First Look: Pies ‘n’ Thighs

Arthur Bovino — March 02, 2010

From top clockwise: Literally, Pies (Key Lime and Tarheel) and Thighs (Chicken Box with Biscuit), inside, and outside.

It is one of the reassuring quirks of a city that is constantly changing that occasionally it returns something once given up for lost. So it is with Pies-n-Thighs, Williamsburg’s own Mary Mac’s.

The original (literally under a bridge down by the river), by Sarah Buck and Stephen Tanner, was a place that people felt they had discovered even after it was trendy. You couldn’t be mad at it for becoming popular. And when it closed, you felt as if a good friend who knew how to perform miracles in a kitchen smaller than yours, had moved.

Everyone knew it would be a hit when it reopened. The question was, “When?”

Its first home, a corner in the back of Rock Star Bar, was a place where the men drinking had 60-year old faces and superheroes’ biceps. One of the few bars with a cigarette machine— one with American Spirits at that. You waited for food at a gingham-covered table next to the New Braunfels offset smoker in the “dining room,” an open concrete yard behind a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. At meal’s end you might be asked what you’d eaten so they could tally the bill, but none of it seemed precious.

 

Hush Puppies.

 

Collard Greens.

 

Cross-section of the Fried Chicken.

There may not be a jug of hot sauce by the door and the hush puppies are served in a bowl, not coffee mugs, but that vinegary taste still dresses the Mac ‘n Cheese, and the collard greens are intermingled with pulled pork in a homey broth that makes you wonder why others can’t make them this good.

The Hush Puppies ($3.00) are like moist cornbread dotted with onion, coated with cornmeal, and draped with tartar sauce reminiscent of Pearl’s. The Fried Chicken Box ($10.00) includes three salty-juicy pieces with a biscuit, a side, and a reason not to trek up to Charles’ Fried Chicken.

 

Brisket Sandwich.

 

Pulled Pork Sandwich with Mac ‘n Cheese.

 

Chicken Biscuit with Honey, Butter, and Hot Sauce.

The Brisket Sandwich contained smoky, not-too-fatty meat with a spice-rubbed crust, covered with chunky barbecue sauce on thick pieces of toast ($11.00). Then the coleslaw-covered Pulled Pork Sandwich Box— what deception! It appears dry then the whole thing dissolves in a wonderfully vinegary mess ($10.00). The Chicken Biscuit is in its own class, a piece of hot sauce-crusted fried chicken that is at least twice the size of the biscuit it’s sandwiched in ($5.00). Dripping with butter, faintly sweet, with a honey you can find no physical trace of.

 

Tarheel Pie.

 

Key Lime Pie.

Of course, there are pies ($4.50/slice). The Key Lime is as tart and refreshing as you remember. The Tarheel is a dense, fudgy brownie on a chewy crust. Hopefully, the peanut-butter chocolate pie will make an appearance too.

The crush is on, but the charm remains. They laughed at themselves for bringing over a pulled pork sandwich missing the pork, and they’ll bring a few more beers over so you don’t have to get on line again, “Just pay at the register before you leave.”

With all the traffic, chef-owners Carolyn Bane, Sarah Buck, and Erika Geldzahler will just have to take care not to rush the chicken. With lines like the ones they should expect, they may need to switch the door to open outwards, and design a clever T-shirt. Fast.