Every day when I leave work, I’m greeted by this:

Usually I walk right past without even noticing the food carts, but a few days ago I took another look and realised that I’ve never had a pretzel. Even though it’s originally a European food, for some reason I connect it with New York; perhaps because I don’t think I ever saw a single pretzel for as long as I lived in London.

But rather than buy from a food truck, I thought I should do it properly and go for a fresh one. After a bit of research, I discovered Sigmund’s Pretzels in Alphabet City.

Sigmund’s is an open-fronted restaurant between Bodegas and wine bars. It’s light, airy and simple – just like its menu.

I opted for a feta and olive pretzel with wholegrain mustard and, once it was warmed up, I took it to go. But this is a great spot for a lunch, a light meal or dinner – or for the $7 beer and pretzel happy hour combo.

The pretzel was delicious. Thankfully it didn’t have too much feta – just a thin layer across the top – because I wanted to taste the pretzel. It was doughy but surprisingly light and an absolute savoury fest. I’m not a mustard lover, so a light dip was enough.

For $3, this was a great dinner. Or breakfast. Or lunch. There seems to be a pattern developing across this blog – because I want to go back!