I don't usually go this part of Manhattan to eat, but I was in the neighborhood and remember a suggestion of a friend so I stopped by to see if it was any good. It seemed like a pretty standard "in-between" restaurant--not too homey, not too touristy. The prices were slightly above what I would have liked to pay for the type and amount of food given, but not terribly expensive in anyway. An entree was around $10, a combination entree was upwards of $15.
I was hungry. I ordered a combo of baked beans, pulled pork, spicy sausage, and sweet potato fries--plus we got hush puppies. First noticeable thing was that the temperature of the food was lukewarm to simply room temperature--which is a bit off-putting. The baked beans were hot and I can contest to their great taste as I am a baked beans lover; they were tangy, thick and there was generous portions of tender pork mixed in.
The pulled pork and sausage were only warm and slightly dry--which is where the BBQ sauce comes in. Apparently it is normal practice to moisten the meat to your liking with the available BBQ sauces--I have no qualms with that. The fries were decent, not very crisp nor very limp, standard sweet potato fries all in all. The hush puppies were not all that amazing either and probably not that great--I can't say in earnest though since I don't have much hush puppy experience, although my companion said they were just OK and she's from Ohio where apparently hush puppies are more prevalent.
I think the catch here is that if you put BBQ sauce on anything it'll make it more than passable, which is generally true if you enjoy BBQ sauce as much as I do. I'd say overall that Rub is a pretty good place if you're in the area and definitely far ahead of places like Dallas BBQ or similar gross chains.
208 West 23rd St., New York, NY 10011, 212 524 4300, www.rubbbq.net
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