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l-r: Gin Lane; The Spotted Pig |
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| Bar food usually brings to mind Buffalo wings, nachos, and if the place has pizzazz, jalapeno poppers. Sure, that’s fine some of the time, but wouldn’t it be nice to have some real food once in a while? These bars think so. |
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Common Ground: You wouldn’t peg an East Village bar for gourmet, but Common Ground comes pretty darn close. And that is thanks to Carolyn Spence, Common Ground’s consulting chef and protégé to The Spotted Pig’s April Bloomfield. Spence’s menu includes snacks like smashed chickpeas with garlic bruschetta and spiced pumpkin seeds that put Planters to shame. Also on offer are salads and panini with ingredients like brie and apricot mustard. Can’t put that on a chicken wing. |
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Brandy Library: It would be scandalous for a brandy bar to serve wings, and Brandy Library doesn’t make that mistake. Figs are wrapped in prosciutto for an inside-out version of a pig in a blanket, and burgers are topped with gruyere cheese before being stuffed into gougeres buns. |
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The Spotted Pig: The Spotted Pig may have single-handedly changed the bar food scene in New York. Celebrities and common folk wait hours outside (well, maybe the celebs don’t wait) not just for a pint, but for a taste of Chef April Bloomfield’s creamy ricotta gnudi dumplings, Cubana sandwich with arugula, and bar snacks of duck eggs and “devils on horseback”—juicy bites of skewered bacon-wrapped prunes. |
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Pegu Club: The stiff Englishmen that hung out at the original Pegu Club in Rangoon certainly did not eat as well as the hipsters that hang out at the SoHo outpost. “Sloppy duck” is the club’s unmessy version of a sloppy Joe and it’s the perfect accompaniment to the long list of gin-focused cocktails. |
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Gin Lane: It’s come a long way from the Village Idiot it used to be. Oysters Rockefeller and beef carpaccio appear on the dinner menu, while the bar menu touts a daily oyster selection, shrimp in a lemon white wine sauce, Fulton Fish Market crab cakes, and a French fry menu featuring spuds doused with fresh herbs or black truffles and bleu cheese. Wash it down with a Tea Time Martini. |
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