Cookshop

Team Babbo decided to venture out once more before BeanieBaby's departure. Unfortunately our plan to eat out several times before she left fell through, and we only managed to squeeze in one more meal. Typical busy New Yorkers.

One of the last meals we shared as a group was at Cookshop.

Cookshop is right above the Meatpacking District. It was pouring that night and I opted to splurge on a cab since I was running particularly far behind schedule. I threw money at the cab driver, jumped out, shook off some of the rain like a dog, twirled my umbrella, and snuck into the restaurant to find Fashionista and BeanieBaby relaxed, dry and sipping on some wine.

There were a lot of people lingering around the bar and the hostess stand. I couldn't make out if these people were there to casually drink or if they were waiting for tables. Most of them must have been there for the bar because after a few short minutes of my walking in the hostess led us to our seats.

I really liked the atmosphere. The space had a strange feel to it. It blended elegance with casual. The table settings were neat and pristine, like you were in Jean Georges or Chanterelle, but the floors are just slabs of cold pavement, as if you were eating in someone's unfinished kitchen. It had huge wrap around windows and the kitchen was open in the back. I felt like I was in a cross between a dining room and a classroom, if there ever was such a thing, with chalkboards to boot. The place was buzzing with servers winding in and out of tables and when ours arrived he was all preppy and smiley.

Cookshop is a creation of the husband-wife team of Marc Meyer and Vicki Freeman. With the help of their partner, Chris Paraskevaides, they also own Five Points in NoHo. Mr. Meyer is the executive chef.

While I fully appreciate what Mr. Meyer stands for -- sustainable ingredients, humanely raised animals and supporting local farmers and artisans, I can't say anything I ate at Cookshop that evening was outstanding, or something I will hurry back to eat again. I was disappointed because I had heard so much about Cookshop and wanted to like it. I am imagining one friend's response to my disappointment. We worked together at my previous job and since he heard I had a food blog he had been gnawing at me to try Cookshop. Sorry, J-!

We ordered a couple of appetizers: pork sausage with fresh mustard and lentils and

rock shrimp with risotto.

The sausage wasn't any better than anything I had eaten in my aunt and uncle's Italian household in New Jersey. I was hoping I'd like the rock shrimp dish, and while the shrimp were crispy the risotto was watery and bland.

For our main dishes we ordered a side of spiced fries and mayo --they were the best thing I ate the entire meal. Fried perfection.


I ordered black cod with asparagus in a mustard dressing. Maybe I just realized I wasn't a cod person but this dish, minus the grains of mustard, had about as much flavor as a bowl of my mom's favorite morning cereal rice puffs.


BeanieBaby ordered the sea scallops. I don't usually like sea scallops but I did enjoy these, maybe because they were well done, and when I bite into sea scallops their soft juiciness tastes to me like they are unfinished.


Fashionista ordered the pork chop.


The word of the evening was "good."

"How's yours?" I asked BeanieBaby.

"It's good -- " she replied, as if there was a "but" after.

"And yours Mona?" asked Fashionista.

"It's good," I replied, trying to get as much sauce on my black cod sliver as I could to get some flavor out of it.

BeanieBaby summed up our evening at Cookshop perfectly.

"I think we messed up by starting at Babbo. We shouldn't have set the bar so high," she said.

Agreed. That meal knocked all of our socks off. I would have been happy if one sock was knocked off at Cookshop, but we left feeling a big flat "eh."

I'm just sorry we had to send BeanieBaby off on the "eh" note rather than the "wow" note.

156 10th Ave., At 20th St.

212-924-4440