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Casual, homey, and family-friendly, Bubby's Pie Company has been serving comfort food in TriBeCa for nearly two decades. It's a reliable neighborhood spot for breakfast, lunch, brunch, late-afternoon collations, and dinner. The place mats, laden with food-trivia, make good conversation boosters and provide stimulating fodder for cocktail party persiflage. I've always considered the fare to be good, but unexceptional. A recent dinner changed my mind, however. The atmosphere was still as welcoming as ever, but the food was better than I remembered it to be.
In an attempt to cling to the last vestiges of warm weather, I started the meal with a better-than-average chilled gazpacho ($6 a cup; $8 a bowl).
It was fresh, chunky, and just spicy enough. The homemade rolls provided a good accompaniment to the soup.
As my main course, I chose the salmon special, encrusted in pink and green peppercorns, with white wine and lemon butter ($24). The moist and tender fish was expertly prepared with spices that enhanced its flavor without overwhelming or masking it.
Many restaurants of this genre tend to massacre their vegetables. Not so here, however, with the fresh, grilled asparagus and rice pilaf that filled the rest of the plate.
One aspect of the dinner that was not so well crafted as on previous visits was the Margarita. I had once considered it to be one of the area's best, but on this occasion, the bartender's sparing use of tequila rendered it merely average.
A more significant complaint, however, concerns the service. It was friendly enough, but the timing was inept. To wit, I endured a lengthy wait for my soup, yet I had barely started my starter when the main course arrived. It should have been abundantly obvious that I was far from ready to receive my next course. Nevertheless, there it was—served to me with utter nonchalance and without apology. Regrettably, I had to send it back to the kitchen. To make matters worse, my drink was served long after it had been ordered. During extraordinarily busy times, one might excuse this, but with the dining room not, in fact, particularly crowded, such a lapse seemed inexcusable.
It's ironic that I've dined at Bubby's Pie Company many times since its opening in 1990, yet I can't remember trying their tantalizing pies.
Bubby's Pie Company
120 Hudson Street (NE corner N. Moore St), TriBeCa, Manhattan
(212) 219-0666
By train: 1 to Franklin Street
By bus: M20
Flaunt your pie-baking prowess or sample that of others at Bubby's fifth annual Brooklyn Pie Social, this Sunday, 28 September, 2008, from 12:00 Noon to 3:00 P.M., 1 Main Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn.
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