Sidecar, 5th Avenue

Sometimes I get the feeling that I've missed the heyday of Sidecar. I've read reviews that say the prices are too high now, they've increased while quality has decreased, that the food was better "back in the day" and so on. But whenever I go there, I'm more than satisfied.

Portions are plenty big, so if they were bigger once upon a time, I don't feel gypped. Prices can be a little high, but I think they're justified. $14 for a burger with fries is a big deal when you compare to a place like Sea Witch, but is, sadly, becoming de riguer. And $10-$12 mixed drinks would be unreasonable if they were your regular tourist bar creations, but when they're made with such finesse and usually with house made bitters, syrups, jams, and so forth, I'm happy to splurge.

Burger + Jalapenos

I've been to Sidecar for dinner on numerous occasions, but this time we came for lunch on a brunch menu day. We've come for more breakfasty fare before too, but sandwiches were in order on this visit. (Along with a couple of cocktails, since it was Sunday, after all.)

Pimm's Summer Cup

I started with the Pimm's Summer cup. Your usual Pimm's with the addition of muddled watermelon and mint, served in a frosty silver cup and garnished beautifully. (My one complaint here, as this is pure cocktail snobbishness, is the contrast between the artful drink-making and the ice-machine ice slivers. Having experienced the difference that hand-crushed ice or cubes and rocks carved from a big block can make in a drink, I get a little whistful when I'm served a perfect cocktail with less than perfect ice.) but I digress. This was pure summer in my mouth. A drink I could have reordered all day, and not too high proof to make that a bad idea.

Tomino

The other drink on the table was the Tomino. "very dry" according to the menu, this concoction was a pint glass(!) of gin with some coconut water and bitters. Deceptively smooth, but clearly designed to knock you down. Not sweet at all, despite the pink color.

BLT Extraordinaire

I ordered the BLT. Thick challa toast slathered in homemade sun-dried tomato mayo held lovely delicate Boston lettuce, and slices of real tomato-flavored tomato, which I almost forget exists these days. But the real star was the super-thick house-cured bacon. Darker and slightly less salty than your average/awesome breakfast meat, they cure all of their bacon (along with other meats) in the basement and you can taste the love. Home fries were perfectly crispy-crunchy outside and seasoned well with onions, sage and rosemary.

My lovely companda's burger came with Sidecar's perfect fries, (seriously perfect every time,) and was juicy and firm. Cooked pinkly medium, and topped with jalapeños and white American cheese (have I mentioned how weird it is to me that everyone uses orange American here? It's good to see the un-dyed variety.) The only less than impressive part was the sesame seeded bun, which was merely average.

Sidecar does run a little on the expensive side to warrant a daily visit, but the food is always so good, and the decor so inviting, that it can take a conscious effort to walk past this place some days. And if you always have, then maybe you should let your temptation lure you in for once.

-SdJ

The red tin ceiling