New York City's Cowgirl Seahorse Takes Its Lunch Menu On A Wild Ride
"See that table over there?" Maura Kilgore, owner of the Cowgirl Seahorse, nods towards the front of her restaurant. "That's a wedding party. We get them all the time. They come straight here from City Hall. I don't know how they find us, but it's a regular thing."
My jaw drops just thinking about the sheer simplicity of their post-nuptial meal compared to the number of zeroes and tastings that are going to be involved in catering my own wedding next June; how much easier it must be to just chow down on a basket of Rattlesnake Bites (which, by the way, are flame roasted jalapeños stuffed with grilled shrimp and wrapped in bacon.)
I turn back to my own choices on the new "Pick Two" (for $9.95) lunch menu, which has options like mac'n'cheese, BLT on wheat toast, beef chili, shrimp bisque, and grilled cheese. It's hard not to divert to my favorites from the regular menu: the chicken enchiladas, the sweet potato fries with sweet dipping sauce and whatever magic crumble they sprinkle over them, and the burrito bowl salad.
Kilgore, who I've known for years, explains that the Seahorse now changes its theme every season (it used to be every month, but that was too cray cray.) Right now, it's "Winter in Waikiki", so the specials include a luau roast pig platter; chicken long rice soup, and macadamia crusted mahi-mahi, among others.
"There are a lot of similarities in Mexican and Asian cooking, like leaving the bone-in on the chicken in the soup," she says as I try to figure out how to get the chicken to fall off the bone.
"You'll have to just take it out and eat it, or cut it in the plate," she says. "That's how they serve it in Hawaii, so that's how we do it here."
Starting next week, the new theme menu will be "The Farmer's Daughter." You'll want to come check out that menu for yourself on a Modelo Music Monday, when there's cheap beer and live music, or a Wednesday, which is trivia night.