By
grace.g.yang
· March 24, 2008
Under:
Brunch,
LES 
Shopsin’s, located in the Essex Street market, is well known with the New York crowd. The owner, Kenny Shopsin, is a grumpy old man that runs the small restaurant with his family (two daughters and a son). They relocated from the west village to Essex Street market a while ago, but their fans followed them and continue to put up with the service because supposedly the food is fantastic. Calvin Trillin even wrote an article about him that was published in The New Yorker. I’ve read about the place a lot and we finally made our way down to the market a while back.
We only waited 10 minutes for a table (which is not too bad for a Saturday afternoon), but we didn’t know what we wanted to order since their menu is SO incredibly large. A lot of the menu items don’t have explanations, either, so I started asking one of the daughter’s a couple questions (which was a huge mistake). I was limited to three questions (but the menu is so f-ing large!) and we settled on the banana walnut chocolate chip pancakes:
The pancakes were a little gummy but not bad – they tasted like something you would make in your own kitchen (if you wanted to put in the effort). Part of the charm of Shopsin’s is that it’s a very small operation and the cook (Kenny), makes comfort foods that are easy enough to make yourself but at a premium that hipsters will appreciate.
Chris ordered Cubano 1:
The cubano had great chunks of sausage and melted cheese paired with a great hunk of bread. (Maybe my second favorite cubano, trailing The Spotted Pig’s work of art).
Shopsins:
Shopsin’s is in a small corner of the Essex Street Market, but all of Kenny Shopsin’s cooking ingredients are kept in the restaurant (how does Kenny do it?!). If I ever go back, I’m studying the entire menu beforehand so I know can use my three questions wisely.
On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered in Union Square to participate in a huge pillow fight on INTERNATIONAL PILLOW FIGHT DAY! Chris and I were on our way to lunch, but stopped by to watch the shenanigans:
Unlike Chinese food and Korean food, Japanese food can’t be found in a small neighborhood or street in Manhattan; it’s found on little side streets in midtown, inside grocery stores, or if you’re in the mood for disappointing small eats, in Astor place. Ennju, a small eatery near union square, serves Japanese food in a cafeteria style setting for nearby office worker bees and NYU students. I’m a fan of the place and have been going to ennju since I moved to New York. They offer cooked items (beef curry, pork cutlets, soups, etc) as well as sushi, salads, edamame, and other Japanese treats. I always end up ordering the same thing – curry with a pork cutlet:
The good thing about Ennju is that their curry already has beef inside (well, not good for vegetarians, but good for meat eaters like myself). The bad thing about having beef included: I ALWAYS forget there’s already meat in the curry so I end up ordering a pork cutlet on the side (which means double meat!!). Ennju is fast, convenient (especially after a Saturday filled with reading books at the Union Square Barnes and Noble), and they give you salads with your curry order. Another perk: half-off sushi an hour before closing!
After a fun-filled Saturday afternoon at the Natural History Museum, Chris, David, and I headed to Artie’s Delicatessen for a quick bite to eat. We initially planned on eating at Cafe Lalo, but when we arrived, construction workers informed us that it had been closed for renovations since October and wouldn’t be opening for another week. Boo! Chris remembered going to Artie’s a while back and we were really hungry, so we decided to step in for a bite.
We were immediately seated and complimentary cole slaw and pickled vegetables were placed on our table so we’d have something to nibble on while deciding what to order:
Cole slaw:
Pickled vegetables:
In general, I’m not a fan of cole slaw (unless it’s on a pulled pork sandwich) and the cole slaw at Artie’s had too much mayonnaise and not enough taste. There were a variety of pickled vegetables, including red peppers, cucumbers (made into half sour pickles), and roma tomatoes. The half sours tasted like they had a lot of celery salt or some other interesting spice in it (I wasn’t a fan) but it was free, so can you really complain?
Chris ordered the cheeseburger (pretty standard for a deli):
Chris and I have had our fair share of burgers in the city (I’ll be posting a review about a new place we love) and I was surprised that the burger from Artie’s is actually cooked semi-decently for a diner. The bun was chewy but not to the point of being overwhelmed with burger grease but the meat tasted like it was a frozen patty. The fries weren’t good (I didn’t even finish them!)
I ordered the Pastrami:
I’m not a big fan of foods that are saturated with salt (seriously, who is) and this pastrami was just too freaking salty. Chris thought it’s better than Carnegie’s or Katz’s, which is saying a lot, right? I didn’t like the pastrami at either place (although I like the matzo ball soup from Carnegie’s).
David ordered the chopped liver sandwich:
It’s my first experience with chopped liver and it was surprisingly sweet with a creamy texture. A little over the top for me, but David liked it.
After we paid for our meal, we walked by the deli counter and bought a Cel-ray soda from Dr. Brown’s. It’s made with celery but extremely sweet and actually has more sugar than two cokes (that’s a LOT of sugar!). Artie’s is a cute deli that caters to a lot of families on the UWS, but there are so many to choose from in the city that I don’t think I’ll be back.
Today’s my last post about the FRO-YOLYMPICS (until we do the FRO-YOLYMPICS Summer competition)! I hope you enjoyed all of the posts (I definitely enjoyed eating frozen yogurt for an entire day). Sorry it’s taken me so long to post this final entry, but things in New York have been extremely hectic. Thank you, Tricia, for writing me an e-mail expressing your concern 🙂 For the last month or so, my brother and I have been looking for an apartment to rent (we’re moving out of my UES apartment). I’ll let you guys know more about my new apartment later, but let’s get onto the final results for the fro-yolympics!
Based on all of our results, the winner of the tour is:
FLURT!
Here’s everyone doing a celebratory jump in front of the store:
(After we ate at Flurt, we pretty much knew the results so I thought it would be a good idea to take a victory picture). Bethany and Faire couldn’t make it into the picture, but they were happily jumping along on the sidelines. We gave Flurt top honors because everyone agreed that their yogurt had a superior taste, texture, and presentation compared to all of the other places we visited on our tour. Also, the ambiance was very pleasant and we couldn’t get over the great wheat-grass smell when we walked into Flurt. Here’s a complete listing of all the places from the tour:
First place: FLURT!
Second place: Oko
Third place: 40 Carrots
Fourth place: Berry Wild Kinda Icy
Fifth place: Crazy Bananas
Sixth place: Pinkberry
Seventh place: Berry Wild
Eighth place: Very Berry
Ninth place: Red Mango
DEAD LAST: Yolato
I know some of you are huge fans of Yolato, Red Mango, and Pinkberry and might be shocked (and upset) with the results. I was really disappointed with the results too, but that’s why we’re making the fro-yolympics tour an semi-annual event – you can have more input in the next tour and make your favorite yogurt place known! If you strongly disagreed with the results, please write about it in the comments or send me an email at gracenotesnyc at gmail dot com.
At the end of the fro-yolympics, some people couldn’t eat frozen yogurt for the next couple of weeks (JUSTIN). I, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of the stuff but decided to stick to the non-frozen plain yogurt for the next couple of days (okay, two days). Even though Flurt was the winner, I’m still a big fan of all the places and have been back to the majority of them since the tour concluded (especially my first love, Pinkberry. I know it wasn’t ranked well, but I still love it!! Surprisingly, I haven’t been back to Flurt). I think the others have also gone back to eating frozen yogurt – Justin and I found Orva’s (in Grand Central) carries Frogurt in VANILLA, which is extremely delicious as well. I go everyday!
For our next tour, we’ll head to other frozen yogurt shops that have opened up since the conclusion of the fro-yolympics (including Yoqua Bar, Snowberry, Eks, and one located in the deli across from Union Square Cafe. If I’m missing any places, let me know!). I’ve sampled three of the four and I’m excited to add them to the roster to hear everyone else’s opinions. I’m setting the tentative date for the next fro-yolympics around late April/early May (before the lines get ridiculously long) – it would be great to have more people join in on the fun!!! Until then, we return to our regularly scheduled food reviews:
PEACE OUT!
