First Impressions of Eataly

During my recent staycation and blogging hiatus, I had the opportunity to visit Eataly, Mario Batali and Lidia and Joe Bastianich's recently opened Italian mega-grocery store near Madison Square Park.  If you can get yourself through the omnipresent crowds, the store—an attempt to clone the original Eataly in Turin— is quite impressive.  Offering a vast array of the best imported dry goods from the Italian motherland, fresh produce and top-quality meats from some of the best domestic producers, Eataly is definitely a welcome addition to the city's ever-expanding list of gourmet markets. 

Once you get past the entrance of Eataly, where customers are packed to the brim standing in line at the gelato, espresso, and panini counters, one of the first things you will see is the impressive fish stand.  I cannot think of many other places in New York with such a wide selection of seafood.  For some reason, I thought that the mako shark might have been screaming my name.

My favorite section of the gourmet grocery was the pasta section, where you can purchase just about any shape of dry pasta imaginable from a variety of authentic Italian producers, from small artisanal pasta makers to everyday Barilla.  The prices are reasonable, too. 

Eataly's meat case is impressive. While pricey, it's packed with gorgeous cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal.  You can even find a nice selection of offal and fresh rabbit, which can be hard to track down in New York. One of these days, I will pick up some of the luxurious Piedmontese beef.

And, I just have to add, I picked up a can of salt-packed anchovies from the dry goods section... but, you'll just have to wait and see what I whip up in a later post.

I will have to return Eataly to try the breads baked in the wood-burning oven, but they certainly looked delicious.

As you twist through the aisles and the crowds, there are plenty of treats to be found from cheeses (burrata!) to these sausages from Cesare Casella's Salumeria Rosi.

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In addition to the already-open Manzo, described as a "Piedmontese steakhouse," Eataly will also have a rooftop brewery and beer garden, which is to open in February.  In the meantime, you can find a great selection of Italian microbrews in the store as well as plenty of brews from Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewery, which is collaborating on the rooftop brewery.  Molto Mario must have put the Molto Malto beer on the shelf himself.

If only I lived near Madison Square Park, I would undoubtedly stop at Eataly often on my way home from work to pick up some prepared foods and fresh pastas for dinners.  On second thought, my wallet is glad that I live nowhere near the store.

Eataly received lots of press for its "vegetable butcher" gimmick, where an employee will clean and chop your vegetables free of charge, but the vegetables for sale are plenty beautiful on their own.  You're much better off taking these home and preparing them yourself.

I'm a sucker for cured meats and cheeses, but the crowds hoarding the counters at these stations were insane.  I will get to them one of these days...

Eataly is definitely worth a visit.  While the prices are high, they are not any worse—and in some cases they are better—than other gourmet markets in New York.  Best of all, the quality of the foods is apparent. While the crowds can make navigating through the store a bit of a hassle, most of the people wandering the aisles are just oglers; I was able to pick up the anchovies, some pasta, and a few cuts of meat and checkout in under twenty minutes.

So, what Italian treat did I make after I returned home from Eataly? Stay tuned...

The Best Fried Chicken Sandwich at Williamsburg's Diner

I hate to post something that is probably no longer available, but two weeks after eating it, I still can't get the fried chicken sandwich served at Williamsburg's Diner out of my head.  A lunch special the day I visited, the sandwich was stuffed full of some of the juciest and most flavorful fried chicken I have ever tasted.  The chicken was clearly fresh from the fryer, not the refrigerator like almost every other fried chicken sandwich I have ever had.  As if the chicken needed anything else, the sandwich also contained bitter dandelion greens and a peppery ramp aioli to moisten the bread.  I feel safe in stating that there is no better fried chicken sandwich out there.  While you will most likely have to wait until next spring to have the sandwich with ramp aioli, the reviews of Diner that I have read indicate that renditions of the fried chicken sandwich make frequent appearances on the restaurant's specials list.  I suggest you make your way to Williamsburg as fast as you can.  The neighborhood isn't for everyone, but Diner's fried chicken sandwich is. 

Diner
85 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Two Little Red Hens Bakery: The Best Cupcakes in Manhattan

With few good restaurants, a bunch of fratty bars, and a mile-long disaster zone of cranes and dump trucks that is the start of the 12-year dig to build the Second Avenue subway line, the Yorkville neighborhood in which I live is one of the least charming neighborhoods in Manhattan right now.  When I want to do anything more interesting than a couple of pints at the local bars, I find myself venturing over to the more hip neighborhoods of Manhattan.

But there is one area where Yorkville does beat all other neighborhoods.  The Upper East Side lays claim to one of the most sought after prizes in all the isle, and that is the award for having best cupcake in all of Manhattan.  Yes, the best cupcake in Manhattan is well north of 14th street-- 72 blocks, to be exact-- and is right smack in the middle of the Second Avenue Subway construction at Two Little Red Hens bakery.  The sidewalk outside the storefront is fenced in--this ain't your quaint little West Village street-- but walk in and I promise you will be able to forget the eyesore that lies all around.  Country in feel, Two Little Red Hens makes you forget that you're in Manhattan, much less the destruction that has become of my neighborhood. 

As for the baked goods, just about everything I have tried at Two Little Red Hens, from the chocolate chunk cookies to the chocolate pudding pie is excellent, but you must try the cupcakes.  They are everything that I dream of in a cupcake and hit all the notes that most other Manhattan bakeries miss.  They fit comfortably in the palm of the hand and are not so big that I feel sick after eating one.  The cake part is wonderfully moist and has tons of flavor whether you go for the chocolate or yellow (I'm a yellow man).  The cream icing does exactly what icing should do; it complements the cake and is not cloyingly sweet.

