The Cannibal makes it easy to enjoy beer. If a place claims to know beer, you hope they're not serving Bud Light. Here, the entryway is lined with refrigerators that hold all kinds of beers you've never heard of. These are the kind of beers with funky labels and names. Next, you don't want froo froo food when you're drinking beer. You want meat. And as the name would imply, the menu here is meat-centric and includes a pigs head cuban, tartares, and lardo toast. Other than the radishes or corn, you won't find any vegetarian friendly dishes. The menu is printed on butcher paper, a nod to the in-house butcher who churns out beef jerkey and other nibbles that you can grab to go. We didn't have time for a full meal, so we shared just one small plate of the lamb tartare. It was a nice take on steak tartare. Instead of garlic providing the spice, this was chopped with jalapenos and in lieu of chopped hard boiled egg, this was topped with a large runny egg yolk. My mother, a woman who has never eaten tartare and is leery of any raw food other than the california roll, polished off half this dish. Thank you, Cannibal, for making a convert out of her.
Finally, the atmosphere just makes the beer go down that much easier. Beers are best enjoyed outside in the warm Summer air and if you walk through the tiny restaurant, you'll enter a garden oasis with picnic tables, vines, and strung lights.
The rowdy post-college crowd of Murray Hill doesn't strike me as a group of beer connoisseurs. Thank goodness The Cannibal has joined the neighborhood so they can learn a little something.
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