Dining Out, Manhattan, Midtown EastKerry Alaric CheeseboroNovember 12, 2011american, blue cheese, broccoli, cheese, chicken, chicken sausage, chilies, Dining Out, fondue, garlic, Lunch, Midtown East, olive oil, orecchiette, Parmesan, pasta, potato chips, sausage, The SmithComment

Silver Smith

[mappress mapid="172"]

SO IT WAS 11/11/11, AND beyond all the attention being paid to Spinal Tap on Facebook, it was, more importantly of course, Veteran's Day, honoring everyone and anyone who fought for our freedoms and safety, those who didn't get to come home to their families, and those who did, earning any number of Purple Hearts and Silver Stars.

Already in Midtown for a client meeting, the Veteran's Day parade impeded my intended plans of traveling down to Little Italy to check out Torrisi's new Parm.

So instead, I find myself walking by new-ish The Smith, a couple of times before deciding I'd try it out, despite the the fevered lunch rush they were in the midst of.

The Smith Midtown

I was surprisingly and kindly allowed to sit solo at a 4-top table. Their menu offered a wide range of staple American dishes, including sandwiches, pastas, salads, even breakfast and raw bar items. I was immediately set up with table water and bread.

The Smith Midtown

I had plenty of time to watch plate after plate come from the kitchen and get served to the scores of patrons around me, all of it presented well. As I always go for the more unusual and less generally available things of a menu, the hot potato chips with blue cheese fondue keenly piqued my interest.

Hot Potato Chips with Blue Cheese Fondue

I have watched, with confusion, store potato chips appeal to customers with every type of added flavor, from the old days of barbecue and sour cream and onion, to the present cornucopia of sweet Thai, basil, four cheese, buffalo wings, jalapeño, etc. So what a true pleasure it was to have a real potato-tasting chip, still hot, thin and crispy, not overly salted, and complimented so nicely with a just mild enough melty blue cheese sauce. I had wondered the extra time I seem to be waiting for my appetizer meant that my food was still sitting under a heat lamp in the kitchen, degenerating in quality. These couldn't have tasted more freshly prepared.

I wasn't even five chips into the bowl when my entrée—the orecchiette with chicken sausage, broccoli, and chilies—came out.

Orecchiette with Chicken Sausage

A nicely aromatic dish, with perfectly al dente orecchiette, fragrant chicken sausage, in a nicely uncomplicated garlic-olive oil sauce with broccoli and chilies, adding floral notes and kicky heat.

Unfortunately, my desire to dive into the pasta dish was complicated by the knowledge that either of my now two dishes would get could and less enjoyable by the time I finished them. I chose to concentrate on the pasta, which had a bit more depth, as it should for a main course (nice trick having the grated parmesan cheese soak up a good amount of the somewhat excessive oil), but the chips quickly suffered, losing their temperature along with the fondue, finally making the chips soggy and heavier. Great flavors together, yes, but would have easily preferred the sauce being on the side. Even if it meant the fondue cooled more quickly.

The Smith (with a second outpost in the village) will continue to pack them in for now (with mostly females, it seems, who might believe that prettier plates of food are healthier), and I definitely would not deter anyone from checking it out. From the rest of the food I saw on tables or even described on the various menus, The Smith is a winner. It's just that, in no category that I could think of, would it be thewinner.

Bun Apple Tea!

·kac·

Kerry Alaric Cheeseboro