| rev:text
| - I have been a huge fan of Rose and Sons for several years. My favourite restaurant in the city. Brunch, dinner, drinks - always had a wonderful experience. Recommended it highly to friends, and always looked forward to going there.
When I saw that the restaurant was closing and re-opening as a deli of some sort, I was worried, but I trusted Anthony Rose to do something great. No matter what I had tried on the old menu, it was always inspired and well executed, so he had earned that trust. I have worked in several kitchens and know good food, and I thought that someone who had done so well, who was so clearly a gifted executive chef, would have a great plan in mind.
Unfortunately, this reboot is a HUGE miss. The menu went from broad and eclectic, featuring lots of unique offerings, to small and simple. That in itself is not bad - a small and focused menu can bring with it some upsides. Typically, lower prices (less food preparation required, more efficient kitchen, less storage and spoilage of ingredients) and higher quality offerings (cooks can master a few dishes, ingredients can be prioritized). However, neither of these things have happened - in fact, the new menu is MORE expensive and the execution is actually worse.
For a quick example, before, you could get a patty melt meal for $16 or $17. That included a unique dish that you couldn't get anywhere else (grilled cheese using caraway rye with a medium done chuck patty in between) with excellent in-house fries. Now, $17 gets you a Reuben, which is smaller than the patty melt, and no sides.
Now, if the quality was there, this might be okay (if still overpriced), but it manages barely above average. Mind you, it isn't bad - I enjoyed my sandwich, but it is not anything special. This also held true for the Rachel. Honestly, the Reuben is worse than what you can get at New Yorker Deli on Bay, and that comes with fries or latkes + a pickle for $14. I have had many superior Reubens and Rachels, and they have all been less expensive.
So, even though it was over-priced, I added some sides to the sandwiches. Gone are the in-house fries which were some of the best in the city. The old disco/party fries dish was a STEAL - amazing fresh veg and a great sauce, and delicious side mayos.
In their place are gigantic rectangles that seem to mostly exist in order to burn the inside of your mouth (crispy on the outside, poor seasoning, and then meh fluff inside). Worst of all, I always used to enjoy watching the open kitchen. During this last visit, with these new fries, I saw the guy in the kitchen bring up two plastic bags of them and just open the top of the bag. Now, I can't know 100% for certain, but having worked several years in kitchens, it honestly looked like they just bought them frozen, and were lugging them into the kitchen to be fried (it looked like the bag was sealed). And based on my experience eating them, that seems to hold true. Really disappointing.
The side Sauerkraut I ordered was also terribly underwhelming. Extremely bland, it didn't seem like it had been fermented enough. At least they were trying to make it in-house.
Insult to injury - Rose and Sons was never a "cheap" place to go to, but it was good value for high quality, unique offerings. Now, in addition to being overpriced, they are also just taking senseless short cuts. With your $17 Reuben (remember, JUST the sandwich, no sides at all), you receive a quarter of a pickle (so, I guess that IS your side). If you want more, you have to pay $1.50. Seriously? Half a pickle, or, gasp, a full one, would have been too much?
This place used to be such a cool place - awesome milkshakes (hello bourbon caramel milkshake), neat drink offerings (including having the staff pick out a flight of three bourbon tastings for you), good desserts, awesome meal options (fried chicken meals, including nashville hot?!), sides (amazing smoked tomato soup, daily specials, and awesome breakfasts (fried chicken and grits!).
It looks like most of this has gone away. Yeah, you can buy New York Seltzer pop with your meal now. Great - not like it isn't available across the street at Food Depot.
Basically, Rose and Sons has gone from a place that had a really cool and unique menu and atmosphere - a real RESTAURANT - that you could recommend to serious foodies and normal eaters alike, to a slightly above average mundane deli that is terribly overpriced. It used to be a gem, a happy surprise marked by a ridiculous FOOD sign outside. Now? Better off just go to New Yorker Deli.
Damn sad - I really hope this place makes some big changes. The old iteration was pretty special.
Avoid.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)