Amid last night’s drizzle and Yom Kippur-induced slow night out (I mean, seriously, it was freaking dead at the bar), I decided to get a little Pho at a place called Cong Ly, which was suggested to me in the comments section of my pho article of a few days ago. Unfortunately, I arrived rather too late for a side-street restaurant in Chinatown, and the place was closed. I only had about 15 minutes to get to my friend’s birthday party anyway, so I had to walk in the direction of Norfolk and Delancey and get food somewhere on the way.
Enter Broomedoggs, at 250 Broome St. I had picked up one of their menus on a recent pleasant Saturday walk through the LES, and discovered upon later study that they served a currywurst as one of their specials. Currywurst, for those who don’t know, is a specialty of the fast food trucks almost everywhere in German-speaking Europe. Along with the kasekrainer, which is a sausage somehow injected with cheese, the currywurst ended many a drunken escapade (particularly in Graz, where neither of the good doner kebap places stayed open late).
So, yeah, I was pretty excited to try it. When I arrived, I was the only customer, which concerned me a little – I suppose that the crappy night contributed to this, though. After ordering, I had a nice chat with the employee manning the sausage-cooking tools, and asked him whose idea the currywurst was. He wasn’t sure, but said one of the partners might have come up with it; he was also surprised to learn that it was a German favorite. Friendly dude. Apparently they now serve cheesecake, which I can’t imagine eating for dessert after a sausage, even if it was made by nuns.
As far as the wurst was concerned, it was tasty, if not quite what the German in me was expecting. The German sausage is infused with its curry flavor, and this one was basically a knockwurst tossed with curry sauce. The curry was mild, though flavorful, and complemented the sausage well. The knockwurst isn’t a small sausage, either – for $5, I felt like it should be on the larger side and was not disappointed.
Broomedoggs also offers regular hot dogs, turkey dogs, chicken dogs, tofu dogs, kielbasa, and something called a Black Angus dog, all for $5 or under, along with assorted drinks. As they are open late (4am Friday and Saturday) and located in a soon-to-be-very-popular corner of the Lower East Side, I feel like they will have a cult following in short order (if they don’t already).
Is it as good as Crif Dog, though? Hell, no.
Twenty Bucks A Day 