Another ‘Scoop St.’ deal bought, and this one was a real winner! This is in a location that had been empty for a long time and I’d walked past a few times since it opened a couple of months ago. It’s right near the 77th st. subway which makes it a super convenient meeting spot. Although we had reservations, it was fairly quiet for a Saturday night and we got the best table in the place with no problem. I suppose that opening a restaurant on the Upper East Side (where a lot of the locals vanish to the Hamptons) in the middle of the summer makes it very tough to gain a new following, and they were really smart to use Scoop St. to try to bring new people in.

I have to take a second to rave about our server. Laisla (I’m probably spelling that wrong) was truly outstanding and seriously enhanced our experience. She clearly likes working here and had no problem getting genuinely excited telling us about her favorite dishes. Super friendly and charismatic, even if the food HADN’T been great, I’d almost consider going back just to be entertained by her again…but the bonus is, the food WAS great!

We had a deal where we got a martini, a burger, fries, and 6 oysters each for $22. SCORE. (normally double that price) The oysters were our choice of 2 east coast selections and they were freshly shucked and fantastic. The only thing I didn’t love was that each one sat on a bed of salt instead of the usual bed of ice. This added a salty slurp to each one that was unnecessary and a bit overpowering. The burger was AWESOME with caramelized onions and american cheese. I would have liked some other fancier cheese options- maybe gruyere or blue, but it was really excellent just the way it was…except maybe a little closer to medium-well than the medium I’d ordered. The fries, which were perfectly crispy when they came out well-done as requested, were impossible to not finish. The martini pretty much got me drunkity drunk drunk after 3 sips and the extra olives were super enjoyable once they’d soaked up the vodka.

The only disappoint was our dessert, the homemade marshmallow s’mores. Although the marshmallow looked beautiful, it was not hot and melty. The chocolate component was really more of a liquidy sauce than a melted chocolate bar. The one piece of graham cracker was store-bought, not made fresh. I would have been happier with a hershey bar and jet puffs…In her defense though, Laisla had not recommended this one- she gushed about the tres leches cheesecake, and had we not already been stuffed, we would have listened to her. Next time Laisla, next time.

*photos courtesy of Gabriel Sanders. http://www.magicsandbox.com/enter/Magic_Sandbox.html