[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 7, 2014]
Running around town recently, I stopped off twice to refuel on sandwiches at historic New York diners. Not much to say about any of this, well...gastronomically. Fuel, you know.
I did have a definite preference between the two experiences. But anyone grossed out by greasy meat in bread is not going to enjoy the ride.
Empire Diner, founded 1946, closed and re-opened variously over the years, and since the beginning of 2014 under the supervision of television chef Amanda Freitag.
There's a bar with ambitious wines and cocktails by roadside diner standards. Or even by regular bar standards. The menu gestures at the twenty first century with appetizers like brussel sprouts with chili jam, shishito poppers, and the pork chop comes with crispy pancetta and cranberry beans.
But the ballast remains fish and chips, burgers, pancakes, a tuna melt, and so on. For some reason I decided I needed a variant on the burger, and went for the patty melt. Patty melts can be a bit rich, and this one was.
Swiss cheese certainly didn't overwhelm the medium-sized patty. The caramelized onions and kind of fatty meat dominated the sandwich. Fries were fresh, fine (they're extra, or you get potato chips).
On the other hand, I relished the dripping grease at Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop. Now this place has been around since 1929, and it has not been fancied-up like the Empire Diner. Not at all. Even though it has changed ownership more than once, it's like nothing has really moved in eighty years. As for cleaned, I leave that to you. I always sit at the long counter, but there's a half-paneled dining room in the rear which could be out of a Riis photograph.
I didn't want to load up on a giant chopped liver sandwich--my usual order--so I went for a modest heap of fried bologna on white toast instead.
Tangy, umami-full, and slipped down like oysters. $7.50. The Empire Diner patty melt, $14 (fries extra, as I recall). Now go eat a piece of lettuce.
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