Jeffrey’s Grocery

172 Waverly Place, West Village, NY

8.4

map & more

Neighborhood
West Village

Cuisine
American
Raw Bar
Sandwiches

646-398-7630

Official Website

By Andrew Steinthal
December 2, 2010

You wanna know makes discovering our new favorite oyster bar taste even sweeter? The fact that it also serves an excellent cookie. Booya. Wheelhouse. What more can you want out of life besides oysters and a chocolate chip cookie? Jeffrey’s Grocery is exactly the kind of establishment we live for here at The Infatuation. Think of it as the West Village answer to Marlow & Sons, one of our all time favorite spots. A market, Serious Take-Out Operation and good vibin’ oyster bar all in one. Bottom line – we foresee a lot of hangin’ out going down here in the near future.

Jeffrey’s is the new spot from Joseph Leonard‘s Gabe Stulman, who’s quickly growing a West Village empire. His cafe/restaurants are reasonably priced and have a warm, neighborhood feel that we dig. With around 20 total seats, all communally, on bar stools and a menu of excellent sandwiches, salads and raw bar items, Jeffrey’s Grocery Luncheonette & Oyster Bar, like Joseph Leonard, is a better option for lunch than dinner, and on weekdays as opposed to crowded weekends. It’s proximity to the W. 4th and Christopher St. subway stops make it a quick trip from Midtown, so definitely consider it next time you’re taking a long lunch break. The market part is a little pretentious; fully stocked with organic vegetables, boxed water and a round, bearded storekeeper in overalls, hipster glasses and an apron who looks to have been customized on the internet and flown in from Idaho or something. Kind of ridiculous, but also entertaining at the same time.

We’re fully sold on Stulman’s restaurants, here’s to hoping he expands out of the West Village soon. In the meantime, we’ll be slurping oysters and taking cookies to the dome at Jeffrey’s on the regular.

Photo Credit:Daniel Krieger

Food Rundown:

Beet Salad
A seasonal mix of beets, frisee, fine herbs and shaved pecorino in a red wine vinaigrette. Very solid.

Poached Salmon Salad
A really nice piece of poached salmon sits atop a bed of sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, mustard greens and served with an interesting avocado-mint yogurt. An excellent light, but delicious lunch.

Oysters
There isn’t much in life that gets us more fired up than blackboard with a laundry list of different types of oysters to choose mostly in the $1.50-2.50 each range. We decided to go with some of our favorites: Kumamoto’s from the west coast and the always reliable East Coast Blue Points. They were all incredible, well shucked and as fresh as you can get. Check out our platter. Also, the mignonette sauce is awesome.

Lobster Roll
A special on the menu and not something we’d suggest going with. While the $19 price tag isn’t steep, this just isn’t our kind of lobster roll. It’s a little fancy for our taste, we’re not into arugula on our roll. That being said, it’s still good and if this looks like a lobster roll you’d enjoy, feel free to go with it. We had no problem polishing the entire thing off.

Roast Pork Sandwich
Thin slices of roasted pork with sofrito, brocolli rabe, chili flakes and sharp provolone on ciabatta. Oh yeah, this is good sh*t. The brocolli rabe really makes this sandwich stand out.

Braised Brisket Sandwich
Man, this REALLY hit the spot for me. Moist chunks of brisket with red beet-horseradish slaw and muenster cheese oozing out of a warm, toasted sourdough. A nice change of pace from the jew-deli style brisket sandwiches I usually eat.

Chocolate Chip Cookie
I’ve now had a cookie on two separate occasions and both times they were so fresh, the chocolate chips were still melting. Round, freshly baked and delicious, we fully back this cookie.