Insect Cocktails at White & Church

Grasshoppers at Toloache was just the beginning of our insect exploration. Once again, we challenged our fears and common sense at White & Church (281 Church St), a TriBeCa newcomer that is already generating buzz for its cocktails with grasshoppers, spicy worms and scorpions.

Their cocktail menu includes:

Summer: Batilda de Coco, oatmeal milk, sugar, and dried grasshoppers carefully placed in a weaved bamboo leaf sphere. This cocktail was delicious, gorgeous and certainly bizarre. To get over the fear of eating bugs, WFC member Alex convinced herself that the grasshoppers looked cute on its cotton-ball-soft foam, "as if they died and were now sitting on clouds in heaven". Perhaps a bit of self-hypnosis is necessary in this kind of situation!

9/10 for taste, innovative presentation and weirdness factor

Rosemary: cinnamon flavored rum, apple juice, lemon juice, with toasted honeybees and a sprig of rosemary. Unfortunately, White & Church's supplier discontinued honeybees, so Rosemary is now served with grasshoppers. While we were disappointed that honeybees were no longer available, Rosemary was actually our favorite by taste.

8/10 wins points for taste and weirdness factor

Why not? consists of Don Julio tequila, Cointreau, sugar, lime and avocado topped with Mexican dried spicy worms. This bland frozen margarita inspired cocktail would not exist without the exciting spicy worms. The combination of avocado and citrus was just not working, and thus left us disappointed. The spicy worms tasted like fish food, and were seriously overshadowed by their companions grasshoppers and scorpions.

5/10 wins points for worms, loses points for taste

Blue Velvet is a dangerous mix of Crème de Menthe and Sambucca, rimmed with black sesame seeds and topped with a scorpion.

7/10: wins points for scorpion and presentation, loses points for mouthwash taste and inconsistency (we ordered 2 and they were different in taste and color.)

Watch WFC member member Mike trying "Blue Velvet" scorpion cocktail:



... and a grasshopper.




Most cocktails at White & Church are in the $12-14 range. Note that White & Church runs a happy hour on ALL BUT insect drinks Tues - Sunday 5-7pm, when you can try their other amazing concoctions half off.

Also of note were some dishes at White & Church: zucchini blossoms, literally tempura fried flowers of the zucchini plant (beautiful but not exactly a meal), and artichoke croquettes.


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Welcome to Weird Food Club

Friends have noticed that whenever I go to a new restaurant, instead of trying a staple dish to assess how well they make it in comparison to other places, I tend to get the weirdest thing on the menu. Whether it ends up good or bad is not a question in my mind at the moment of making my order. I only care about trying something new, unusual, sometimes yucky that other people would dare not try.

With the popularity of food critics like Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain, and even travel show hosts like Samantha Brown, and their bizarre food excursions, weird food itself is becoming of interest to many people.


I love to travel, but with a full-time office job, like many people, I only get a limited number of vacation days. However, luckily, my partner in crime / bizarre food enthusiast Kevin and I live in New York, the most diverse of culinary melting pots, so we bring to you a blog about all the weirdest foods you can find in New York City.


This is one of the first google image results for "weird food". Wouldn't you want to try these delicious chicken feet? Continue...