Best of New York 2012 • Eating

• Queens Kickshaw

  40-17 Broadway, nr. 41st St., Astoria; 718-777-0913

  First things first: We know we shall never find another love quite like the love we have for Blue Smoke’s mac ’n’ cheese. It’s our gold (Velveeta-­orange?) standard of mac ’n’ cheese excellence. But Queens Kickshaw’s comes close. Yes, it’s pure, unbridled fancy-pants, a combination of Cheddar, Gruyère, and smoked mozzarella with a squiggle of creamy tomato sauce and—what’s this?—green beans? What the dickens are green beans doing in my mac ’n’ cheese? Still, a more judiciously calibrated ratio of cheese to elbow macaroni would be hard to find. And there’s some clever business with the technique: The relentlessly gooey thing is cooked in a loaf pan, refrigerated, sliced into thick slabs, then griddled and baked again to form a nice crust without the cheat of bread crumbs. It’s so good you’re willing to overlook the legume transgression.

  See Also
  The Underground Gourmet on Queens Kickshaw

From the 2012 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine