Apps Only: The Redhead

Editor's note: In "Apps Only," Ben Fishner will be eating his way through New York's appetizer, bar, and lounge menus as your guide to fine dining on a budget. He blogs at Ben Cooks Everything.

The Redhead's bacon peanut brittles. [Photos: Ben Fishner]

It's been over two years since the Redhead started serving dinner on a nightly basis, and they've been pumping out incredible fried chicken and other Southern-inflected fare ever since to hoards of hungry diners. With a menu full of snacks and small dishes, it's a great place to sidle up to the bar and have a bite to eat.

The menu at the Redhead has two sections of smaller plates, divided into shares and starters. The shares are mostly bar food, while the starters are more like typical appetizers. We started with two shares, the Bacon Peanut Brittles ($5) and the Chips and Dip ($5). The peanut brittles are in the running for best bar nuts in the city: they're at once spicy, sweet, and salty, though they didn't give in to bacon overkill. "Brittles" is a bit misleading on the menu, as these are more like honey-roasted peanuts than peanut brittle, but I wasn't complaining.

The house-made waffle chips and butter braised onion dip were the best value of the night: five bucks gets you a huge bowl of crunchy, freshly fried potato chips. The dip-to-chip ratio was a bit off—we were left with extra dip—but neither portion seemed too meager.

Chips and dip.

We also had an order of the Flatbread with Wild Mushrooms and Mascarpone ($10). The mascarpone was either absent or undetectable, but all in all this flatbread was mighty tasty: crunchy around the edges and topped with crispy mushrooms, soft yet crunchy sweet onions, grated pecorino romano cheese and plenty of fresh thyme. In the hands of the Redhead's kitchen, this flatbread, so often the most boring bar snack on any given menu, became a rich, luscious dish far more appealing than I expected.

Flatbread with mushrooms.

Finally, we dipped into the appetizers menu with the Redhead's signature One-Eyed Caesar Salad ($10), pristine leaves of red and green romaine dressed in a salty Caesar dressing and topped with a runny-yolked egg cooked inside a thick, buttery slice of toasted bread and topped with crispy fried shallots. Another seemingly boring dish transformed in the capable hands of the Redhead's kitchen.

One-eyed caesar salad.

The two of us ate until we were stuffed, for exactly $15 per person before tax and tip, right on the Apps Only target price. The Redhead's menu is chock full of snacks and appetizers that are not only delicious, but reasonably priced. Friendly, laidback service and the salted chocolate cookie that came with our check sealed the deal.

The Redhead

349 E. 13th Street, New York NY 10003 (map) 212-533- 6212
theredheadnyc.com

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