Bacon Implosion Sandwich is Good… But Can’t Save C4
There’s a reason that most Midtown pubs are not considered Midtown Lunches. First off, few serve lunch for under $10. Tack on tax and tip, and you’re usually spending a ton of money for food that is fine by Midtown standards… but kind of boring. And not better than what you can get for less at a real “Midtown Lunch” spot. Sure, there is the added bonus of beer and TV during your lunch… but is that really worth paying $4 for a soda? Yeah, that’s right… Channel Four (on 48th btw. 5+6th) charges $4 for a soda. I know it’s expensive to run a restaurant in Midtown, and I won’t pretend to understand the financial difficulties of being in this high rent part of town. But $4 for a soda? That says one thing to me… tourist trap. (Or, rich lawyer happy hour spot.) Either way it’s unforgivable.
But I’ll give credit where credit is due. Channel Four stepped to the plate with this bacon explosion thing. If you haven’t heard of the bacon explosion, it was one of those gross food sensations that hit the internets earlier in the year. Essentially a bacon wrapped, ground pork roll covered in BBQ sauce, Channel Four decided to recreate it for consumption in Midtown. (Amazing, right?) Even more than that, they were willing to turn it into a sandwich (called the “Bacon Implosion”) and charge under $10 for it as part of our Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge. So I swallowed my cheap bastard, Midtown Lunch’ing standards and stepped into Channel Four yesterday for a taste.
Be prepared to be rocked by the “Implosion” after the jump…
Yeah, I was a little disappointed too. Not by the taste but by the look. If something is called the “Bacon Implosion” it should be… well… I don’t know… grosser looking. If the bacon implosion sounds good to you, and you like bar food- you’ll probably enjoy the sandwich. The bread is what you would expect, and the most prominent flavor is less the bacon than the sweet and smokey BBQ sauce it’s covered in. It’s moderately fatty, and overall pretty tasty… although I would have liked it to have more meat (surprise surprise.) I’m sure they use quality ingredients, and good bacon and pork is not super cheap… so I won’t question. But there is no doubt this sandwich would be 10 times better with 10 times the meat. (Hell, even twice the meat.) Of course then it wouldn’t be under $10.
All in all it was a good BBQ bacon/pork sandwich, and the fresh fried potato chips and pickle make the whole thing worth the $9.95. But it wasn’t the explosion of grossness I think a lot of people will be hoping for. Not enough pork, too much BBQ sauce flavor. If there is a ton of meat, the BBQ sauce flavor is perfectly fine. But if using high quality ingredients means the sandwich has less meat, I think I’d prefer the BBQ sauce flavor to be dialed back a bit- so we can taste the quality meat.
In the end if you normally like bar food, and bacon and pork, I would definitely recommend trying it at least once… but real Midtown Lunchers should take it to go. If not, you may end up paying $4 for a soda!
Channel Four, 58 W. 48th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-819-0095
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:45 am, May 28th, 2009 under 48th btw 5+6th, Bacon Explosion, Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge.
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Bacon is suffering from over exposure.