Our Bar of the Week profiles have been very NYC-centric lately, so we decided to change all that by traveling… New Jersey! Don’t laugh, many of the TWL fam, including yours truly, are proud New Jerseyans. Also, Jersey has a ton of great craft cocktail bars, beer gardens and more. This week, we will be focusing on Jersey City’s Piggyback Bar.
The brainchild of Chef Leah Cohen (Top Chef) and her husband/business partner Ben Byruch, Piggyback is descried as “a casual Asian American tavern with a whimsical menu” and shares its southeast Asian flavors with Pig&Khao, the duo’s first restaurant in New York.
The first thing you will notice about Piggyback are its amazing views. Located on the Hudson River, the entire bar has beautiful, unobstructed views of lower Manhattan including the World Trade Center. You can sit outside during the warmer months, as we did, to enjoy the sights and sounds.
Your other senses will enjoy as well as Piggyback has a great cocktail program that includes several whiskey-focused drinks like Rocky & Bullwinkle, which includes Wild Turkey Rye, Créme de Cacao and Amaro, and Ex-Pig, an Old Fashioned riff which features Misunderstood Whiskey, lime and mint, or their bacon-washed pickleback shot made with their own bacon-washed whiskey and homemade pickle juice.
For non-whiskey drinkers, they have the Rum Drink (yes, that’s what it’s called) and the gin, aperol and green chartreuse Mind On My Money. However, they do change their cocktail program frequently so these drinks may or may not still be on the menu when you visit.
The menu features signature dishes like the Piggyback Ribs, topped with their house barbecue sauce and crispy garlic; Disco Phories, which is cheese sauce, pho gravy, braised short rib and chilies over waffle fries, and CC M&C, which is chew cheong noodles, cheese sauce and panko. We enjoyed the charred edamame and bubble waffle burrata.
