The Top 10 Mac & Cheese Dishes in Manhattan
There I was yesterday on the treadmill, trying to hide the fact that my tshirt was unusually tight around the midsection...and not doing a very good job of it. Sucking in and running at the same time is much more difficult than I thought. Over the past few weeks, I tried to pretend it wasn't happening, then I tried to pretend that I didn't know why it was happening. But when you've downed 42 different preparations of mac & cheese over the course of 2 months it's hard to deny what's going on. The scale actually creaked when I stepped on it this morning, and that pseudo V-shape I had over the summer looks more like a pear now. I have some fancy parties approaching, and it's an issue.
Sigh. As I increased the speed on the treadmill and ran harder, I thought about kicking myself, but then decided I could really hurt myself like that while on the treadmill...plus I really enjoyed all that mac & cheese. Especially the top 10. Mmmm.
Listen, people...you've been warned. These dishes aren't for amateurs, so I'm trusting you'll know how to control yourself around this kind of exalted cuisine (yeah, I'm calling mac and cheese "cuisine"). I'll just hope Michelle Obama (who is currently crusading against fat and calories) doesn't read this and take issue with all of the calories I've ingested over the last 2 months. Yes, I'm on the treadmill (at high speeds on an incline) throughout the holidays, but I promise you, it was all worth it.
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So here it is, the top 10 list. I went to 35 restaurants, and I tried over 40 variations to get to this list. Rankings are based on a combination of uniqueness, overall flavor, quality of ingredients and simplicity.
Top 10 List
#1
Brown Cafe
When it comes to mac & cheese, it's easy to cheat with bacon, truffles, etc., but Brown Cafe knows that (switch to Bon Qui Qui accent) there's no reason to go all crazy like that. They keep it simple, and what makes their version so perfect is that they understand that the secret to great mac & cheese is...(spoiler alert)...great cheese (duh). They only use 3 types - ricotta, Gruyère and mozzarella, and that simple blend makes the dish dizzyingly good. They use a penne pasta, and the crispy/gooey ratio is perfect. The flavors are surprisingly smooth, while still being insanely addictive. It's the kind of dish that will make you see all the shades of blue in the sky. Ahhh.
#2
Casellula
The experts on cheese have perfected their version. It is probably the crispiest of the macs I tried, but, again, it is the cheese that makes the dish. No boring cheddar or Parmesan cheeses are found in this one. They use Comté (one of my favorite French cheeses), Fol Epi and chèvre. It is also injected with super flavorful lardons and a small bit of carmelized onions. The pasta used is campanelle (which is spirally), and they bake it all in an iron dish. Casellula's mac scores high due to the unique cheeses and fantastic overall flavor.
Casellula restaurant reviewed here.
#3
Schiller's Liquor Bar
Schiller's take on mac & cheese is probably the richest of the ones I tried. Ooey gooey, and uber creamy. Be careful. This one is so good, you might want to make out with a tree after finishing your last bite. They start with the traditional elbow pasta, add a light béchamel sauce (with flour, butter and cream), Gruyere cheese and country bacon lardons. Then they serve it in a skillet. You can get it without the bacon, but why would you do something silly like that?
#4
Le Zie
If you like truffles, this might be your favorite mac & cheese in town. Not only do they use truffle oil, but they also include real slices of black truffles (and they aren't stingy with them). They are pretty traditional on the rest of the ingredients: Fontina, Parmesan, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses with elbow pasta. The result is a powerfully truffled dish that is filling enough to last for at least 2 meals.
Le Zie restaurant reviewed here.
#5
Craft Steak
In the south we often say that everything tastes better when it's fried, and we'll test the limits of that theory with everything from whole fried turkeys to fried Twinkies and even fried Snickers bars (seriously). Eventually, we learn that some things should never be fried (like Twinkies and Snickers), but fried mac & cheese can actually work, and Craft Steak proves it.
