Meatball Shop

I finally made it the the revered Meatball Shop (the casual ladies luncheon series continues)!  The Meatball Shop is tiny and doesn't take reservations so I recommend doing an early lunch (it opens at noon) or a very late lunch/early dinner.  There is very little room to wait for a table and few stools at the bar so the hostess offers to take your number and allow you to explore the neighborhood until your seat is ready.  Unfortunately, there is not much to explore around the restaurant, and certainly not when it is 30 degrees outside.

The stools are first come, first serve and we were lucky to snag one after waiting ten minutes.  There is no coat check (or coat hooks) so dining on the bar stools with your large, heavy winter coat may prove to be difficult.

We had the good fortune to survey the food landscape while waiting for our stools, which helped us narrow down our options.  The bartender/server could not have been any nicer as we let loose a barrage of questions in order to circle the correct combinations on our menu sheets.

The Meatball Shop offers every possible type of meat (turkey, meat, chicken, pork, etc...), plus various sauce options.  Ultimately, all of our order combinations were a success, which is a nod to the outrageously good flavors concocted in the kitchen.

What to Eat:

Start with the Meatball hero with meat meatballs, provolone cheese, and marinara sauce.  The heros come in wheat or white but after admiring the wheat hero roll at the stool next to us, we opted for wheat.  The freshly baked wheat bread, doughy on the inside and crisp on the outside, soaked up the marinara sauce covering the hero (I still asked for an extra side, which I would recommend if you are big on sauce).  The slightly melted provolone was the perfect companion to the meatball.  (NOTE: we also ordered a chicken meatball hero with mozzerella cheese and marinara sauce, creating a take on the chicken parm...this hero was excellent and a close second place)

For dessert, Meatball Shop offers ice cream sandwiches (so if you are going to blow your New Year's diet resolution, you might as well go all out).  Meatball Shop's mint ice cream tastes like actual mint leaves so don't be surprised when it doesn't look like or taste like Baskin Robbins' mint chocolate chip ice cream.  The ice cream is sandwiched between two soft cinnamon sugar cookies, baked earlier that day.  There are several different flavor options but this combo was our favorite.


Suffering from post-holiday season blues?  Meatball Shop will warm you up with the ultimate winter comfort food,

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