I’ve written about Dirty Pierre’s twice before – here and here – and said that I would be back for Mets away games. Well, unfortunately, my team has long been eliminated, but I love baseball enough that I found myself at Dirty Pierre’s to watch playoff games twice recently.
I decided to experiment with figuring out my beer tastes and ordered an Ommegang Rare Vos. Not bad, totally drinkable… honestly I don’t remember it too well. I really have to start taking notes again.
After a couple of innings, I decided I was hungry and ordered an avocado salad. I was really feeling avocados at the time, and when this arrived, I was really happy. Lightly dressed with just lemon juice, salt and pepper, chunks of avocado tossed with tomato, onion, cilantro, on top of a few stray greens… I really enjoyed this salad a lot, it was perfect… almost like a deconstructed guacamole, but it was totally acceptable for me to shovel into my mouth and just eat as it was. Which I totally did 😉
I was especially thrilled with this salad because the week previous, I’d gone to my favorite local diner and ordered the avocado salad and received this:
Yeah, barely any avocado, a bunch of greens that I didn’t really want to eat, sad slices of tomato, and this horribly cloying, overly sweet dressing that I choked down to make the rest of it almost OK. I still love my diner and I will keep going back – but I won’t be ordering an avocado salad again ANY TIME soon… hahaha.
The salad also came with some lovely warm, crusty bread and butter. So I tried to pretend to be normal and eat some with the salad so it wasn’t so much like eating guacamole straight… heh, who’m I kidding? Nice touch, though, later when I couldn’t finish the avocado salad (it was a lot!), and the bartender packed it for me – she asked if I wanted the bread with it, and I said why not? They can’t re-use it, so instead of wasting it, I took it with me. And it all made a lovely lunch for the next day!
At my casual mention that the burger was very good, Gary opted to get a burger. I snapped a shot, and he seemed very pleased with it – it’s a larger, pub-sized burger, served on a large English muffin that’s been toasted. The fries are good, though not special, and I think the burger is pretty good… maybe he’ll chime in with his thoughts?
And just a few days later, I returned with my buddy TC in tow… to watch the ALDS though he was less than interested in watching, so we just chatted at the bar while I tried to pay attention. (He’s a Yankees fan, and because the Yankees were knocked out by this point, he had no interest in the playoffs… I just love baseball and like to watch it regardless of who’s playing!) This time I noticed that corn chowder was on the specials, and happily ordered that. The bartender – because yes, I sat at the bar – informed me “There’s bacon in that, in case you’re a vegetarian” and I laughed. I thought maybe they should put ‘bacon corn chowder’ on the menu – because that would be a total draw. If I saw it was bacon corn chowder to begin with, I’d totally have ordered it immediately instead of thinking it over! And it was really, really good. Served with more hot, crusty bread and butter, this was perfect and exactly what I wanted to eat.
TC wasn’t hungry, but then we saw people around us ordering another special on the menu – pernil – and it looked sooo good. It was a HUGE platter – we saw two women sharing one plate, and it was way more than enough for both of them – so after a bit of back & forth, we decided to go for it. Rice, salad, and a huge mound of pernil.
It’s a HUGE mound of pernil. I’ve had pernil only, at most, maybe 10 times now, and half the times it was homemade, half the times from a restaurant. Sometimes it’s incredibly tender, juicy, delicious – and sometimes it’s just terrible, without regard to whether it’s homemade or not. Sad. This pernil reached above average, though not the best I’ve ever had, it was very, very good – I LOVE that they gave us the crispy skin to snack on as well, and it was soooooo much food! I wound up punking out after eating all of my share of rice and salad, so TC had to step up and eat more of the pernil… but I don’t think he was complaining. He said he liked it, I think as much as I did – not the best we’d ever had, but pretty darn good. And cheap – I think the platter was $12.95.
Both times, we sat at the bar, because I love doing that and just chilling, watching TV and chatting. I loved that the place didn’t get crowded where people were on top of me, either. They had a good crowd both nights – different times of night, so different sizes – but I really love the neighborhood feel of the place. I totally love the place and will go back again and again, to watch sports, or just have a beer with a friend, and just chill at the bar – the music isn’t too loud either. Love, love, love.
Yvo says: I can’t say this is destination dining, but this is what I can now comfortably call my local bar, and I love it. They have a decent enough beer selection for someone like me (who likes beer, but by no means is a snob), a full bar, the prices are super reasonable… I can walk there and back, and the food isn’t just ‘good for pub grub’ but actually just flat out good. I am so happy to have found this place!
recommended
chakrateeze says
One time, I was getting my coctel de camorones fix on and a very nice & friendly waiter asked me if I wanted my guacamole Mexican-style? “SURE!” It turned out a lot like your salad: big chunks of avocado, tomato, and slivers of onion and what had to have been Serrano chiles. It was really, really good and I highly recommend asking for it.
Tracie
Feisty Foodie says
Ooh! I’ll have to look for that, but I don’t know about the Serrano chiles 🙂
kimberly says
Oh gosh. This is right in my hood and I love avocado salad (I make mine for lunch all the time). Good, creamy fatty goodness. My kind of ‘vegetarian foie gras’ 😛
Happy Bday!
Feisty Foodie says
Thanks Kim! I never heard avocado being described as ‘vegetarian foie gras’ but that totally makes sense. And you should definitely go here – it’s very low key and casual, but I love that. And the food – I honestly haven’t had anything BAD here.
I really want an avocado salad now! I don’t think they’re open yet though hahhahaa!
kimberly says
Now I’m craving avocado, so I know what I’ll have lunch now. 🙂
Btw, how much was the salad? Love the complimentary bread, especially the crusty kinds~
Definitely will check it out, maybe even for their brunch menu!
Feisty Foodie says
Hmm, I think it was $5.95 or $6.95? It wasn’t expensive – definitely less than $10 and I remember thinking it was pretty big for the price.
kimberly says
Kool. Thanks for the info. Happy Bday again~
Hungry says
Oooh I love the idea of a decontructed guacamole!
Aimee Self says
That soup looks like a winner!
awlrain says
oh, only been there once but i love Dirty Pierre’s! feels like a laid back Brooklyn bar. i should try their food next time!
T.C. says
Pernil smelled good that night. It had to be conquered!
Yea, baseball doesn’t really live on for me.
Football does since I have no definite team. Pig Skin!