Minsky’s is the tough man’s restaurant. The cold of this winter and spring has only spurred the people to buy into the hot, fresh and done-right delicious gourmet Italian that has garnered the restaurant such a well-deserved reputation.
As I sat down for my meal in my humble abode, I started out with the breadsticks. They were not overly impressive. Dry, bland and with no “kick,” the sticks’ saving grace was the marinara sauce. Next came the Caesar salad, with a very strong, almost overbearing dressing drizzled over the ripest lettuce I have ever tasted. The crunch from the lettuce could have easily been confused for a spare crouton.
The flagship sub of the café, the Minsky’s Sub, was not even a sub at all. It was a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with tomatoes and a pepperoni thrown in for good measure. Distressed over this misnomer I reluctantly took a bite out of the “sub.” My worries were not unfounded, as the sandwich was just as it appeared; a plain grilled ham and cheese. It was nothing to write home about. The tomato was just a hassle to handle the sandwich with, and the pepperoni was unnoticeable crammed between the cheese and ham.
After the sandwich it was time for pasta, the staple of Italian cuisine. The chicken in the chicken fettuccini alfredo had a kick to it. Not a spicy taste per se, but a light after taste that caused one to pause mid-swallow. The noodles were lightly salted, and mixed with the kickin’ chicken, the taste was more than satisfactory.
The spaghetti and meatballs were the real pasta treat of the evening. The meat sauce that Minksy’s uses is just thick enough to stick to the noodles as you twirl them up, but not so thin that it spatters everywhere when you go to take a bite. Then when your fork finds the meatball, the term “And here’s a very spicy meatball!” immediately comes to mind. By the time the four ounce ball of fire was gone, I had downed a whole glass of water.
If pasta is the staple of Italian cuisine, then pizza is the staple of American Italian cuisine. Minsky’s does gourmet pizza right with light, crispy affair with sauce that you barely notice when biting in, and with over forty different toppings to choose from, you will be going back again and again for more.
The true surprise of the meal was a food that needs more recognition for its pure explosion of flavor; the calzone. Calzones are basically an inside-out pizza. It is dough, stuffed with meat, cheese, sauce, and anything your heart could desire. It did not have so much of a “kick” but a melt-in-your-mouth feeling. The calzone was not too doughy, as is the problem with cheap imitations, but had a perfect dough to filler ratio. Heaven.
All this was relatively cheap, each item costing a little over $6. Minsky’s is a great place to go when everyone else is closed.
