#79 – TURKEY LEG SANDWICH at HENRY PUBLIC

I’m getting a little bored with all the new restaurants in Brooklyn. They’re all either homey, romantic settings serving modern takes on Southern-influenced comfort food. Or they feature a menu of pub fare in an old fashioned wood-heavy locale designed to be a throwback to an era of New York’s colorful past.

Of course I’m over-simplifying the diversity of Brooklyn. I know I’m being unfair. But at least, most of the Brooklyn restaurants (read: new and hip) on the TONY list feel that way.

And Henry Public is the latest in that trend. It’s an old-fashioned pub(lic) with historic pictures and gas lamps hanging on the walls. The menu features modern riffs on classic cocktails and limited but intriguing dinner options. They have your typical burger, oysters on the half shell, and bone marrow (!?) And our list item: The Turkey Leg Sandwich.

TONY makes this sound absolutely delicious – much like a pulled pork sandwich but with moister turkey and hopefully reminiscent of a Southern Thanksgiving. Images of those big roasted turkey legs from Disney World come to mind. And with my love for pulled meat sandwiches, I was excited about this unique idea.

It worked better on paper for me. And how could this live up to my imagination? The dark meat of the leg must have been braised in a heavy gravy sauce (TONY claims it’s a peppercorn cream) before being pulled and sandwiched between a pair of nicely toasted rye bread slices. The turkey was sort of unrecognizable. It was so rich and thick that any possible lean qualities that turkey possesses flew out the window. Topped with frizzled onions and served with crispy french fries, it tasted alright. It was overly peppery and I could feel the meat sticking to every organ in my stomach. If I’m going to put myself through all this, I’d rather just eat a pulled pork sandwich.

Would Henry Public’s Turkey Leg Sandwich make my Top 100 of the year? The idea is creative and the execution may have been appropriate for bar food, but I found it a little too rich and decadent for a turkey sandwich giving it a 6 out of 10.