At work today, I was talking on the phone with a guy in Los Angeles who used to live in New York. When he heard I live in Manhattan, he said what he missed most was the city’s number and variety of restaurants.
“That’s funny,” I said, “because I have this resolution called the 52 Meals Project....” From there, he rattled off his top-three favorite restaurants, and at the top of the list was The Spotted Pig.
I can see why: it’s a friendly, neighborhoody place, though small so it gets crowded in there, with a weird mix of English-Italian fare and a bunch of pigs—ceramic banks, jigsaw-cut wooden boards, metal signs—decorating the place. Lots of natural light, herbs and houseplants growing illustrated red-and-yellow steel cans that previously held Italian tomatoes. I had a deviled egg, a bowl of haddock chowder, garnished with homemade crisp soup crackers shaped to resemble miniature pillows, and two pints of a red British ale I later learned was called Speckled Hen, all while completing the crossword in this week’s New York.
The Spotted Pig
- 314 W. 11th St. (at Greenwich Street)
- (212) 620-0393
- Meal 36 of 52: two beers ($8/pint), a deviled egg ($3) and a bowl of chowder ($14).