What to Order at the New Bar Contra
What do you want to eat in a beer bar? Nachos and burgers. In a wine bar, charcuterie, cheese, and maybe crostini, though lately, the offerings have shifted toward seafood at places like Demo and Penny.
Joining places like the updated Milady’s and Sip & Guzzle, Bar Contra is a revamp of the old Contra space, at 138 Orchard Street, south of Rivington, with an emphasis on bites paired with cocktails. Where once there was a mercurial, prix-fixe menu serving innovative food that former Eater critic Ryan Sutton called an “edgy, foamy, seven-course affair,” we now have a cocktail bar, serving food subsidiary to a program of elaborate mixed drinks — though the food menu may be the most unusual bar fare the city has yet seen.
As with Contra and its more casual neighbor Wildair, Bar Contra is the project of Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra, who have added the talents of author and cocktail expert Dave Arnold, of Existing Conditions and Booker and Dax.
Last week, a friend and I lined up 15 minutes before Bar Contra opened at 5:30 p.m. Once we got seats, we were told we would have until 7 p.m. before we had to leave. The kitchen couldn’t quite turn out our food fast enough (we tried eight dishes out of 12), so we didn’t depart until 7:30 p.m.
A long bar leads to a narrow dining room with upholstered booths providing tight seating in a room decorated with colorful modern prints. The portions are small, and the prices are somewhat high, topping out at $40 for fresh chive tofu with caviar. Some of the food verged on the spectacular, while others seemed uninspired. Here’s what to order.
Montauk scarlet prawn
The best dish of the evening was Montauk scarlet prawn ($15): three modest specimens — heads missing, tails intact — presented raw on ice, with a dab of umeboshi (preserved plum) mayo on top of each. This is real sushi bar stuff. These deep-water prawns have only recently become a fad, and they are delicious but perhaps a little too sweet to go with the sweeter cocktails. Still, it is a very solid dish.
Celeriac crumpet
The second best dish was the celeriac crumpet ($7) served warm. It looked like finely textured diner hash browns, offered with a saucer of wakame butter. The butter was unnecessary; the crumpet was rich enough to cut in wedges and share.
Chicken wing with Stilton
Another good dish is the chicken wing ($12 per wing) stuffed with Stilton and pork sausage, a bigger specimen than we’d expected, stuffed with skin intact. Luckily, the pungent Stilton was a minor note in a nicely balanced dish, a funny riff on the Buffalo wings ubiquitous in sports bars.
Tuna mayo
Tuna mayo ($18) was another hit, a tuna salad seasoned with anchovy, coffee, mayo, lemon, and salt, divided into lines (as if it were cocaine) by the thinnest of Russet potato chips. If no carbs was the goal, they came close for this dish.
Perhaps pass on these dishes.
Maine scallop with shiso and walnut
The battered and fried scallop served with shiso and walnut ($12), on the other hand, didn’t taste bad, but the flesh was the texture of double-cream cheese and the crust less crisp than it might have been.
American wagyu beef tartare
Less enthralling was the American wagyu beef tartare ($23): The wagyu was too fatty for this particular dish, presented as little knuckles that rolled around the plate. The thin sliced baby artichokes were a great idea, but there weren’t enough of them.
Favorita tomatoes
Favorita tomatoes ($7) were far from our favorite dish, though it made my table laugh as it arrived — three cherry tomatoes on a toothpick presented on ice. Did the cold help? Not really. Marinated in sour cherry flavor, it didn’t come through, and the quantity of tomatoes felt stingy.
Potato and strawberry sundae
Was this menu being presented as a meal? The presence of a dessert seemed to suggest it, and that single example was the intriguing-sounding “potato and strawberry sundae” ($14). Laced with shards of fried potatoes, it wasn’t my favorite in that it was otherwise textured like fluff and foam.
As for the cocktails, we tried three. The 24 choices ($21) fell into a few categories: carbonated, shaken, stirred, on the rock (yes, singular), frozen, low alcohol, and no alcohol. I ordered the (shaken) Acid Granny (apple gin, Mexican tarragon, “acid Granny Smith,” orange syrup), thick, sweet, tart, and slightly licorice-y for a set of enjoyable flavors.
The cryptically named Dropoff was composed of housemade Agen prune cognac and an orange twist for the strangest cocktail I’ve had in a long time, but perhaps perfect as an after-dinner digestif.
The favorite drink of the evening came from the low alcohol category, of which the Two Percenter was a pleasing mix of Cynar, celery seed syrup, orange twist, and a shot of “champagne acid,” whatever that is, resulting in a floral and herbal drink you’ll want to sip.
