It’s the greatest thing on sliced bread — literally.
No. 7 Sub, the super-delicious sandwich outpost from the mad geniuses behind No. 7 restaurant in Fort Greene, opened up shop on Manhattan Avenue a few weeks ago, and we couldn’t wait to take get our hands around Tyler Kord’s creative creations — including that enticingly weird Sriracha cocktail.
“I drink a lot, and I have weird ideas,” Kord said of dreaming up his menu of truly inspired sub sandwiches that includes flavor combinations such as pork and shrimp sausage with shishito peppers, roasted onions, grape jelly sauce and cilantro; and cheese with spaghetti squash salad, honey roasted peanuts and peach muchim. “I’ll think of something classic like a Reuben, and do something else; for example, our special sauce is made of Chinese mustard, sweet chili and Japanese mayo.”
Kord opened his celebrated Fort Greene restaurant No. 7 in 2008, which immediately garnered acolytes for its constantly changing menu and bold, flavorful and seasonal ingredients, and in 2010, he opened an offshoot sub shop in the Ace Hotel. The popularity of the first sandwich bar beget another, and thus Greenpoint’s latest and greatest sub shop was born.
“I think about texture and try to make it crunchy and creamy at the same time,” Kord said. “It’s not like a restaurant where you have a plate of different things; with a sandwich, you need to get all the flavors in every bite. I wanted it to be interesting.”
And interesting his sandwiches are: All served on toasted Caputo bakery rolls, the BBQ chicken is perfectly seasoned and slathered in a not-too-sweet sauce, offset with tangy, briny pickle slices and stiff, salty corn chips that add a perfect accent of crunch to the sandwich experience. Kord’s take on a Reuben, with tender sauerkraut, melted swiss cheese, smoky slabs of brisket and a special sauce chock full of dill, is heavenly; and the vegan option, fried broccoli with black olives, marinara and banana peppers, is by far the best of the three. The fried broccoli is battered and fried with expert restraint, and enough aplomb to preserve that grease-tinged crunch, and the sweetness of the marinara sauce plays perfectly with the salty olives and spicy, vinegar-soaked banana peppers.
“There are fancy sandwich places where one is served on baguette, one is served on brioche — it’s not like that here,” Kord said. “It’s about what inside the bread.”
It’s also about the sides — don’t leave No. 7 Sub without an extra spicy muchim pickle. And wash it town with a Sriracha cocktail, made with tequila, maple and lime. Weird? Yes. Delicious? Absolutely.
No. 7 Sub [931 Manhattan Ave. between Java and Kent streets in Greenpoint, (718) 389-7775]. Closed Sundays. For info, visit www.No7restuarant.com.
