Quick Bites: lunch with Robyn, PIE, and Better Burger.

I had a nice lunch with Robyn of The Girl Who Ate Everything today – we went to Alidoro and traded halves of our Cortina and El Capitano sandwiches.  She’s made some pretty fun t-shirts, too, if you’re into that.  I’ve already rambled about Alidoro enough for one column, so I’ll leave the details to her (will insert link when she posts), but I had a good time.  Thanks, Robyn!

Now, a few quick bites:
I had a slice of the fresh mozzarella pie from PIE (Pie by the Pound) last night.  While it served well as a quick dinner, I think it rates somewhere below a good NYC fast food slice in quality, and significantly below a place like DeMarco’s.  Mainly, I thought that the crust was too hard and the was tomato sauce too sweet.  Also, it was expensive!  A portion of the pie (which comes in a long rectangle with rounded ends) that I’d say was equivalent to a big piece (or a regular piece and a third) was about $3.75!  If I was a tad more cynical, I’d say that they changed the size and shape so that people wouldn’t get bent about paying an absurd amount for a slice.  Oh well.

Recently, I had a burger delivered from Better Burger Chelsea via SeamlessWeb.  SeamlessWeb is an interesting invention – sort of a meta-delivery site of mostly crap food (at least with what can be delivered to my location at work).  I tried the “classic organic beef burger” ($5), cooked medium rare, with a $2.50 side of smashed potatoes (I avoided the fries on a tip from my girlfriend).  The burger, for what it’s worth, reminded me of a fast food restaurant, though it was of much higher quality and cooked as close to medium rare as the thin patty would accommodate.  The smashed potatoes seemed strange until I realized that they had no dairy and were “reduced-fat” – then I realized that they were just sabotaged from the start.  Still, I’m sure, better than the “air-cooked” fries.

Some of you have noticed that not many places on the list have been crossed off recently.  With the nice weather around the corner, I aim to have a good chunk of the list polished off by the time this year’s list arrives in late spring/early summer – stay tuned!