Just listening to the ingredients make this one sound pretty run-of-the-mill: it's mainly Grafton cheddar cheese and elbow macaroni. But what makes Craft Steak's mac & cheese so special is the way they bread and fry it to yummy crunchiness on the outside and mild cheesiness on the inside. Dip it in the tomato marmalade (with garlic, jalapeno, paprika, black pepper and molasses), and it's darn tasty and well worth the $6. It is Chef Shane McBride's take on his grandmother's version he had growing up in Florida. If I were really adventurous, I would recommend they take it a step further and include more adventurous cheeses, but it works just great the way it is.
Craft Steak restaurant reviewed here.
#6
Bar Blanc
The unique thing about Bar Blanc's mac is the pasta. It's a funky-looking, grooved thing with lots of opportunity to catch cheese and cream in its nooks and crannies. It's called organetti, and it is combined with a béchemal sauce, Parmesan rinds, onion, white pepper and Gruyère. It's topped with Parmesan and gratinée, and Chef Sebastiaan Zijp has balanced the crispiness on top with the sensual flavors beneath to create an outstanding verson of mac & cheese. I went there with a group of 14 very large guys recently, and we kept ordering more of it, passing it around the table multiple times.
#7
Little Giant and Tipsy Parson
Seventh place is a tie between these two. That's Little Giant's version on the left and Tipsy Parson's on the right. Both are fantastic (and possibly the best things on their menus), but they are finished quite differently - even though the same owners are responsible for both restaurants. Little Giant's starts with Raffetto's fresh cavatelli, Grafton cheddar, Grana Padano and Gruyère. They also include heavy cream, thyme, lemon salt and garlic. The topping consists of breadcrumbs from Sullivan Street, and I recommend you go with the bacon addition for real down home goodness. The recipe is the same at Tipsy, except that they use breadcrumbs made from cornbread. I love the surprising use of thyme in these versions. I don't know why, but it reminds me of biting into a York peppermint patty. No, I'm not gonna jump on the coffee table now.
#9
Eatery
Yes, those are fried onions on top, and underneath them is what Eatery calls their "Mac and Jack." It is prepared with “Tubetti” pasta, béchamel sauce, Monterey Jack cheese, seasoned bread crumbs and "frizzled" onions. It's fun to have so much crunchiness with your mac and cheese, but I think it would be better with half the amount of onions on top. It's a solid dish, and it is the best mac and cheese in Hell's Kitchen.
#10
Mac Bar
Mac Bar is kind of a no brainer for this list. Co-owner Mark Thomas Amadei says, “We envisioned a place where exalted macaroni & cheese
can be enjoyed, from the decor to the menu..." And with 12 different flavors, you can tell that they take their mac seriously. They have one with lobster, Cognac and marscapone and another with duck confit, Fontina and carmelized onions. The diversity of ingredients is staggering for mac and cheese. Even the basic mac is great, and these guys blow the other mac-only restaurants out of the water. Mac Bar evolves mac and cheese from the basic pasta and cheese combo to a full-fledged meal. My only question is: when does it stop being mac and cheese and actually become a pasta dish with chicken, lobster or duck in it?
Spotlight on a Friend's New Place and their Mac & Cheese
Rye House
A friend recently opened Rye House at 11 W 17th street to crowds of beautiful people. The space is quite cool, and utilizes a lot of reclaimed American woods, including 150 year old distressed hemlock (a type of pine tree, not the poison!) from a barn in western Pennsylvania. Wow! The floors are of reclaimed antique white oak, the wainscoting is in reclaimed wormy chestnut, and the bar tables and sixteen foot long communal table are built of antique maple. The space is lit by beautiful, hand-blown Moreno glass fixtures, and the use of steel blues and warm olives throughout the restaurant complement the antique wood. It's got a groovy vibe, and it's fun knowing that a lot of the wood in the space was probably planted when Lincoln was president.
I didn't get a chance to try their mac & cheese in time for this article, but it's a great concept from chef Greg Johnson. It starts with NY State cheddar and elbo macaroni and is then fried into crispy balls. It's called Mama's Fried Mac "n" cheese on the menu and was inspired by Greg's mom's recipe.
Check out Rye House and their mac if you're in Chelsea, and, as the name imples, you can pair the food with a whiskey from their extensive spirits menu. More info about Rye House here: http://ryehousenyc.com/