The Meatball Shop - A Repetive Lesson In Getting In Right

The Meatball Shop
http://www.themeatballshop.com/
84 Stanton St
New York, NY 10002

THE CONQUEST
It's important to remember all of life's lessons, especially the simple ones. Information like the following are used in our everyday life; "Don't bite off more than you can chew," "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," and the one I am still waiting to use, "Don't take any wooden nickels." And then there is "Keep It Simple Stupid" or "KISS" which is the grand principle behind New York City's latest restaurant sensation, The Meatball Shop.

Started by Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow, this Lower East Side sensation has quickly become one of my favorite places to eat in the city. Guess what they serve? Meatballs. What else? Hand made ice cream sandwiches. You know what else? NOTHING!! That's right, just meatballs. With a deep history in the restaurant and bar business, Daniel and Michael, decided to start the restaurant with one premise in mind, serve only meatballs but make them the best meatballs ever. The 2 of them went on a quest around NYC eating every renowned meatball in the city. Michael's pretty fond of telling the story and you may even get him to reveal some of the locations that influenced their meaty balls.

The menu is simple at the Meatball Shop. At any given time there are 5 meatballs available; classic beef, spicy pork, chicken, vegetable or the daily special. Likewise, there are always 5 sauces available; classic tomato, spicy meat sauce, mushroom gravy, parmesan cream and the daily special. You can order your meatballs in a bowl, under pasta or beans, in a hero, as a slider or in a smash. Just grab a dry erase pen and mark off on the menu what you want. The waitress will be around shortly to take your menus and place your order. While you're waiting, and sometimes the wait can be up to 2 hours, enjoy a glass of wine or beer from the small but great list available. Don't feel like waiting? You can order the meatballs to go, just step to the counter in the back. Pick up orders can be made faster along with home / office deliveries via Seemlessweb.com.

I've been to The Meatball Shop nearly a dozen times since their opening only a short 6 months ago. Their open from Noon until 4 AM, so whether its lunch, dinner or late night snack, their balls fit the bill. The Meatball Shop is great anytime but I find them most appealing later in the evening after you've had a few beers / wines / cocktails. They easily fulfill any late night munchies you can get. If you're my friend on facebook you've seen many, many posts and pictures with their delicious meatballs. When our friends Karl, Julie and Tom came into NYC from LA for a visit, it was the first place they asked to be taken. "You've built it up enough and now it's all I can think about" Tom told me as we made the plan.

THE BURGER
After a few beers at Idle Hands Bar, the bar some friends and I are about to open in the East Village, we made the short 7 minute walk to the Meatball shop with our tongues practically hanging out of our mouths. Going later at night is not only more fun but it's also easier as the dinner crowd dies down and getting a seat is much easier. While I might argue, these balls are so good that no bread is needed, I remind myself that this is a burger site and I order a classic beef - classic tomato combo in a smash, which is essentially a burger; meat, cheese and brioche.

God only knows how long they cook the sauce and meatballs but the flavor is like none other. The warm, hearty sauce with all of it's Italian spices would satiate even the proudest of Italian families. It's not too spicy, it's not too bland, it's not too garlicky (that might be an impossible feat) and it doesn't take just like tomatoes. It's just right! The meatballs are large, soft and melt in your mouth. Go slow!! Don't miss a single second of their amazing flavor. Using the word "classic" to describe these meatballs is not only the perfect word, it's also an understatement. Wedged between a fresh, toasted, slightly sweet and crunchy brioche with your choice of fresh mozzarella or provolone, you won't find anything this good outside of your grandmother's kitchen.

While I truly loved the smash and would highly recommend it to anyone curious, I have to say, with the Meatball Shop, no bun is needed. 9 times out of 10, I order the bowls in a ball with sauce. You'll get a little piece of focaccia to dip up the left over sauce but these meatballs need nothing on top of, around or underneath. Do yourself a favor and order the spicy pork meatballs in the spicy meat sauce, it's the most winning combo on the menu. Don't let the name fool the weak of taste, they aren't hot per se, just a little kicked up. It's my standard and if I ever get to Norm from Cheers status (fingers crossed) at The Meatball Shop, they'll just order me a bowl when I walk in through the door.

