Another solid and reliable place to get lunch in the Financial District is Sophie’s. I don’t like the fact that they’re only open until 4pm or the fact that if you order a side of tostones ($1.99) you’re lucky if you get more than four or five but they do have a great selection of excellent Cuban food, great sandwiches and perhaps the best green sauce in the city, yes maybe even better than Pio Pi0′s.
You can pretty much get all of their daily special dishes like pernil (roast pork), ropa vieja (shredded beef stew), chuletas en salsa (pork chops in red sauce) etc. for $9.00 and each main dish comes with a choice of two standard Latin sides dishes (tostones, rice and beans, plantains, etc)
I prefer ordering their sandwiches (all $6.95) which come on bread that’s as close as I’ve had in NYC to the Cuban bread made in Miami. The fried pork sandwich is my favorite because besides being stuffed to the gills with tender, juicy chunks of seasoned pork, they also throw plantains and sauted onions into the mix before they close the sandwich up. Of course they give you a few little containers of green sauce on the side and you’d be a complete fool to not spoon them into the sandwich or at least keep them for later!
The easiest way to access Sophie’s for me is to walk through a building on New Street which has a little deli in the lobby. The only reason why this admission is even minimally relevant is because that deli sells the much beloved Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer ($1). I can’t get enough of this stuff even though it is sweetened with evil high fructose corn syrup instead of cane sugar. Why? I do not know. That’s not to say that Sophie’s doesn’t have an adequete selection of beverages, they offer batidos (fruit shakes), Malta, lemonade, sodas etc.
There’s a few Sophie’s locations throughout the city so if you work near one or are lucky enough to come across one, give it a try and figure out how to heist as much of that green sauce as possible without looking like a psycho.
Sophie’s – 73 New Street (Between Beaver Street & Exchange Place) NY, 10004, (212) 809-7775
Filed under: Cuban Food, Sandwiches | Tagged: Lemonade, Financial district, plantains, Roast Pork, Pernil, Pio Pio, Tostones, Rice and Beans, Sophie's, Cuban Food, Green Sauce, ropa vieja, shredded beef stew, chuletas en salsa, pork chops in red sauce, Miami, Cuban Bread, fried prok sandwich, sauted onions, New Street, Pennyslvania Dutch Birch Beer, Batido's, Fruit Shakes, Malta
