Prune in the East Village

We went to Prune, in the East Village for dinner last night. We had dropped Scott off in the West Village and decided to drop in (it was a Sunday night). We found a spot right in front of the restaurant and they had room for us - the stars were aligned!

Prune is a very cute little place on 1st Street (I didn't even know there was a 1st Street) with only 30 seats and a lot of attitude - good attitude. They specialize in "down-home" American cooking. One of their traditional appetizers is a plate of grilled marrow bones. Both of us love marrow bones, but we didn't dare! We are trying to be "good". Although, I did have 10 chicken wings last night after Chris left for Toronto.

We did dare to start with two unusual starters - Poached Egg with a Pasta Kerchief for me and Breaded and Fried Sweetbreads with Bacon and Capers for Chris. Both were delicious. The poached egg as simple as the sweetbreads were decadent. We both love sweetbreads and order them at least once in each restaurant that offers them. These were the best I've had in NY!

We followed with a whole Grilled Branzino (served with just a lemon as garnish for Chris) not quite making up for the dietary extravagance of the sweetbreads. I had the Stewed Pork Shoulder. A very rich stew in a wonderful rich brown sauce. Both were good, but Chris' fish was better. We had an order of Baby Fennel and Shiitake Mushroom Ragout as a vegetable. It was OK, but I'm not sure what else you could do with fennel and mushrooms. Chris liked it more than I did.

Bottom line, we really enjoyed the restaurant and the meal. We again asked ourselves why we don't come here more often; and again answered, we can't "afford" a place that specializes in Fried Sweetbreads and Marrow Bones. Any effort we made to watch our diets would be destroyed.

Prune

54 East 1st Street (bet 1 and 2nd Aves)

212-677-6221