Pork Slope & The Magical Night of Bar Food Reinventions

Whether you like it or not (and I know a lot of you opinionated mofos fall on the side of NOT), since opening a little over a year ago, Pork Slope has solidly established itself as one of the busier bars along 5th Ave. Whether it's a boar naming contest, or the MMA matches on the TV, or the usually-lively crowd, or the special events, or the occasional late-night drunken appearance of the triumvirate of owners, there are a host of reasons to either really like hanging out there, or to really want to stay the fuck away.

Having a bar with character and interesting events is all well and good but it makes me think back to last spring, before Pork Slope had even opened, when I spoke with the guys behind the place and they made it clear that what they'd be serving would not be "Dale's reinvention of a bar snack." Their mission was for a bar with food, not "a restaurant with a cocktail and beer program."

Flash forward seventeen months and Pork Slope announces their first ever "Bar Food Blowout" event, an evening put on by Finger on the Pulse, where a guest chef comes in and takes over the kitchen for the night, offering up unique takes on the bar snack. Technically, it's a one night event and technically it's not Dale putting together the menu, but still...

I mean, I get it. Businesses can't get stale, especially in Park Slope. They have to change and adapt. Good food sells. Sure, Pork Slope started with Roadhouse as an inspiration, and now they don't even have a pool table. Sure Dalton might have a thing or two to say about that, but seasons change and shit. For sure.

This Wednesday, for the inaugural Bar Food Blowout, the guest chef was Robby Cook, head sushi chef of Morimoto NYC. For $22, you got five of his takes on bar snacks and a can of Brooklyn Lager to wash it all down. Not too shabby. Personally, I've never eaten at Morimoto and that shit's supposed to be the bomb, so I decided to check it out.

When I arrived, the bar was about 3/4 full. Figuring it was the best place to sample bar food, I grabbed a seat at the bar an ordered up a beer, chilling out for a sec to watch the A's-Tigers game. After a few minutes, two plates of food arrived.

The first plate contained two dishes--a Smoked Tuna Tekkadon & two pieces of Barracuda Hako Zushi.

The smoked tuna tekkadon--thin-sliced tuna sashimi over sushi rice with shaved nori, scallions and pickled wasabi stems sprinkled on top--was slightly cumbersome to eat but the tuna was fresh, with both a slight smokiness and a slight sweetness. This sweetness mimicked the pickled wasabi stems & contrasted well with the saltiness of the nori.

The Barracuda Hako Zushi was a box-style pressed sushi led by the flavor of a marinated and seared slice of barracuda. 'Twas a dish that would've had Heart down down down down on their knees or something. The fish rested between shiso and a sweet white seaweed top and a bed of sesame-seasoned sushi rice, making for a solid piece of sushi.

Plate #2 had my starter bar snack--Hakusai Asazuke--a salad of pickled napa cabbage, yuzu skin, red chilis & konbu dashi. While it was a nice starter, there was ZERO exciting about it at all. Yawn.

The rest of the plate was way better -- Blistered Shishito Peppers, a pile of them, sprinkled with Yuzu Nori salt & resting on a dollop of Yuzu kosho mayo. The peppers had a nice salty start to them that didn't linger and in contrast to the last time I had shishito peppers--at Sea Witch--there was no char on them, allowing the salty start and the spiciness of the pepper to shine. As for the mayo, it was hidden and I didn't even realize it was there until I was halfway through with the peppers.

While the peppers made for a nice bar snack, my favorite dish of the night was the pork bao with a pickled cuke, a cilantro sprig and a red pepper slice. The pork was moist, with a crazy flavor to it that started out salty but then became sweet & then spicy/salty again. I'm assuming the culprit was a balanced blend of hoisin and other ingredients. Whatever the blend was, it definitely worked.

But back to the beginning of Pork Slope...During that first chat I ever had with the guys back in late March of last year, they noted that "if you've got $20 in your pocket, you'll easily be able to go [to Pork Slope] and get fucked up." In this case, $22 will get you fucked up...ON FOOD. I guess that's basically the same thing. Given the quality of the food, the price was definitely worth it. I left full, with all five of my taste bud profiles fully stimulated.

The next two Bar Food Blowouts are scheduled for November and January, and while the guest chefs are still up in the air, the rumored ones that owner David Massoni mentioned to me on Wednesday are of pretty high quality. As long as those chefs, or someone of equal talent pan out, the event's worth checking out...unless you're an OG Pork Slope hater, in which case you’ll probably want to just keep staying the fuck away and keep on hating on. I mean...haters gonna hate.

Read way more from Shawn at eatdrinksnack.com & eatdrinktaco.com.