While Greedy Girl is an avowed foodie, she’s far from being a food snob. On this lengthy sojourn in amazing New York City, not every meal is ‘studded’ with Michelin stars. Having said that, walking around our neighbourhood of the Lower East Side, searching for something cheap and cheerful, a sign on a door stating ‘recommended in the Michelin guide’ is enough to pique the curiosity.

Spitzer’s Corner is, as you’d expect, on the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets. Below Houston (pronounced How-ston rather than like the city in Texas), the ease of navigation in NYC falters a little. In the West Village, the streets snake around rather than follow that wonderfully ordered grid system we’ve come to know and love. Luckily, on the LES, the grid is still in place – one just needs to know the order of streets as it no longer follows that easy peasy 1st, 2nd, 3rd (Avenue and Street).

Happily, we were staying on Ludlow so it was easy to chance upon this Gastropub early one coolish evening. Already busy and buzzy, we saw a line of people outside; Greedy Girl’s heart sank. She couldn’t face another queue for a restaurant. It turned out the little group outside were waiting for something else – we walked in, were seated at a long bench at the front window and settled in.

There are lots of bars in every neighbourhood but not a huge amount of venues that style themselves as gastropubs. The LES, historically, is noted for its Jewish delicatessens – the famed Katz is on a nearby corner, and continues to pack in lovers of two-inch think pastrami on rye as well as tourists looking to recreate that moment in When Harry met Sally, but Greedy Girl digresses …

Not being fond of tourist haunts, Greedy Girl and gluttonous husband sought out some other places to eat, drink and be merry in the neighbourhood. Spitzer’s is an industrial-looking space with lots of timber, steel countertops and heavy hewn low communal tables, as well as the aforementioned low stools along the window bench. It’s noted for its beer selection and gluttonous husband was more than happy to sample a couple of his preferred IPAs. He took a New York double IPA called Southern Tier, while Greedy Girl opted for a glass of Borgo M Pinot Grigio from Italy.

We were in the mood for a nibble rather than necessarily choosing something heavy, however, the menu descriptions got the better of us. We started with edamame – a healthy choice, right? Hah. These were fried in pork fat and dusted with chilli powder. They came to our table piping hot – too hot to eat. Once they’d cooled down a fraction they were an interesting flavour although not one Greedy Girl cares to necessarily repeat. It did get gluttonous husband’s creative juices flowing though, thinking he might try edamame at home tossed in a little duck fat with some truffle salt. Okey dokey.

Our mains arrived next. Greedy Girl is a total sucker for Mac and cheese and this is a staple on menus across this fine land. She took the pimped version (pictured at the top of this post). The cheese in the dish consisted of Parmigiano Reggiano, fontina and white cheddar and it was topped with truffle oil, panko, rosemary and thyme. It was exceptionally rich and, when it had cooled down a fraction, quite yummy.

Gluttonous husband decided he’d try some Kobe beef sliders, dressed with applewood-smoked bacon, butter lettuce, tomato, pickle and a toasted brioche bun. Greedy Girl was invited to help herself and so she did. They were very enjoyable little bites – the flavours were well balanced. It’s always good to get a hamburger that tastes like, well, beef.

And so we were done – the place continued to buzz although a large room off the main bar remained empty. We sauntered past again around Sunday lunchtime to find it jam-packed.

Spitzer’s is a very pleasant spot and an excellent part of the continually evolving food scene on the Lower East Side.

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Spitzer’s Corner

101 Rivington Street, NYC (corner Ludlow)
spitzerscorner.com

Tagged under: gastropub, LES, Lower East Side, New York, New York City, NYC, US, USA