meatball parm

The Meatball Shop is a perfect spot for a bit of tasty, low-key comfort food in a rustic New York-Italian diner.

Established by Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow, it’s quite the New York success story, starting from just one small restaurant on the Lower East Side and quickly expanding to Brooklyn, West Village and Chelsea.

The concept is simple yet clever, focusing purely on five meatballs that you can customise with different sauces, breads and sides. It’s made even easier by just marking down your order with a felt tip pen on a laminated menu.

For the first lunch of our trip, The Meatball Shop was the winning choice – not only were we in the mood for meatballs, but it was conveniently just around the corner from our hotel, SIXTY LES.

There can often be a long waiting time for a table at The Meatball Shop (they don’t take reservations and it’s a very popular place), but for a Wednesday late lunch, we were through the door and seated right away. Our fun, charming waiter explained the menu well and made personal recommendations for pairing the balls with sauces.

It would be easy to order lots of sharing dishes, but with dinner plans later that day, we tried to go easy and both ordered a Meatball Smash ($9) with different balls and sauces and split them. The two smashed classic beef meatballs were plump, well-seasoned and hearty, with fresh herbs and breadcrumbs. They went perfectly with the sweet, rich roasted classic tomato sauce and creamy mozzarella.

The large brioche bun was fluffy and glazed yet not too sweet and we enjoyed the simple green salad with a light olive oil vinaigrette dressing, fresh herbs and slices of tart green apple.

The spicy pork balls had a very meaty taste with a touch of fennel and were complemented by the deliciously thick and garlicky Parmesan cream sauce – almost like a bechamel. Both types of meatballs were high quality and very natural-tasting, but didn’t have the same juiciness as others I’ve tried.

We couldn’t resist ordering the only dessert on the menu – an Ice Cream Sandwich ($5 each). My giant scoop of house-made chocolate ice cream was rich and dark while Steven’s vanilla ice cream had a strong natural vanilla flavour and was as decadent as you’d expect.

The freshly-baked Snickerdoodle cookie was soft and laced with cinnamon while the Ginger Snap cookie was chewy and sweet with a potent ginger kick. No matter how filling the meatballs may be, you don’t want to miss out on these simple yet scrumptious treats!

If you want to take a bit of The Meatball Shop home, they have collaborated with brands such as SHUT, Vans and Carhartt on merchandise including a skateboard deck, hi tops and a beanie.

While New York is full of delis serving up meatball parm sandwiches, The Meatball Shop is fun, sociable and better suited to a leisurely lunch or dinner – plus you can drink wine. Prices are reasonable, staff are great and while becoming a small chain, it has personality. I’d definitely go back, but this time for dinner and add some sliders and sides.

For more info and menus, visit: www.themeatballshop.com

Parm, a new downtown New York-Italian diner was top of our list of eats, as a visit to NYC just isn’t complete without some meatballs!

Parm is the casual younger sister of Torrisi, an Italian specialities restaurant next door, where locals flock to for the weekly seven course menu ($60).

Owners Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi continue the rapidly diminishing cultural heritage of nearby Little Italy (Parm is on a stretch of Mulberry Street now declared Nolita), with authentic parmigiana sandwiches, platters and daily specials, but with their own quirky touches such as Chinese food on a Sunday.

Parm doesn’t appear to take reservations and there was a short queue when we arrived, but frankly, we’d have waited all night to get a seat. Luckily, it only took around five minutes to get two seats at the bar, just close enough to the open kitchen to watch the chefs at work.

The staff at Parm are easy-going yet attentive and sitting at the bar put us in the middle of the action. We ordered a Diet Coke and a Ginger Ale for a very reasonable $2 each and asked the staff for menu and portion recommendations, so we didn’t overdo it (New Yorkers don’t scrimp on size when it comes to meatballs).

The side order of Brussels Sprouts ($5) came first and they were a real treat. For those who haven’t scoured almost every New York restaurant menu, Brussels sprouts are huge over there, mostly down to their infinitely more imaginative ways of cooking and serving them. These ones were roasted and doused in olive oil, chilli, mint, lemon and fresh parmesan, mixed with slithers of flash-cooked red onion.

I ordered the Meatball Parm Platter ($15) served with baked ziti (or a choice of Sunday salad). The platter came with two giant meatballs, made up of tender minced meat, breadcrumbs and fresh herbs. They were smothered in marinara sauce, melted mozzarella and topped with fresh, cool ricotta and torn basil leaves.

If you’re unfamiliar with ziti (like we were), it’s a kind of American pasta bake – penne layered with a rich tomato sauce and different cheese, baked in the oven. Parm’s ziti was slow-cooked and loaded with crispy cheese – a perfect accompaniment for the meatballs.

Steven went for the Sausage and Peppers Platter ($15), also with baked ziti. The sausages were similarly huge and succulent and were covered in a spicy tomato sauce with tender roasted peppers.

We’d planned to have cannolis in Little Italy for dessert, but if you still have room, try Parm’s multicoloured ice cream cake, resembling something from a kid’s birthday party.

Parm is like the neighbourhood diner that everyone would like on their street. Rumour has it that Parm will be expanding to more locations across New York (another is based the Yankee Stadium) and hopefully they’ll be as cosy and quirky as the Nolitan original.

It already has a loyal following – we met a regular who visited every night to work his way through the specials and Parm kept back a table for him and his friends.

Jay-Z was also spotted dining there with his new signing Rita Ora. Jay-Z is quickly becoming my New York restaurant guru, as his comfort food dining habit with Beyoncé also put Brooklyn’s Buttermilk Channel on my radar. Wherever Jay goes, good food will surely follow!

Parm, 248 Mulberry Street, New York 10012

For more New York travel ideas, read my review of:

Lunch at The Meatball Shop LES, New York

Meatballs at Parm in Nolita, New York