New York - Part II - Amy Ruth's, Bergen Sub

Dining in New York is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. The main issue I have with food and the big apple is that there is just too much choice. With each planned trip I vow to do a respectable amount of research so that we can make sound and informed dining choices. Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for spontaneity and some of the best meals I have ever had have been random snap decisions (ah, the accidental Spaghetti Carbonara in Brey-sur-Roya, France), but just once I would have liked to have been prepared. We did have the forethought to bring a copy of one of the latest issues of “Bon Appetit,” which featured a review of several new (and small) New York restos (more on that later), but relied mostly on word-of-mouth and the Zagat guide. What follows is a review of two lunch spots, one suggested by our faithful Zagat and the other by our generous hostess.


1) Amy Ruth’s – 113 West 116th Street, Harlem

While fighting the notorious traffic on the BQE, completing the final leg of our Adirondack voyage, my companion and I decided to spend the time constructively and enumerate the few things we wanted to accomplish while in New York. One of such things was a trip to Harlem (neither of us had ever been) and a lunch comprised of “soul food.” Consulting the Zagat guide for a little direction, we came upon “Amy Ruth’s” which promised to satisfy our southern food cravings. In between the new constructions of low-income housing “paid for by Bloomberg,” Harlem houses numerous food shops, hair salons and little lunch counters, each one smelling better than the last. Amy Ruth’s is of a fair size and while the décor is a little lacklustre, the sparse surroundings only put further emphasis on the food. While waiting for someone to take our order (the service is a little slow), we snacked on complimentary cornbread which was warm and delicious. It would seem that Amy Ruth’s is also something of a waffle house, but not waffle as I understand it (a receptacle for fruit and syrup), but rather a bed for steak, fried chicken or short ribs. Neither of us decided to experiment with the waffles (probably a shame), but both ordered tried and true Southern classics. Never having had “real” fried chicken (despite a sojourn in the Southern United States), I opted for the fried chicken with a side of collard greens and mashed potatoes (each dish comes with a choice of two sides). My dining companion sampled the beef short ribs, macaroni and cheese and fried okra. Everything was wonderful, but the stand-outs were definitely the collard greens (they were hearty, smoky, spicy and just plain delicious) and the fried chicken (light, crispy and a little spicy). The fried okra were a little over-the-top, but dare I say it, the mashed potatoes and gravy were some of the best I have ever had. A few notes: the “sweet tea” is incredibly sweet and the portions are huge, so it might be useful to share a dish rather than each ordering his/her own plate. We had plenty of leftovers, but no desire to schlep them around Manhattan for the rest of the day, as we planned to walk the length of the park after lunch.

8.5/10

Mains: $8-18



2) Bergen Sub: Bergen St. near Flatbush, Brooklyn

I wish I had an address for this place, because it really is worth a visit. Being a little tuckered out from our previous day’s meanderings, lunch on Saturday was a quiet affair. We had spent the morning wandering around Park Slope with our hostess, looking in shops and gawking at all of the over-priced brownstones and decided to bring sandwiches back to their place. Our hostess promised us the “best” sandwiches in Brooklyn and Bergen Sub did not disappoint. A little hole-in-the-wall deli, Bergen Sub features a board of over twenty different kinds of sub sandwiches and all of the requisite accompaniments (pop and chips). There is not much table room here (maybe one or two picnic-style tables in the back) so it is worth it to get the sandwiches to go. My friend and I shared a #19 which featured two different kinds of freshly-cut meat (I don’t remember which, may have been ham and pepperoni), cheddar cheese, and a slew of toppings, including tomatoes, olives, peppers, cucumbers, pickles – all of the usual suspects. It was bar-none the best sub I have ever had, the bread was delicious, the toppings were plenty and fresh-cut, they had large home-made pickles and all sorts of vinaigrettes and other sauces. We supplemented our sandwiches with ginger and root beer and some local jalapeno chips. Despite all of this sustenance, I still lost at bowling that afternoon.

8/10
Sandwiches: $4-6