The Menu: One Entree. That’s It.

Restaurants with menus designed around one food or one ingredient have caught on with New Yorkers eager to find the best of something, or satisfy nostalgic cravings. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/nyreg ... ref=dining

Funny you should post this: we just ate at the Chicken Hut for the first time last week (after a dozen years of being in that neighborhood with no cash in our pockets.) I liked it - well, at least I liked the chicken.

However, many of these places have me scratching my head...peanut butter? One meatball on bread with a salad for $14.25? Even in Manhattan...crimeny, it's not that hard to make a meatball sandwich, and you can keep the fixins for a very upscale pb&j in your file cabinet.

"In a city of seemingly infinite dining options, where menus gallop on for pages and a single appetizer can contain an entire shopping list of ingredients, these places offer little or no choice at all."

Maybe that's the motivation: make it simple for me. Charge me the same thing everyday ($14.25 or whatever), feed me the same thing, don't make me make decisions, and that'll make me happy.

Maybe for a small up-charge - they'll provide a staff person to feed you as well. Why put any actual effort to the dining experience?

Dave148 wrote:Maybe for a small up-charge - they'll provide a staff person to feed you as well. Why put any actual effort to the dining experience?

Call me cheap or provincial, but, wow, I just looked at the menu for Hill Country Chicken and, for what they are charging, I'd almost expect someone to be feeding me! Even for NYC, that must be some seriously great chicken.

http://www.hillcountrychicken.com/asset ... n_menu.pdf

Ursiform wrote:

Dave148 wrote: Even for NYC, that must be some seriously great chicken.

http://www.hillcountrychicken.com/asset ... n_menu.pdf

Its not. It is heat lamp cafeteria chicken. The biscuits at least outdo Popeyes with their lack of fake butter flavor. Avoid this place.

It makes me think of a comment from Australian friends who were visiting a few years back. We were at Water Tower Place one day and I suggested lunch at Foodlife. After several minutes, they returned, glassy-eyed, and asked, "Don't you ever get tired of having so many choices?" My response was "no," but apparently there are people who do get tired of having to choose.

I actually do know people who become paralyzed if a menu offers more than a dozen items.

As for the fans of these single-item places, I'm guessing that food is not a high enough priority for them that they want to use much brain capacity thinking about it.

Now, if the single choice was foie gras, that might be a different story.

Cynthia wrote:It makes me think of a comment from Australian friends who were visiting a few years back. We were at Water Tower Place one day and I suggested lunch at Foodlife. After several minutes, they returned, glassy-eyed, and asked, "Don't you ever get tired of having so many choices?" My response was "no," but apparently there are people who do get tired of having to choose.

It's the omnivore's dilemma.

Personally, I think it's great. It's something that a lot of us have been espousing for a long time. Do less, do it better. That second part is obviously key, but trendy or not, I think it's a fine operating theory.

Isn't a BBQ joint serving one dish several ways?

Years ago I read an article about a BBQ place (in Texas I think) that served nothing but bbq. It opened at lunch and had a counter...but a waitress wandering around the crowd taking orders. The place closed when all the BBQ was gone. Does anyone know about this place?

AngrySarah wrote:Years ago I read an article about a BBQ place (in Texas I think) that served nothing but bbq. It opened at lunch and had a counter...but a waitress wandering around the crowd taking orders. The place closed when all the BBQ was gone. Does anyone know about this place?

You've just described about 80% of the BBQ shacks in the south.

Dmnkly wrote:Personally, I think it's great. It's something that a lot of us have been espousing for a long time. Do less, do it better. That second part is obviously key, but trendy or not, I think it's a fine operating theory.

There is a point of diminishing return, though. I'd imagine that gourmet peanut butter is still pretty much peanut butter - and if the rice pudding place is an indicator, it can be inferred that these places are neither about minimalism nor craft. They're about being able to walk in, point, pay, and consume - without so much as a grunt.

Mhays wrote:

Dmnkly wrote:Personally, I think it's great. It's something that a lot of us have been espousing for a long time. Do less, do it better. That second part is obviously key, but trendy or not, I think it's a fine operating theory.

There is a point of diminishing return, though. I'd imagine that gourmet peanut butter is still pretty much peanut butter - and if the rice pudding place is an indicator, it can be inferred that these places are neither about minimalism nor craft. They're about being able to walk in, point, pay, and consume - without so much as a grunt.

On a recent trip to New York, I had the opportunity to try a few of these single-entree restaurants. Some pulled it off and made me think that a singular focus is fantastic, and a couple made me hope this fad would quickly pass.

Porchetta, a shop that focuses on its namesake sandwich, left me disappointed. Far from my platonic ideal porchetta wedged inside a crusty baguette (including the bitter greens and pickled padron peppers, thankyouverymuch), this sandwich held back on the fatty goodness and at the same time, lacked any bitter or tangy foil to cut through the meat. The baguette had been sitting too long and had gone from chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside, to just allover chewy.

