Counter Culture (Some Great Counter Service Spots)
/Sometimes you can’t or just don’t want to cook. And sometimes you can’t or just don’t want to spend the time and money on a long, drawn out sit down restaurant meal. In these moments, quick service spots are what you can and want to do.
We all rely on counter service spots to quickly pop into to grab ourselves or our kids or our friends or our co-workers a fast and tasty meal. We all have our favorites (my kids favorite is a place called McDonald’s). Here are a few of my favorite local fast casual spots to satisfy various cravings.
when you need a great Italian Sandwich
Per the large sign when you first walk in the door, Harrison’s Casa D’Italia has been around since 1997. I was a teenager living on Long Island then, so my personal love affair with this Italian deli began more recently. But the fact that 27 years after it opened, Casa D’Italia is still always crowded and still beloved by so many says A LOT.
This is a deli and espresso shop, so you can order pretty much any deli items you want, but I strongly recommend sticking with the Italian influenced menu items and paying particular attention to the mighty chicken cutlet. Here, the fried chicken cutlet is sliced thin, perfectly breaded and fried and featured prominently in many of Casa D’Italia’s best sandwiches. My go to order - and one of the signature items at Casa D’Italia - is the Bronx Tale (pictured below). It’s chicken cutlets served on a roll or wedge with fresh mozzarella, pesto, sun-dried peppers and spicy capicola. It’s everything a sandwich should be. Casa D’Italia uses only the best ingredients and they know their sandwiches. It’s an absolute favorite for our family.
when you need The Best Sandwiches. Period
The menu at Mason Sandwich Co in Eastchester reads like a “best of” list and that’s probably because these are the BEST sandwiches in all of Westchester. You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu - even the salads and rice bowls are good - but you’re here for the stuff between bread, right?!
I’m partial to the Chickwich (buttermilk-fried chicken, spicy maple, house pickles) and the Fishwich (crispy wild Atlantic pollock, tartar sauce, lettuce, tomato on brioche). My husband loves the 53rd and 6th (NYC cart-style chicken, white yogurt sauce, harissa, lettuce, tomato and onion). Their burger with “special sauce” is killer, too. I wrote a whole Mason’s blog post found HERE. Not only is Mason’s counter-service, but you can place your order from a touch screen when you get there or directly from their website before you go.
when you need Noodles AND RICE BOWLs on the fly
Billed as Asian Inspired Street Food, Fatt Root in Pleasantville offers a menu chock full of tasty dumplings, buns, noodles and rice bowls. There are also dedicated menus for vegetarians and kiddies.
When Fatt Root first opened, it was definitively a quick service spot - guests ordered at the counter and a server brought the dishes over to their table. On our very recent visit, the experience leaned more towards full service dining BUT I’m still including it on this list because the ambiance is undeniably casual AND because I know that, at minimum, Fatt Root still does a huge take out business.
when you really need a hot dog
In NYC you order your hot dogs from carts on the street. In Westchester, you order your hot dogs from a roadside Chinese pagoda. Walter’s Hot Dogs has been slinging butterflied and grilled hot dogs from that Mamaroneck roadside stand since 1919 (and much more recently, they opened a second, more traditional take out counter in White Plains). The Walter’s dogs are truly delicious. Each dog is made with a proprietary blend of beef, pork and veal, and split down the middle before being grilled to perfection in Walter’s “secret sauce.” The buns are also toasted and even Walter’s mustard is a special blend. Particularly in warmer weather, a visit to Walter’s is a suburban NY must do.
In Connecticut, my family also loves Stamford’s Bridge Street Wienery. The dogs here are also griddled along with the bun and they’re truly delicious and pair perfectly with a side of the Wienery’s french fries. We visit often, particularly in the warmer months.
WHEN YOU JUST need A SLICE OF PIZZA THAT’S REALLY DELISH
The key to being a good slice joint is having very high turnover. No one wants a reheated slice that’s been sitting out all day. If a spot is constantly making pies and selling slices, your slice will be fresh out of the oven. Sal’s Pizza on Mamaroneck Avenue in Mamaroneck knows this. It’s a legendary spot popular with all ages and all walks of life and it’s always a very busy but well oiled machine. Whether you visit for lunch or late night, you’ll always get a fresh out of the oven slice at Sal’s.
Right here in Greenwich, newcomer Grigg Street Pizza is also making waves. Grigg Street opened up in the middle of the pandemic and is somehow still managing to kick butt. The pies here (available by the slice too) and sandwiches are really delicious and a lot more interesting than your neighborhood slice shop.
when you need Counter Service That Feels More Like Fine Dining
The Filipino dishes at Nyack’s Karenderya are so delicious and so complexly flavored that it’s truly hard to believe that you ordered those dishes from a counter in the suburbs. Karenderya is incredibly good, incredibly well priced and incredibly family friendly. It’s just wonderful.
We’ve tried almost the full menu now and though I don’t think you could go wrong, we usually make sure our order includes the following: one or more servings of Lumpiang Shanghai (fried mini eggrolls filled with ground pork with spicy banana ketchup), the Fried Crispy Chicken Rice Bowl (chicken thighs marinated in ginger and lime with greens, tomato, and sweet soy), the Beef Tapa Sandwich (thinly sliced soy lime marinated beef served with greens, crispy shallots, sambal mayo on ciabatta and Shrimp Adobo (shrimp, rice vinegar/coconut milk broth, yams, crispy shallots). It’s all SO GOOD.