After dining at the Meatball Shop several times, I got the idea to start an off shoot of Burger Conquest. I thought it would be fun to have Meatball Conquest. Meatballs aren't really that far off from burgers and I can see the passion for both being pretty high. It sounded like a great idea, or at least a tasty one, so I set off around NYC trying every which meatball I could find. Results were the same across the board - there are a lot of good meatballs in this town but I found that a website dedicated to cataloging and reviewing them would be pointless. Why? Every single review would end the same way, "these are good but not nearly as good as The Meatball Shop."

If Michael and Daniel are smart, they'll open a meatball rehab center around the corner! Good luck, they're freakin' addictive!


9 out of 10 ounces
-Rev




BUT WAIT!! THERE'S MORE...

My love for The Meatball Shop has grown so intense that now when I go there to eat, I order some extra meatballs to be eaten as leftovers the next day. With just a couple minutes in the microwave, they heat up almost as good as they were served fresh. I've even started bringing them home to add into my home cooked meals!!

THE MEATBALL SHOP HANGOVER CURING OMELET

Ingredients
4 Spicy pork in spicy meat sauce meatballs from The Meatball Shop
2 Sweet Italian sausages (Use Esposito and Sons if possible)
1 Cup sliced baby portabello mushrooms.
4 Eggs (I use organic brown)
1 Cup shredded Mexican Cheese
1 TBSP of milk
No need for spices, there's more than enough in the meatballs, sauce and sausage.

Now I made these on the grill, because I am obsessed like that but you can do them on the stove top.

Directions
1. Fully cook Italian Sausages in skillet or on grill. Cut into bite size pieces and set aside.
2. Turn heat down on burner or grill and allow to cool down.
3. Spray some non-stick spray into your skillet and pre-heat on oven or grill at a low heat.
4. Carefully crack eggs into a large bowl.
5. Add in milk and beat until evenly distributed and yellow.
6. Pour mixture into skillet and allow to heat up for 2 minutes.
7. Mash meatballs in their sauce and then add into skillet along with other ingredients.
8. Stir every other minute. Eventually eggs will scramble and turn the mixture into something resembling a sloppy joe.
9. Cook until eggs are 90% formed. Remove mixture and allow 2 minutes to cool.
10. Scoop into potato hot dog rolls and enjoy.
11. Say goodbye to your hangover.
12. Start drinking again.
13. Go back the Meatball Shop and repeat entire process.

Mosh Potatoes - Cook Oiut With Your Book Out

Mosh Potatoes
http://www.moshpotatoescookbook.com/

If you've been reading the site, you're aware of my allegiance to Buckshot, the man behind Mosh Potatoes, the Heavy Metal Cookbook. "Mosh Potatoes" - Recipes, Anecdotes & Mayhem From The Heavyweights of Heavy Metal. 150 recipes from bands like Pantera, Megadeth, Testament, Overkill, Anthrax to Lamb of God, Devildriver, Shadows Fall, Hatebreed to Twisted Sister, Guns & Roses, Motorhead, Zakk Wylde, Dokken, Dream Theater to the new school of metal like Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch, Upon A Burning Body and Moth Eater. These recipes will kick your ass. "Cook Out With Your Book Out" - In Stores on November 30th.


With Buckshot's help I've been able to give the world The Bourbon Soaked Bacon Beast, the AC/DC themed Whole Lotta Rosemary Back In Black Angus Burger and most recently The Mayhem Burger, the Official Burger of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. Buckshot is a real inspiration and a hero of sorts. He has been working on this book for more than 3 years and came close several times to canning the entire idea. Through believe, perseverance and a passion for music that is only matched by a passion for food, the cook book is becoming a reality.

