Below 14th ...
Non-restaurant loves in the West Village: coffee, gifts, cheese, books, and one of the best sandwiches in the city ...
Here is a French classic—jambon beurre, ham and butter on bread—and I’ve never had one in this country that even comes close to an average one in Paris. Until now. Get it at the Frenchette Bakery at the Whitney. So good it deserves to be in a musuem.
You’re working with just three ingredients so they all have to be outstanding.
The bread, from Frenchette baker, Johan Cottier, is outstanding. You don’t even need to taste—you can SEE above how good it is from the color and texture of the crust. Cottier must use at least some natural yeast—you don’t get that shiny depth of gold and browns without it, that and a steam injection oven. I’m so happy to have found a truly great baguette in NYC, and just a few blocks from home.
The ham was excellent as well, sliced appropriately thin, and folded over on itself so it had some height, rather than simply being stacked.
And the butter, oh the butter. There must be, as my friend, the Chicago chef and butcher, Rob Levitt, described it, “a gratuitous amount of butter.” And there was.
This sandwich has it all. And you can find it on your way out of the Whitney Museum on Gansevoort Street. Well worth the $16 as it’s big enough to split.
99 Gansevoort St, New York, NY 10014