Best of all, my neighborhood bakery is free of gimmicks; a sinfully rich Brooklyn Blackout cupcake filled with chocolate pudding is as far as the bakery strays from the standard-issue yellow cake with chocolate icing.  Two Little Red Hens needs no trendy address, funky toppings, Carrie Bradshaw touts, or teenybopper shouts.  It gets the job done in boring old Yorkville.  Kind of fitting that the best cupcake comes from the least trendy of bakeries, isn't it?

Two Little Red Hens
1652 Second Ave. (at 86th St.)
New York, NY 10028
212.452.0476

A Quick Bite at Ardesia Wine Bar

I rarely find myself in the far stretches of Hell's Kitchen, but the next time I do, I will stop in for a snack and a glass of wine at Ardesia Wine Bar.  Ardesia is the type of place I wish existed in every neighborhood in Manhattan, offering a good wine and beer list that should please any drinker, good food, friendly service, comfortable surroundings, and nice value.  While Ardesia sways closer to wine bar than most of the other recently-opened restaurant/wine bar hybrids, its food offerings, especially it's house-made charcuterie, should not be ignored.  To celebrate the first glimpse of warm weather last week, The Significant Eater and I ventured over to Ardesia after to take advantage of its 5-7pm happy hour, which offers $6 glasses of wine.  We also order a few small plates.  Here is what we ate:

Polenta with Duck Egg, Duck Prosciutto, and Taleggio: I would return to Ardesia for this dish alone, and it's something I'll likely try to make for myself in the near future.  The polenta, which given its quality, I am certain is sourced from Anson Mills, actually tastes of corn and has a great creamy texture; it's not the usual mush that most restaurants serve.  I could have eaten a bowl of the polenta by itself, but the duck egg and prosciutto put this dish over the top. The only thing I that could have been omitted is the Taleggio cheese.  As much I love a good stinky cheese, I found it overpowering here and an unwelcome distraction from the rest of the plate. 

Weisswurst: This white sausage proves that Ardesia can walk the walk when it comes to its house-made charcuterie.  What I loved is that the mildly flavored sausage is perfectly light; served with Sullivan Street bread, sauerkraut, and mustard, I immediately wanted to run off to Central Park with the plate and my wine and have a picnic.


Pork Belly Bites with Apple Salad:  There wasn't much too this dish, but that doesn't mean it wasn't delicious.  Crispy, bite-size chunks of pork paired very nicely with the sweet-and-sour apple salad.

Eleventh Avenue isn't an easy schlep for most New Yorkers, but Ardesia is certainly worth the trip if you find yourself in the neighborhood. 

Ardesia Wine Bar
510 West 52nd St. (between 10th and 11th)
New York, NY

A Quick Bite at Faustina

The Significant Eater and I took advantage of canceled reservations caused by this winter's latest snowstorm and booked a same day reservation at Faustina, Scott Conant's recently opened restaurant in the Cooper Square Hotel that has replaced the short-lived Table 8.  I adored Conant's other restaurant, Scarpetta-- I have been dreaming of its duck and foie gras ravioli ever since my visit-- and had high hopes for Faustina, imagining it to be Scarpetta in trendier clothing.  As it turns out, Faustina is nothing like Scarpetta in concept, looks, and from what we were served, quality.

Following the small plates trend, Faustina's menu is a collection of "tapas-style" dishes that are meant for sharing.  There are sections for bread and olives, cheese and charcuterie, salads, raw bar selections, hot small plates, pastas and risottos, and side dishes.  There are also two pricier large plates, a seared sirloin and a veal "porterhouse."  If anything, the menu can be faulted for trying too hard to please the trendsetters who no doubt will descend upon the restaurant the moment the its PR flack pings the press release to Urban Daddy.  Take note of all the buzzwords on the menu: there are three "truffled" dishes, a dish with duck egg (which was terrific), oysters in a mojito gelee, the ubiquitous pork belly, and, of course, a fried chicken dish lest anyone forget about Faustina in these fried chicken-obsessed times.  Simply put, the menu is a fashionista's wet dream (and all in small plates!).  In all fairness, I'm very much a truffle hound, I admire Conant's cooking, and I imagine most of these dishes are very nicely executed, but menu did make me chuckle as I read it.  

The dishes that the Significant Eater and I tried were hit or miss.  The restaurant is very new and its lack of publicity tells me that it is still working out its kinks before it ramps up its PR.  My hope is that it will fix some of its faults because Scott Conant can do much better that what we were served at Faustina.  Here is what we ate:

Grilled Ciabatta with Poached Duck Egg and Fonduta: It's hard to screw up a dish like this, but this was an excellent starter to satiate our appetites as we perused the rest of the menu.  As I dipped a toast point into the creamy duck egg and cheese, I couldn't help but think of how great a finger food it would be if I was sitting on my couch watching a ballgame.

Black Truffle Risotto with Egg and Sea Urchin: This dish reads so well on paper.  Unfortunately, it let me down.  The risotto is soupy rather than creamy; it felt as if the kitchen took an ill-fated shortcut so as to not have to stir the risotto continuously.  A huge disappointment.

Oxtail with Semolina Dumplings and Bone Marrow: This was the clear winner of the night.  The hearty braised oxtail set atop bite-size pillows of semolina was pure comfort to eat during a snowstorm.  As if it the rich oxtail was not enough, each dumpling was topped with a dollop of heavenly bone marrow.

Slow Roasted Escolar and Saba: The kitchen may want to rethink their method of slow roasting.  The fish might as well have been a wool sweater as it was overcooked to the point of being dry and stringy.  The slightly sweet saba (a condiment made of reduced grape must) was nice, but could not redeem the failure of the overcooked fish.

