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Recipe Contest Could Put Mom's Meatloaf on Restaurant Menu

By Leslie Albrecht | December 16, 2011 1:49pm | Updated on December 16, 2011 1:58pm
Good Enough To Eat at 483 Amsterdam Ave. is an Upper West Side institution popular for weekend brunch.
Good Enough To Eat at 483 Amsterdam Ave. is an Upper West Side institution popular for weekend brunch.
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DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

UPPER WEST SIDE — Aunt Janice's fruitcake and Grandma Mimi's latkes could soon show up on an Upper West Side restaurant menu.

Good Enough To Eat, known for serving comfort classics like meatloaf and mashed potatoes, is turning the tables on its customers by asking them to submit favorite family holiday dishes for a recipe contest.

The winner gets a free family dinner and their recipe will appear on Good Enough to Eat's specials menu in January.

Recipes can be submitted by "liking" Good Enough to Eat's Facebook page. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 9.

All kinds of dishes — from entrees to appetizers and desserts — are welcome, said Carrie Levin, the restaurant's head chef and owner.

Levin said she's not necessarily looking for highly original fare, but instead would like to find a dish that satisfies the eater with a pleasing blend of flavors, colors and textures.

"If somebody wants to win, they should make something mushy-crunchy," Levin said.

The restaurant's popular macaroni and cheese is an example of that texture pairing, she said. Its creamy inside is topped with a crust of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, paprika and "dollops of butter."

Home-style cooking inspires many of Levin's dishes. Her signature meatloaf was based on the cooking of Mrs. Scofield, a junior high school friend's mom, who whipped up the comfort dish with more than 20 ingredients, she said. The secret ingredient was Campbell's soup — either tomato, cream of tomato or cream of mushroom — and Levin uses it to this day.

Good Enough To Eat, at 483 Amsterdam Ave. and West 83rd Street, opened in 1981 and has since become a neighborhood institution. Popular with families and for brunch on weekends, the eatery features homey cooking in a "kitschy" setting, according to one review.

The recipe contest was partly inspired because of Good Enough To Eat's impending move, Levin noted. She's looking for a new space for the restaurant because her landlord won't be renewing her lease, which expires in June 2013, the Wall Street Journal and My Upper West reported.

"I'm a big believer in staying positive and visualizing," Levin told DNAinfo. "[The recipe contest] is like a new beginning. It's been 30 years — we need new things."