It's tough to overstate the energizing effect Jacob Hadjigeorgis' first restaurant, Jacob's Pickles, had on this aggressively mid stretch of the Upper West Side when it first opened 15 years ago. This was my home turf for decades, and I can assure you, the tedium and timidity in these parts was real—and entrenched.
Pickles changed that, though, as Hadjigeorgis, who grew up in Astoria but went to school here on the UWS at Dwight, served up comically large portions of comfort food classics in a raucous environment, stroller families and packs of boozy brunch buddies equally engaged and encouraged.