Faustina
25 Cooper Square (at The Cooper Square Hotel)
New York, NY 

212.475.3400
 

Where to Eat and Drink in San Francisco

The Significant Eater and I recently returned from our New Year's trip to San Francisco, where we escaped from the snow in New York to 60-degree weather and a week of good eating and drinking.  Below are the highlights of our trip: 

Blue Bottle Cafe (66 Mint St.)  Nearly every one of our mornings began at this minimalist cafe dedicated to the art of serving a perfect cup of coffee.   I stuck to cappuccinos all week, aside from one foray to a sinfully rich mocha, while the Significant Eater went with lattes, but all drinks were as nice to sip as they were to look at.  It is the best coffee I have ever had.  The cafe also serves a nice selection of breakfast foods, including a mason jar full of excellent granola, a fluffy Belgian waffle topped with local butter, and several interesting egg dishes.  

RN74 (301 Mission St.)  We rang in the New Year at Michael Mina's modern American wine bar and restaurant. The crowd was lively, well-dressed and ready to party at the RN74 New Year's party in the lounge area post midnight. While enjoying pre-dinner cocktails of a "Pimm's 74" (made with prosecco and ginger beer) and a "La Femme" (gin, vermouth, apricot liqueur, fresh orange), we couldn't help but notice and enjoy the decor, inspired by the look of a classic European train station similar to that of Otto's in New York City. For a holiday prix-fixe dinner, the five-course meal was more than satisfactory. The highlights included a decadently rich crab and lobster salad, the pappardelle with duck and black truffle broth and the grilled prime beef with wine-braised short ribs (if you didn't get the end cut). But, be aware of the four percent "Healthy San Francisco Initiative" tax that some restaurants may charge--yep, we had to Google it, too.

A16 (2355 Chestnut St.)  Although Chef Nate Appleman has left the restaurant to open a new restaurant in New York (I can't wait!), I could not help but pay my respect to the rest of the team at the southern Italian-influenced A16, as I have nearly cooked my way through the A16: Food+Winecookbook, with nearly impeccable results.  I had never been to A16 prior to Appleman leaving, but I can't imagine it being much better than what we experienced.  We tried a squid ink cavatelli that was highlighted with strong notes of salt cod and the crunch of fresh breadcrumbs.  A lamb ravioli found the perfect balance between the richness of braised lamb filling and the delicate pasta sheets.  For our main course, we shared a plate of duck meatballs which consisted of ground duck bound by over-the-top yet oh-so-good duck pate.  Needless to say, A16 was well worth the 10-minute cab ride from our Union Square hotel. 

Bodega Bistro (607 Larkin St.)  Any trip to San Francisco should include visits to its ethnic enclaves.  While Chinatown may be better suited for tourists, Little Saigon should not be missed for its food.   Bodega Bistro, a restaurant celebrating the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine, is slightly (but only very slightly) fancier than the pho joints that dot Larkin Street, but don't let the wine list fool you; this restaurant serves up a mean bowl of pho.  Next time, I'll be more inclined to spend a few dollars less on my pho and choose some of the dingier places in Little Saigon, but Bodega Bistro is a good choice if you're looking for a slightly nicer looking spot for Vietnamese.

Heaven's Dog (1148 Mission St.)  If you're willing to venture out of the ethnic food districts of San Fran for Asian, Charles Phan's (owner of Slanted Door) new Chinese eatery is a good choice for a variety of dumplings and cocktails. Don't be fooled by the Asian-fusion restaurant appearance of the main dining room, nor be frightened by the desolate street this little gem is tucked away on, this upscale Chinese spot is sure to please palates craving rich flavors. Nearly every dish on the entree and appetizer menu contains pork, so vegetarians beware. While the curry vermicelli noodles were nothing to rave about, the shrimp and pork shumai and spicy wontons were superb. And if we can't have David Chang's Momofuku pork buns, the ones at Heaven's Dog will do. Overall, a great place for a simple dinner before a night out with friends.

Press Club (20 Yerba Buena Ln.)  While we would have loved to make a day trip our to Sonoma or Napa, mid-winter is not a very enjoyable time to venture out to California wine country due to its rainy weather, not to mention that it is not in season for the producing wine.  Press Club, a spacious underground wine bar in the Four Seasons Hotel, ended up being the next best thing.  Press Club is the urban tasting room of eight California wineries, serving only the wines produced by its resident wineries.  Don't let the posh surroundings fool you; the prices are perfectly reasonable.  My $17 flight of Cabernets included three nearly-full glasses of wines that were all over $50 a bottle at retail. 

Anchor Brewery (1705 Mariposa St.)  All beer lovers should make the trip over to Potrero Hill to tour San Francisco's beloved Anchor Brewery.  The brewery is one of the oldest microbreweries in the country, so the tour provides some interesting history of how the brewery went from near bankruptcy to delivering beers to all 50 states and internationally.  The entirely free tours also include a "tasting" of six of the brewery's beers.  These tastings are in fact 8-ounce glasses of beer, which left our entire tour group noticeably buzzed as we departed. The tours are capped at about 15 people, so I encourage you to book well ahead of time and to use public transportation to get to and from the brewery.

Bourbon and Branch (501 Jones St.)  If cocktails are more your thing, be sure to give Bourbon and Branch a try.  Its strict adherence to the speakeasy vibe--admittance to the reservations-only front room is only provided by repeating a password--may be on the cheesy side, but its drinks, especially those made of bourbon, are exceptionally prepared.  To avoid the crowded and hot hidden "library" backroom, be sure to make reservations on the website to get the password to the main room.  As a bonus, the front room has a larger drink menu.

Maialino: Excellent Italian with the Danny Meyer Touch

If only all restaurateurs had the magic touch of Danny Meyer. From New York classics like Union Square Café, to bastions of four star dining like Eleven Madison Square Park, everything he touches justifiably turns to gold. His latest restaurant, Maialino, which opened at the beginning of November in the space vacated by Wakiya at the Gramercy Park Hotel, is no exception.

