Lower East Side, Delancey Street at Allen

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …........……………….. click to enlarge

In due time, the food arrived, and once again, in the excitement of actual food in front of me, I forgot to take pictures. So picture this:  a fish sandwich on a kind of thick powdery looking good bread, oozing with tartar sauce and sliced cornichons and greens, with salad and homemade potato chips on my side; on Luka's side, crunchy potato pancakes with ligonberries and bacon, no make that ham, we're out of bacon.  But the ham was surprisingly good as a bacon substitute because it was fried crisp.  The sandwich, though hard to eat, was quite good (the fish was pollock), the salad, not very, and the potato chips, fine.  The potato pancakes were good once I got past the crunchiness factor.  Luka had no problem.  We shared, as you may have gathered.  All in all, although I wouldn't say the food was great, it was good enough to be able to come back another time and be in this enchanting place.

But here's the thing.  I was coming back from the bathroom and ran into the proprietor/chef/waitress, who looked at me, stricken, and said, we were shut down.  Much disbelief, indignation and sadness ensued.  According to her, it was a matter of saran wrap stored in the bathroom, some fruit flies and a little condensation, surely not enough to shut a restaurant down?  A fine, maybe, but not shut down.  We agreed wholeheartedly.  It did seem mean.  By this time, these people were our friends, our family, almost, and we hated to think of the lost money, the being out of work, and all that follows.

Thus the yellow notices on the doors.  We're hoping for a speedy reopening.