[Pigging by Wilfrid: September 24, 2014]
You could be forgiven for thinking that Spiegel is a new East Village German restaurant. There's the name, there's a schnitzel plate, there's a bockwurst on a pretzel roll.
And then you look online and see that it's...Moroccan? Or international? And you start worrying that it's one of those places with no theme or focus, just there to line alcohol stressed stomachs on a busy strip of First Avenue. But you'd be wrong.
Spiegel started to come into focus for me when I arrived at the casual, corner-space on 2nd and First--converted from a deli--for a complimentary exploration of the menu. It finally made sense when I spoke with owner Shmulik Avital--raised in Israel by Moroccan parents; a long-time New York resident (he has managed branches of Westville); and a world-traveler on a motor-cycle.
Now things fell into place. The schnitzel sandwich is a popular Israeli snack (I see Schnitzel King, on the way to Coney Island, is now closed). Cous cous, and several of the vegetable plates, cry out Morocco. Merguez sausage and large-grain Israeli cous cous are headed for the menu. And (confusingly, I have to say), the restaurant's name is a tribute to Sam Spiegel, the movie producer (Avital is a fan).
In Avital's imagination--and, more importantly, on the plate--it comes together.
The stuffed mushrooms were easy to eat, hot and crisp, but were really elevated by being dunked into a creamy smoked salmon dip. I did prefer them to zucchini fritters, which were a little underdone and bready in the middle. They got a tzatziki bath.
Vegetables and salads are a serious focus here--a vegan could already do well (the veggie burger is vegan, and not all veggie burgers are), and the kitchen is moving towards more vegan-friendly dishes.
The house chopped salad was a riot of crisp fruits and vegetables--cauliflower, peppers, onions, avocado, hearts of palm--and plenty more--grounded with some warm, fried haloumi. A simple, fresh kale salad, was topped with egg and avocado, but the keynote here was a sweet pomegranate vinaigrette--supported by raisins, it neatly balanced the bitterness of kale and radicchio.
The other firm, salty, cookable Mediterranean cheese--feta--showed up in charred slabs in a thick, warmly spiced stew of red peppers, eggplant, and olives. The cous cous (small grain) did look unappealingly watery, but with melting vegetables in a rich (almost buttery, but certainly non-dairy) broth, it did the job. I liked the fennel notes.
The schnitzel did the job too--as did grilled salmon, with some really good crispy potato wedges--but this is not a restaurant where you should be focused on the big protein. The plates getting licked were the ones bearing (at least) twice-fried French fries, sweet potato fries, a finely chopped Israeli salad, and carrots and beets, each in a cumin-scented, citrusy dressing (carrots pictured).
There wasn't much space left for dessert, but I thought the apple pie was unusually good, and I didn't mind the flan either.
Spiegel is designedly a place for socializing and grazing, rather than for a formal meal. The center of the space is the bar. There's a screen for movies. It opens in the morning, serving home-made croissants; it has a full bar, if you just want to drink (and it has approachable wines by the glass at $8-$10; I liked the Malbec). It's relaxed and cosmopolitan, and maybe the German spiegel is the right name for it after all--holding up a mirror to the personality of its owner.
The website could honestly use a little work.
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