From animal portraits to pancake soufflés, Pitt's is pure quirk - Review - New York - The Infatuation
"From the folks behind Agi’s Counter, Pitt’s in Red Hook is an extra quirky place serving extra quirky food, and for the most part, they pull it off. A mini gumball machine sits on the bar, a mouse scales a pomegranate in a painting, and more animals appear everywhere—rabbits, ducks, at least one cow, and a toilet roll dispenser in the shape of a cute brown bear. photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte The food is just as charming. A soufflé, finished with a pour of maple syrup and a pat of salted butter, tastes just like a stack of hot pancakes. A cold meatloaf tea sandwich exists somewhere in the delicious overlap between afternoon tea at the Plaza and preschool snack-time Uncrustables. You may roll your eyes at escargots served with a heavy dusting of homemade ranch seasoning—until you lick a thumb free of the powder and vow to incorporate more Hidden Valley into your meals. At times, the quirks threaten to take over. Though the idea might fill you with a brink-of-recession thrill, avoid the menu’s most indulgent odd pairing: raw oysters alongside toast that’s slathered with bone marrow. Maybe those should just have been two separate dishes. A swordfish au poivre is less au poivre, more pepper-crusted fish in bernaise. It’s still delicious though. (Less so an early fried chicken dish with a messy crust that’s since been taken off the menu.) photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte Drinking mai tai sodas at the back bar, watching soufflé after soufflé rise in the kitchen, you get the sense that they’re constantly tinkering away back there. When Pitt’s experiments work—like with that soufflé—they’re incredibly fun to eat too. Most of the dishes here lean heavy, rich, and lacking in vegetables, so come with a group for a casual meal, share everything, and eat like a child who is adventurous in the dessert department, but who has no real interest in ingesting anything green. Food Rundown Free Bread A couple of warm, fluffy rolls, studded with caraway seeds, come tucked like Easter eggs in a basket with packets of butter. photo credit: Kate Previte Gouda Pimento & Fried Saltines Always start with the gouda pimento. It’s smoother and creamier than you’d expect, with just a touch of heat. A metal toothpick stacked with briny things comes alongside fried saltines, which are buttery and brittle like a Cheez-It. Escargot With Green Goddess Butter & Ranch Dusted Leaves Even your server might seem a little unsure about the results when they bring you a plate of snails and a bowl of butter lettuce—both generously dusted with ranch powder. But, like soda and Mentos, the crisp, tangy lettuce cups and buttery snails are a science experiment gone right. Oysters With Jalapeno Mignonette & Bone Marrow Butter Toast One of the more random pairings here. Raw oysters come alongside a thick slab of sourdough slathered in bone marrow butter. The toast is indulgent, but if you’re wondering if you should pour raw oyster onto it, do not. photo credit: Kate Previte Cold Meatloaf Tea Sandwich Not your grandmother’s meatloaf. This slab of soft, pate-like meat, rich and slick with fat, is sandwiched between white bread—crustless, of course. It’s halved, and then dipped in mustard and parsley, which helps to cut through all that richness. Shrimp With Oyster Mayo The oyster mayo tastes a lot like tartar sauce. That’s not a complaint, but prioritize other, more interesting starters. Swordfish Au Poivre Not really au poivre, but sort of? The slab of swordfish has a peppercorn crust and a sweet, meaty interior, but the sauce beneath it is more reminiscent of a bearnaise. Except that the bernaise-ish sauce is also studded with trout roe. It’s strange, delicious, and decidedly not au poivre. Lamb Rump Frites Thick, fat-capped slices of lamb are topped with dollops of mustard seed-studded butter, and served with a pile of heavily salted frites, so deeply fried that you can practically taste the oil as you crunch down. It’s not an unpleasant feeling. You’ll also get a salad du jour, which typically has a lot of cheese in it, making it only sort of a salad. Great for sharing—eating this by yourself might render you completely unable to get home. Pancake Soufflé The perfect soufflé is serious business. They take it so seriously here that your server wears an earpiece, specifically to alert the kitchen to begin working on your dessert at the exact right time. When the souffle arrives, your server slices into it tableside, fills it with warm maple syrup, and advises you to top it off with a big pat of salty butter. Do as they say. Pixie Pie The pixie pie is the tart, not-too-sweet counterpart to the syrupy sweet soufflé, with a saltine crust, a slightly bitter grapefruit filling, and a sour cream whip on top. Order both." - Willa Moore
