Macbar

In New York, just about any food urge can be satiated somewhere. But it’s hard to think of a place with a more laserlike focus on one—and only one—thing than Macbar, where Macaroni & Cheese is all you can get. The theme extends even to the décor, which is decked out in macaroni yellow. Look a bit harder, and you’ll see that the room is even shaped like a piece of macaroni.

If there was great public demand for such a place, I must not have heard about it, but the tiny slip of a storefront next to Delicatessen was available, so the owners grabbed it. I can’t imagine where they got the idea, but I salute the notion of doing one thing well, which Macbar does.

You could eat here a few times and not get bored, as they offer twelve varieties of mac & cheese. Many are obvious: the classic, four cheese, primavera, carbonara. Others are mash-ups with familiar dishes: mac reuben, mac stroganoff, cesseburger mc. Then there’s mac ’shroom, mac lobsta, mac quack (duck). You get the drift.

Each of these is available in small ($5.99–8.99), medium ($7.99–12.99) or large ($12.99–17.99). My son and I both ordered mediums, a size that made for a good-sized entrée.

You can also take your M&C elsewhere and combine it with something else, which wouldn’t be a bad idea. A lot of the business here is take-out. The are only a few tables; they’re small and not especially comfortable, but they suffice for a quick meal. Naturally, they’re yellow.

We ordered the mac quack ($11.99; above left) and the mac reuben ($10.99; above right). Both were terrific, but they make for a one-note dinner. They come in cute yellow containers shaped like—well, you probably guessed by now.

I don’t know if I would have gone without a 14-year-old, but if you’re in the area and have a craving for mac & cheese, macbar is your restaurant.

Macbar (54 Prince Street, east of Lafayette Street, Soho)