Maialino has a design to match the Roman-trattoria cuisine that it serves. It may seem absurd to hire David Rockwell to design a trattoria—I’m sure that no trattorias in Italy have had so much money and thought put into their design—but Maialino’s layout is one of its many charms. The seating area by the bar has a yellow-tiled floor that is inspired by the pantheon. The main dining room has beautiful oak floors and wood-lined walls. A blue-checkered tablecloths tops each table. Each of these touches give the restaurant warmth and comfort that is inherent to all Danny Meyer restaurants and are an ironic twist for a restaurant that is housed in an Ian Schrager hotel where the Rose Bar next door has a strict door policy and serves $19 cocktails.

The prices at Maialino are wallet-friendly given the quality of food that Chef Nick Anderer, formerly of Gramercy Tavern and Babbo, is serving, with antipasti under $15, pastas under $20, and most entrees under $30. I appreciate that Danny Meyer set prices at these levels when he would have almost surely still filled tables with slightly higher prices.

The menu is full of modernized Italian favorites from spaghetti carbonara to the restaurant’s namesake dish, Maialino al Forno, a roast suckling pig for two. In classic Meyer form, I have heard that the restaurant provides diners with bread to make sandwiches at home out of any uneaten pork. Wanting to fill up on more than just pig, the Significant Eater and I decided not to order the roast pig, but we did get a taste of the pork-centric menu, selecting a starter of a rich pork terrine which was terrific when spread on Maialino’s bread, which is baked in house.

As a pasta, we chose the raviolo al uovo, a very large raviolo filled with creamy egg yolk, ricotta, and potato. When you cut into the pasta, the egg yolk runs across the plate. This was a dish I enjoyed eating in the restaurant and would love to make at home one day.

For our entrees, we ordered the a sea bass set atop greens and preserved lemon and a braised lamb shoulder served with crispy potatoes. The fish, although perfectly cooked, was the least interesting dish of all that we ordered at Maialino, but served as a nice counterpoint to the very heavy dishes we ordered for the rest of the meal. The lamb more than made up for the weak-flavored fish, with the Significant Eater and I fighting each other for the last little morsels of potatoes that had absorbed the wonderful braising liquid.

To complete our meal, we shared Maialino’s tartufo, which was nice take on the classic Italian dessert. Unlike the right-out-of-the-freezer tartufos served at so many Italian restaurants, Maialino’s is freshly made with thick chocolate shavings surrounding creamy chocolate gelato and a brandied cherry. Complements of our charming but slightly nervous waiter, perhaps as compensation for the tiny drop of wine that he spilled on our table (and promptly cleaned), we also were served a slice of olive oil cake. Not that I needed a second dessert, but I happily ate the lemony cake.

Maialino has a very nice wine list, with many choices under $40. The sommelier steered us to a Aglianico, which was robust enough to stand up to the heavy dishes we ate.

Several days after our meal at Maialino, I received a letter in the mail signed by Maialino’s general manager thanking me for my patronage and inviting me to return. It is the little touches that I love about Danny Meyer restaurants, where the staff goes beyond expectations to make diners feel welcome and appreciated. I needed no invitation to return to Maialino, for I surely will.

Maialino
2 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Review: Scarpetta

Scott Conant's Scarpetta has all of the characteristics of a restaurant that I would expect to be overpriced and overrated: a Meatpacking District location, a celebrity chef who by appears to spend more time in the salon than the kitchen, a branch that recently opened in Miami. Despite my apprehensions, having read great reviews of Scarpetta, the Significant Eater and I made a recent visit and were pleasantly surprised. Scarpetta is far from the usual Meatpacking circus.

I had assumed Scarpetta would be just another big box restaurant with a location perfect for Bridge and Tunellers to stop in for a bite to eat before their nights on the town. What I found was a cozy restaurant set in a Greek revival townhouse. Elegant leather booths line the sides of the restaurant. Mirrors, wrapped in orange leather belts, line the walls. If only it served French cuisine, Hermes would have been very proud of the design.

Of course, elegantly designed restaurants are practically the rule in the Meatpacking District. It was Scarpetta's food that made us forget the fact that we had ventured to West 14th St. on a Friday night after 8. The dinner started off on a good note when a plate of delicious breads arrived. It contained ciabatta rolls, focaccia, and a cheese and salami stuffed bread. I generally try not to fill up on bread when I am in for a big meal, but at Scarpetta I could not resist, especially with the salami-stuffed bread.

As our appetizer, we ordered the soft shelled crab, which was lightly battered, served atop a bed of pea sprouts, and dressed with a lemon and prosecco emulsion. The soft shell crab was as refined as the salami bread was decadent, but both were equally delicious. I loved how the prosecco emulsion transformed the crab into some much more refreshing than simply fried seafood.

The dish of the night, and possibly the dish of the year for me, was our pasta plate. We ordered the duck a foie gras ravioli, which was served in a marsala reduction sauce. The ravioli definitely gave me one of those "why didn't I think of that!" moments, as it is the perfect marriage of flavors: the richness of the foie gras, the meatiness of the duck, the slightly sweet marsala sauce. As he also did with the crab, our server graciously split this dish on two plates for us to share; lucky for our relationship or else I most likely would have swiped a few ravioli off of Significant Eater's plate (it's okay, she had the same feeling).

Our main courses were not nearly as memorable as the crab and the ravioli, but in all fairness, both were tough competition. For my main, I ordered the roasted goat, which was served on a bed of roasted potatoes. The goat, while perfectly cooked, was a fairly one note dish and I found the portion to be so large to the point that I grew tired of it midway through eating. The Significant Eater ordered the black bass, which we both found to be slightly overcooked. Full from the large portion sizes served, we decided to forgo the dull-sounding desserts and enjoy the rest of our inexpensive Sangiovese and lust for just one more bite of that ravioli.

Scarpetta made me realize that the Meatpacking District does not always have to be a lackluster experience. All it takes is some foie gras and a well-made pasta, and even two Manhattanites can find bliss in the Meatpacking District.

