Better Than You’ve Heard: Bloomingdale Road

A recent visit to newbie New York Upper West Side restaurant Bloomingdale Road was approached with slight hostility: The place was ripped by New York mag critic Adam Platt, got the good news/bad news treatment from Eater, and was bludgeoned by holier-than-thou Yelp users. Chef Ed Witt's menu -- backyard American picnic classics given twists -- inspires curiosity at least, so we had to hit the place. And we're here to tell you that next time you're on the UWS, give the place a visit. You won't regret it.

The pulled BBQ chicken sliders were served on what amounted to a halved biscuit, enough to keep the soft, tender meat on the “bun” without overwhelming what was inside, which was as soft as any Other White Meat we’ve ever had. The fries on the side were far from an afterthought. The Coca-Cola glazed ham, served with grain mustard and exactly what it sounds like, was a salty-sweet blink of rich old-school technique.

Witt’s smoked deviled eggs should be up for the bar snack hall of fame; again: rich, creamy, smokey, stupid-delicious. And a peanut butter and jelly tart doesn’t need to be spoken for: It’s exactly what it sounds like, and how nobody in New York has served it before this ... is ridiculous. But it was chef Ed Witt’s quietest moment—a poached Maine lobster salad with shaved fennel—that was his most triumphant. It was a restrained, refreshing salad with enough quiet, let-the-ingredients-speak-for-itself pizzazz to put it in the upper echelons of what we know salad to be. 

Granted, the menu, the concept, the space are all uneven—some might call those faults (fair enough), but we see it as daring character, especially on the Upper West Side, a place that desperately needs something chancey going on. Bloomingdale Road’s worth a trip: a full meal, a stopover for snacks and small plates, a drop-in for dessert. This place is gonna be a grower, a slow burn, and if it can survive that crucial first year of existence, we see a bright, oft-traveled path for this Road.