The Meatball Shop in NYC, just opened in the heart of the
party district on the Lower East Side.
With a 40-minute wait on a Sunday night, the feeding at
The Meatball Shop, a neo-retro Lower East Sider dressed in vintage photos and
meat-grinder parts, is so frenzied it feels Pavlovian. Say “meatball” in this
town, and everyone’s inner child comes out noshing.
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
84 Stanton
Street (Allen Street), Lower East Side, (212) 982-8895,
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.
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.
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.
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.
With a 40-minute wait on a Sunday night, the feeding at
The Meatball Shop, a neo-retro Lower East Sider dressed in vintage photos and
meat-grinder parts, is so frenzied it feels Pavlovian. Say “meatball” in this
town, and everyone’s inner child comes out noshing.
It’s particularly zingy bathed in the spicy meat sauce.
The mushroom gravy paired satisfyingly with the mushroomy vegetable balls, but
the Parmesan cream sauce clashed with everything.
Forgo the pasty white beans, oversteamed broccoli, and
undercooked polenta (each $4), and enjoy a brisk baby arugula and apple salad
on the side ($4).
It’ll cleanse your palate nicely, but not nearly as
nicely as the homemade mint ice cream. Wedged between nutty brownie cookies
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.
These pliable meatballs want firm contrast, so if you order them on a sandwich instead of over pasta ($11) resist the soft brioche “smash” ($8) and sliders ($3) and go for the crusty baguette hero ($9) instead.
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.
Sit down, grab a felt-tip pen, and mark your order on
these wipe-away laminated sheets. Though the basic menu is quite simple—pick a
meatball, pick a sauce, pick a delivery vehicle—the combinations add up
quickly. Salmon meatballs with parmesan cream?
Those who like to design their own way through a menu will appreciate the creative freedom, but others may find it all a bit overwhelming. Let us help you narrow it down.
It’ll cleanse your palate nicely, but not nearly as nicely as the homemade mint ice cream. Wedged between nutty brownie cookies
The Meatball Shop
200 9th Avenue
New York, NY 10011
(212) 257-4363
themeatballshop.com
The Meatball Shop has several locations around the city.
To find one closest to you, click here.
, click here.
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