Scarpetta
355 W. 14th St.
New York, NY 10014

Quick Bite: DBGB Kitchen & Bar

The Significant Eater and I recently stopped in for lunch at DBGB Kitchen & Bar, Daniel Boulud's much-hyped new restaurant in the once rundown, soon to be ultra-trendy Bowery neighborhood. Walking into the main dining room, most foodie nerds will find it difficult to contain themselves once they spot what is essentially a culinary Hall of Fame lining the walls: copper kitchenwares from nearly every famous chef one can imagine: Jacques Pepin, Ferran Adria, Alice Waters, and Dan Barber, just to name a few of the displays I could view from my seat. My personal favorite was Andrew Carmellini's pasta machine. Needless to say, I was slightly distracted throughout lunch trying to check out all of the superstar chefs who were featured on the walls.

Food-wise, DBGB did not let me down. I ordered the basic "Yankee" burger, a standard hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and a Guss' pickle. The Significant Eater went with the DBGB Dog, a hot dog topped with sauteed onions and relish. I would never rate a restaurant solely based on its burger and hot dog, but since so many people seem to do exactly that in these burger-obsessed days, I can easily say that DBGB will be atop many New Yorkers' list. My burger was nicely charred on the outside but cooked to a juicy medium-rare in the center. I was glad that I ordered the most unadorned burger on the menu because the Yankee burger needed nothing else. The hot dog the Significant Eater ordered was well-executed as well; one bite told me that the mildly spiced sausage was handmade by a topnotch kitchen and not just some run-of-the-mill frank. The fries that came with each of our meals were also well-salted and perfectly crispy. Everything went down well with a Sixpoint IPA. For dessert, we ordered the Kreik Beer-Cherry (pictured), a sundae that had lots of cherry and no discernible beer flavor--most likely a good thing.

All in all, I was very impressed by my quick bite at DBGB. I will definitely return to try the its more ambitious offerings, which I fully expect to be just as good as my lunch samplings. Even if they aren't, I will surely continue to stop in for a burger and a beer.

Review: Momofuku Ssäm Bar

Fresh off the 12-days of cooking that was my Greenmarket Challenge, I decided to take a night off from cooking and have dinner with my significant eater at Momofuku Ssäm Bar, the only one of the four Momofuku establishments I had yet to try. The great meal that followed extended my enthusiasm for all things Momofuku.

As a starter we ordered the steamed pork buns, a standby at all David Chang restaurants. Like the pork buns at Noodle Bar and Milk Bar, the buns at Ssäm Bar are a celebration in pork fat: melt-in-your-mouth pork belly with thinly sliced cucumbers and hoisin sauce in a soft steamed bun. It may have just been a night in which I was craving pork buns, but the rendition as Ssäm Bar tasted better than any Momofuku pork buns I have had before, with the pork being particularly buttery.

From the "local/seasonal" section of the menu, we ordered snap peas which, along with eggs and mint, were tossed in XO sauce, a traditional Chinese sauce consisting of dried shrimp and scallops in spicy oil. The snap peas showed why David Chang deserves much of the overwhelming praise he receives; the sweet peas alongside the salty XO sauce created an excellent and unique combination of flavors, with the mint brightening the dish just enough.

Due to the Southerner in me, I have a difficult time passing up a fried chicken dish on a menu and my visit to Ssäm Bar was no exception. I ordered the fried chicken dish, assured that Chang would take fried chicken to a new level; the menu was certainly convincing, even in the teasing way of dishes are described at all Momofuku restaurants: "bell & evan's fried chicken-- ramps porcinis, egg." At least to me, neither of those ingredients can do any wrong. Unfortunately, the fried chicken was the one letdown of the night. While delicious, I was hoping my $24 would get more than two large cubes of crispy dark meat, a few morels, and a very rich egg yolk. Of course, despite my slight disappointment, my significant eater and I all but licked the plate dry. If anything, this dish served as reminder that David Chang is not quite the culinary god that some make him out to be; you expect a fried chicken dish from him to be transcendent, but this one was merely very good.

While perusing the dessert menu, the hostess told us we had to try the ice cream pie, which had recently been added to the menu. We took her advice and ordered the pie, which consisted of the Momofuku-trademark cereal milk ice cream in a salty and sweet cornmeal crust. The pie was served with a compote of tri-star strawberries. The hostess was right on with the ice cream pie; it was excellent, with each element being equally delicious on its own as it was with the other two elements. Some may balk at the texture of the re-frozen soft serve ice cream, which made the ice cream slightly icy and not as creamy as one may expect an ice cream pie to be; my significant eater and I had no complaints.

Like the other Momofuku establishments, Ssäm Bar turns a blind eye to the established rules of fine dining. The room is extremely loud. The service is rushed, although friendly enough. For the most part, the only utensils offered are in a canister of chop sticks in the center of each table. Despite these deficiencies, there is a reason why the restaurant is packed with diners night after night; the food is excellent. If anything, Ssäm Bar's lack of fine dining pretense-- although it does carry a high degree of the annoying hipster pretense -- is refreshing. Most of all, the food at Ssäm Bar makes the deficiencies worth putting up with.

As we left Ssäm Bar, my significant eater and I made a pit stop next door at Momofuku Milk Bar and purchased a slice of "crack pie" to eat at home. We didn't need another pie out of hunger-- the portions at Ssäm Bar are more than adequate-- we just weren't quite ready to end our Momofuku night. Fortunately for us, the buttery slice of crack extended our Momofuku high a little bit longer.


Momofuku Ssäm Bar
207 2nd Ave. (at 13th St.)
New York, NY 10003

Review: Bar Artisanal

My significant eater and I paid a recent visit to TriBeCa's Bar Artisanal, a newly opened small plates spinoff of Terrance Brennan's popular Artisanal Bistro.  Terrance Brennan himself was in the house the night we were there, increasing our expectations of the restaurant despite its very recent opening.  Despite the boss's presence, Bar Artisanal was a letdown.  

