Pretzel fondue, anyone? It’ll be on the menu when Sigmund’s Pretzels reopens after three months of renovations tonight.
The pretzel shop is now more of a proper dinner destination, having scrapped its former pretzel-centric menu and added beer. You can still get pretzels with dipping sauce or in bun form, on a slider or sandwich. But some of the standout dishes on the menu (below) don’t even feature pretzels. The chilled cucumber-and-spinach soup with sorrel and avocado should serve as a nice alternative to that reigning champion of heat-wave coping mechanisms, gazpacho. And there’s also a kale salad with pistachios, apples and crème fraiche.
The beer list mixes local brews, like Brooklyn’s Kelso Pilsner, with foreign imports like the fruity Belgian St. Feuillien farmhouse ale.
If you were a fan of the old Sigmund’s, rest assured you can still get pretzel-bun sandwiches. The German-inspired offerings put new twists on old classics like the popular Deutschland fast food, currywurst, as well as New York favorites like the Reuben and a hotdog. “We always look at what really works with this bread,” says owner Lina Kulchinsky. “Because at the end of the day, it’s where everything came from.”
So will she do something along the lines of the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy’s? “We probably will mess with it,” Kulchinsky says. Just don’t expect Nick Lachey to serenade it.
Sigmund’s Pretzels begins serving dinner tonight, and will be open Tuesdays through Sundays from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Lunch and brunch coming soon.