Grahamwich

When he was at Avenues, Chef Graham Elliot (or as he was known then, Graham Elliot Bowles) was known for pushing the envelope when it came to food combinations. When he opened his namesake restaurant, the idea continued and actually expanded. Dishes such as Foie-ly Pops, foie gras wrapped in Pop Rocks and put on a stick, and a sweetbread empanada can be found on the menu (at various times because the menu is seasonal and so it rotates). Last year, he opened up a sandwich shop called Grahamwich and I went there on March 6. The layout of the restaurant is very simple and looks, for the most part, like a regular counter service sandwich shop. There is a chalkboard with the sandwich, snack, and drink menus behind the counter and there is a communal table for twelve with individual cushioned blocks for seating in the back of the shop. There were 10 sandwiches on the menu $10 each, snacks were $5, and housemade sodas were $3 so the place was not cheap but the dishes were more than just your average sandwich (although not really that weird). I ended up having a Beef shortrib sandwich with baby watercress, shoestring potatoes , roasted shallots and creamy horseradish on hawaiian bread. The shortrib was very tender but the filling was exploding out of the bread so you just had to accept the fact that you were going to have to eat a lot of the shoestring potatoes by hand. I also had the parmesan truffle popcorn which is a staple at his namesake restaurant and is served instead of bread at the beginning of the meal. I think that I have mentioned before that I don't like popcornbut with the parmesan and the truffle oil, not to mention the sea salt, chives, and cracked pepper, I had to try it. The serving size was enormous. To drink, I had the ginger citrus soda. Everything tasted very good but I won't be ordering the popcorn again because despite the taste, it was still popcorn and it felt as if I was eating styrofoam.

They just recently revamped the menu and prices have come down somewhat so even though there was enough to keep me coming back with the old menu, with the new, I will definitely be back.