Eating my way through July—from Pizzeria to Izakaya
It’s summertime and the living is….lazy. So I’m just going to do a round-up of memorable or craveworthy snacks and meals from the month.
The Everyday Slice at Famiglia Pizzeria - “You’re writing about a CHAIN pizza slice,” my son texted, me, incredulous, when I told him I’d be posting about pizza slices at our corner Famiglia franchise. Somehow the filling mushroom slice—tomato, cheese and a thick layer of plump cremini mushrooms—and the spinach/mushroom slice ($4.36/ea), which makes me feel as pumped as Popeye, so full of spinach is it, are just the thing on a hot afternoon, when I have nothing in the fridge. What’s more, a trip to our local Famiglia plunges me back into the summers of my children’s childhood, a fraught time that felt interminable but which now has acquired a nostalgic sheen. I see mothers with masked children hanging off their elbows, banging against their shins and whining. I feel both relief at being an empty nester during the COVID-19 pandemic and a longing to be “back in the day,” if only for a day, picking hot ravenous ornery children up from the Camp Oasis bus, knowing all it took was a slice and an order of garlic knots to right their moods.
The Margherita Slice at Eataly - When the Chef and I went to Madison Square Park to see Maya Lin’s haunting Ghost Forest installation, we wandered through Eataly afterwards. I’m the kind of person who gets an instant mood boost from walking the aisles of Trader Joe’s, so put me in an air conditioned swank Italian food emporium, and I’m in heaven, especially on a stifling hot summer day. I love walking every aisle, imagining we’re the kind of people who think nothing of paying for the egregiously marked up cheeses, salumeria, and fish. I love watching well-heeled New Yorkers yapping as they swirl big glasses of Italian reds and whites at the tables and long counters that are right there amidst the hustle-bustle. One person commented, “It’s like eating in a grocery store!” Still, on my way out with a tiny tin of Italian rose flavored pastilles, I passed the pizza section and was wowed by the surprisingly affordable puffy Neopolitan slices, the pizzas range from my simple but excellent $4.90 Margherita slice to the absolutely decadent looking $13.90 Coppa & Burrata slice, with ham from Piacentina, a giant quivering blob of burrata—the dreamy cows’ milk cheese made from mozz and cream— a little mint and EVOO. Get a slice and bring it outside to eat in the park, coming back for espresso and gelato.
Happy as a Clam at Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock -We stop here every summer en route to Boston or seaside spots north. It’s a bitch to get to through the twisty-turny back streets of New London, and it literally IS a cement dock sandwiched between a marina and the railroad tracks. But it was the perfect pandemic panacea, with its only-outdoor seating under a large canopy. The Chef clams up: ordering the clam fritters—three puffy hush puppies ($3.00) spiked with minced bits of clam—and the clam roll sandwich ($12.95), absolutely spilling over with clam strips. I ALWAYS get the lobster roll ($16.99 sm), which is absolutely packed with tender chunks of lobster meat and just the right ratio of mayo, dotted with diced celery. Captain Scott’s of course offers the classic Connecticut lobster roll, hot and drizzled in warm butter.
Now for a digression and a little bit of clam roll trivia. In my family’s move across the country from LA to Viriginia in 1964, we four kids loved stopping at the cheery blue and orange Howard Johnson’s (HoJos!), and our mother’s order never wavered: the clam roll, which I learned to love only after HoJos had all but disappeared from the American landscape and I wasn’t so squeamish. Turns out that the American public was squeamish, too. Before Howard Johnson’s came on the scene, Americans didn’t thrill at eating whole fried claims. It was HoJos that popularized the use of strips from the hard “foot” of sea clams!
Sugidama Soba & Izakaya offers delicious, inventive (affordable!) Japanese fare - Izayakas—like Japanese tapas bars with a wide sake selection— are cropping up all over, and I’m happy to see this trend continue so more people will know the tremendous variety in flavors and textures of Japanese food. Because I’m feeling lazy, I’m just going to show you Sugidama’s capacious menu spanning yakitori skewers (mainly $2-5), octopus balls, gyoza and okinamayaki (pancakes), cold soba, hot soba, donburi, salads with spicy tuna or sea roe or seaweed, sushi a la carte (of course!) and my new favorite, the house special maki rolls. These maki rolls are something above and beyond: fish wrapped around rice wrapped around fish! My yuzu roll ($14) consisted of yellowtail fish—an amberjack fish found only in the waters off Hawaii and Japan— covered in citrusy yuzu sauce enclosing spicy tuna AND shrimp tempura. To have the crunch of tempura inside a maki roll was an exquisite surprise.
What I ate at Meyer’s Olde Dutch after swimming across the Hudson River - With the exception of the pandemic summer of 2020, I’ve joined the Riverpool at Beacon’s Great Newburgh to Beacon Swim since 2017. On this year’s swim I drifted a bit southward with the current but also took time to float on my back and enjoy this moment of being thoroughly submerged in our mighty home river. I was thinking profound thoughts about time, our place on the planet and also the hot dog from Meyer’s Olde Dutch I planned to eat for lunch! Meyer’s Olde Dutch is one of those great simple restaurants with a streamlined menu of burgers. I’d like to rip the “e” off of “Olde,” because there’s nothing “ye olde” about this sleek restaurant with spartan furnishings and shaded back patio. While I was planning to eat the hot dog ($5), I was lured by the what the New York Times called a “killer chicken sandwich.” The crispy chicken sandwich has panko crusted perfectly fried tender chicken breast meat. Add to this a kind of low-rent pimiento cheese, Meyer’s excellent slaw and a bevy of thinly sliced bread and butter pickles. Perfection for $10 and especially with the ample $3 order of fries. Beer on tap is quite reasonable at $6! (Vegans note: they DO have a vegan veggie burger sandwich, but this place is, frankly, for carnivores…).
Famous Famiglia Pizzeria
2859 Broadway (at W. 111th)
212-865-1234
Eataly
200 5th Avenue (near Madison Square Park)
212-229-2560
Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock
80 Hamilton St. (New London, CT)
860-439-1741
Sugidama Soba & Izakaya
250 Elm St. #106 (Somerville, MA)
617-764-5770
Meyer’s Olde Dutch Food and Such
184 Main St. (Beacon, NY)
845-440-6900