Trout

[Sneakeater]

When I heard that Trout, an outdoor bar on the corner of Smith and Pacific in Brooklyn, was serving that legendary Rochester specialty the garbage plate (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=82797&hl=), I knew I had to go. And of course I had to get, as a guide, the only Rochester-generated foodie I'm aware of in New York (or at least Brooklyn), H. du Bois.

Trout is sort of the back yard of a bar called Gravy that Alan Harding runs at the very north end of the Smith St. strip. It's one of those downscale-by-design places, to me at least very comfortable and very fun. The cocktails are, to be kind, not good. The beer is good and copious.

Alan Harding still being Alan Harding (credentialed chef who also runs serious restaurants), I gather this was a relatively upmarket garbage plate, despite the surroundings. It was also delicious. At the bottom was a bed of french fries, which appeared to be hand-cut and were, in fact, very good. Next to them was a mound of macaroni salad. There was also some sort of mayonaissey salad or something (one of the main appeals of a garbage plate is that it's hard to tell exactly what you're eating) with grated cheese (I think it was cheddar) on top of it. Topping all this off were two hamburgers with some chili-ish sauce.

It tasted really good.

My only complaint about this imported (and perhaps somewhat sanitized) garbage-plate experience is the same complaint I have about the new Meatpacking District: you really miss the trannie hookers.

Now that I've fulfilled my dream and had a garbage plate, I'm not sure I'll be rushning back for another. But it was at least as good as I'd hoped it would be.

Perhaps H. can give us the insider's perspective.

[H. du Bois]

I've always joked that the garbage plate was designed to be eaten by someone with a blood alcohol level of .10 or above, but on this particular occasion, I discovered that the food sparked the alcohol consumption, not the other way around. It would seem that drunkenness remains a vital component of the garbage plate phenomenon.

Yep, there was a garbage plate, in all its deconstructed glory. A good one looks like slung hash sounds, and this one measured up visually. Now, I never ate at the shrine to the garbage plate, the infamous Nick Tahou's, but I shall try my best to compare this experience to my own.

The one I consumed in Rochester during my errant youth was a big mass of fried potatoes and macaroni salad covered by two hamburgers and a sprawl of chili and cheese. The mustard was French's. I think there were chopped onions, and the burgers and chili were, uh, as good as you'd expect them to be under the circumstances.

Trout provided all the essential elements (sans the traditional overkill gesture of a plate of bread and butter on the side), but in a more refined manner. Their potatoes were hand cut french fries, the hamburgers were very good, and the chili sauce was well seasoned (I could taste cinnamon in there, among other things). The mustard was definitely upscale - brown mustard, which is a definite improvement. Sneakeater noticed that there were crispy bits beneath the burgers which I think may have been crunchy pieces of beef. Unidentifiable, but really good.

And that last sentence would categorize the errant charm of the garbage plate. A whole mess o' stuff that you wouldn't think would taste well together, but which somehow still seems like a really good idea. And damned if it isn't.

Everyone should get totally trashed and eat a garbage plate at least once in their lifetime. And now New Yorkers can!

Do it. Really.

* I should add that I'm not using "deconstructed" in the Jacques Derrida sense of the word, but rather in the "it looks like a bomb went off on your plate" sense of the word.

Edited September 28, 2006 by H. du Bois (log)

[Sneakeater]

the only Rochester-generated foodie I'm aware of in New York (or at least Brooklyn), H. du Bois.

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It occurs to me that that was actually rather ungallant.

H. is not only the only Rochester-generated foodie I know, but also by far the most charming.

[H. du Bois]

Well, clearly you haven't met enough Rochester foodies yet - we're all nice. Heck, even the tranny hookers in Nick Tahou's parking lot are nice, as long as you don't piss 'em off.

[philadining]

Ahh, Sneakeater, finally, you managed to find the holy grail! And you didn't even need to drive 6 hours to do it. After a culinary highlight like that, I'm sorry that the rest of your dining this year will be all downhill from here...

The big question is: can you get a garbage plate with white hots there?

And really, it's New York City, I can't imagine it would be too difficult to dig up the proper, umm... companions... if you really wanted to recreate the ambiance of a Nick Tahou parking lot.

[Sneakeater]

The big question is: can you get a garbage plate with white hots there? 

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I'm sorry to say you cannot.