Tuesday Pie Party at Green Table & Billy's Bakery

Everybody, say hi to my friend Jean!

Jean and I met up for dinner some week ago when she had an insatiable hankering for chicken pot pie, and being that I cannot turn down any sort of pie, I joined her for a mid-week dinner at Green Table in Chelsea Market.

We whetted our appetites with a bowl of macaroni and cheese that came to our table all bubbling and browned.

The macaroni and cheese was fairly solid.  I tend to like anything with a crunchy crust, and the mac'n'cheez had plenty of it. One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes includes Elaine's 'Top of the Muffin to You' shop selling only muffin tops. I think another worthy restaurant would include only crispy macaroni and cheese tops.  (Such a solid idea, I know!)

After the refreshing bowl of mac, we were greeted by our chicken pot pies that came with a side salad (which I cheerfully pushed off to Jean's plate since I didn't need any distractions from the main event).

Though I typically prefer a pie where the crust is rustically crimped onto the pie dish, Green Table's presentation was fancy and clean, and it defintely confirmed that this was going to be a pie full of chicken delight.

The puff pastry shell was dynamite.  (This is why there are three pictures of puff pastry shell and little else.)

The chicken pot pie base itself was flavorful, thick with vegetables and absolutely comforting on such a damp, chilly day.  Unfortunately, the chicken was fairly stringy and borderline dry.  Bummer.  Now I admit, I have eaten my fair share of Morton chicken pot pies in my youth, and perhaps I am not the world's expert on chicken pot pie (though I definitely would like to be), I still would rank Green Table's version as decent and passable, but definitely I am sure there is a finer poultry pie out there yet to be explored.

After, Jean and I burned off about 30 calories to walk to Billy's Bakery to add on about 3000 calories in the form of sweet pies.

Jean opted for the last amazingly fat slice of banana cream pie that was horrifyingly thick and yellow.

I grabbed a sliver of the peanut butter pie studded with nuts and chunks of peanut butter cups.

I've been to Billy's once before in 2008, and I would confirm again, that this bakery is not my favorite. I very much want to like it, since it is so old-fashioned and charming in appearance, and the sample of 7-layer bar I had by the register was totally solid, but the pies were truly too sweet and too rich to be enjoyable beyond a couple of bites, which is so hard for me to understand since I always want to finish the whole thing.  Ah, such is life.

Better luck next time!

Green Table
75 9th Avenue  New York, NY 10011
(212) 741-6623

Billy's Bakery
184 9th Avenue
New York, NY 10011