June 2007
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Day June 22, 2007

Dogmatic Gourmet Sausage System

In the park on Bleecker and Hudson
no phone number
$13 for two hotdogs, one asparagus and a drink

Right behind the playground on Hudson and Bleecker and steps away from the long lines outside Magnolia Bakery is a small hotdog stand with an expensive flair called the Dogmatic Gourmet Sausage System. The flair during our visit was a thin turkey sausage for $5 a piece made by Sullivan County’s Violet Hills Farm. There are fancy sauces that you can add, from white truffle gruyere (yes, I know!) to dijon mustard and spicy ketchup. There is also grilled asparagus for the vegetarians. Everything comes in a toasted baguette. To push all the gourmet choices down, there are homemade ice-cold drinks like a really refreshing ginger with vanilla bean.

The owner, Jeremy Spector, is also the chef at nearby Employees Only. (He was wearing his Employees Only T-shirt and chef pants when we stopped by.) After we ordered, we sat on the park bench next to his stand to wait. He walked over to bring us the wrong orders: he put spicy ketchup on our asparagus instead of the hotdog and he slathered the melted gruyere on another hotdog instead of the asparagus. We joked at how confused he was–it must have been the summer heat. We ended up eating two hotdogs and one order of the asparagus because of his mistake. He let us have the other hotdog for free. And, well, we thought he was really cute for being all flustered.

Dogmatic Gourmet is a noble idea in the perfect neighborhood, but I’m not sure if I’m its customer. I found it hard spending $5 on a sausage.

Related post/s:
Sparky’s on Lafayette is a little easier on the wallet

Governors Island

After a free 7-minute ferry ride from the Battery Park Marine Terminal, we were on Governor’s Island. Back in the 1800s, Governors Island was used by the Coast Guard and the U.S. Army to protect the New York harbor. It became more popular after Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met there for a 1988 summit meeting. Today, it’s a New York City landmark where summer cultural and historical programs are held. Visitors can picnic and check out several historic buildings like Castle Williams and Fort Jay.

As soon as the ferry docked, we walked along the National Monument Boundary and joined a few locals who brought their bicycles with them. The view of downtown Manhattan is as nice here as it is from the Brooklyn Bridge. The manicured lawn around Fort Jay was perfect for our picnic blanket and Sunday paper.

How to get to Governors Island:
Take the 1 subway to South Ferry. The Battery Park Maritime Terminal is next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The first ferry ride from Manhattan is at 10am. The last one to leave Governors Island back to the city is at 5pm.