A very friendly mixologist recommended The Meatball Shop to us. Snigger, if you like, but those meaty balls are some of the best I’ve put in my mouth. If you have heard of London’s latest offering, Meatballs (Farringdon EC1), then look to New York for where the inspiration came from.
The Meatball Shop is styled to every inch. The decor, the toilets, the wall tilings, the chairs, the bar, the stools, the meat mincers hanging on the wall, the cutlery… There are two locations, East Village, Manhattan and Bedford Ave in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (our spiritual home!) – the latter of which we visited – which says a lot about the vibe of the place.
The concept behind The Meatball Shop is that; one, you can dine in; two, if it’s busy you can wait at the bar for a few drinks and if the bar stools are free you are allowed to eat there; or three, you can take out. A genius way of keeping punters happy, if you ask me. We secured stools at the bar and the guys were more than welcoming. Root beer is available on tap – I’m sold.
You can choose to get the meatballs – either chicken, beef, pork, vegetable or the chalkboard special – as sliders (in baps) or as naked balls (served with a sauce of your choice and piece of focaccia bread). Alternatively, you can opt for the Heroes (in baguettes like a sub), the Smash (smeared onto a toasted brioche bun) or in the Everything But The Kitchen Sink Salad.
We ordered the classic beef – one with the classic tomato sauce and the other with the meat sauce. We also ordered the Heroes spicy pork balls in a baguette with the chalkboard special cheese sauce, which came with a zingy rocket & apple salad. The naked balls were pretty large and each serving gave us a pair of huge ones, smothered with lots of sauce.
For dessert, we tried the ice cream sandwich; a large scoop of ice cream sandwiched between two large cookies (any two of your choice). If I could capture heaven in a spoon, it would taste like the caramel ice cream. However, I couldn’t finish my portion as it was too rich. The mint ice cream was a little more durable in all its refreshing glory. The giner snap and chocolate cookies that we chose to sandwich the dollops of ice cream were delicious but again, we couldn’t finish one each. We would definitely recommend sharing a portion between two.
Our experience of The Meatball Shop was great. We would go back in an instant and would recommend you to do the same.
The Meatball Shop
170 Bedford Avenue
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC
http://www.themeatballshop.com/index.php
[...] recipe is inspired by our trip to uber cool The Meatball Shop in Williamsburg, where they serve meatballs in an interesting variety of ways to Brooklyn’s [...]