NYC Subway Restaurant Tour, Part VII: Pierozek (Greenpoint)
M y Polish eating adventures started with the NYC Ferry to the Greenpoint stop, where I had two well-rounded platters: one Polish, at Karcyma; and one Mediterranean mezze, at Glasserie. Along the way I saw some amazing Halloween decorations and a jaw-dropping industrial landscape. That overstuffed episode — like a fat stuffed cabbage — couldn’t take any more content, yet further Polish dining adventures were waiting to had. So the Subway Tour is picking up where the Ferry Tour left off, for visits to a pierogi specialist and a soup specialist. Grabbing the L train, which runs along 14th Street in Manhattan, exposed me to some brand-new ceramic subway art.
The work is called Wild Things.
Artist Fred Tomaselli was duly credited in the corridor leading from the 1, 2, and 3 trains to the L train — and there’s a procession of newly installed smaller pieces enlivening the scurry through the long tunnel connecting the Seventh and Sixth Avenue subway lines.
Although I took the NYC Ferry for my first two trips to Greenpoint, which you can read about in the NYC Ferry Restaurant Tour, for the subway followups I took the L train to Williamsburg and a long walk up to Greenpoint (whose sole subway line, the G, is not accessible from Manhattan). At the Bedford Avenue station in Williamsburg I found more lively art.
These two pieces, by Marcel Dzama, are called No Less than Everything Comes Together. Should the MTA be spending on public art when keeping the trains running is such a pressing concern? I like the attitude of the French: that beauty is not a luxury but a necessity of everyday life. Given the choice between utility or beauty, we should choose both, and insist on nothing less.
It was a beautiful day and my walk north from Williamsburg to Greenpoint took me through McCarren Park, lightly occupied by fellow strollers and users of the athletic fields.
The Xmas decs were up along Manhattan Avenue as I got near the restaurant.
The bikes parked outside Pierozek made me nostalgic for Amsterdam though its shingled storefront was pure Brooklyn.
Then again, the horizontal stroke through the Z in PIEROZEK is also very European. This is a European restaurant, in the heart of Brooklyn’s Little Poland. Unlike the Manhattan version, it still has a substantial Polish population.
View from back to front.
View from front to back. I was asked if I would like to sit in the backyard’s outdoor dining area.
Would I? Hell yeah!
It was pleasantly shaded from the bright sun. View of, and from, my table near the stairs.
Quite cozy, really.
I started with the Spring Salad, which came with three pierogis. Wanting to explore the pierogi menu further, I later moved on to more pierogis.
Unintentionally in accordance with the approaching Xmas season, the salad was rich in reds (thick-cut bacon cubes, cranberries, cocktail tomatoes, red onion) and greens (spring greens, minced bell pepper, sliced pickles). The honey balsamic was mercifully subtle, not overwhelming the fresh flavors with sweetness or acidity.
Pierogis are ordered in trios, so I couldn’t mix and match on this part of the order. The house recommends jalapeño, potato & cheese, or meat. I went for the first.
A cranberry tucked itself into a pierogi as my fork broke into the doughy treasure house, which included a little cheese and a lotta potato.
It was a wonderful marriage of mostly healthy ingredients. I enjoyed the reds and greens as much as the pierogi pillows of goodness.
Despite the generous portion, the salad didn’t last long. Act II was beckoning off the port bow.
Let me have a look at you, my pretties, before I douse you with sour cream and devour you.
Supermarket pierogis didn’t impress me back in the way. Not even when I bought them at Fairway. But much later in life, when I tried a selection at L&B on Staten Island, I realized what I’d been missing. The ones that made the most lasting impact were the fresh-fruit pierogis. Pierozek’s blueberry and raspberry-and-cheese were today’s entree, or dessert, or whatever. You can order them by the half-dozen and choose two types.
Gaze upon the furry raspberry and the plump blueberry, as I did, in wonder. There is something almost sexual about them.
When I was a kid, there was a stand of blueberry bushes in the backyard, so I am familiar with the explosion of deep purple flavor that happens when they are baked into something.
I am similarly acquainted with fresh raspberries. I used to pick them off the bushes and eat them. The raspberry version was actually raspberry and sweet cheese with buttered bread crumbs.
Mmmm, blueberry.
Mmmm, raspberry.
I made them take turns. We were having a threesome.
Demolished.
Including the cup of sour cream.
My walk back to the subway through McCarren Park was suffused with well-being. But I would be back this way soon for a followup.
Once again bypassing the G stop at Manhattan Avenue, but at least getting a good shot of it, for the benefit of those coming from Queens or elsewhere in Brooklyn…
…I got past the killing field of McGuinness Boulevard to reach Restaurant Relax, at Nassau and Newell streets.
The interior was elegant, clean…
…and evocatively decorated. I also liked the subtlety of the lighting, with pools of mild brightness massaging rich shadow, a deft blend of both.
We hit the fried food heavily that day. My assistant had the pork chop cutlet and fries…
…while I went for flounder and Silesian dumplings, warm soft mouthfuls with tasty touches of carmelized onion. (Parts of Silesia, historically, have fallen into Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, but most of it today is in Poland.) I could have had mashed, but was suffering from mashed-potato fatigue after many recent Polish-cuisine outings, and was glad to have both an alternative and a new experience.
But we were really here for the crepes, my assistant being something of a crepe fiend. His were strawberry, with a side of apple (which might have made an excellent filling in itself). And sour cream, of course.
Apple, in fact, was my chosen filling, though supplemented with cheese, and the garnish was cherry. You get a nice mix of fruit notes at Relax. And sour cream, of course.
Mmmmm.
It was the end of another perfect day of Polish dining in Greenpoint.
But it would not be my last trip — or even my last to Relax. The place is something of a soup specialist, though not all of the dozen or so soups on the menu are available every day, presumably because they are made fresh. So, hoping for the sorrel soup, I settled instead for a hearty and distinctive split pea — nothing like what comes in a can — and loved it! Unstirred, it emphasizes the orange flecks of carrot, echoing the shiny golden oak (I’m guessing) table.
But it can be coaxed to reveal its underlying potato.
I returned for kielbasa. Unlike the Karczma version, which was served whole, this one was sliced to emphasize the exterior crispness over the interior lushness. Both came with carmelized onions. Gravy gleamed on the scoops of mashed.
Oh my goodness.
For the second time — though I had not properly documented it the first time — I enjoyed Relax’s fresh, crunchy, down-home-tasty red cabbage and fresh-made sauerkraut. Storebought ’kraut is so sour it curls your tongue. The Relax version is balanced and irresistible.
While I haven’t gone out of my way to politicize these blogs — I want all my potential readers to have a seat at the table and explore this great city along with me — when a local concern comes up, I won’t suppress it. Here’s the message Little Poland had for me on the way back to the subway. I shot the picture two days before the election of 2024.
I write this on the morning of Election Day, without knowing what the outcome will be. I hope it works out for Little Poland, whose people have been nothing but friendly and courteous as they have served me their delicious food. I salute their migrants, past, present, and future — including Casimir Pulaski, who came over to help us fight the American Revolution and end the tyranny of the king, and all the Silesian Poles deemed “subhuman” and herded into death camps during the Holocaust. Comfort food feeds an indomitable spirit in the Polish heart.
Previously on the NYC Subway Restaurant Tour:
Part I: Lake House Cafe (Van Cortlandt Park)
Part II: Toshkent (Bath Beach)
Part III: Kashkar (Brighton Beach)
Part IV: One Dine (One World Observatory)
Part V: Buntopia (Brooklyn Broadway)
Part VI: A-Pou’s Taste (East Williamsburg)
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