Restaurant Review: Hog Pit

The Hog Pit (22 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10014)

KK, we know we've already lost a few visitors with this posting title, but non-vegetarians, read on. Sensitive animal lovers, skip to the next post.

A sultry Sunday afternoon brought Cafe Drake to the West Village home of Jen Lazzaro, or a block off anyway, to join J-La for a matinee performance of Joyce Carol Oates' The Corn Maiden, a multi-media performance at The New School Center for the Dramatic Arts and part of the vast, ongoing Fringe NYC Festival. We found the adaptation a bit clumsy, heavy-handed and lacking the cruel sophistication of Oates' brutal prose, but shock value is in mid-effect for the easily scandalized, as three teenage girls kidnap a fourth onstage and keep her drugged through 1 1/2 hours before a planned human sacrifice.

Escaping an overheated theater and grim stage material, Cafe Drake and Jen nestled into a corner table at The Hog Pit, incongruously located next to the posh, modernist Gansevort Hotel and across the cobblestones from the deeply pretentious and dated Pastis bistro. $11 sandwich platters arrived loaded with sides superior to the main course: coleslaw was satisfying if overly rich with mayo and fries were crispy if not too redolent of Burger King. Genius cheddar and garlic biscuits (dare we channel Red Lobster?) started things off nicely, but the Sweet Tea ($2) was a weak homage to Southern cuisine and a cousin of Snapple. BBQ Beef Brisket lacked the requisite tenderness expected from a cheap, long-cooked cut of meat and turned slightly repulsive from an overload of fatty sections.

Luckily Cafe Drake had Jen L to focus on and all was forgiven from this lackluster, lazy kitchen geared to Jersey daytrippers.