I am so late to the party on this one. Nonetheless I have an excuse: every time I ever tried to eat at Pitt Cue all I saw was a long line of twenty somethings in fake glasses, queueing, and I thought: it's bound to be another Meat Liquor, faux Brooklyn style over substance, and I don't need another one of those in my life.
How wrong I was. How wrong. I went last night close to 9pm and only had to queue for 20 minutes, which, with a seat and a super-charming front of house, felt like only 5 minutes. The food was AWESOME: a phenomenal pulled pork burger, amazing slaw, brilliant beans, a light yet utterly intense bourbon sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice-cream. The drink was also awesome - an Old Fashioned made with Four Roses Bourbon (if you're a Bourbanite.) But superstars of the show were the Loaded Skins - petite potatoes, deep fried, and crammed with pulled pork, home-made nduja, 24 month aged parmesan and chives. Served as a trio, be prepared to fight over the third if there's two of you at the table.
Seriously. There is nothing not to love about this dish. Crunchy, spicy, multi-textural high-fat bliss - the smoothness of the mashed potato gets along just swell with the crispy potato skins, the tender pork and the shavings of salty cheese. This dish took me to a place of extreme joy. (I was transported back to 1982, and to a restaurant called Coconut Grove in London's St Christopher's Place; to a more innocent time, when owning a pair of ET printed shoelaces seemed like the pinnacle of all human happiness. My memory is a touch hazy - I remember the restaurant and my shoe laces and I can only assume that Coconut Grove served amazing potato skins. Regardless, I'll take that up with my hypnotist.)
As ever, the photo does it no justice at all I'm afraid.
How wrong I was. How wrong. I went last night close to 9pm and only had to queue for 20 minutes, which, with a seat and a super-charming front of house, felt like only 5 minutes. The food was AWESOME: a phenomenal pulled pork burger, amazing slaw, brilliant beans, a light yet utterly intense bourbon sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice-cream. The drink was also awesome - an Old Fashioned made with Four Roses Bourbon (if you're a Bourbanite.) But superstars of the show were the Loaded Skins - petite potatoes, deep fried, and crammed with pulled pork, home-made nduja, 24 month aged parmesan and chives. Served as a trio, be prepared to fight over the third if there's two of you at the table.
Seriously. There is nothing not to love about this dish. Crunchy, spicy, multi-textural high-fat bliss - the smoothness of the mashed potato gets along just swell with the crispy potato skins, the tender pork and the shavings of salty cheese. This dish took me to a place of extreme joy. (I was transported back to 1982, and to a restaurant called Coconut Grove in London's St Christopher's Place; to a more innocent time, when owning a pair of ET printed shoelaces seemed like the pinnacle of all human happiness. My memory is a touch hazy - I remember the restaurant and my shoe laces and I can only assume that Coconut Grove served amazing potato skins. Regardless, I'll take that up with my hypnotist.)
As ever, the photo does it no justice at all I'm afraid.
Anyway, the moral of the story is, being impatient and lazy is usually ok, except for when it comes between you and a plate of deep fried, double pork-stuffed potatoes covered in melted cheese.
