Looks like my day job is going to be bringing me to an office in Chelsea Market on a regular basis for a while. Who am I to argue with being stationed at one of New York's finest foodie landmarks?
Yesterday morning, I bypassed the pastries at the many bakeries that dotted my path to work, but when the lunch bell rang I couldn't resist grabbing a colleague and exploring.
Our explorations quickly landed us at Ruthy's Bakery & Cafe, where we immediately agreed to split the NYC bagel classic of a toasted sesame with cream cheese, Nova Scotia smoked salmon and a couple of slices of tomato. Ruthy's fine example of this Judaic sandwich standard is pictured above.
Taking a decidedly non-Judaic turn as well, we also agreed to split another bagel sandwich -- one inspired by a un-Kosher bagel-rific specimen I fell in love with at Charlottesville's Little John's Deli many years back.
The combo was a marvel: a toasted bagel served open-faced, smeared with cream cheese, crispy slices of bacon, rings of sweet Vidalia onion, topped with Beefsteak tomato slices and christened the Baby Zonker. In this case, we ordered up another toasted sesame with a schmear of Ruthy's bacon-flavored cream cheese, onion and tomato...
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't a Baby Zonker. The bacon cream cheese seemed characterless when compared to the smoky goodness found in a bona fide slice of bacon. The onion was fairly anemic as well.
Thinking a road trip to Charlottesville might be called for. Or, if Little John's has taken it off the menu, I might have to bite the bullet and buy the ingredients myself -- and rechristen the sandwich the Baby Vamp.
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