Buckshot hit me up this week and asked if we could meet up for a beer. Not one to turn down a good bro hang and some brewski's, I of course said yes. That's when Buckshot told me had an advance uncorrected proof version of the book for me. I was so excited to finally see a copy. We were originally gonna get together at a local watering hole but with the amazing weather, I just didn't want to sit in a dingy bar, I needed to be outside. This occasion deserved better. With the sunny weather and excitement for the book, I knew what had to be done to celebrate in fashion.

Long story short, I decided to buy my first grill in 6 years. Living in NYC makes it tough to have one but our new place has a balcony and it was screaming for a BBQ. After several calls into stores in Manhattan, I quickly found out that the Char-Broil infrared Patio Bistro Grill I wanted was no where to be found on the island. I was not going to let that stop the party. I finally located one of the grills at a Lowes in North Bergen, NJ and rented a car on the spot just to drive out and get it!


A brief road trip in and out of the Lincoln Tunnel and we had grill!! I invited over a couple of other friends, grabbed some beers and made a stop into my favorite neighborhood butcher shop, Esposito and Sons. These guys make the absolute best hand made sausages and are located right in Hell's Kitchen NYC. I grabbed some hot and sweet Italian sausages as well as sage sausage and chicken apple sausage. We were ready to grill out with our book out!!


Turns out Steve had a meeting scheduled with his agent and I demanded they do it on our balcony. Our friends Maggie, Bram, Tom and my wife Cara joined us out on the "lanai" and we got to some grilling. The Char-Broil Patio Bistro Grill is great for a small space and a building that doesn't allow propane or charcoal cooking, in other words, damn near every apartment in NYC. This little baby plugs into an electrical socket and can quickly heat up to 650 degrees on a evenly distributed heat surface. It's IDEAL for grilling in the city.

While the sausages were cookin' up, I got a chance to flip through the cook book. I won't reveal any of the recipes but I had to give Buckshot a massive hug and a high five. He's got some of the best metal musicians in the world with some of the best recipes I have ever read. I am ridiculously proud of him and can not wait for this awesome cook book to be unleashed on the world. The world's kitchens are about to get heavy!

Be sure to follow Mosh Potatoes on Twitter and like it on Facebook so you'll get updates on it's release.

Mosh Potatoes - 9 out of 10


Esposito and Sons Sweet Italaian Sausage - 9 out of 10
-Rev

Sausage Party *with big cans - Feeding The Mayhem

PNC Bank Arts Center
http://www.rockstarmayhemfest.com
Exit 116 Garden State Parkway
Holmdel, NJ 07733

THE CONQUEST
I'm hanging out at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival at it's stop in Hartford, CT and I get asked "Rev, when are you gonna grill for us?" See, the people behind the Vans Warped Tour are also involved in the Mayhem Festival so they know all about "Kev and Rev's Awesome Parking Lot BBQ" and clearly, they wanted their own. There's been a lot of buzz around my involvement on the tour due to the fact that I manage both Shadows Fall and Big Jay Oakerson who are performing on the fest and I also designed The Mayhem Burger.

It's generated a lot of chatter and folks on the tour want them some RevBQ. Who can blame them? Not I and in fact, all I want to do is make them happy, so I said yes. Every couple of nights on the Mayhem Festival they have one of the bands host the "metal mixer" which is a fancy way of saying "after show bbq." I recruited Big Jay to be the DJ to my grill master and we decided to call our little shindig "Big Jay and The Rev's Sausage Party *with big cans." The plan was to grill up sausages, burgers and drink beer in cans while Jay busted out with the metal jams.

I always say "if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing," and this BBQ was not going to be the exception. First thing first, I designed a show flier from that created 3-D laminates with some help from our friends at i6tix.


