Sweet Redemption in Herald Square
The order of lemon meringuity in the universe has been restored
I’ve been a fan of lemon meringue pie–thanks Mom–and hamburgers–thanks Dad–for almost as long as I’ve been a fan of diners. Diners, bastions of Americana, home of hamburgers and pies lemon meringue or otherwise have been having a moment lately in New York City, as young chefs to teach the old diner dog new tricks at places like Kellogg’s.
One diner that hasn’t changed much since opening is Joe Junior in Gramercy. The
old school sign proudly displays a cartoonish figure licking his chops as he eyes burger–no pie pictured–and the place is indeed touted for its cheeseburgers. The dear departed meat maven Josh Ozersky was a fan. It’s a place I don’t get to often enough, so I was excited to meet some friends there for my pal Jordan’s birthday. “Oh you got to get it medium,” the birthday boy said. “It’s a diner.” Truth be told, I am as Johnny Dio says in Goodfellas a medium rare aristocrat.
Joe Junior’s excellent cheeseburger and not so excellent lemon meringue pie.
The last time I ate at Joe’s I had the burger medium rare, but it hit the spot cooked medium. Afterwards a couple of my tablemates got the lemon meringue pie and I did too. Can’t go wrong with pie at a diner, I thought and then I saw my friends reactions as they dug in. “Curious to know how you would characterize Mr. Food Writer?” Jimmy asked. I took a forkful making sure to get all of the components. The texture of the and flavor of the meringue and filling were totally off. “Umm tastes like an old lemon lollipop and spackle,” I said. None of us finished our slices. Over at the other table the guest of honor had a lovely piece of chocolate layer cake in front of him.
Romina Peixoto’s lemon meringue pie donut at Sweet Graffiti is divine.
I am a staunch believer in the law of culinary equilibrium or what Singaporean food maven KF Seetoh calls the “redemption meal.” That is to say if I have a bad slice of pizza, I must have a good slice of pizza sooner rather than later to balance things out. So when I heard that one of Hall PR’s clients Sweet Graffiti was offering a lemon meringue pie donut, I hightailed it over to Herald Square.
After a light desk lunch of a leftover Tibetan beef paoze bun from Khampa Kitchen, I opened up the clamshell to reveal a puffy ring topped with gorgeously torched meringue. My photos are terrible, but it was every bit as good as the above video makes it look. Yeasty and sweet and filled with a pleasantly tart lemon curd, it more than restored balance to my culinary universe. The fried dough kind of reminded me of a St. Joseph’s Day pastry, but I digress. Pretty sure that these lovely treats are available through Sunday. Don’t worry there are plenty of other goodies if they’re out of them. I highly recommend the deluxe $28 filled chocolate bars especially The Oaxaca with mole, tortillas, and coffee.
In case you are wondering I saw Jordan the other day and asked him how his cake was. “Oh, it was terrible. Stick to the burgers.”
Joe Junior, 167 Third Avenue, NYC; Sweet Graffiti, 51 West 32nd Street, NYC