My girlfriend and I took a friend out last night for his birthday. He was craving barbecue and I suggested trying a new place that opened up on Orchard Street on the Lower East side. It's called Georgia's Eastside BBQ and it's about a block from the famed Katz's Delicatessen. I had heard about it but was somewhat suspicious as a write-up had said the barbecue was beer-steamed, then grilled. Didn't sound like barbecue to me, but I was willing to give it a try.
We ended the night with some baked goods from Sugar Sweet Sunshine on Rivington Street. Here are the sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies I had.
I really rich banana pudding with homemade nilla wafers and lots of banana slice and creamy pudding. I really do love this and I think it's my favorite dessert.
The cupcakes in a box. A Sunshine cupcake (pink frosting, pistachio, spicy pumpkin and chocolate.
Sign on the door.
Spicy Pumpkin Cupcakes-very tasty!!
A case full of baked treats to choose from.
A big bowl of naner puddin'.
Which one to choose?
I really liked this sign.
We passed by Economy Candy, but they were closed. Most places that call themselves candy stores are usually a small store with beer, smokes, and a rack of the Big 2 (Hershey's and M&M Mars), but this place is the real deal. Halvah, nuts from Bazzini's, Annabelle's candies, candy cigarettes, Pez, lollipop rings, bulk bins of hard and soft candies by the pound, and much more stacked to the ceiling.
What was left of our rib dinners.
Sides of baked beans, potato salad and french fries. The beans tasted just like Heinz Vegetarian Beans and I loved them. The potato salad had red bliss, dill, mustard, mayo, and pickle bits in it. Creamy with a good dill taste, although I would have like m,ore mustard and pickle in it. The fries were not the best I have ever had, but they were pretty good.
Holden's and my rib racks. They serve baby backs here and present them on a cutting board (a nice touch!), although no knife is needed. I can't lie, I did miss the smoke flavor, but these were some of the most tender ribs I have ever had. The meat just pulled off with the slightest of tugs and a subtle beer flavor could be detected. I can literally say that these were bone-sucking, finger-licking good!!
BBQ wings appetizer. Thankfully not drowning in sauce, these were meaty, saucy, and had a great crust from grilling and the sauce was really cooked into them, almost caramelized.
Dayna's BBQ chicken dinner with sauteed green beans. Very moist and again, the sauce wasn't drowning the chicken and was cooked into the meat. The green beans had a nice crunch to them and I think they may have had some garlic/shallots in them.
Shot of the restaurant. It's about the same size as the average NYC apartment. Okay, maybe bigger than most apartments.
A small simple menu is always a good sign. They do have daily specials. I think last night they had beets, corn and fried green tomatoes as vegetable offerings.
The sign outside, just below Houston Street.
The only dessert they had was root beer floats. But we passed to walk a bit and try the cupcakes. The staff there was really great and I would definitely go back again to work my way through the rest of the menu. If you're looking for traditional pit-smoked barbecue, then this is not the place. But it is really good comfort food that put a smile in my belly.
