Profile

Blue Smoke’s family restaurant concept works in Battery Park City, where the generic architecture has a suburban feel to it. Businessmen who jostle at the bar are apt to have a twang as they order some selections from the deep bourbon list. Still, the favorites are solid here: sweet, smoky Texas-style beef ribs are just as succulent as ever, even if the Memphis-style version seemed a little dry. A rock shrimp appetizer is bar food at its best: crispy nuggets of shrimp and potatoes topped with a barbecue mayo. Another starter, house-smoked black pepper sausage is delicious made into open-face Saltine sandwiches with the accompanying spreadable pimento cheese. And there’s one suburban element nobody’s complaining about: Thanks to the magic touch of Danny Meyer (whose Union Square Hospitality Group owns the place), service is just as friendly as you’d find down in Tulsa, or wherever those businessmen at the bar hail from. — Jenny Miller

Smoked black pepper sausage, $10.95; crispy rock shrimp, $12.50; Texas salt and pepper beef ribs, $16.95 (half rack) or $26.95 (full rack)