Just up the street is Luke's Lobster, a place that specializes in lobster and crab rolls. I'm normally not a fan of lobster or mayonaisse, so the lobster roll is something that has never held any appeal for me. My eating mates, on the other hand, really wanted to try them. Always a sport (read as: glutton), I tried a bite. Wowzers. From the buttery, griddled bun (think Franks N' Dawgs) to the overflowing lobster dressed with just the lightest bit of mayo and sprinkled with a bit of Old Bay-like seasoned salt, this was a sandwich that dreams are made of. The crab version? Even better.

Porchetta
www.porchettanyc.com
110 East 7th Street, New York
(212) 777-2151

Luke's Lobster
www.lukeslobster.com
93 E 7th St, New York
(212) 387-8487

-Dan

Mhays wrote:

Dmnkly wrote:Personally, I think it's great. It's something that a lot of us have been espousing for a long time. Do less, do it better. That second part is obviously key, but trendy or not, I think it's a fine operating theory.

There is a point of diminishing return, though. I'd imagine that gourmet peanut butter is still pretty much peanut butter - and if the rice pudding place is an indicator, it can be inferred that these places are neither about minimalism nor craft. They're about being able to walk in, point, pay, and consume - without so much as a grunt.

Maybe so. Like I say, they obviously need to execute their single thing. I just mean that I don't see a tiny menu as a negative. If a place only does okonomiyaki but is driven and capable of making some of the best damn okonomiyaki you've ever had, to criticize them for not doing more strikes me as lame.

dansch wrote:From the buttery, griddled bun (think Franks N' Dawgs) to the overflowing lobster dressed with just the lightest bit of mayo and sprinkled with a bit of Old Bay-like seasoned salt, this was a sandwich that dreams are made of. The crab version? Even better.

Oh, Dan. Think Franks n' Dawgs? Think Franks n Dawgs?! FnD, via Nicole's, cops the New England-style hot dog roll for its hot dogs. The NE-style hot dog roll is standard for lobster rolls. So, to say, "think Franks n' Dawgs," to describe the bun on what sounds like a classically-executed lobster roll, is like saying, think Hannah's Bretzel, to describe a Bavarian-made Bavarian pretzel. It blows my mind. /Head on desk.

aschie30 wrote:Oh, Dan. Think Franks n' Dawgs? Think Franks n Dawgs?! FnD, via Nicole's, cops the New England-style hot dog roll for its hot dogs. The NE-style hot dog roll is standard for lobster rolls. So, to say, "think Franks n' Dawgs," to describe the bun on what sounds like a classically-executed lobster roll, is like saying, think Hannah's Bretzel, to describe a Bavarian-made Bavarian pretzel. It blows my mind. /Head on desk.

Give me a break, I don't like lobster or mayonnaise, so my experience with the lobster and mayonnaise sandwich is limited.

/hangs head in shame...

-Dan

dansch wrote:

aschie30 wrote:Oh, Dan. Think Franks n' Dawgs? Think Franks n Dawgs?! FnD, via Nicole's, cops the New England-style hot dog roll for its hot dogs. The NE-style hot dog roll is standard for lobster rolls. So, to say, "think Franks n' Dawgs," to describe the bun on what sounds like a classically-executed lobster roll, is like saying, think Hannah's Bretzel, to describe a Bavarian-made Bavarian pretzel. It blows my mind. /Head on desk.

Give me a break, I don't like lobster or mayonnaise, so my experience with the lobster and mayonnaise sandwich is limited.

/hangs head in shame...

-Dan

Dan,

for those of us who are less knowledgeable of the intricacies of lobster roll buns and their provenance, your evocation of the F&D /Nicole's bun was just perfect. And those sandwiches sound out of this world. Thanks for the tip!

Mhays wrote:

Dmnkly wrote:Personally, I think it's great. It's something that a lot of us have been espousing for a long time. Do less, do it better. That second part is obviously key, but trendy or not, I think it's a fine operating theory.

There is a point of diminishing return, though. I'd imagine that gourmet peanut butter is still pretty much peanut butter - and if the rice pudding place is an indicator, it can be inferred that these places are neither about minimalism nor craft. They're about being able to walk in, point, pay, and consume - without so much as a grunt.

There are places all over the world that do one thing and do it well. I think of shops in Japan where someone just stands and toasts rice crackers over hot coals or vendors in the mercados in Mexico that just do a couple of kinds of tortillas, among myriad others. But it's the fad quotient that makes the NYC scene seem odd, and the fact that "do less" is often not accompanied by "do it better." Fewer decisions are definitely the draw for some.

But yes, by all means, if you have something you do brilliantly, focus. A lot of places get lost when they try to be all things to all people. Plus it would have to be more cost effective to only have one item -- no worrying about ordering too much or too little of some dish that may or may not be ordered.

We can hope that the good places (that lobster roll place sounds amazing) thrive and the mediocre ones die -- but somehow, it doesn't always seem to work that way. Fads can be so unpredictable.

Dmnkly wrote:Personally, I think it's great. It's something that a lot of us have been espousing for a long time. Do less, do it better. That second part is obviously key, but trendy or not, I think it's a fine operating theory.

I'm with you on this. If I trust the restaurant and the chef, I like the idea of being presented with whatever the chef's whim that day is. I'm cool with choice being taken away from me in this case, and, whenever I visit a new restaurant, I despise choosing a dish, anyway, preferring to have the kitchen's recommendation.