Open Door Gastropub

Being down in the financial district, I don't have tons of bars to go to at night. This gastropub opened right down the street a couple weeks ago and I've wanted to check it out. I heard of the term gastropub but never knew what it meant. I knew gastro had to do with gastronomy which has to do with food and pub is pretty self explanatory. I did "google" the word to come up with a definition that I was very close to. A gastropub is a British term for a public house which specializes in higher quality food- not your normal "pub-grub" or bar food.

Open Door Gastropub on John Street was definitely not your average bar food. Dan and I decided to split the buffalo calamari, which was awesome! The calamari had a perfect crispy texture with just the right amount of spice. To make things better, the buffalo calamari was drizzled in a wasabi aioli that will definitely bring me back. For our main course I was a little hesitant about ordering a burger for the fact that I'm often disappointed. The waitress assured me that the burgers are delicious, so I went with the Wall Street Burger. I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms, leaving my Wall Street burger with cheddar cheese and bacon. The burger came with a house salad, ceasar salad, or fries. I opted to go with the ceasar salad which wasn't bad, but nothing to brag about (then again it was just a side). The burger was something to brag about though. A generous portion of fresh ground beef, bacon, and cheese left me full after the first half. After some encouraging words from Dan, I pushed through the second half of the delicious burger. I washed down the burger with Open Door's specialty brew. It had great flavor and went well with the burger.

The staff was overly attentive --always smiling and pleased to help. Dan and I thought that having two waitresses was kind of confusing and unnecessary, but didn't mind it. Hopefully the staff will stay friendly and eager to help when the gastropub isn't so new. Even the bouncer greeted us with a warm smile on the way in and exchanged conversation on the way out. I really enjoyed my meal here and will definitely go back. The prices were also good for the area. The burger was $12, cheaper than the take out place down the block (zaitzeff).

I had no idea how big the place was. As you walked in, the bar was to your left while bar tables aligned the wall to the right. The bar itself was pretty massive and looked like it had great selections. I don't know if the bar crowd was my scene as they looked a little older and more sophisticated than I. Maybe later at night is when the younger crowd takes over. The gastropub then goes into a casual seating area which had booths. The last section of the place was more of dining room. This section was filled with tables and was away from the bar noise. We sat in a booth in the middle section because we liked the music and noise of the bar, but also wanted to be separated. The place was decorated pretty nice. Paintings of doors hung on the red walls while little futuristic lights hung from the ceilings.

Overall, good food and a good price- cant beat that!