The Green Table Has Classic Potpies | Chelsea, NYC

Potpie was Mary Cleaver's delicious solution when she and her catering company, The Cleaver Co., moved into the Chelsea Market in 1996.

At that time, snagging a lease at the newly gentrifying market required that all vendors sell a made-on-the-premises item on site and at a wholesale price.

So Cleaver offered the same high-quality organic meals she cooked for catered special events–but this time in frozen takeaway form.

Those potpies are still available today, if you're in the know. Sidle up to the bar and the bartender will hook you up with the goods.

There's chicken potpie ($13), with roasted dark meat and a silky velouté sauce, carrots, celery, corn, peas and onions, adorned with a cute pastry chick cutout. Other deep-chilled options include mushroom potpie ($12), and mac and cheese ($12), with a winter-ready béchamel sauce of Vermont cheddar and Colby cheeses.

Pop them, fully frozen, into the oven at 350 degrees, and one hour later a bubbling, golden-brown meal emerges.

The swarmed walkways of Chelsea Market are a comparatively new development; Cleaver's frozen meals, though, are as comforting as ever.

The Green Table, Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Ave. (between W. 15th & W. 16th sts.); 212-741-6623 or cleaverco.com