Burger Conquest: Poco - If You Happen To Be In The East Village

Poco
http://www.poconyc.com/
33 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009

THE CONQUEST
If you happen to be in or near New York’s East village and are looking for Bourbon, Beer or Rock, stop into the bar I recently opened with my friends Rob and Marc. It’s called Idle Hands Bar and it’s the basement speakeasy for the Mardi Gras Frat Party upstairs known as Billy Hurricanes. With approximately 80 different bourbons and 50 different microbrews, there are more than enough choices to keep the experienced and discerning drinker happy. It's also a great education for those curious to learn more about the 2 types of beverages. We also serve a variety of old fashioned cocktails, rums, vodkas, tequilas, a selection of decent wines and even craft sodas for our friends who aren’t looking to get toasted. There’s bar food and specialty sandwiches like the “Rise and Shiner”, a breakfast sandwich, only served late night, with eggs, sausage, cheese and a crispy hash brown on an English muffin. I’ve been eating my way around the neighborhood since we get the keys and am always looking for an alternative to the Jalapeno Poppers and Cajun Tots from Billy Hurricane’s.

If you happen to be in or near Idle Hands Bar and would like something to eat in a more traditional restaurant, visit our neighbors, Poco. They offer Spanish meets Southern American comfort food style tapas. The menu was created by award winning chef Abe Lopez, one time victor of the Food Network's "Chopped". It’s a great place for an interesting mixed drink, light snack, full meal, brunch, group hang or a nice date. The staff is incredibly friendly, quick and always ready to help you choose something appropriate from their drink and food menu. The tasty lounge is under the watchful care of GM Sarah Grizzle, who is often found in the restaurant greeting customers and suggesting regular and special menu items, like their lamb sliders…

So with that, my wife Cara and our friends Catharine, Maggie and Kyle, owner of Billy Hurricanes, stopped in for a full costume, pre-Halloween bash dinner party.

THE BURGER
To start off, try the Mushroom Truffle Croquettes, which Cara swears by. I would personally suggest the bacon wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese and almonds, an extremely rich and creamy mix of tastes and textures. With several different versions of Mac and Cheese to choose from, take my word and get the one with pulled pork. It’s a down home combination of awesome and delicious. Plus you’re sharing it, so you won’t have it to weight down the rest of your meal.

Poco offers 3 kinds of sliders; Pulled Pork, Lamb and the beef sliders (actually more of a mini-burger) with manchego cheese, avocado crema, & chorizo aioli. Unfortunately they had run out of the Lamb Sliders (grounds for a Burger Conquest return in the making!) so we got the prior 2. The soft juicy mini-burger is cooked to a perfect medium rare, which is pretty hard to do considering the size. While I love the decision to not let the spices overtake the juicy and fresh ground beef, the crema and chorizo is very slight and could use just a little more. There's absolutely nothing even remotely chewy about the patty. The Pulled Pork sliders are sweet, smoky and delicious. In fact, the only improvement one could make would be shoving a bite of the Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese into the sandwich (that is an order, not a suggestion.)

Poco is a fantastic place to eat and we are proud to become their neighbors.