Plato & AJ
Despite some major sinus-y crap going on in my face yesterday (and the day before and today and probably tomorrow), I felt I needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. I was up by 76th Street picking some dry cleaning (fun, fun) when I discovered Plato's Closet, a nifty high-end resale shop.
I remembered hearing about this place from my friend Leah. Since she always has the best fashion sense, I decided to pop in. The place is nice, with a lovely shoe selection (think lots of Steve Madden for $12). I didn't have the energy to really browse, so I glanced through the shoes, dresses, and skirts. After trying on a handful of items, I came away with this little darling for only $6.
After making a few more stops, I ended up going to AJ Bombers on Water Street for dinner with my mom. My go-to burger joint is usually Stack'd. It's close to home, delicious, and has nice atmosphere. However, a friend of mine suggested AJ Bombers over Stack'd, so I figured I'd check it out.
This is the first thing I noticed when I walked in the door:
At first I thought I had walked into a barn or a wood-working shop. But that is not hay or wood shavings. It's peanut shells. I had heard of places like this before (mostly viewed via the Food Network), but I didn't know Bombers did it. To eliminate any questions I had, a man, not two feet away from me, threw (yes, threw, not poured or sprinkled, threw like a bucket of excrement from the top floor of a tenement house in 1800s Ireland) a bowl of peanut shells across the floor, nearly showering me. Welcome to Bombers.
I guess I would have had a lot more fun with the peanut thing if I actually liked eating peanuts (which I really don't). At least I'm not allergic to peanuts. That would have been a shocker all right. So we were seated and waited upon in a timely fashion. The menu is simple, and self-serving, which was kind of cool. Prices were average. I was quite impressed with the speed of the wait-staff. We got our burgers in no time.
Honestly, I wasn't horribly impressed by the food. Granted, this could be due to the fact that I order probably the simplest burger ever: burger, cheese, lettuce, ketchup, pickles (sometimes bacon and mayo if I'm feeling adventurous). Thus, most restaurants, if they can cook the meat correctly, have burgers that taste similar. However, I prefer the pretzel buns at Stack'd, and they have a weird sour-ish taste to their pickles that's rather interesting. My mom had the Milwaukee burger with bacon and beer onions. She loved it, though my bite was rather bleh. I do have to give them props for their Bomber Sauce. I dipped my fries in it, and found myself scarily addicted to it. The flavor was interesting, something I couldn't place, but it was like onion flavoring mixed with thousand island dressing mixed with cocaine. At one point I had to put it across the table to keep from eating it with a spoon.
Overall, the place was decent. I'd probably go there again if asked, but I wouldn't go out of my way for their food, and it probably wouldn't be my first burger choice. It would certainly be a fun place to hit up before heading out on Water Street for drinks. And, of course, I couldn't help but add my name to wall (despite my indifference towards their food). You'll have to look for it if you ever go there.
Plato & AJ
Despite some major sinus-y crap going on in my face yesterday (and the day before and today and probably tomorrow), I felt I needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. I was up by 76th Street picking some dry cleaning (fun, fun) when I discovered Plato's Closet, a nifty high-end resale shop.
I remembered hearing about this place from my friend Leah. Since she always has the best fashion sense, I decided to pop in. The place is nice, with a lovely shoe selection (think lots of Steve Madden for $12). I didn't have the energy to really browse, so I glanced through the shoes, dresses, and skirts. After trying on a handful of items, I came away with this little darling for only $6.
After making a few more stops, I ended up going to AJ Bombers on Water Street for dinner with my mom. My go-to burger joint is usually Stack'd. It's close to home, delicious, and has nice atmosphere. However, a friend of mine suggested AJ Bombers over Stack'd, so I figured I'd check it out.
This is the first thing I noticed when I walked in the door:
At first I thought I had walked into a barn or a wood-working shop. But that is not hay or wood shavings. It's peanut shells. I had heard of places like this before (mostly viewed via the Food Network), but I didn't know Bombers did it. To eliminate any questions I had, a man, not two feet away from me, threw (yes, threw, not poured or sprinkled, threw like a bucket of excrement from the top floor of a tenement house in 1800s Ireland) a bowl of peanut shells across the floor, nearly showering me. Welcome to Bombers.
I guess I would have had a lot more fun with the peanut thing if I actually liked eating peanuts (which I really don't). At least I'm not allergic to peanuts. That would have been a shocker all right. So we were seated and waited upon in a timely fashion. The menu is simple, and self-serving, which was kind of cool. Prices were average. I was quite impressed with the speed of the wait-staff. We got our burgers in no time.
Honestly, I wasn't horribly impressed by the food. Granted, this could be due to the fact that I order probably the simplest burger ever: burger, cheese, lettuce, ketchup, pickles (sometimes bacon and mayo if I'm feeling adventurous). Thus, most restaurants, if they can cook the meat correctly, have burgers that taste similar. However, I prefer the pretzel buns at Stack'd, and they have a weird sour-ish taste to their pickles that's rather interesting. My mom had the Milwaukee burger with bacon and beer onions. She loved it, though my bite was rather bleh. I do have to give them props for their Bomber Sauce. I dipped my fries in it, and found myself scarily addicted to it. The flavor was interesting, something I couldn't place, but it was like onion flavoring mixed with thousand island dressing mixed with cocaine. At one point I had to put it across the table to keep from eating it with a spoon.
Overall, the place was decent. I'd probably go there again if asked, but I wouldn't go out of my way for their food, and it probably wouldn't be my first burger choice. It would certainly be a fun place to hit up before heading out on Water Street for drinks. And, of course, I couldn't help but add my name to wall (despite my indifference towards their food). You'll have to look for it if you ever go there.
No comments:
Post a Comment