69. PS 7’s
No need to rush to Opentable for your reservation to PS 7’s. In addition to us, there was one table of be-shorted tourists and a table of very drunk ladies out for a birthday dinner. I’m guessing (and hoping) that PS 7’s has more of a lunch following, because otherwise they must be laundering money in the back to stay in business. Perhaps they wanted to make sure we didn’t notice how empty the restaurant was, because we were seated at the oddest table—in the front corner (power spot) but with a huge wall on one side of the table blocking the view of the rest of the dining room. As my friend put it, “I feel like we’re about to get whacked”.
It felt like this restaurant came along with the enslaught of downtown chic place like Zengo, Oya, and so on and so on with their trendy spin on traditional food. PS 7’s falls in to this category, with it’s artisan hot dogs and cookies and milk for desert. The decor is the same as it’s hip cuisine brethren—tall ceilings, funky light fixtures and annoying salsa/funk/jazz background music. Until I focused on the menu, I could have been at any faux fancy joint in Chinatown.
To me, however, the menu is more stand out than a lot of these places: those tiny homemade hot dogs, oxtail tots and Yuengling-braised duck leg. There are lots of menu items that I would like to try, but I was pretty dead set on ordering the hot dogs and the short ribs so the duck and the tots will have to wait for another day. The hot dogs come out three to a plate; with mustard, ketchup and relish. I thought this would have been a good opportunity for the chef to put out some wacky condiments, but they went traditional which is their perogative. The actual dogs were good, though I thought the casing made them a bit waxy. The flavor was nice and spicy, and I would have liked to take home a bag of the buns.
For my main course I had the Fois Gras Stuffed Braised Short Ribs—a light and summery dish. What, it’s not opposite day? Well yes, fois gras and short ribs don’t really have a place on a summer menu but I just couldn’t pass them up. Lucky for me it was an appetizer portion (though a big one) so I didn’t have a coronary incident at the table. The meat was cooked perfectly and the flavors were nice, though the mushrooms served alongside were a bit of a throwaway. Flavorful for sure, but possibly plated by a monkey. I think it was supposed to be brush strokes of sauce, but due to some jostling on the way from kitchen to table it lost all artistic properties and ended up pretty unappetizing. Don’t worry, I ate it in a respectable two minutes flat.
If I was operating on an expense account, I probably would go here often. I’m a gal with a car payment though so I probably won’t be roaming the empty tables of I St. too much in the near future. A nifty idea—they offer many of their more exciting and wallet-friendly dishes (the much mentioned hot dogs, the tuna sliders, the flatbreads and more) are available in the swanky bar. Flatbreads are half off during happy hour too. If they just had a short rib and foie gras flatbread, I might just make PS 7’s my new Cheers. They have Bud Light on draught, right?
