Welcome to New York’s Golden Age of Bar Snacks

After the craft cocktail movement blossomed in New York in the late aughts, it didn’t take long for bar food to follow suit. Gone were mozzarella sticks and jalapeño poppers. In were gourmet deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, and lots and lots of oysters. Having mastered such old-school classics, bars have since become even more creative, drawing from every shelf of the pantry — high, low, and everywhere in between. Here are a few highlights from New York’s latest generation of leaders in the field of tavern treats.

Cabbage is having a moment. This might come as a surprise had we not just gone through a decade of bar-snack dominance by Brussels sprouts, which are nothing but tiny cabbages. At Sip & Guzzle, the pale veggie goes by the hard-sell name of Addictive Cabbage ($8). The dish is based on a staple of Japanese izakayas. Chef Mike Bagale, who worked at Alinea in Chicago, cuts neat ribbed rectangles of Napa cabbage leaves and puts them through a three-day tenderizing process, ending with a koji vinaigrette marinade and flaky sea salt. The name’s not far off. You’ll pop them into your mouth like peanuts. But the uncontested star of the menu is the $28 Electric Chicken (again with a dare-you-to-prove-me-wrong adjective). This dish requires another days-long prep involving a 24-hour salt brine infused with garlic and white onion and an overnight marinade in buttermilk. The electricity comes from a triple dose of chile: a dredge before frying; a post-fry dip in chile oil; and a dusting of Korean chiles, Sichuan, and malt vinegar powder. The bird arrives with a black latex glove and big handled scissors that looks like a OR tool, so you can play surgeon. 29 Cornelia Street, at Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village

Cabbage strikes again at this immersive Brooklyn tiki den nestled above Gage & Tollner. It recently updated its already excellent and unusual food menu. The salted kombu cabbage ($9) is pickled, then tossed with kombu shreds, mushroom powder, gochugaru chile powder, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and rice wine vinegar. Its improbable tastiness brings to mind the famous celery at Bar Goto, another something-out-of-nothing, bar-food miracle. Those who took advantage of the G&T to-go menu during the early days of the pandemic will remember the Spam banh mi sliders. Well, they’re finally back! Executive chef Sydne Emi Gooden makes her own Spam from pork belly, pork butt, bacon, pork skin, garlic, sugar, salt, pink salt, and potato starch and tops it with miso mayo and pickled vegetables (3 for $18). Also worth checking out are the very-filling, super-umami broiled miso oysters ($12) and the re-envisioned, jalapeño-topped shrimp toast ($16). 372 Fulton Street, at Jay Street, Brooklyn

Many of the best bar snacks today are elevated versions of comfort food. Take one of the most popular items at Bar Contra, the chicken wing (2 for $17). The wings are deboned and then stuffed with a potent mixture of minced pork, minced chicken, and blue cheese, then cooked slowly in the oven, and finally grilled while brushed in a glaze made with mirin and shoyu. That’s a long journey from kitchen to plate for a chicken wing, but the one-of-a-kind treat is worth it. My favorite, however, is the tuna mayo ($17), a deconstructed abstraction of the humble home snack, tunafish salad and crackers. A tuna belly confit mixed with a coffee emulsion is bound between rectangular potato chip bookends and littered with a ring-toss of red onions. 138 Orchard Street, south of Rivington Street, Lower East Side

It would be embarrassing if a place called Bar Snack didn’t have good bar snacks. But this laid-back hangout in the East Village needn’t worry about that. The best item on consulting chef Russell Ashton’s whimsical food menu—which includes spins on Frito Pie and cheese and chips— is the Toastie & Cup-O-Soup ($11). Translation: grilled cheddar-and-muenster cheese on Pullman bread and super-creamy tomato soup, served in a classic New York “We are happy to serve you” coffee cup. It’s perfect for barflies seeking the comforting embrace of childhood nostalgia while nursing their margarita. A close second is the luscious spicy peanut butter noodles ($12) topped with chile crisp and scallions. 92 Second Avenue, at East Fifth Street, East Village

The city’s most unusual bar menu comes from the cocktail den with the longest lines. Schmuck’s food was created in collaboration with LOBB Berlin founder Arash Ghassemi. The general theme is Persia-meets-Western Europe. A dish of white beans is given the cacio-e-pepe treatment ($12). The crushed potatoes ($12) are steamed, then fried with spicy peanut sauce and sweet pickled cucumber. Perhaps best is the puff pastry pizza ($15), a doughnut-like piece of dough that is fried with a parsley-tarragon-dill pesto and topped with Parmesan cheese. Everything is light and airy, words not typically associated with bar food. 97 First Avenue at East Sixth Street, East Village

Dessert is not usually a factor in bar food menus, but that didn’t stop this new Southern-inspired bistro from Jeremy Salmon (Agi’s Counter) in Red Hook, where you can order a pancake souffle ($22), which comes with butter and maple syrup, to accompany your Irish coffee. This pairing, by pastry chef Goldie Flavelle, takes some timing, as the soufflé must be ordered 40 minutes in advance. While you’re waiting, you can enjoy a couple other excellent cocktails from barman Ben Hopkins, along with the confetti salad ($17)—a pile of handy endive canoes filled with nuts, peppers, red onion, Granny Smith apple and cheese—and cold meatloaf tea sandwiches ($18) dressed in chopped parsley and tangy dijonnaise and crowned with an olive. Be sure to dine in the back room, the “restaurant within a restaurant” that has a proper bar feel to it. 347 Van Brunt Street, at Wolcott Street, Red Hook

As bar fare goes these days, hot dogs are pretty, well, hot. They’ve landed on half the new cocktail bar menus in town. While everyone’s jumping on the frankfurter bandwagon, however, let’s not forget who did it first. PDT has been serving up fancy wieners from its neighbor Crif Dogs since the speakeasy opened in 2007. Past dogs have been fashioned by chefs David Chang and Wylie Dufresne. The current menu boasts one by Billy Durney of Hometown Bar-B-Que fame. But the best dog going right now, in the completely unbiased opinion of this reporter, is my own creation, the Simonson Dog ($12), a salute to multiple East Coast regional hot-dog styles. Right now the beef-pork Thumann’s frank is cradled in grilled pork roll and topped with mustard, chopped white onion and a custom meat sauce. But I’m thinking of adding cabbage. 113 St. Mark’s Place, at First Avenue, East Village

Robert Simonson’s IACP-Award-winning Substack newsletter “The Mix” can be found here.