Check out the cool effects:


Next we need beer, cans of beer to be specific. Thankfully, the wonderful road crew for Rockstar Energy Drink agree to help supply beer some beer, energy drinks and even the DJ system! Now all we needed was some sausages. I knew exactly who to call; Esposito and Son's from Hell's Kitchen, NYC. Their hand made sausages were a huge hit at "Kev and Rev's Awesome Parking Lot BBQ" and I thought the metal crew at Mayhem deserved only the best. I stopped by the sausage factory and picked up a box of hot and a box of sweet Italian sausages. The last item on my grilling list; a box of Kansas City Steak Company burgers sent to me for my birthday by none other than my Mom!


With that all in town, we headed off to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ for a day full of metal and meat. Big Jay kicked it off with a couple of jokes before introducing In This Moment.


Then we headed over to the Jagermusic stage to watch Shadows Fall shred the place to absolute pieces.


While it might sound like this was just a little back stage gathering for a few people, that was certainly not the case. The Mayhem production team printed fliers and put them up all over the stages on each bus on the tour. The excitement for sausage was growing and growing.


My last tour duty of the day was to escort Big Jay onto the main stage for his final set. Once Jay gets done, he heads out into the crowd to meet fans and sell CDs. It's pretty amazing to think only a few short months ago, the biggest show I had ever see Jay do was to a couple hundred people. It's spectacular and I am glad people find him as funny as I do.


During Rob Zombie and Korn's sets it was time to set up the party. We decided to have it at the VIP press tent just to the side of the main stage. Jeff and Kelsey from Mayhem catering helped me stage the food, prep the grill and get the big cans chilling on ice. Nothing says party like a larger can filled with a bunch of smaller cans (unless you're M. Emmet Welsh and you hate typical bastards.)



Jay got the party started with some Pantera because nothing puts you in the mood for sausages and beers like the Cowboys From Hell.


With about 200 VIPs waiting in the tent for food, it was time to get grilling!! First a round of sausage followed by burgers. I had wanted to make the actual Mayhem Burger but with the need for speed, I really couldn't do much more than just churn out hot meat.


After an hour on the grill, the grub line was just not dying down. Jay cranked up the jams and I kept the goals a burning.


Once the line started to ease up, I was able to bust out the Esposito and Sons sausages. I wanted to be sure to take my time and grill 'em up the right way. Of course that back fired because once the smell of fresh hand made sausages hit people's noses, they ran over to get some.


Unfortunately the party had to be cut short due to an early bus call and the tour had to leave the PNC to get to the next show. Big Jay and Keri Lee grabbed up the last of the sausages and took them on their respective buses to eat on the road. As I was saying good bye to Jay, he looked at me and said "hey son, them sausages are mine!" I grabbed two and jumped into our car to head home.

The Hot Italian Sausage served in a tasty potato roll. These tasty numbers are spicy but with great flavor and spicing. Somehow Esposito and Sons know how to make a sausage that holds its juices inside. When cooked properly, the encased meat mixture gets warm and stays juicy.


The Sweet Italian Sausage wrapped in half of a hamburger potato roll because we ran out of hot dog buns. Too call these sweet is a slight misnomer as they are "Sweet" like as in "awesome" not as in "sugary." The spices are just right giving a the quality pork flavor accents, without overpowering the meat itself.


Thanks to all the tour crew, production, caterers and bands on The Mayhem Tour. This summer has been amazing due to your hard work and great attitudes. Muchas Gracias the madman known as Nick Allen from Rockstar, you are the true host of this party! Thanks also to Esposito and Sons, you truly have the best sausages I have ever eaten. Thanks to Lil' DJ Big Jay Ice Z Dog for co-hosting what was easily the most mack daddiest, slammin', jammin', night poppin', booty shakin', back yard grillin' summa party! And thank you to all everyone who was willing to wear our ridiculous laminates around all day and stop by to taste my grill skill!

