Salty Sweet: The Meadow NYC

New York City is chock-a-block with shops that specialize. There’s an entire restaurant devoted to meatballs, and one just for grilled cheese, and of course one just for peanut butter. So imagine my delight (and not so surprise) when I came across The Meadow, which specializes in salt, chocolate and bitters.

Inside the tiny store there’s an entire wall of salt, stuffed into chubby apothecary style jars, necessitating a ladder to reach the top shelves. And then there’s another wall devoted to chocolate. One floor-to-ceiling shelf is stocked with chocolate bars that are just chocolate (arranged by region), and another is piled high with chocolate bars that are spiced with peppers, walnuts and ramen noodles (see photos above!). This wall represents the largest selection of fine chocolate in the whole of New York City.

These two walls are flanked with a barrage of bitters bottles in the back (the shopkeep conspiratorially tells me that all the bartenders come here to shop), and stacks of Himalayan salt blocks to the front.

It’s the salt blocks that are the most interesting. The pink translucent blocks themselves are imported from a 600 million-year-old salt deposit in Pakistan and you can both cook and serve meals atop the blocks. Cooking on the blocks is a bit delicate, as they can disintegrate after several uses If you go this route, the sturdier larger blocks are best for the heat of a stovetop. The sweet spot seems to be using the blocks as serving platters–go for a smattering of watermelon, mozzarella or any manner of vegetables, and you’ll get a beautiful platter with an added benefit of tasty tasty salt.

You can read more about the blocks, and order all the salts, chocolates, and bitters you want, here.

Bryce is still waiting for a store that specializes in Nutella.