Barney Greengrass - New York, NY

Posted By Michael Stern on November 6, 2004 3:58 AM

Food trends come and go, great New York bakeries have vanished, and it is harder and harder to find a good babka on the upper West Side. Barney Greengrass still has these dense, sweet cakes that go so well with coffee; and although babka is not the main attraction, we cannot come to this storefront restaurant without one to take home.

The food that put Barney Greengrass on the map is smoked fish. In the glass case of this restaurant and take-out store, you will find lean, silky sturgeon, salty cured salmon (known as lox), not-so-salty cured salmon (novie), snow-white whitefish, and luscious sable. At the tables in the dining room adjacent to the takeout counter, all these fish are available on platters, with bagels and/or bialys, cream cheese, onions, tomatoes, and olives. These are the makings of a true New York breakfast; there isn’t a restaurant in town that does it with the aplomb of bare-tabled Barney Greengrass.

Good as the smoked fish platters are, the single best dish in the house is the one known as eggs-and-novie. If you come in the morning, especially on a weekend, you will smell plates of it being carried from the kitchen to customers as soon as you enter. It is eggs scrambled with plush morsels of Nova Scotia salmon and onions nearly caramelized by frying. The combination tastes opulent; the textural range from the eggs’ soft curds to the firm nuggets of fish they enfold to the slippery web of onions is a tongue's delight. The aroma of this omelet, as well as smells of freshly-toasted bagels and of cold cuts, salamis, and garlic pickles from the take-out side of the restaurant, make walking into Barney Greengrass one of the most appetizing experiences New York City has to offer.

The original Barney Greengrass became known as “The Sturgeon King” after opening his first restaurant in Harlem in 1908. Barney passed the business to his son Moe, who ran it for decades in its current location on the West Side. Moe died in January, 2002, and the store is now run by Moe's son Gary.

Overall Rating

Mini-Babka

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Posted By Deborah Pastor on October 25, 2010 12:25 PM

I love Barney Greengrass and basically agree with the main review - with one important change. The best omelette is not the novie and eggs - it is the sturgeon and eggs. Since the fall of the USSR, it has been very hard to find high quality sturgeon. In my opinion, Barney Greengrass somehow still finds great sturgeon - silkier and more subtle than novie or kippered salmon. Too good for a bagel and cream cheese. This sturgeon shines when cooked with caramellized onions and eggs. There is no better way to have sturgeon and no place prepares it as well as Barney Greengrass. And the ambience is as "New York" as it gets.

Overall Rating

eggs-and-novie

Smoked Sturgeon

smoked fish platter

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Posted By Glenn Holzberg on March 26, 2009 4:21 PM

I grew up on "appetizing" in Brooklyn: my grandfather, Louis Feig, owned F & M Appetizing next to the yeshiva on 13th Avenue in Borough Park. I thought every five-year-old ate sturgeon on a bialy with cream cheese and onion. So to eat at Barney Greengrass with my wife and kids (including 21-year-old namesake Louis) was like coming home, especially since my exile to Miami in '64 (at seven).

The platters of sturgeon, nova and belly lox, and kippered salmon are sublime. The light, ephemeral sturgeon has just enough smoke to balance the sweet and unctuous yellow fat streaks; this is heaven on a warm sesame bagel. A side of herring in cream sauce and the requisite toasted buttered bialy, with plenty of hot coffee, makes the meal a throwback to older, gentler times. The pink booths are old and small but that's the only way you'd want it.

To visit with my wife and four kids is special and a bit of nostalgia, a place not to be missed when visiting NYC. Kudos to owner Gary (?) Greengrass, who we chatted up after a memorable meal. Thanks.

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