Black Shack - Conceiving The Mosh

Black Shack Burger
http://www.blackshackburger.com/
320 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10016

THE CONQUEST
Much like I was once a twinkle in my Dad's eye, Burger Conquest was once only an idea. In h honor of my late father, every year I celebrate my his birthday by doing something he would've done; hanging out with friends and have a BBQ, burgers and / or beer. It was on July 20th of 2008 while having just such a dinner at PJ Clarke's, that's the idea for Burger Conquest popped into my head. I like to refer to it as the day the site was conceived. Think of it as my version of the moment in time when Doctor Emmet Brown fell off the toilet, hit his head and thought up the flux capacitor. I said "why don't we start a blog about hanging out and eating burgers?" Everyone laughed at me and went back to eating and having a good time. 3 months later, Burger Conquest was born.

To celebrate this year, I gathered up Team Burger for a trip to New York City's Black Shack. Having recently created The Mayhem Burger, The Official Burger of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, along with Buck Shot from Mosh Potatoes and the Jeff and Ed, owners of the Black Shack, I wanted to return with my friends for a proper Conquesting of Burgers. The concept at the Black Shack is relatively simple; a gourmet burger at a fast food price. By offering a smaller and focused menu, they keep prices down by only relying on a few key ingredients to make their delicious food. Built over an old bowling alley (one of the old lanes serves as the entrance ramp to the restaurant), the very clean restaurant is always a buzz with rock and roll on the stereo.

THE BURGER
The choices are simple here; burgers, chicken, mozzarella (hand made in the store), tofu, salads and fries. There are 3 burgers on the menu, Classic, Cheese or Western but there is one more you can have if you ask for it by name...you guessed it; The Mayhem Burger.

1 toasted and butter sesame seed bun
3 gourmet 4 oz burger patties - 1 patty for each stage on the tour
1 piece of Fresh "Mosh"arella cheese (Mozzarella)
Coarse Pit Grinding Black Pepper
Crispy Onions - remind you to put on sunscreen so you don't get burnt in the sun
Crumbled Crispy Bacon - because bacon is awesome just like the festival
AND DON'T FORGET THE BEER!

Believe me, it's as big and as massive as it sounds, just like the touring heavy metal festival itself. So if you don't think you can handle the pressure in the mosh pit, order "The Main Stage Mayhem Burger." It's all the same bottomings (condiments go under the patty) as the original Mayhem but with only 1 patty. As the lot of us piled into the restaurant and placed are order, Mayhem Burgers started showing up on everyone's trays.

The Black Shack does it right. All the ingredients, toppings and contents of the burger are fresh, high quality and made with care. The patty is formed from freshly ground beef, the origins of which Jeff will NOT reveal, and it is juicy and filled with all the savory flavor one expects from a delicious burger. The burgers are cooked on a 600 degree grill and come up very quickly. I once asked Jeff, "how long does it cook before you give it the 1 flip?" He answered "long enough to shotgun a can of beer."

The mozzarella or "mosh"arella as I like to call it is handmade, fresh, mere moments before it's put on your sandwich. To prove it, I watched Jeff pull out a tiny zip lock back filled with oil, salt and cheese and hand form into a slab of fresh cheese. It's quite a site, let me tell you. Once this behemoth sized piece of cheese hits the sandwich is forms a thick pillowy cushion that serves as a resting area for the rest of the sandwich. The onions and bacon are crispy, never flimsy or mushy and add a delicious crunch to the sandwich. Be sure to ask for a tasting cup of chef Jeff's home made BBQ sauce. It's really smoky and peppery but with a sweet kick to make sure it tickles your EVERY taste bud.

You don't have to love heavy metal to love this burger but if you do, strap on your Manowar Cod Piece, apply your corpse paint, slip on that sleeves jean jacket with the Iron Maiden back piece pinned on and go to the Black Shack. Ask for the Mayhem Burger and tell 'em Rev from Burger Conquest sent ya. After eating anything on this menu, you will denounce ever eating fast food again if you're in the area. Death to false burgers!!!

Check out what everyone else had to say:


The Main Stage Mayhem Burger


The Whole Show

8 out of 10 ounces
-Rev






What up pops. Miss you every day.