Jodi and I wanted to go to the Joshua Gallery on 11th and 28th to see the exhibit of Shawn Baber - Memoirs: the tattooed portraits series. So I went on the internet to see what was around for lunch and found Wichcraft, the casual sandwich restaurant that Tom Colicchio opened in 2003 with partners Sisha Ortuzar and Jeffrey Zurofsky. There are several locations in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas. The one in New York, closed to the gallery, was called "The Tunnel". I understood why when we found it!
At first, we were not sure if the place was already opened or still opened as that part on 11th does not have that many restaurants. The address pointed out to a large building, an ancient warehouse.
It was like a large tunnel with large metal beams. Like the building, the walls were made of bricks. There were very few stores and gallery opened and wichcraft was close to the very end of it.
The place is small, but there are tables outside to sit. The service was courteous and very quick. The menu offers sandwiches, salads and soups, as well as cookies for dessert.
We decided to start with the Aged Gruyere sandwich.
It was like a grilled cheese sandwich. I did not really like it because you could barely taste the aged gruyere (I think they should have put more of it): it was overpowered by the roasted onions that were like caramelized onions; there was too much of it and it was therefore way too sweet.
The second sandwich we tried was the heritage smoked ham.
This sandwich was fantastic! The bread, a cranberry pecan bread, was delicious. The sandwich contained poached pears, aged gruyere and dijon mustard besides the ham.
Contrary to the aged gruyere sandwich, they put a lot of ham. What was great was the addition of the poached pears that added some sweetness to counterbalance the saltiness of the ham. This was a great sandwich!
With the sandwiches, we got potato chips (not homemade unfortunately) and a delicious lemonade.
Although I did not like one of the sandwiches, I really enjoyed the experience at Wichcraft and recommends it! If you go, get the Heritage Smoked Ham sandwich: it is amazing!
Enjoy (I did)!
