Back Forty

i'm a pretty big fan of peter hoffman and savoy, so when i heard he opened up a new place on Ave B. i was pretty psyched to try it. in case you don't already know, he's the alice waters of new york, doing the locally-grown, seasonal, organic food thing long before it was THE thing to do.

anyway, Back Forty did not disappoint. they have a great beer list with microbrews and imports that aren't necessarily obscure but aren't all that common either. i had the Six Point Brownstone because the bartender said it was his favorite and was pleased by the not- too-thick and not-too-sweet brown ale. ordering was the hardest part of the meal for me. there were a bunch of things on the menu i wanted to try but my partially lame-ass friend who doesn't eat seafood also happened to be not hungry, so we settled on a light meal of roasted brussel sprouts with dried cherry and shallot butter, sweet potato gratin with ancho chili cream and toasted pepitas, the pork sammy which is a wonderfully crisp roll (bread is sooooo important) with braised pork belly, frisee and whole-grain mustard in the middle and a pickle on the side, french fries with rosemary sea salt and, for dessert, the fresh doughnuts.

the highlights of the meal for me were the pork sammy and the doughnuts. these were special. the others were good and definitely high quality but didn't blow me away. nyc restaurants love love love pork belly. it seems like just about every restaurant i go to has a pork belly dish and i almost always order it. i liked that this was a really casual, almost light (if you can stretch your mind a bit), approach to a really heavy meat. the greasy fattiness is cut nicely by the mustard and let me say once again how great the bread was.

and then the doughnuts! if dunkin' doughnuts tasted like these i'd be there every morning. the flavors and texture of the whole dish were perfect - crispy outside, airy but doughy inside, very subtle pecan glaze, toasted pecans - sweet enough to be dessert but not too sweet, crispy, crunchy and doughy. yummmy. i used to think hearth's doughnuts were the best but these win. this is a good dish to share. for $7, they give you 3 medium sized doughnuts, probably about 2 more than one person should eat.

finally, unlike savoy which is a bit pricey and, therefore, not a place i would go to often, Back Forty is appropriately priced for the neighborhood and for the food they serve. the "snacks and salads" and vegetable sides range from $6-9; the burger is $10; the other mains range from $14-18 (or $24 for a whole chicken); the desserts are $7-8; even the drinks max out at $10. i wish i still lived in alphabet city so this could be my regular dinner spot. the bar is big enough to actually accommodate diners who need to move their arms while they eat. fancy that! but, like savoy, Back Forty has really nice servers. they know the dishes, make recommendations, are prompt and don't have attitude; not a lot to ask for but hard to find.

i can't wait to go back and try the seafood dishes next time.