#65 – MODERN LIVERWURST at MODERN BAR ROOM

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

It’s always nice to come back home. No, I didn’t make a trip down to Florida to see the family (the Sunshine State is a little out of Time Out’s journalistic jurisdiction). Instead I went back to The Modern.

Danny Meyer’s first museum restaurant, The Modern (more specifically the more casual Bar Room) was practically my home for two years when I worked there as a server. Five to seven shifts a week and you start wondering why you don’t just move in. The people are great. the food is incredible, and the room is very beautiful and well, modern. Although try standing on those hard marble floors for fifteen hours a day and you’ll see why it was time for me to finally move on.

But every time I come back, the staff (the ones that I still recognize) welcome me back with open arms (and oftentimes free cocktails). As grateful as I am to all the hospitality and the visiting of old friends, this trip was all about business. We had won last minute theater tickets (Book of Mormon) and thought we could come in, sit at the bar for a quick bite, and cross of another list item.

With the exception of a few new additions, I’ve tried everything on the menu numerous times. And the liverwurst is not something I would have ordered. People absolutely love it (including Time Out) and it’s probably the best liverwurst in New York. But I’m just not a fan of patés and liver sandwiches. It’s sort of an old-fashioned French thing, but if any version can bring it to a, yes, modern generation, it’s Chef Gabriel Kreuther’s.

It’s funny. One of the bartenders (Anthony from my Pizza video) grilled me on all the ingredients. These pop food quizzes were commonplace here and I was relieved that there wasn’t much pressure this time to get all the ingredients right. But I do remember that the liverwurst is made of pork belly, calf’s liver, pork shoulder, and black trumpet mushrooms. And besides pink curing salt and some milk, I don’t remember all the spices and seasonings in the poached spread.  It’s served with some serious Dijon mustard, toast points, and four pickled vegetables. The vegetables were my favorite part because each is pickled to represent a different flavor profile: the carrots are spicy, the beets are sweet, the cucumbers are salty, and the mushrooms are earthy. Pretty cool.

So I tasted the liverwurst again all these months later and it’s still pretty darn good. It has a meaty, earthy, slightly metallic flavor and a creamy consistency that plays off the crunchy crusty bread. I can’t eat too much of it since it’s so rich and not completely the flavors that I favor. But no doubt I’m in the minority here.

We also had a great new dish, the Spicy Salmon Tartare which ranks up there with their classic Upside Down Tuna Tarte. Also, the Pan Seared Skate with Grits and Brown Butter had great flavors nd meaty textures, but was a little too rich for more than a few bites. And their new Boudin Blanc sausage pales in comparison to the standard Alsatian Country Sausage.

Funnily enough, a few years ago, Food Network’s TV show Best Thing I Ever Ate came to The Modern to film a segment about the liverwurst. It was a Sunday afternoon and I was invited to be the server serving the dish. If you watch the segment and pause it at just the right moment toward the end, you can see me in my smiling red uniform. So The Modern, the liverwurst, and me are completely intertwined and I’m sure we will all meet again someday soon.

Would The Modern Bar Room’s Modern Liverwurst make my Top 100 of the year? I’m afraid it wouldn’t make mine just because it’s not my thing, but I have to give it at least an 8 out of 10 because I understand why it would make everybody else’s.