vip in the city

Cupcakes and comedy

We ventured deep into the heart of NYU territory for the “New York Version of The Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich” at BB Sandwich Bar on West 3rd Street. Chef Gary Thompson’s shop opened in 2002 with a menu listing just one item – a stark departure from his then just-closed upscale French bistro, Sonia Rose. Since then, the sandwich bar space has been divided to accommodate Tonnie’s Minis Cupcake and Coffee Bar.

Meat sandwiches and baked goods – always a winning combination. See: Burgers and Cupcakes, shortlisted in this year’s Time Out New York Eat Out guide for “Best new gimmick.”

These sandwiches are not what you’d call authentic Philly Cheesesteaks — for your “whiz wit” you still have to drive to South Philly — but Thompson’s version with his finely-honed onion recipe (19 ingredients, marinated over four hours!), fancy chili-pepper relish and poppy-seed kaiser rolls (sacrilege!) is very tasty. Framed rave reviews line the walls; in its debut year, New York magazine named this the city’s best sandwich.

And how could we leave without sampling the cupcakes?

Afterwards, we were off to see Bob Saget at NYU’s Skirball Center for Performing Arts, Saget was in town performing a pair of 90-minute shows that will be edited together for his upcoming HBO stand-up special. Before a packed house — many of whom grew up with Full House and America’s Funniest Home Vidoes on constant television rotation – Saget quickly skewered his wholesome television image. After The Aristocrats, is there anyone left who can still think of Danny Tanner the same way?

There was the usual amount of self-parody, and liberal doses of the over-the-top raunch with which Saget has come to be associated in the last few years (How I Met Your Mother and 1 vs. 100 notwithstanding)… all the more hilarious and wince-inducing coming out the mouth of someone who is still best known for playing a freakishly neat (yet not gay) widowed father of three girls. For that matter John Stamos and Dave Coulier‘s images don’t come off untarnished in Saget’s act either. As for that stuff he said about Andrea Barber, a.k.a. Kimmy Gibbler… well, that’s just not right.

Saget seems to revel in the adult turn his career has taken since the 1990s: from the guest appearances on Entourage to the uncredited (audio possibly NSFW) cameo in 1998’s Half-Baked, (which was liberally referenced in his act, and offers a compelling viewpoint on what qualifies as an addiction) to Jamie Kennedy’s rap tribute “Rollin’ With Saget.” (Check out the unedited version here.)

Saget closed out his show with a few tunes, folksily strummed on a guitar (see above: “Danny Tanner Was Not Gay” to the tune of the Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way”) and a somewhat less romantic retooling of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.”

Is Bob Saget God?

There's 1 comment so far ... Cupcakes and comedy

Qsoz
April 17, 2007

The Saget clips are awesome by the way.

Go for it ...