The Meatball Shop

The Meatball Shop in NYC, just opened in the heart of the party district on the Lower East Side.

 This meatball specialist on the Lower East Side offers the signature fare in a half-dozen flavors and all sorts of permutations: with one of four sauces in a bowl, on variously sized sandwiches, over pasta or even over a side of vegetables or salad.

  Best is the spicy pork with the spicy meat sauce or the mushroom-rich vegetable ball with the mushroom gravy.

 A homemade ice cream sandwich for dessert might be an even better reason to stop in, though

The Meatball Shop in NYC, just opened in the heart of the party district on the Lower East Side.

Lower East Side

ADDRESS: 84 Stanton St

PHONE: 212-982-8895

SUN - THURS: Noon to 2:00am

FRI - SAT: Noon to 4:00am

84 Stanton Street (Allen Street), Lower East Side, (212) 982-8895,

themeatballshop.com.

If you're into the brioche, a more substantial option is the Smash—two meatballs of your choice, with sauce and cheese (either provolone or mozzarella from Connecticut's Calabro). It's a big, filling sandwich for $8, though by the time it hits your table—more than 40 minutes, in our case, on a weekday afternoon—the sauces have already started to soak into the brioche bun, and three minutes later, that bottom half may have liquified entirely. Your better bet?

 Any of the six meatballs can be ordered in their purest form—four balls to a dish, smothered in sauce, served with a slice of focaccia ($7). Of the six options on offer, the classic beef, spicy pork, and chicken are your best bets.

 Such is the case with The Meatball Shop, opened recently on Stanton Street. Co-owners Michael Chernow (general manager, formerly of Frank in the East Village) and Daniel Holzman (executive chef, former co-owner and exec chef at San Francisco's SPQR), have built a menu based entirely around meatballs—on top of spaghetti, on top of polenta, as heros or as sliders.*

There's beer and wine, and ice cream sandwiches for dessert, but other than that, it's all meatballs, all the time.

Open until 4:00 AM Thursday through Saturday, and until 2:00 AM every other day of the week, the bar and restaurant slides seamlessly into the Lower East Side: tin ceilings and communal tables, Passion Pit blasting, Brooklyn Lager on tap, comfort food at all hours.

 From one red wall stares down a family of photos—black-and-white portraits of mustached and bouffant-ed individuals who could be someone's Italian great-grandparents. All those hard surfaces (plus a lively bar) make for one mighty din, even at mid-afternoon on a weekday.

 As good-looking as it is cosmetically predictable, The Meatball Shop has already attracted crowds both daytime and night, and it's been written up in New York, Time Out, and twice in the Times—but not a single one of those writeups told how the meatballs actually, well, tasted.

 Classic beef balls are equally moist and light, though the bready elements are large enough to be visible, rather than fully incorporated.

These are what one would call solid meatballs, even good meatballs—juicy, well-seasoned, tasty—but there's nothing that differentiates them from any other good meatballs you've ever had. And given the quality of the meat involved (the beef is from Creekstone Farms) it'd be nice if that meat came through a bit more.

When you've had your fill of meatballs, there's a short and equally customizable dessert list—cookies, ice cream, and the two stuck together. On either side of a scoop of salty, creamy caramel ice cream—an almost-as-delicious version of Otto's salted caramel, and that's high praise indeed—they made for one of the best ice cream sandwiches ($4) we've had in recent memory.

 Chocolate chip cookies were forgettable; ginger cookies, on the other hand, pliant and chewy and studded with chunks of ginger, were anything but.

 Both cookies and ice cream are made in-house by Donna Chernow, wife of co-owner Michael Chernow. Trust us: don't skip dessert.

It's a funny thing. Ice cream sandwiches, like meatballs, are such a familiar comfort food that it's hard to have one stand out. These did—while the meatballs themselves fell a bit short. It all depends on what you're expecting.

If the pedigree of the owners (and the sourcing of their products) leads you to expect cheffy, ingredient-driven, innovative meatballs, where the beef tastes like beef and flavors are distinct and memorable, you'll likely be disappointed. But if you're looking for a hearty, tasty meatball meal on the cheap, perhaps washed down with a $3 PBR or $9 quart of Brooklyn Lager—yes, quart—you've come to the right place. And there's nothing wrong with that.

ADDRESS: 64 Greenwich Ave

64 Greenwich Ave | Map

PHONE: 212-982-7815

SUN - THURS: 11:30am to Midnight

FRI - SAT: 11:30am to 2:00am

New York, New York 10011