Nye's Polonaise

So I started the blog, and then life got super busy. To the point where I'm not going out to eat all that much, but there are a few reviews that I probably should get in here, so I'm going to take a few days to do that. This blog will possibly also shift to some of the dishes we're cooking at home because we're starting to experiment there as well.

In any case. Date night! PiC and I went out this last Monday to a new to us restaurant, but one that has been around for forever. Nye's Polonaise in Nordeast has been around since 1950, but with the fantastic Kramarczuk's nearby, we'd never headed here previously. This will not be a mistake I continue.

You walk in, and it's this dark, fully wood paneled bar. They have the cutest sparkly gold covered vinyl curvy booths. There's stained glass everywhere and some neon... And it if *very* clear that this place is close to its 1950s roots. My understanding is that it's packed on Fridays and Saturdays with polka fans and hipsters.

Seriously, I walked in and fell in love with this place. It is *adorable*.

And then we ordered. We started with a spinach artichoke dip that was served with garlic pita chips. Okay, not so much with the authentic experience, but it was *good*. We were hungry, so it was devoured pretty quickly. I also had a cosmopolitan, and it was one of the rare places that do them right: with gin instead of vodka.

You can tell that by this point, I'm still looking around with this big grin on my face proclaiming how much I am in love with the adorableness of this restaurant. I mean, it has a neon sign saying it's a POLKA LOUNGE (and is on Fridays). I sent a pic to my Elder Brother just because I know of his fondness for polka.

Anyway, dinner arrived and it was this ginormous platter called the Polonaise Platter. There was absolutely no need for us to order an appetizer. Between this and the loaf of onion bread, and the pickled things they just gave him, we were stuffed with leftovers.

Let me just say that the pierogies were among some of the best I've ever had. They served us three of them, and before we had realized that they were three KINDS of pierogies, I had already inhaled the potato pierogie. I felt bad because it was *just like grandma's* used to be, and I could have been able to show him what it was that I remembered from my visits to Detroit as a kid. Ah well.

The other two were a prune, which was quite sweet and surprisingly good, and a sauerkraut pierogie which.... Okay, I hate sauerkraut. Hate hate hate. It's made with cabbage and vinegar and is evil and I hate it. Or at least I thought. Because this stuff, this is different than German kraut which is raw. No, this is a cooked kraut and mellower.... and... Well there was a bunch of it on the spare ribs and that was just as tasty as it would have been without the kraut.

The kielbasa was good and polishy. And sausagey. The potato dumpling was the size of a softball, and had a smaller sausage hiding in it as well. And my biggest surprise: I tried a golabki. And I liked it. See previous comment about hating cabbage. But if you drench it with enough sauce, and meat and rice, it's not bad at all.

This place totally touches my retro heart. The food tastes authentic to me, for as much as I could have it having been vegetarian while my grandma was alive. Eat, drink, and loosen your belt indeed. This is not the sort of place for a person on a diet, but my god, this is a fabulous example of eastern european cuisine done well.