Meatball Obsession: On the Frontiers of Meat Ball Merchandising
Hidden under there somewhere is a single beef meatball.
You'd think the city had reached its meatball saturation limit. Following in the footsteps of the Meatball Shop -- which itself has sprouted branches -- there are plenty of places now willing to make you a premium meatball sub with exemplary cheese on good bread. Someone had to come up with another formula. Now they have.
After delays, Meatball Obsession finally opened yesterday afternoon.
Meatball Obsession (clever to make it sound like a mental illness) is a stall -- just a window, really -- embedded near the PATH train entrance on the east side of Sixth Avenue just short of 14th Street. Inside is a stove with three variously colored La Creuset Dutch ovens, each filled with meatballs of a single composition: beef, pork sausage, or turkey.
Here's the fun part: The meatballs in ones, twos, or threes ($4, $7, $10) are deposited in a paper cup, with a sprightly tomato sauce, and your choice of toppings, some free, some requiring an extra $1-per-meatball charge. Plus a dry piece of focaccia you'll probably end up throwing away.
The idea, I guess, is that you can enjoy a meatball any time you want on a whim, just one meatball, which makes it a snack rather than a full meal. Who ever thought of selling just one meatball before?
The interior of the beef meatball, which gives you some idea of its size and composition. The cup is a normal coffee or soup cup.
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