The General Greene

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Chef Julie Farias – late of Beer Table, iCi and Stand – eschews the typical appetizer-entrée progression. The General Greene divides its dishes into “Cold” and “Hot” categories, regardless of size. “Bar Plates,” like those maple-syrup-lacquered, bacon-wrapped dates, make a fine snack alongside one of the house specialty cocktails or a refreshing glass of sangria. Order a few and you’ve got a meal. Mini mason jars come filled with chicken-liver mousse or an inspired, rilletteslike mixture of preserved lamb and fermented black beans to spread on oil-drizzled toast; a radish duo—razor-thin black-radish slices blanketing a few of the breakfast variety—is vividly dressed with sea salt and chopped anchovy. There are deviled eggs, too, and candied nuts that your affable bartender stashes on some rustic shelving behind the bar.

On each of the U.G.’s visits, the streamlined menu had changed slightly, subtly conveying the NBC notion of seasonality and market sensitivity. So one night’s wax-bean salad might be supplanted, at the next meal, by a superb tangle of julienned summer squash and piquillo peppers slicked with a rich pistachio pesto. An unusual watermelon salad mingles dabs of fresh goat cheese and delicious coins of spice-rubbed lamb, and a quartet of roasted pork ribs is aggressively seasoned with salt and pepper and painted with squiggles of sweet-and-sour tomato chutney. You expect a good burger at a joint like this, and what you get is a perfectly proportioned six-ouncer with English Cheddar and a side of potato chips.

Of course, you wouldn’t want to skip dessert. There’s usually a fluffy vanilla-lemon cheesecake, more mousse than cake, with a tart tanginess derived from yogurt and a garnish of Greenmarket berries. The favorite dessert among the boisterous young crowd, though, might be the chocolate-chip cookies, judging by the steady parade of plates that stream out of the kitchen like ducks at a shooting gallery. They’re heavy on the chocolate, served warm from the oven, and like just about everything else at the General Greene, they handily exceed expectations. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Note

The wine and beer list is small, with a few local nods.

Ideal Meal

Radishes with sea salt and anchovies, lamb-and-watermelon salad, grilled steak, bbq baked black beans, cookies.

Related Stories

New York Magazine Reviews

• Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite's Full Review (8/11/08)

Featured In

• Adam Platt's Where to Eat 2009 (1/5/09)
• Cheap Eats 2008: The Cheap List (7/28/08)

Recipes at The General Greene

• Strawberry-Brown-Sugar Frozen Yogurt (2009)