Dickson's Farmstand & Meats

I don't seek out things like butcher shops.  And yet, here I am, reviewing a butcher shop / restuarant.

"Dickson's Farmstand is a neighborhood butcher shop in Chelsea Market offering artisanal meats and house-made charcuterie. Our beef, pork, lamb, and poultry are sourced from small, family farms in upstate New York that are carefully handpicked for their humanely-raised, high-quality animals. We proudly share with you the stories of our farmers and their methods."

Dickson's is located across the street from my office, in Chelsea Market, so a very convenient location that I walk by every day.  That alone wasn't enough for me to give them a second glance though really.  I only paid attention when they actually brought them *into* our office, for a special lunch catered event.  If you do visit the actual shop though, they have a full service butcher counter with all the expected meats, plus grocery items, and a restaurant serving lunch and dinner.

Menu.

For our event, we had a very limited menu: the choice of a housemade hot dog or bbq star fruit (which, I'll admit, sounded mildly interesting), both of which just came with packaged chips.

The regular business has a much larger menu, with burgers, sandwiches, sausages, hot dogs, bbq items like ribs, pulled pork, and brisket, fried or roast chicken, steaks, and various sides including fries, mac and cheese, cole slaw, and other veggies.  I was sad they didn't at least include the cole slaw with our menu.

Hot Dog Toppings (in-store),

In the store you will find all the standard hot dog toppings, including crowd pleasers like chili and cheese sauce, or bacon, along with traditional choices like sauerkraut, chopped onions, and the like.

Housemade Hot Dog ($7)
w/ sweet pepper relish (+$1.25), kewpie mayo (+$0.25),
krispy onions (+$1.50).

"Beef and pork hot dog smoked over hickory & apple wood, topped with krispy onions, kewpie mayo, and sweet pepper relish, served on a Martin's potato bun."

Since this was a popup special event, we were not able to pick our own toppings, but I still liked the sound of the selection made for us, at least, I was definitely a fan of the Kewpie and "krispy onions", which the menu revealed are just fried shallots.  The toppings came very evenly, and generously, applied.

The hotdog was a slightly bigger than average length, delightfully longer than the bun (in a good way, that made eating that first bite a bit extra fun).  The casing had a wonderful snap, the dog was juicy.  You could tell it wasn't just generic processed meat, it had tons of flavor, almost more akin to a sausage really.  It was a blend of beef and heritage pork, and neither dominated, plus plenty of spices including smoky paprika.  It had a much higher level of smokiness than a hotdog usually does, again, akin to a sausage.  Really, just a high quality product, but it might not satisfy say a picky child who has a specific notion of what a hotdog is.  Think, thin sausage that is less granular texture, or flavor of a sausage, format of a hotdog.  I liked it, but again, not quite a standard hot dog.  4/5 hotdog.

The bun was soft, fresh, and what you'd expect from a Martin's bun if you've had them before.  A slightly sweeter, more robust flavor than your standard bun, and certainly more yellow.  It worked here, matching the slightly elevated style of the dog itself.

And then of course the toppings.  I adore Kewpie, I adore fried shallots, so, those were great just in general, although I'm not entirely sure they are what I'd pick in the future for a custom dog.  I did also want ketchup and mustard, call me traditional.  The sweet pepper relish was the only miss for me, but I can be pretty fickle about both relish and sweet peppers, so, not a surprise.  It was also heavy on the tomatillos.  It was nicely chunky, just a bit too tart for me.

If purchased at the shop, this would be $8.50 with this topping set.

Overall, I enjoyed this, and I'd consider getting another, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.  3.5/5.

BBQ Star Fruit.

"Star fruit topped with BBQ sauce and coleslaw, served on a Martin's potato bun."

The vegetarian offering was the same bun (Martin's potato), but this time stuffed with ... bbq star fruit.  I can't say I've encountered that before.  I've seen plenty of jackfruit in place of meat before (my office cafes in SF LOVED jackfruit as a vegetarian sub), but I've not seen star fruit used before.  But I love bbq, and I love slaw, so, why not? 

The answer, at least for me, is because it is way too sweet.  The texture was quasi-interesting, but, wow, it was so sweet. The bbq sauce was a standard-ish formula of ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, molasses.  It didn't do anything to balance out the sweetness of the star fruit.  I just really didn't care for this base component, although I can see what they were going for, a veggie pulled pork-ish sort of base.  1/5 filling.

The slaw was classic cabbage (red/green), carrot, and red onions, with mayo based dressing, that also had buttermilk for some tang, cider vinegar for acid, and horseradish for kick.  You can buy this slaw as a side at the restaurant.  I didn't really care for this either, even though I love cole slaw and everything in this sounded like the right ingredients.  It was just too tart and hard to really get a bite without the rest of the flavor from the bbq star fruit with it.  I'd try it again separate, but, I didn't enjoy it here.

I don't think this dish is served at their regular store, and was an offering they did to accommodate vegetarians at our office.