Barney Greengrass

[gaf]

Sturgeon King New York City Entry #45

Among my earliest culinary memories are the dinners that my parents - grandparents, great-aunts and uncles really - brought me to at Steinberg’s Dairy Restaurant on the Upper West Side (Broadway and 83rd?). All those meals distant memories. Ratner’s lasted longer a little longer, so I could take my children, but that too is a memory. Following Kosher laws, these restaurants did not serve meat. I can remember eating cutlets of nutmeats. I thought of it as a peanut butter steak.

The Upper West Side - where Jews once met literature - is now unrecognizable with literary agents fleeing from red-state Kansas a large segment of the population. Unrecognizable, except for its politics still so progressively zany as to be perverse. It could be worse.

With the exception of Zabars, now more like “Fauchon with yelling” than Russ and Daughters, only Barney Greengrass remains* (NOT Greenglass of the Rosenberg trial). Reaching the century mark in 2008, Greengrass is - other than Russ and Daughters, which lacks tables - the place for lox, sturgeon, and whitefish - and borscht.

I recently visited for lunch, and it was a memory trip. I started with a cup of borscht - matzo ball soup’s evil twin. Borscht at Barney has the color of strawberry Quik, a watery Pepto-Bismol, but its taste is all beet and cream. This is not a chowder, but a cool, smooth liquor.

The sturgeon and eggs is breakfast at lunch. Sturgeon is a smoked whitefish, more meaty and fishy than lox, and made for scrambled eggs. This was followed with lox - both belly lox (obsessively salty) and the more canonical Eastern smoked salmon (goy lox). Either could serve as a smoked fish totem. The Greengrass bagel is a good New York bagel as is the cream cheese, but both are Manhattan average.

Many New Yorkers will select Dr. Brown Cel-Ray Soda (celery on ice) as sturgeon’s tonic. Whatever comes and more often goes, Barney Greengrass prepares for its second century and we with them.

Barney Greengrass

541 Amsterdam Avenue (86th Street)

Manhattan (Upper West Side)

212-724-4707

* CONFESSION: I have not - yet - been to Murray's (I lived on the UES), but Murray's surely should be included in an account of foodways of the Upper West Side.

My Webpage: Vealcheeks

[Pan]

[...]The Upper West Side - where Jews once met literature - is now unrecognizable with literary agents fleeing from red-state Kansas a large segment of the population. Unrecognizable, except for its politics still so progressively zany as to be perverse.[...]

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Who ya callin' perverse?

(Note to readers: I was born and for the most part grew up on the Upper West Side.)

I enjoyed reading that report.

For the record, I've never been to Barney Greengrass because it always seemed too expensive to me -- no doubt, the same reason why my parents never took the family there.

Edited December 24, 2005 by Pan (log)

[Beanie]

Oh, man, am I nostalgic. I lived on the UWS for 20 years and I really miss these places. Thanks for the update. I'm glad a few of the old places are still around, but really surprised to hear about red staters repopulating the area. I sometimes forget how long I've been away. It's a different city.... but that's a different thread.

[Daniel]

Oh, man, am I nostalgic.  I lived on the UWS for 20 years and I really miss these places. Thanks for the update. I'm glad a few of the old places are still around, but really surprised to hear about red staters repopulating the area.    I sometimes forget how long I've been away. It's a different city.... but that's a different thread.

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Please... This depiction isnt as accurate as it is nostalgic.

[therese]

Lunch at Barney Greengrass yesterday. We'd not researched ahead of time, just took the advice of a friend who mentioned that he always ate there whenever he visited the Natural History museum, so decided to try it.

Tiny dining room about half full when we arrived, and I'd say that we brought the average age in the room down about three decades. I'm not even from NYC, much less the UWS, and I was experiencing serious nostalgia.

Having walked from E 48th we were hungry and thirsty when we arrived, and I ordered a glass of borscht. I was expecting red borscht, so the pink dairy version was a bit disconcerting. Fortunately so disconcerting to my husband that I got to drink the whole thing by myself and so restore my blood sugar to levels compatible with life.

Husband had a tongue sandwich (he loves tongue so much that we've actually made it at home). Salty, very good.

I had matzoh ball soup, which was very good but not as good as my hometown version (Royal Bagel in Toco Hill in Atlanta---note that matzoh ball soup is not part of my cultural heritage, and so my preference is just personal) followed by an appetizer portion of sturgeon. My first time eating sturgeon (I think) and so I've no point of reference, but it was delicious.

Staff all very friendly and service prompt. We got a couple of mini black and whites for dessert as we waddled our way out back out down Amsterdam Ave.

We never did make it to the museum. Maybe today.

[Sneakeater]

Therese, I know this is off the topic of this thread, but I just want to say that if I were someone who liked Sidecars and I were to find myself near the mid-50s in Manhattan, I would be sure to stop in the Bar at Town (56th between 5th & 6th, north side of the street) and order one of their Cardinal Sidecars -- a really superior version of that drink.

[therese]

Therese, I know this is off the topic of this thread, but I just want to say that if I were someone who liked Sidecars and I were to find myself near the mid-50s in Manhattan, I would be sure to stop in the Bar at Town (56th between 5th & 6th, north side of the street) and order one of their Cardinal Sidecars -- a really superior version of that drink.

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Way off topic, though I suppose if a Cardinal Sidecar were red (and I gather it's not) then I could somehow compare it to borscht.

I wouldn't have minded trying schav (which I've had, but never in a restaurant) if they'd had it, but I didn't notice it on the menu. Anywhere in town routinely serve it?

The closest thing I had this visit was the sorrel margarita at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Definitely not schav.

[Daniel]

Can you guess whats inside?

The roast beef is just awesome.. Cut thick, they have to do it in house.. Smoked turkey, some of the better chopped liver, and some coleslaw.. They came to my house 20 minutes after I ordered.

Edited December 24, 2006 by Daniel (log)