WOW- what is this place you will ask as you wander through the mercado at Essex Street Market. It looks like a play grocery store with a few tables and open shelves stocked with kitchen food supplies like canned goods and industrial size vanilla containers etc. They do anything but play here. This former West Village restaurant has one of the most unique food offerings in all of NYC. With a menu so extensive, listing hundreds of items sort of like a diner, but food tasting so fresh and flavored Shopsins rocks the house. The shop is open very limited hours and serves mostly breakfast and lunch items. Many of the foods used in dishes have foods supplied by vendors in the market which adds a fresh flavor to the food. I have eaten here twice for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast we had the Adobe which is an egg burrito with beans and spinach covered by cranberry salsa and homemade coconut pancakes served with a mini bottle of pure maple syrup for $14 and also shared a Saxelby egg sandwhich with cheese from the next store cheese purveyor. The adobe tasted like a combo of dishes you would find on the left coast-the savory egg burrito with beans and sweet coconut pancakes as well as the tart cranberry salsa on top of this combo of flavors was killer! The cheese sandwich was just delish as well. At lunch I enjoyed and I do mean enjoyed a chicken and cheese enchilada. The waitress asked how spicy on a scale of 1-10 and I said an 8. This was a great explosion of flavors. Sitting at the counter of Shopsins and watching the family Shopsin, cook, serve and schmooze with customers they are an eccentric though comedic lot. Shopsins is just on of the most unique, quirky and delicious dining experiences around town! I do admit on a subsequent visit, not having any service. Bringing my dad to the Shopsin spot, I was very dissapointed at the nasty attitude that was displayed by the Shopsin son while we waited over 5 minutes for him to clean a table, as he said just give me a few minutes several times snottily. We left as the blatant annoyance displayed with customers is sometimes sort of comedic in a NY sort of way and other times just plain annyoying. I wll no doubt eat there again when service is mildy friendlier.
