Critics’ choice

Best crotchety institution
Shopsin’s
Kenny Shopsin’s West Village eatery was infamous for its eclectic, 900-item menu with jab-you-in-the-ribs monikers (“Jewboy” brisket sandwiches), persnickety rules (no ties, cell phones or parties of five) and Shopsin’s potty mouth, which would make Marco Pierre White blush. Masochistic New Yorkers, naturally, adored the restaurant until its 2006 passing. Not content to retire, the cantankerous cook reopened in an Essex Street Market stall. Though the setting is scaled back to several tables and a slim counter, the menu is still sprawling, cell phones are still verboten, and Shopsin—cloistered in a closet-size kitchen—is still unapologetically surly, dishing out “slutty” peanut-butter filled pancakes and tirades with unparalleled aplomb.

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