[Pigging by Wilfrid: August 3, 2011]
So, there I am pacing up and down Smith Street and Carroll Street on a warm evening recently, at a loose end.
I had drunk something cold at the Brooklyn Social. That didn't do the trick, so I tried something else cold at the Wing Bar. Sam Adams Summer Ale.
I didn't need fancy, just something a little more sedate. Why not Char #4? Especially as stools were available right away.
Not so new, not so old either, this slim and sleek bar with a dining room in the rear is bathed in an amber glow, both literally (see photos) and metaphorically (see book-sized list of whiskies). Bourbons and rye, single malts and options from further afield, the firewater is helpfully available in small, 1oz tasting pours. Even so, it would take a year and a red nose to do full justice to the choice.
I settled for a finger or two of Basil Hayden's, that lightly candied bourbon and ordered some snack items.
I didn't realize the finger foods would look quite as much alike; but they did taste different. Pork nuggets with a chili dipping sauce were fine, not life-changing, not quite as succulent as the tasty version at Back Forty.
The jambalaya rice balls were much more successful. I am not a fan of Little Italy-style baseball-sized rice balls. These were more delicately, crisply breaded, moist. The "jambalaya" element I suppose was the andouille aïoli. I looked for the andouille vainly, but the aïoli was just fine.
I filled up on a recent addition to the menu, two fat pork sausages with a smear of chocolatey mole sauce. The kitchen was too shy with the sauce: it was good, give us more. The sausages were densely meaty and convincingly home-made. The wow of the dish, however, was the debris scattered beneath them.
Corn kernels, crumbled queso fresco, crushed peanuts, some finely chopped oniony stuff. Not strictly a succotash, but loveable along the same lines - great crunchy texture, sweetness - even vibrancy ((c) Gordon Ramsay). Neatly balanced dish.
Nobody would regret having this joint in their neighborhood. Here's the informative website.
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