Artist-restaurateur Stretch has finally opened his deli concept, Grinders West. When I last wrote about this restaurant, in September, Stretch had hopes of opening the venue that month. It actually opened a week ago.
But the place looks great, has a really interesting menu (sandwiches, soups, salads and three pasta choices) and a first-rate waitstaff, including the beautiful former actress -- well, school productions count, don't they? -- Jessica, pictured above (it's just Jessica, like Madonna). She gets my vote for "Waitress of the Year," simply because she was so congenial and already so savvy about the restaurant's menu and wine list, even though the place had been open for five days.
After going to a new restaurant on 39th Street last week that played the worst Top 40 Muzak, I had mixed feelings about the 1960s soundtrack this past Friday night at Grinders. Luckily, the excellent French onion soup (get the cup, the bowl is big enough to feed three) made me forget, temporarily, that there was a time when I thought that the song "Reach Out of the Darkness" had lyrics loaded with existential meaning (I think it's so groovy now, that people are finally getting together...).
The downside of the French onion soup -- well the onions anyway -- is that one of the cooks started cutting up some of the pungent bulbs and the aroma wafted through the dining room, causing our eyes to well up with tears. At first I thought I was weeping with nostalgia over the idiotic "Reach Out of the Darkness" until I saw that even Jessica was wiping her eyes. "We use very potent onions," she explained.
"I'll say," said my friend Truman. "I haven't cried this many tears since my First Communion!"
In any event, Bob swore his soup-and-salad combo (the French onion and half of a California BLT) was the best he's had in a long time. The jambalaya pasta was fiery hot and really delicious. The Reuben needs tweaking: the jalapeno sauerkraut was so intense I could barely taste anything else on the sandwich. I was reaching out in the darkness all right -- for some antacid! -- Charles Ferruzza
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