While I hesitate to criticize a restaurant's service when the it has not been open for very long, the poor service we experienced was inexcusable, especially given Chef Brennan's long experience with opening restaurants.  Walking into the spacious restaurant, we were seated at first in the back of the restaurant.  After being seated for a few minutes, the hostess came apologized and said she would have to move us to another table.  She was very gracious about it, but I was perplexed why we needed to be moved in the first place; the restaurant was half empty.  

The service woes continued.  After being seated at our new seat, our waiter took our drinks order.  We order a bottle of Malbec; it took nearly twenty minutes to arrive, after which our waiter promptly disappeared without taking our order.  The restaurant was still only half full, mind you.  Fortunately, as I was very hungry and frustrated, once our waiter took our order, food arrived in a timely manner.  Unfortunately, our waiter again disappeared when we were ready for our check; it took another thirty minutes for him to bring our check and take my credit card.  

After all of our frustrations with the service at Bar Artisanal, I wish I could say that the food overcame the front of the hourse issues.  Unfortunately the food was mediocre, which is a shame because the menu is a very exciting read.  With menu items such as "pork rillette spring rolls, rhubarb marmalade" and "soft shell crab, spicy iceberg, peanuts" you would think that the dishes at Bar Artisanal pack a big punch, but everything we tried read better on paper than it was on the plate.  Manchego beignets ($12) consisted of several fried cubes of cheese on skewers; expensive drunk food, if you ask me.  A duck pissaladiere with gizzard, confit, and foie gras was an excellent mix of flavors and the clear winner of the night, but not worth its $18 price tag.  Grilled octopus with chickpeas and pimenton oil ($12) did not pack the flavor I had hoped for, although the octopus was perfectly grilled.  A dessert of beignets was nicely done and better than its manchego sibling, but again, not crave-inducing.   

What irritated me most about Bar Artisanal is what bugs me about many restaurants that are jumping aboard the small plates bandwagon.  Opened as affordable dining options to give diners a way to continue dining out and still cope with the recession, they are anything but affordable.  After drinking a bottle of wine and ordering several dishes unsatisfying in both size and flavor, I could have eaten at Artisanal Bistro for less than what our meal at Bar Artisanal ended up costing.  And in the end, Bar Artisanal's large plates sibling would have been not only the better value, but the better overall experience.  

Bar Artisanal

268 West Broadway (at 6th Ave.)

New York, NY 

212.925.1600

Review: 'inoteca, vino, cucina e liquori bar

As a twenty-something living in Manhattan for over three years, I was probably just about the only person in my demographic who had never been to 'inoteca.  It was not for lack of interest; the never-ending crowds at the restaurant's Rivington Street outpost had me convinced that 'inoteca's wine list and Italian small plates menu were not to be missed.  However, despite it being on my restaurant radar for years, I never made it to 'inoteca, as making the long trek to the Lower East Side just to grab a panino and a Sangiovese never seemed worth it to me (but going to Chinatown for a banh mi and some water, on the other hand...).  So when the owners of 'inoteca converted their short-lived high-end Italian restaurant in Gramercy, Bar Milano, to the much-better-suited-for-the-times 'inoteca, I finally had my reason to give 'inoteca a try.  

The evening that my significant eater and I went to 'inoteca was particularly good weather, so we sat outside on the sidewalk seating along 24th Street.  I did not have much time inside the restaurant, but it is fairly large, and the ambiance seems similar to that of the its Lower East Side sibling.  The outdoor seating, while noisy with Third Avenue traffic, is on a great street corner for people watching; we ran into two separate friends walking down the street during my two hour dinner.  

While Italian small plates restaurants have become nearly as ubiquitous in New York as high-end Italian restaurants, 'inoteca, vino, cucina e liquori bar, as the Gramercy outpost is formally named, has a menu that strays from the cured meats, bruschetta, cheese, and esoteric Italian varietals formula of other restaurants in the same genre.  In addition to those standards, the liquori bar offers an extensive cocktail list, a holdover from the Bar Milano menu.  I have heard that the cocktails are well-made.  However, I am not much of a cocktail drinker, so I stuck to the well-priced and well-chosen wine list, ordering Lachryma Christi ("tears of Christ") del Vesuvio White from Mastroberardino, one of the top producers from the Campania region.  I thoroughly enjoyed this tart wine with a beautiful golden hue and will seek it out for home consumption.

The food menu from 'inoteca also goes beyond the standard Italian small plates menu.  While the menu offers the same panini, fritto, and larger plates as the Rivington Street outpost, it also contains a number of pastas and several spiedini (skewered meats).  Somewhat overwhelmed by the choices, my SE and I chose selections from three areas of the menu: calamari-shaped pasta with mussels in a tomato and saffron broth; a panino with spinach, fontina, mushrooms, and truffle oil; and chickpea fritters with cheese (fontina?) and mint.  All were delicious, going above and beyond our expectations with nuanced flavors and textures in each dish: the mint in the fritters, the meaty mushrooms in the panino, and the saffron in the mussels.  Our favorite plate was the pasta with mussels, which proved to be the perfect meal for sitting outside on a warm spring day.  Despite 'inoteca's small plates concept and fairly low priced menu, with the $16 pasta being $5 more expensive than the other dishes we ordered, the portion sizes were quite large, with three being more than enough to feed the two of us.  All too often in New York restaurants, a small plate dish consists of two minuscule bite-size portions, so it was nice to eat at a small plates restaurant that does not also offer a small value.

I should note that the service as 'inoteca is also very friendly.  Despite the restaurant being very crowded, our sever was patient and helped us navigate the borderline pretentious all-Italian menu (a short and incomplete glossary is provided with the menu).  Each of our plates arrived in separate, well-timed intervals.  

It took me years to finally make it to 'inoteca, and I went only after a more convenient location to my apartment opened.  While the food did not amaze me to the point of questioning why I never ventured to the Lower East Side 'inoteca, it was certainly a good enough value for me to hope to return to the Gramercy location soon.  

