The mythical Jersey bar pie, soup served in solid ice, and more

7 NY & NJ restaurant recommendations, from Flushing, Queens to the Jersey Shore

When I pull up to Vic’s in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, at 6pm, the line is already out the door. Inside, there’s a wood-paneled waiting room the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was a kid, eating at places like the Sizzler and J&R Steakhouse. It’s standing-room only in there.

For 2 people, the wait is 5 minutes, but most parties are of 4, 6, 8 or more, and carrying birthday cakes. Once I settle in and have a locally-made Pilsner, the table next to me sings for an 80th birthday. The guy who blows out the candles is older than the restaurant, but just barely.

Vic’s has been serving Italian-American classics on the Jersey Shore since 1947. The bread and butter is complimentary; the antipasto salad is massive; the signage is neon. The penne? Baked. After years of searching for it, I am finally, blessedly in the past.

Vic's Italian Restaurant, Bradley Beach

The “bar pizzas” of New Jersey have an almost-mythic status. In places like New Haven, they use billboards to tell you the pizza is good. In New York, the bread nerds ferment their dough for 5 days. But the Jersey bar pie needs no such theatrics. The dough snaps between your fingers like a piano plays a note, loudly and without delay. The cheese is browned, and the grease riding atop it tastes like garlic. Semolina coats the bottom. And they never sell out.

I got half the pie as “the special,” with housemade sausage, peppers and onions, but I’d skip it next time and roll with the cheese pie. Whoever’s cranking them out back there is locked in.

Unless you’ve brought your own birthday cake, stop in afterwards at Callie’s Creamery nearby for some very serious ice cream. I got one scoop of chocolate-covered potato chip, and one scoop of biscoff, then rode home listening to the Boss. - Rob Martinez

📍 Vic’s Italian Restaurant
60 Main St, Bradley Beach, NJ 07720

Rec #2 - Korean Cold Noodles served in an Ice Bowl

I think as humans, we are always innately searching for the most perfect complementary pairs. Which two colors look the best together? Which wine pairs the best with my meal? In this sweltering New York City summer, I argue that there is no better food pairing than a hot and sticky day and a bowl of icy cold noodles.

Tong Sam Gyup Goo Yi, located in Murray Hill, Flushing, might have the most refreshing of these cold noodle options. Their kimchi mul-naengmyeon is served with the classics: an icy beef broth, sliced cucumbers, chewy buckwheat noodles (use scissors to cut these into smaller bite size pieces - trust me it’s safer), bits of kimchi, and half a boiled egg. Bottles of mustard sauce and vinegar are handed to you to customize the amount of kick and acidity you want to add to the cold, savory nectar that is its broth. But it’s the vehicle in which it’s served that separates itself from the pack. This delicious noodle soup is served in a completely solid bowl of ice the size of your forearm. After walking in from a 93-degree day, I can’t imagine a more welcome sight.

In many cases, neangmyeon can be a meal in itself, but Tong Sam Gyup Goo Yi is, at its core, a barbecue restaurant. In a world of perfect pairings, these cold noodles in their ice bowl are meant to be slurped between bites of their crispy and fatty pork belly, carefully cooked over their giant cast-iron grills. A bite of meat, a little radish kimchi, and a few spoonfuls of naengmyeon later, I find myself seeing the beauty of how all things fit together like a complicated jigsaw puzzle. I realize that the right pairing is infinitely better than the sum of its parts, and that perfection is when you’re finally able to put those pieces together. Or maybe perfection is just a bowl of really cold noodles. - Naq Zamal

📍Tong Sam Gyup Goo Yi
162-23 Depot Rd, Flushing, NY 11358

Naq is a Bangladeshi-American Queens Native and member of Jhal NYC, a social entrepreneurship project looking to empower Bangladeshi immigrants through street food.

Behind the paywall: Steven Graf makes the case for aperitivo, Young Kim writes about Korean soul food, Johnny Novo finds a tiny Ethiopian spot, Mike Diago meets a Lebanese refugee-turned-chef, and Peter Candia fights Jersey heat with Sichuan heat.

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