Tots are the best form of potatoes. Don’t @ me.
Whether they’re dumped from an Ore-Ida freezer bag, crisp and golden and snatched right off the cookie sheet at 2am, or goopy with melted cheese and other toppings at your favorite divey bar (looking at you, Highland Tavern and The Owl), tots are pure, salty, crunchy satisfaction.
Maybe that’s why they’ve never left the menu in the 18 years Table 6 has been quietly killing it on 6th Avenue. I mean, EIGHTEEN YEARS. Of tots. In all kinds of iterations — seasonal and sauced and stacked and scooped… every new menu has had an iteration of tots.
Remember Table 6? You used to go there to see DJ Ginger spin at Sunday brunch. Or maybe you had the best first date ever tucked away at one of their corner tables. You knew it was a special, pocket-sized place with consistently delicious food and warm and attentive service, but it kind of just… fell off your radar.
Thankfully, the little restaurant that could survived Covid and is still with us. And Chef Aniedra is crushing it — knocking out the kinds of enchanting dishes you remember, the menu morphing with whatever fresh ingredients she can get her hands on.
And that includes the tater tots.
The latest incarnation is samosa style, drizzled with two kinds of chutney and topped with masala crispy peas. The tots themselves are exactly what you want — a healthy crunch on the outside and a creamy, starchy, steamy interior that actually, you know, tastes like potatoes. The sweet and spicy dance of the Indian-inspired sauces elevates the dish without sacrificing the essential simplicity of it.
They’re not the salty little food frozen tots you crave after a sloshy night out, but you’ll still feel a warm satisfaction with every bite — a frisson of a guilty pleasure… but without the freezer burn.