Co Review: Spinach pie at co-pane
The pizza craze in New York gave way to the burger craze. I guess before the pizza mania there was the cupcakes thing, and somewhere along the lines was also a banh mi thing. The thing is that even after all the frenzy dies down, the restaurants or bakeries are still there, still doing good business. There was a time when everyone wanted to line up for Co, and people talked about how Jean-Georges could be spotted in the dining room eating pizza. That seemed like centuries ago, even though it was just in early Spring of 2009. One thing I remember well about Frank Bruni’s review was that he really loved the spinach pie. So last month I went back to Co for lunch to try the spinach pie and a few more things.
Before I get into the food, I just want to say that Co has the funniest strategy when it comes to web engine optimization. Their website is called ‘co-pane.com’, but if you go to google and search ‘co-pane’, their website doesn’t even come up on the first page. I know how hard it is to get your own site to show up with the key words for your site though. It took over a year to get my website to show up for ‘food in mouth’ as a google search. For a year, it was all about the CDC and foot in mouth disease. Go figure.
Back to putting food in mouth… I tried the insalata di bresaola. It was actually the first time I tried bresaola and it was delicious. Wikipedia says it’s an air dried salted beef. This kind of stuff isn’t what I grew up with, but it’s definitely something I want to eat more of in the future. It’s great to pair each bite of the bresaola with the slices of Parmesan.
I also tried the chicken liver toast. For $3 dollars, it’s kind of pretty awesome. Maybe chicken liver is not your type of thing, but this toast tastes like a very accessible item. It’s possible for chicken liver haters to be converted into chicken liver lovers with this toast. I highly recommend it.
And then we come to the popeye pie. Usually my experience with spinach is usually sauteed spinach. It isn’t caramelized and crunchy spinach. I find novelty in experiencing spinach with this new kind of texture. A worthwhile splurge at $17 dollars. Of course this is not the kind of lunch you can have every day. Next day at work I ate a pork bun for 80 cents to balance it out a little bit.
One last thing I want to talk about is how to suggest restaurants to friends. At this point, after all my friends know that I write a food blog, it’s harder to recommend restaurants to people. On here, I just bullshit like a motherfucker. But when it comes to individual recommendations, I find myself altering my language depending on who I’m talking to. For example, the other day there was some boxed wine at my apartment. When I tried to suggest Steph to try some, I told her that it’s pretty good tasting for boxed wine. That didn’t really work though. She didn’t try it until she heard that the boxed wine was good enough for some French restaurants that she respected. Then when I talked to Jeremy, I told him that it was decent. Actually, every time Jeremy asks me about a restaurant, I tell him it’s decent. That’s the exact word I use because I know Jeremy as a Hype Hater. He gets down about anything he might like if it gets super popular. This happens a lot with hip hop because he’s a hip hop snob. When Jay-Z’s most recent CD came out, Jeremy liked Empire State of Mind. But now it’s like a top three single and he’s sick of it. So knowing this, I always temper my enthusiasm with the word ‘decent’.
So basically I’m not sure what to say anymore, whether it’s on here or in person. Oh and P.S – My friend Zeba is in the finals for this thing. If you have some time, think about voting. http://views.washingtonpost.com/pundits/. Thank you.
Co230 9th Ave.New York, NY 10001212-243-1105
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