By CARLA SPARTOS
Hey, New York — stop settling for tourist-grade grub! Scarfing down dry, mealy pretzels and Wonder Bread bagels is no way to live in the greatest food city on Earth. Fortunately, a new generation of chefs and entrepreneurs is updating NYC’s culinary classics — and making it easier than ever to indulge in everything from chewy hand-rolled pretzels to soupedup egg creams. Now shut up and eat!
Zandy Mangold
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THE NEW TWIST
Pimped out pretzels
Even though she owns Sigmund Pretzelshop, a cafe specializing in homemade hand-rolled pretzels, pastry chef Lina Kulchinsky didn’t always think highly of the twisted bread.
“It’s one of those things that you basically [try] once. It’s a tourist thing,” she says of the New York street-vendor version — a once home-baked good that’s now massproduced and usually purchased frozen. But all that changed when her husband brought her back pretzels from a trip to Austria and Germany — an “aha moment” that turned into an obsession as she went on to spend the next couple years perfecting a less doughy recipe that would appeal to American tastes.
“The criteria was that it should be like crack — you can’t stop eating it,” laughs Kulchinsky.
Indeed, the fresh, chewy results are addictively good — from tongue-tingling seven-chili to piquant cheddar-jalapeño and rotating specials like bacon scallion ($3 to $3.50 each). Each comes with a choice of dipping sauces that swing from the sweet (Nutella, chunky peanut butter) to the savory (herb goat cheese, whole-grain mustard). Get them boxed to go or enjoy them in the shop’s hip, airy environs, at satellite locations like Brooklyn Flea and the Hester Street Fair, and at local bars D.B.A. and the Standard Hotel Biergarten. And if all goes according to plan, by year’s end fans will be able to pair their pretzel with a beer. Sehr gut!
Sigmund Pretzelshop, 29 Avenue B; 646-410-0333
Jonathan Baskin
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THE CLASSIC
Michael Sofronski
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THE NEW TWIST
Egg-cellent egg creams
When Petey Freeman decided to rehab an abandoned Carroll Gardens pharmacy into Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain, he had no idea what he was in for. With the renovations still under way, he found himself broke and living in the back room. “I was in way over my head,” he says, noting the space had far more structural damage than he had anticipated. Enter the Discovery Channel’s “Construction Intervention,” whose casting director happened upon the space by chance and helped to transform it into an old-timey ice cream parlor complete with original apothecary woodwork, tile floors and vintage icebox. Classic egg creams made with Hudson Valley milk, fizzy seltzer and chocolate or vanilla syrup from Fox’s U-Bet ($2.50) are the hallmark of the place, though Freeman gives his imagination free rein. There are twists like a glossy two-toned Cherry Vanilla Egg Cream that mixes in cherry syrup from Brooklyn’s newfangled P&H Soda & Syrup ($3.25), not to mention a Cream Shake that layers an egg cream on top of an extremely thick milkshake ($5.25). Meanwhile, even vegans can indulge in the Dream Cream — house-made cream soda with an almond-milk egg cream on top ($5.25). “My mom always said I should be a fifth-grade teacher or open a diner, so I thought, ‘Why not open a diner for fifth-graders?’” says Freeman, who runs the shop with his big sister Gia Giasullo. Judging by the crowds, word has spread beyond the schoolyard.
Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain, 513 Henry St., Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn; 718-522-6260
Zandy Mangold
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THE CLASSIC
Zandy Mangold
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The soda jerks at Brooklyn Farmacy serve fruity egg creams spiked with cherry and blueberry syrups.
Zandy Mangold
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THE NEW TWIST
Swish knish dish
Press 195 co-owner Brian Karp struck upon the idea of making a pressed knish sandwich when the person standing on line in front of him at a Wall Street hot-dog cart ordered one sliced open with sauerkraut and onions inside. A riff on that concept soon popped up on the menu at his sandwich shop, which puts a variety of fillings in between two halves of a square Gabila’s knish made in Coney Island. “I’ve always loved [knishes],” says Karp. “I’ve been a big Jewish deli fan all my life.”
The hugely satisfying pressed sandwiches can be ordered in varieties like pastrami, Swiss and sauerkraut, and rare roast beef, cheddar cheese and caramelized onions. But our favorite has to be the shop’s latest invention: a sweet and savory meatloaf knish with Cabot white cheddar and homemade gravy, which Karp likens to shepherd’s pie. The knish’s crispy edges yield to a pleasingly soft center and, when washed down with one of Press 195’s many microbrews, presents a perfect pub-style meal. Soon you’ll even be able to find them on Long Island: Press 195 is expanding later this year to Rockville Center.
Press 195, 195 Fifth Ave., Park Slope; 718-857-1950; and also 40-11 Bell Blvd., Bayside, Queens; 718-281-1950
Jonathan Baskin
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THE CLASSIC
Caitlin Thorne Hersey
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THE NEW TWIST
Bold bagels
After graduating from Dartmouth College, Vic Glazer toyed with the idea of attending med school. But a passing observation made by her law-professor sister while they were eating at a favorite bagel shop changed all that. “She was like, ‘God, I wish I could have everything I wanted in my cream cheese.’ And I was like, ‘That’s crazy that you can’t.’ ” Glazer soon started experimenting with cream-cheese mix-ins at home, including a veggie spread made from fresh produce that didn’t taste like it had spent a week in the walk-in fridge.
Two years after that fateful conversation, she opened Vic’s Bagel Bar, a bright, modern cafe in Murray Hill with chewy crusted bagels hand-rolled on premises ($1.10 each), which Glazer now supplies wholesale to spots like the 2nd Avenue Deli. “I wanted the space to be nicer but I also wanted to have fresher ingredients,” she says of her nouveau noshery. Cream cheese can be customized with dozens of mix-ins that veer from carrots, walnuts and parsley to potato chips, kosher bacon bits and chocolate chips ($2.50, plus 50 cents per mix-in). There are also signature combos like the popular Tokyo Tel Aviv Express (a bagel schmeared with a spicy, savory mix of lox, wasabi, scallion and edamame; $7.50), strongly brewed Stumptown coffee and — coming soon — extended hours and pizza bagels served evenings.
Vic’s Bagel Bar, 544 Third Ave.; 212-213-3900
Jonathan Baskin