'inoteca, vino, cucina e liquori bar

323 Third Ave. (at 24th St.)

New York, NY 10010

212.683.3035

Flex Mussels

I recently made a trip to Flex Mussels, a recently opened Upper East Side (E.82nd St. b/w 3rd and Lex) outpost of a popular Prince Edward Island restaurant that specializes in what else but Prince Edward Island mussels. Being a Floridian, I am somewhat of a seafood snob and am all too often unimpressed by the seafood options in the Northeast. Nonetheless, Flex Mussels won me over on my visit.

The restaurant was packed when my girlfriend and I visited on a recent Saturday night. The the main room was booked for those with reservations, but the hostess sat us at the ledge in the bar room. The bar room is not particularly conducive to conversation as it is a fairly awkward arrangement in a loud room. Imagine being surrounded by other diners eating large pots of steaming mussels on a fairly narrow ledge, and you get the idea. It does not help that a mirror lines the wall behind the ledge, forcing you to stare at yourself during your meal. Not a particularly bad thing if you are a narcissist, but a little creepy if you're not.

Fortunately, the meal that my girlfriend and I shared was better than the surroundings. As a starter, we shared the "Burnt Fingers," a plate of fried calamari, shrimp, and oysters served with a spicy aioli for dipping. Being the fried oyster fiend that I am, I would have preferred a few more oysters than the two that were served and not so much calamari, but seafood proportions aside, this dish was an excellent execution of fried seafood. Each piece was perfectly cooked and the breading was crispy and well-seasoned. The fried seafood could have stood on its own without the spicy aioli which was still a nice complement.

As good as the fried seafood platter was, we were at the restaurant to try its mussels, the various preparations of which made up most of the menu. The menu reads like a global tour of the mussel industry, with preparations ranging from "Geisha Girl" (sake, green onions, pickled ginger, garlic, bird's eye peppers) to "Dubliner" (Guinness, toasted walnuts, caramelized onions). My girlfriend and I chose the Thai mussels (curry coconut broth, lemongrass, coriander, lime, garlic, ginger). The mussels were very meaty for PEI mussels, which I find can sometimes be so small that they are not worth the mess of eating them. The broth was well seasoned, although slightly too sweet; we would have preferred slightly less coconut milk and more spices. Sweetness aside, my girlfriend and I were still sopping up every last drop of the sauce with the crusty bread that came with our meal.

With the exception of the rare excellent key lime pie at a Florida seafood shack, dessert tends to be an afterthought at seafood restaurants. At Flex Mussels, at least one dessert is not to be missed: the fried dougnuts, which come in several flavors. My girlfriend and I ordered the chocolate doughnuts and meyer lemon doughnuts, and four hot doughnuts (two of each flavor) soon arrived. The doughnuts were superb: perfectly golden on the outside and light and doughy (in a good way) on the inside. The fillings were great, with the chocolate being our favorite. They were served with a vanilla bean custard sauce, which paired much better with the chocolate doughnut than with the vanilla. Our only complaint was that one of the chocolate doughnuts had very little chocolate filling, but the doughnut dough was so delicious that this was a minor issue.

Flex Mussels has a nice beer list comprised of bottles of domestic microbrews and Belgian beers. I would have preferred a selection of draft beers, but I was quite pleased with my choice of the Rogue Mocha Porter, a creamy beer with a nice hint of coffee. I will definitely seek out this beer for home consumption.

My only other complaint about the restaurant is an issue that every restaurant that specializes in steaming seafood dishes faces: the stinkyness factor. The restaurant itself does not smell bad, but after leaving, my girlfriend and I both noticed that our clothes smelled heavily of the onions, garlic, and spices that were in the mussel broth steam that was surely circulating throughout the restaurant. While Flex Mussels is not a very expensive restaurant, you must factor in the additional cost of dry cleaning your outfit when calculating the overall cost of the meal.

Overall, this Floridian was impressed with the seafood at Flex Mussels. It is not only a welcome addition to my neighborhood, but a welcome addition to the New York City restaurant arena.

Fatty Crab

I want you to imagine the following restaurant. The restaurant is in the West Village, as close as you can get to the Meatpacking District without technically being in the MPD. It's prone to very long waits to get a table at prime times. It's owned by a fairly well-known chef. This restaurant serves Asian cuisine, but neither the chef nor any of the staff are Asian.

So what are your assumptions of the above restaurant? If you are like me, you're thinking that the restaurant is surely an Asian fusion hell-hole serving expensive overly sweet dishes to hordes of tourists, bridge and tunnelers, and gossip girls who care only about the scene and nothing about the food.

Fatty Crab fits my description, but completely defied my assumptions. Instead, I found a restaurant serving authentically flavored dishes inspired by Malaysian street food at a decent price for such a popular restaurant in the West Village.

My girlfriend and I ordered dishes from each section of the menu, all under $15. From the "Snacks" section, we tried the Fatty Sliders, two intensely spiced pork and beef patties served on potato rolls with a cucumber and sambal aioli. While the dish itself may not be something you can find on the streets of Malaysia, the flavors were not dumbed down at all; the fish sauce, galangal, and coriander that flavored the meat was discernable.

From the "Salads" section of the menu, we ordered the watermelon pickle and crispy pork salad. For me, this was the overall winner of the night. The wonderful flavor combination of watermelon topped with pieces of crispy pork belly is definitely something I will try to recreate this summer for a picnic in Central Park.

We also ordered the Malay Fish Fry from the "Noodles/Soups/Rice" section. The nicely fried fish was served over rice in a spicy curry that went heavy on the fish sauce, a good thing in my book.

Finally, from the "Fatty's Specialies" portion of the menu, we tried the fatty duck, a steamed and fried duck served over toasted rice in a slightly sweet sauce. My girlfriend found the sauce to be too sweet, but I enjoyed it; the sauce was closer to a Vietnamese caramel sauce than to a gloppy Asian fusion sauce.

