Shorty's.32
** Stars
Address: 199 Prince St., between MacDougal & Sullivan Sts.
Phone: (212) 375-8275
Dinner: Sun., Tue. & Wed., 6 p.m.-12 a.m., Thu.-Sat., 6 p.m.-3 a.m. Closed
Mon.
Cuisine: New American
Vibe: Quaint neighborhood spot
Occasion: Casual date, neighborhood go-to dinner
Don't Miss Dish: Codfish with Gruyere broth, roast chicken
Drink Specialty: Stargarita
Price: Appetizers, $7-$14; entrees, $18-$25; desserts, $5-$7
Reservations: Not accepted
Soho's best-kept secret harbors a talented chef and a triumphant roast chicken.
"I'll have the chicken," is a request I'm hearing a lot lately in prominent New York City restaurants. What was historically a predictable dish designated for the unadventurous eater has recently become a first-string player on many esteemed menus. Union Square Cafe has a moist rendition in their back pocket. So does Cafe Boulud.
And then there's the roast chicken at Shorty's.32. Chef and co-owner Josh Eden has nearly perfected his: This remarkably juicy bird flaunts an obscenely crisp skin. It's a notably unpretentious bird, coupled with mashed potatoes and green beans. Though its presentation seems humble, it's abundantly rich in flavor.
This is Shorty's.32 in a nutshell: a straightforward restaurant with tremendously pleasing New American fare. It is also SoHo's best-kept secret. Nicknamed Shorty at JoJo, Eden spent 12 years working in Jean-Georges Vongerichten's stable of highbrow kitchens. With such upscale cred, one might expect Shorty's solo debut to razzle-dazzle with more sophistication than chicken and mashed potatoes. He does dazzle with a decadent bed of mashed potatoes and crunchy fries in golden coats. Though they look like something off the children's menu, pudgy crabsticks get a basil remoulade - grownup fish sticks stocked with fresh, peekytoe crab.
Familiar rock music plays in the background of a 32-seat dining room, furnished with burgundy velvet banquettes and dark wood tables. An altogether curious and unsightly collection of mismatched lampshades hangs from the ceiling. Though his taste in light fixtures is questionable, Eden has much better instincts when it comes to culinary marriages.
He perches codfish on crusty bread with caramelized onions and Swiss chard, then douses it in a gruyere broth. The spill of broth evokes a "French onion soup" twist, an inventive match for the flaky fish. Likewise, the aforementioned chicken gets a sidecar of chilled green beans specked with fried garlic. It recalls leftover Chinese string beans, an apparently intentional move...
"Everyone loves leftover Chinese take-out from the fridge," Eden says during a telephone interview - a plain and persuasive argument.
Braised pork belly is topped with a vinegary cranberry bean salad that smartly tempers the fat. It's served chilled. Are you noticing a pattern here? Eden likes to play with food's thermostat: chilled cranberry beans and warm pork belly; cold green beans and warm chicken. The most composed arrangement is a pan-seared sea bass decorated with a neat line of quinoa and vibrant mound of pickled beets. Both the slow braise of the pork belly and the smart sear on the sea bass display Eden's seasoned technique with pleasurable effect.
There is the occasional misstep: grilled shrimp paired with celery root logs, smothered in a heavy-handed saucing of crème fraiche and Dijon mustard. Braised short ribs see an unnecessary addition of honey, further burdened by a weighty side of macaroni and cheese. Shorty's cavatelli craves more than a bland mushroom ragout and a few leaves of arugula.
Dessert also does not measure up to the rest of the menu. A chocolate bread pudding arrived burnt, and a listless apple tart layered with date puree collapsed on one swoop of a fork. Too, crème brulée tasted more like watery rice pudding with a caramelized shell.
Shorty's.32 is refreshingly simple. With humble determination, Eden succeeds at pleasing the neighbors and triumphing with chicken.
My wife and I went there Saturday night and were amazed at how tiny the place is. Also the tables are one on top of the other. Not really my cup of tea but wanted to try the food. It was around 9:15 and wer told that there would be 1 1/2 to 2 hour wait. Sounded like he wanted to get rid of us. The bar was packed so we left our name and asked if the host would call us on our cell when the table was ready, that we would be nearby having drinks. The host (I use that term loosely) refused to call us. With no room to breath at the bar and our name on the waiting list, how else are we going to know when the table was ready. They do that at Nobu and Next Door Nobu. I guess Shorty's is above that. We wound up eating at Aquagrill, and it was delicious.
Posted by: scottk | January 31, 2008 at 03:11 PM