The Standard

Artist’s Rendering: The Standard Grill’s Fried Fish Sandwich

In the same way that Warhol fashioned art out of everyday objects, the Standard Grill’s new Fried Fish Sandwich—with house-made Pimento cheese, tartar sauce and farm-fresh arugula—seeks to elevate the lowly fast-food staple into the realm of haute cuisine. (Or something like that. It also tastes ridiculous.)

Presented on a wooden plate with a thicket of salted arugula, it’s among the most aesthetically pleasing presentations on the lunch menu. But is its beauty only skin deep? Lets ask the artist! The fish selected for this sandwich is Hake, a culinarily-competitive cousin of Cod, but “firmer and a little tastier,” says Chef Dan Silverman. (We’ll take that as a “no.”)

The filet is soaked in a brine of bay leaves, star anise and chili for 20 minutes, and then dipped in tempura batter, flash-fried, and served with a complex tartar sauce made with capers, cornichon, shallots, parsley, chervil and chive. Certainly, no one could accuse this fish of lacking sophistication.

“The fish sandwich is often a throw-away item on a menu,” Silverman explains. “But if you use the right ingredients it can be really quite good. Needless to say,” he adds, “we buy really nice fish.”