After a runaway success with our quest for the best Bacon, Egg & Cheese over on lohud, Megan and I are starting another quest: for the best red sauce. Not sure how we’ll ever decide it for sure, but we’ll give it the old college try.
My first stop is at Joe & Joe in Pearl River. The owner, Joseph Longobardo, is the grandson of the owner of the original Joe & Joe, which opened in the Bronx in 1940. The restaurant, on Pearl River’s main drag, has a green awning outside, and a big square bar in the front room. We were ushered to a table in the smaller dining room in back.
Plenty comfortable enough, with nice lighting and a calming palate of soft yellow and wood trim.
The first thing we ordered was… the red sauce! It was well-balanced, with a nice acidity but some sweetness. There were no chunks of tomatoes, and indeed, it was a little watery… not all of it wanted to cling to the spaghtetti. But all in all, an impressive contender.
Sam agrees.
We also tried the linguine with white clam sauce. Al dente pasta, chopped clams (I would have prefered more fresh in the shell) and a healthy pass of parsley. Not bad, though not my favorite.
And the bolognese, which was meaty and creamy and very satisfying. High marks here.
And then for dessert, a classic for a red-sauce restaurant, spumoni!
A new fan was born this evening:
So far, so good! We’ll see where the red sauce quest takes us from here!
Joe & Joe, 65 E. Central Ave., Pearl RIver. 845-620-1800, joeandjoerestaurant.com
