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Wanted: One Reader to Check Out Pies-N-Thighs

Posted by Ed Levine, May 15, 2006 at 10:22 PM

THE WEEK IN FOOD IN NEW YORK MAGAZINE AND THE NEW YORKER

• I've already posted about Cafe D'Alsace (_1695 Second Ave., 88th St., 212-722-5133_), which Adam Platt gave one star in this week's New York Magazine. Using his rating system (1-5 Stars, with five being the impossibly perfect restaurant) I would have given CD two stars. Stick to the rib-sticking fare like the housemade sausages, choucroute garni, and the killer hangar steak served with great, just salty enough, french fries, and you'll eat very well indeed.
• Friends' early reports on Sascha have not been positive, so Platt's no star rating is no surprise. The double cheeseburger does sound promising, and I will have one and a couple of the baked goods from the Sascha Bakery in the near future. Based on Gael Greene's typically evocative description the cheeseburger is the only thing I would order at Barmarche (_14 Spring St., nr. Elizabeth, 212-219-2399_).
• Finally, how can you not want to love any restaurant called Pies-N-Thighs (_351 Kent Ave., entrance on S. 5th Street, 347-282-6005_). The savory dishes include all my favorites: pit-smoked pulled pork, fried chicken, mac and cheese and biscuits. For dessert, why pie of course. Double-crusted pie to be exact, something many NY pastry chefs shy away from. Of course the picture of the strawberry rhubarb pie looked pretty soupy. I don't think I'm going to get to Pies-N-Thighs for a couple of weeks, so I need a Serious Eats food explorer to check it out and post about it.

• The New Yorker restaurant reviews have been getting better and better, but this week's review of Momofuku (Momofuku photo courtesy of amateurgourmet), by Lauren Collins, is particularly wonderful. She not only nails the food (she describes it as carbs and animal fat), she describes the energy of the place perfectly. I love Momofuku, and so does Lauren Collins. Go for lunch, when it is a far more relaxed experience than dinner.

Do have the pork buns, a noodle soup, and any vegetable they cook up, because they always seem to put bacon in their vegetables. Here's the Times' review of Momofuku, and New York Magazine's as well. All three are raves, but Lauren Collins seems to articulate the charms of Momofuku most succinctly.

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