[S Lloyd]

I think I've never sampled anything like the pork jowl sandwich. Sounds like a great sandwich. I'll surely give it a try if I am in the area

[MK]

Strumming their loot$?...Lutes?