The Rusty Knot’s Pretzel Dog Lives!
You’d never have guessed it from the kitchen pedigree at the Rusty Knot — owned by a consortium including Bloomfield and Batali with a menu originally created by Jaoquin Baca (who has also haunted the grills at Momofuku, Wilfie & Nell and The Brooklyn Star) — but its premier menu item is so simple even the Zaro’s in the bowels of Grand Central terminal can’t fuck it up. Yes, we refer, of course, to the lowly (or exalted, depending on your point of view) pretzel dog.
Senior Platty Pants once referred to it as the ultimate drunk food.
It has been a stalwart of the Knot’s menu since it opened. Sure, the sublime bacon and liver sandwich has come and gone (unceremoniously ripped from the menu when Baco left) and come (to cheers all around) and gone again (with the new Mexican menu by recent arrival Sue Torres). But through it all the pretzel dog has never wavered.
As NBC New York rightly points out, it remains the lone holdover from the old menu to stave off the “disappointment-fueled riots that would likely ensue.”
A waitress at the dive paid tribute to the dog, telling a customer, “I’d quit if they took off,” but the she added wryly, “I don’t want to deal with that.”
The one thing is off the menu though is the vaunted dog and Busch draft special. For just a 5-spot any Joe could walk in off the street, get himself a so-salty-it-hurts dog with mustard and a cool Busch draft to quench his thirst. “The Special” is no longer listed on the menu, however, if you ask for it, they still give it to you.
Posted on 06.03.10 to Hot Dogs, Of Unknown Origin by Bill
