Local Food, All Sauced Up

Local, sustainable food can be trite. It seems that every new restaurant in New York has jumped on the organic bandwagon sourcing and underscoring ever last element on their menu. I’m all for local food, but when it results in boring food, then I take issue. I’ve had a million micro-green salads with tepid vinaigrettes, bland Berkshire pork chops and vegetables ripped from the ground, served unadorned. I can make these things at home, maybe even better. When I go to a restaurant I want something original, something that tastes different, sauced and sauteed in a manner I could never achieve.

When I stopped in at Northern Spy Food Co. last week, I expected much of the same. The interior is cute and shabby-chic, a theme that seems to pervade restaurants of the sustainable genre. When the food began arriving however, I was pleasantly taken aback. It tasted as though, yes, they may have used butter to dress the vegetables, thrown in some salt or sugar and looked beyond their immediate food shed for inspiration.

The market salad contained tiny radishes, difficult to identify sweet red carrots and a rich, citrusy yogurt salad dressing that supported the whole dish. My favorite piece of the meal by far was the perfectly pan-fried gnocchi which held a superior consistency amid their bath of peppery tomato sauce – not an easy task. Next out came a steaming bowls of freekah risotto, a grain I’d heard of but never tasted before. Points for originality, and lingering background of butter (which they were not afraid to use) also took me steps up and away from typical locavore fair. The last main dish was the fish of the day, a sea bass. Perhaps not the most exciting dish, but seared well and sat atop poll beans and mushrooms.

To round out the meal, a bit of sweet, but not too sweet, cake and ice cream. A perfect soft yellow plum cake with caramel ice cream, and a sweet and sour cherry pie. Tasty and hearty without pretense, an excellent accompaniment to our market-based meal. While Northern Food Spy Co. certainly fits the local, sustainable bill, it is more exciting and less trend focused than some other unnamed New York restaurants. Perfect for a meal that you can be confident in without having to deal with reading the fine print.