One of the main criticisms of Fatty Crab is with the pacing of the meal. The complaint is that dishes come at all times, in all orders, which is exactly what happened on my visit: the duck was served first, followed by the sliders, the watermelon salad, and finally came the fish fry. However, our helpful waiter informed us of the pacing and random order or courses prior to taking our order, so it did not catch us by surprise. The only surprise was in wondering what the next dish to arrive would be, which added a fun element to our dinner.

Of course, the best surprise was Fatty Crab itself. I was ready to write off the restaurant before I had even arrived, but after my one meal there, I will definitely return. I certainly was not expecting a decent value and delicious food, but that is exactly what Fatty Crab delivered.

Kefi: Greek Comfort Food on the Upper West Side

Last Friday, after feeling guilty about the giant slap in the face we gave the recession by attending a yoga, chocolate, and wine tasting (it was free, but still...), my girlfriend and I redeemed ourselves by having dinner at Kefi on the Upper West Side.

Kefi had been on my list of restaurants to go to ever since it opened a few years ago in its original location, where it gained renown for delicious Greek food served at bargain prices. Kefi's co-owners Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia have since become rockstars in the NYC dining scene, opening other two other well-acclaimed restaurants (Anthos and Mia Dona), and even cooking at the White House. As with most inexpensive and good restaurants in New York, Kefi was a madhouse in it's old location and Psilakis and Arapia recently moved the restaurant to a much larger location on Columbus Avenue between 84th and 85th St. It remains a madhouse, for at 9:45 on a Friday night, it was packed to the gills. Psilakis and Arpaia have certainly found one way to get by during the recession.

I was surprised at just how large the new location is. Although, I had never been to Kefi in the old location, I had eaten at its previous incarnation (and Psilakis' very first restaurant) Onera, and it was a fairly small space. Kefi now takes up two floors, each with multiple dining sections. I would call the decor Greek isle kitsch, with Greek trinkets hanging on the walls and ceilings. The servers wear royal blue t-shirts with the restaurant's name in large print. A date restaurant, Kefi ain't.

Many reviewers have complained that the new location of Kefi is not as the original. Among the detractors, consensus is that the new Kefi is cooking by the numbers, serving unrefined Greek food to please the masses. The food we had was fairly formulaic in preparation and the plating was not pretty by any means, it was very good and comforting.

My girlfriend and I started with the fried calamari, an menu item that we order at nearly every restaurant that serves it. Kefi's version was as good as any; simply prepared and served with lemon wedges. Intermixed with the calamari were fried chickpeas, a very nice surprise; a few fried lemon slices were also on the plate, a not so nice surprise that I assume a sloppy chef must have dropped into the fryer.

For a main, I ordered the braised lamb shank, which was served with orzo and lots of what I believe was a red wine-based braising liquid. The lamb was fairly sloppily plated, with the sauce all over the place, but the bad plating was fairly endearing, reminding me of the comforts of a homecooked meal. The lamb, I should add, was delicious, especially at $15.95. My girlfriend went with the seared striped bass, which was served with potatoes, green beans, capers, and olives. Again, the dish did not look so pretty on the plate, but that did not detract from the taste. The fish was cooked nicely, and the capers and olives gave it a nice briny flavor.

Kefi is one of those rare Manhattan restaurants where I left feeling like I made a steal. I would have been pleased with the restaurant even if the dishes cost just a few dollars more. Kefi is not fine cuisine, but in this economic climate, that is not a bad thing. It is on the other side of town from me, but Kefi is still worth the small cab fare, and I will certainly return.

A Letdown at Craft

I can't help but compare my recent meal at Craft to my recent meal at Gramercy Tavern. Both restaurants are at the same price point and operate along the same similar premise, expertly sourced ingredients prepared simply. It is no wonder that they are so similar; after all, before Tom Colicchio, no longer chef but still owner of Craft, made a name for himself on Top Chef, he was making a name for himself as executive chef at Gramercy Tavern.

Unfortunately, my meals at each restaurant were not so similar. My dinner at Gramercy Tavern was perfect in nearly every aspect, from service, to ambiance, to the food itself. Craft, on the other hand, missed on both service and, more importantly, execution. The service my dining companion and I had at Craft was not bad--our server was perfectly amicable and did nothing wrong-- but did not make me feel that the restaurant really appreciated or cared that I was dining there as I felt at Gramercy Tavern. Again, I was spoiled by my experience at Gramercy Tavern, but in this economic climate and at the price point of both restaurants, I think they should both go out of their way to make the diner feel welcome. I will note that the dining room at Craft was not entirely full on a Friday night, so it is not as if the recession should not be a worry to the restaurant.

Quibbles about the service aside, Craft's biggest fault was in execution. My dining companion ordered several of our server's recommendations: arugula & lemon salad, a roasted octopus special, roasted monkfish, and roasted Berkshire rack of pork. Aside from the monkfish, which was superb, something was missing from every dish. Both the octopus and arugula salad were lacking in flavor. While I understand and respect the idea that well-sourced ingredients require little extra flavor (see Gramercy Tavern), both of these dishes had a flavorful sauce or dressing, but there was so little of the sauce or dressing that it left both my dining companion and I wanting more. The rack of pork was a disappointment on another level; the flavors of the meat and smoky sauce (my apologies for recalling so few details of my dishes) were absolutely wonderful, and the pork was one of the best pieces of pork I have ever tasted. However, the meat was cold in the center. It was also slightly undercooked for my tastes, and I usually enjoy pork rarer than most people. As I consumed each dish, I thought of how Gramercy Tavern would have prepared the same dishes; based on the perfect execution of my meal there, I could assume that Gramercy Tavern would have done much better.

While my meal at Craft was by no means bad, it was certainly disappointing. At this price point and with enough NYC restaurants operating on similar concepts as Craft, I do not see myself returning. Nonetheless, my man-crush on Tom Collicchio is as strong as ever.