Balls and Sauce

New York City is very well known for taking one small group of foods and blowing it out of proportion. If you were hungry for some macaroni and cheese, you could find one restaurant that serves nothing but pasta soaked in hot, gooey cheese. Similarly, if you had a hankering for hot dogs, you would have little difficulty finding literally hundreds of different combinations of hot dogs under one roof. This is one of the many reasons I believe that New York City is the food capitol of the world: seemingly nowhere else could you find a restaurant that serves nothing but grilled cheese sandwiches with more options than you could count, yet each sandwich is brilliantly crafted around a set of seemingly incompatible ingredients that come together to make the most mind-boggling culinary creation you have ever had between two slices of burnt bread. One of my personal favorite restaurant that certainly lives up to this ideal is The Meatball Shop (you may have already guessed its specialty).

Steven Pisano- Flickr

They have a few locations across the city, but the one with the most character has to be their Williamsburg location. Williamsburg is one of the nicest areas in Brooklyn and enjoys a very hip scene with tons of delicious restaurants. Living in Greenpoint (just a 15 minute walk away) I have had more than my fair share of meatballs as the food is so stunning you can't help but go back again and again.

The Meatball Shop's menu is perhaps unsurprisingly simple: there are four meatballs (beef, pork, chicken, and vegetable), but what you can do with them is practically endless. However, there is a method to the madness. You start off choosing your favorite meat to be ground into balls, slather it with one of your favorite sauces, and plop it on top of the most appealing side. With four types of meatballs, five signature sauces, and ten different sides there are already two-hundred possibilities. 

Where it really starts to get exciting is when you start to consider all of their "daily" specials. (The first few times I visited I was amazed that they could possibly have a completely different set of specials every single day, but when I started going multiple days in a row, I realized the specials are more like a weekly deal. However, I still think this is impressive). The best combination I have had so far has been the spicy pork with creamy mushroom alfredo sauce, over extra-creamy polenta. The creaminess of the mushroom alfredo and polenta combine to form savory flavor that I had never experienced before. The meatballs, of course, made the dish.

If you weren't already enticed by the meatballs, the meal doesn't end there. Although you'll already be stuffed, it is certainly worth eating one of their signature ice cream sandwiches 'cause who doesn't want ice cream after every meal? You get to choose your choice of delicious fresh-baked cookie and homemade ice cream. You'll be sure to leave filled to the brim, but not be able to help grinning from ear to ear after a meatball dinner that is sure to remind you of your childhood, except better.