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Barney Greengrass, New York, NY, Tasted on November 13, 2004 — Where Katz's Delicatessen has cornered the market on Jewish cured meat Barney Greengrass represents the fish end of the spectrum. Saturday lunch belongs at Katz's but Barney Greengrass p0wns Sunday brunch.

I try hard not to let anything other than the food affect my judgment of a restaurant experience. However, the incredible atmosphere at Barney Greengrass makes it very very difficult. If you want a place that puts you immediately at ease with it's informality, crowdedness, cluttered details on the walls (in a good way), warmth, and great food, then Barney Greengrass is home. That said, even if the atmosphere gets you to go once, the food is the reason to return.

If you're going to have brunch composed of lots of smoked fish, then the bagel is the foundational element in your meal. The bagels here are solid but light. They are great toasted however. The folks behind the counter told me they got them from City Bagel. Light Philly Cream Cheese arrived at our table in the same container you get at the supermarket.

Combining various cured items with eggs is always a good idea so we got two variations. The Salami and Eggs had deep caramelized salami flavor permeating the entire dish. The Nova and Onion Scramble was salty and quite good as well. We also got some super crunchy pickles as well as a tall glass of Borscht.

At first I wondered about the Latkes with their hockey puck like shape. But the potato flavor was so savory I found it beguilingly good. There was a peppery quality to the latkes. I wondered if they were fried in schmaltz. They were served with the ever-complementary apple sauce of course.

And of course the fish is the star of the show at Barney Greengrass. We got a healthy portion of various selections. The whitefish was buttery and smooth. The lox was creamy. And the sturgeon was deeply oily in a good way. There was also "pastrami" cured salmon which was peppery. I thought it could have been even stronger in terms of the peppery quality.

Yummy Rugelach and Hot Cocoa punctuated the end of meal with a little sugar after all that salt intake.

I can't decide whether it's good or bad that I don't live in Manhattan. I suppose it's a bad thing that I don't when it comes to my access to good food. However, if there is a small silver lining, it's that I don't have to schlep to Barney Greengrass every Sunday morning for brunch, because if I lived there, that's what I would need to do. They do however ship their fish anywhere, so maybe I'll have to try that.