Saturday, November 26, 2005
Chip Shop (Park Slope), Brooklyn, NY
There is no particular reason why my inaugural review should focus on the Chip Shop; its silverware has no particular distinction, which, sadly, is the case even at quite decent restaurants throughout New York City. Rather, it is a reflection of my dining habits and my most recent meal (or, better said, the most recent meal taken at a place that had silverware: I did not even see the plasticware at Le Bagel Delight).
For transporting food to mouth, the tinny metal objects mass-produced by Winco and Adware—two brands on the table at Chip Shop—do an adequate job. But they do no more. The Winco fork had a bastardized Sheraton motif, which, I suppose, at least is appropriate in a geographic sense to the food (fish & chips, bangers & mash, shepherd’s pie, and “mushy peas”—seriously, mushy peas are a side on the menu as are, green peas, which, presumably, are a bit firmer). And they would probably lose too much to theft or breakage if all the plates had Charles & Diana on them.
The curry—for this Chip Shop also has a Curry Shop serving fine Anglicized Indian dishes—came in small decorative pots with a whiff of the subcontinent in their decoration, like what you might find, on sale, at Pier 1.
The standard pint glass is really a perfect design, both elegant and utilitatian. Perhaps even John Ruskin might have found beauty in this mass-produced object, so perfectly fitted to purpose. The Chip Shop does not mess with perfection here.
I prefer the décor of the other Chip Shop in Brooklyn Heights (or thereabouts) to the Park Slope location. The interior of the Park Slope spot, when you enter, is incredibly nondescript (not to mention cold, in the winter), although the other room is toasty and has some lovely English kitsch. I would be proud to have the Queen Mum memorial tea towel in my home.
