I was lucky enough to have been invited to preview the new Blue Smoke across the street from my office before it officially opened to the public. They wanted to invite people from various nearby companies to try it out so that they would consider it when entertaining clients. I thought that this was a great idea and way to introduce a new place to the neighborhood.
I went with a friend of mine after work on Friday and didn't really know what to expect. The inside was mostly cleared out except for the booths so that waiter could pass around food and wine. The room was filled with people who either worked for American Express or Goldman Sachs. The decor of the restaurant was like an upscale BBQ joint (which is pretty much was Blue Smoke is). It's got a nice dark wood Texas feel but the it wasn't too honky tonk either. I started with a deviled egg and who doesn't like a deviled egg?! This one was really well done and there was lot of filling piled up high in the egg white. Next I had the chicken liver mousse on toast and well, it was definitely tasted like chicken liver. While I don't hate it, it has a very strong indescribable taste to it and I must have liked something about because I had about 3-4 of them. Then they passed around oysters! I was pretty surprised that they did that and I didn't get the name of the exact type, but they were great and were served with a vinaigrette. I also tried the chipotle chicken wings and it kind of reminded me why I don't really like chicken wings. It was just plain messy and hard to eat without looking like you have food smeared all over your face. But the sauce had a definite kick to it that was almost a bit too much for me.
While I was eating, Danny Meyer came out to thank us for coming! He mentioned that he had been doing these previews for the past few days and that the restaurant would be officially opening for dinner on Monday. It wasn't that I was star struck, but I do respect the fact that he's been a pretty successful restauranteur in such a competitive market like New York. Then we met the General Manager, Joel Steiger who explained that the menu would be 75% the same as the Blue Smoke uptown and that they actually smoke their food on site in a smoker behind the restaurant. Interesting.
Next what I was waiting for finally came out, the ribs!! They had Texas style (dry rub), Kansas City style (sweeter and covered with sauce), and the Memphis style (leaner rib and also covered with sauce). My personal favorite was the Texas one. It was a nice big rib and the meat completely fell off the bone and it was the least messy rib to eat. The Kansas City one was juicier and fattier and the Memphis one was indeed a leaner cut of rib, but there was something about the Texas that felt like a real piece of BBQ to me.
Somehow I still had room for 2 pork belly slides (AMAZING) and cupcakes. By the time I rolled out of there at 8:30, I was extremely full and my belly was very happy. I'm really happy that they are finally rolling out some great restaurants by my office, but obviously this isn't the type of place I would go to for lunch every day. I hope they end up offer a good happy hour deal because that would do really well given that everyone in the building is pretty sick of going to PJ Clarke constantly. The only reason I'm not giving it an official rating is because I didn't pay for my meal and I didn't have an actual sit down meal. I did get a peak at the menu that the menu looked great and I would have loved to have tried some of the sides during the preview. The staff on site was great, super attentive and really nice. We even left with a goodie box filled with a chocolate cupcake. Welcome to the neighborhood, Blue Smoke!
Photo Credit: Yelp
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