[Photographs: Niko Triantafillou]
Summer is here, and while ice cream is one obvious answer to the heat, I like to look beyond it for other light sweets as well. One such example is lemon meringue pie, which in my childhood you could always find in a rotating Greek diner display case, though it'd be a week or two old. 508 Restaurant and Bar's lemon meringue tart ($10) is a big step up.
It's always great to have a pie or cake-based dessert arrive at your table as an individual, self-contained unit instead of a slice. This indicates it was most likely baked that day, as is the case with 508's tart.
My favorite part? How light it is. Obviously, the meringue layer is going to be airy regardless, but here, the lemon curd filling is also quite light, and it doesn't take up too much of the space in the pie shell. It also strikes the right balance of sweet and tartness with plenty of lemon zest to drive the lemon flavor home. The crust is soft enough so that it doesn't explode into a hundred pieces when you try to cut off a piece with your fork.
508 also offers a variety of house-made ice creams. The vanilla ($3) was excellent, with the great flavor and aroma real vanilla.
508 restaurant
508 Greenwich St New York, NY 10013 (map) 212-219-2444 508nyc.com/
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