New York, New York Index

Below is my attempt to aggregate recent posts on New York City, including all five boroughs with a special shout out to the dirty Jersey. As of the date of this original posting, I didn't include posts older than 2 or 3 years with some exceptions. I found fewer posts than I expected, so I organized them by borough/location and by alphabet rather than by cuisine and/or neighborhood. As the database grows, it may make sense to re-organize along those parameters. Obviously we are looking forward to many more posts from the LTH universe. And if you have any suggestions or I've ommitted anything, please post it here.

LTH'er GAF wrote a great number of posts in 2005-2006 on NYC dining that I have not included in the list. I will aggregate them into one post and link it here shortly.

One last thing. We often quibble about whether New York or Chicago is the better city. I suspect the answer lies in where you were raised and to whom you owe allegiance. After all, you may love your girlfriend, but your momma gave birth to you and brought you up. So don't talk shit about momma!!! (unless she can't cook).

Hope this helps.

General

LTH in NYC - the List, the Links

The essential, but cheap, Manhattan (tour of Manhattan)

Quick bites in the East Village (Pizza, Japanese, Sandwiches)

Fifteen blocks of sandwiches (Union Square)

Japanese food marathon in NYC (Sushi, Yakitori, Izakaya, etc.)

A trio of noodlers in NYC (Noodles!!, Chinatown - Manhattan and Brooklyn)

Neighborhood Queens (tour of Queens)

Pizzaland (Old school New Jersey pizza)

Manhattan

456 Shanghai Cuisine (and others) (Soup Dumplings/Shanghainese, Chinatown)

Arturo's (Brick Oven New York Pizza, Greenwich Village)

Babbo (Mario Batali, Greenwich Village)

Blue Hill (Farm-to-table, West Village)

Casa Adela (Puerto Rican, Lower East Side)

Co. (Neapolitan Pizza, Chelsea)

Cocoron (Soba Noodles, Lower East Side)

DBGB (Daniel Boulud's Gastropub, East Village)

Gahm Mi Oak (Korean, Midtown)

Ippudo (Ramen, East Village)

Minetta Tavern (Steaks/Bistro, West Village)

Momofuku (Ramen, East Village)

Motorino (Pizza, East Village)

N.Y. Noodletown (and others) (Noodles!!, Chinatown - Manhattan and Brooklyn)

Skyway Malaysian Restaurant (Chinese Malaysian, Chinatown)

Spotted Pig (Gastropub, West Village)

Takashi (Japanese BBQ, West Village)

Tehuitzingo Deli and Grocery (Mexican grocery and taqueria in Midtown west)

Tomoe (Sushi, West Village)

Yasuda (Sublime Sushi, Midtown East)


Brooklyn

Fatty Cue (Southeast Asian Smokeshack, Williamsburg)

Mile End Deli (Deli, Boerum Hill)

Peter Luger (Steaks, Attitude, Brooklyn)

Yunnan Flavor Snack (and others) (Noodles!!, Chinatown - Manhattan and Brooklyn)


Queens

Chao Thai (Thai, Elmhurst)

Kabab Cafe (Egyptian, Astoria)

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings and Shanghainese, Flushing)

Sripraphai (Thai, Woodside)



the Bronx

Staten Island

The Dirty Jersey

Harold's Deli (Edison, New Jersey)

Habibi-

Looks great. I've had a couple of NYC trips lately, I'll do what I can to add to this universe of information as NYC LTH posts have been very helpful in the past.

FWIW, I posted about Minetta Tavern in 3/10:

Minetta Tavern (Steaks, West Village)

And are you posting the more comprehensive or city-wide threads? I have found them pretty good resources, such as this one: here.

So as not to dilute the thread too much, if I missed anything on this round and you'd like to point it out, please PM me and I will add it. No offense meant to anyone who's thread I may have missed.

I would rename "Momofuku" to "Momofuku Noodle Bar" to disambiguate from Momofuku Milk Bar and Momofuku Ssam Bar and Momofuku Bar Bar.

Topic stickied.

As for edits and additions, how 'bout this: Since this is a brand new index, I say go ahead and post right here for now, and once the dust has settled a bit, I'll break off the discussion and save it as a separate thread for posterity, leaving a nice, clean index for Habibi to maintain going forward.

However, I'd like to point out that this is an index not of NYC restaurants, but of LTH posts about NYC restaurants. If there's a place you'd like to see included, the thing to do rather than suggesting that a restaurant's name be added to a list is to post about it! If something hasn't been covered, by all means, please cover it and we'll add that thread to the index. It's obvious that there's a ton of interest in NYC on the board, and I'm really excited to see what everybody has to contribute. Jump on in, and we'll make sure all new content is roped in.

Thanks again, Habibi, for taking this on!

Habibi-

I'm delighted that you have done this. I think there is a serious opportunity to create some real synergy on New York. It's inspiring me to post pictures I've been holding onto for awhile.

Here are a couple posts that can be added to the index. I posted on full Irish breakfast, a butcher shop for boiling bacon, and soccer pubs in the North Bronx-Yonkers Irish neighborhood on McLean avenue.

I attempted to start a trendspotting Manhattan thread here. It's really about rice pudding.

And there is this post about Chicago-style hot-dogs in NY.

I see that you have mentioned a group of posts by GAF. Here is one I know about: a thread on the Arthur Avenue area of The Bronx.

If Jersey is going to be included, why not Westchester and the CT suburbs of NY? There are a few worthy places in Norwalk and Stamford that I have posted on, so these could be included. Generally, folks from those CT towns work in NYC and think of the close-in CT suburbs as part of the NY metro area.

i was on vacation in NYC last week. i did no food research in advance- just went with the flow. here are my dining spots. i loved the pastries at the new battery park city pastry shop of francois payard. he does a great gateau basque (semolina based moist cake). i had some good cheese danish, but didn't like the rugulach at moishes bakery, one of the last remaining (so i'm told) kosher bakeries on the lower east side. none of the restaurants i ate at would be considered destination dining. but here are the places i liked. my cousin took me to BKNY, a glammed up thai restaurant in bayside, queens. the grilled scallops with tamarind/chili paste was perfect. the eggrolls were average.
i really like greek coffee shops with booths, and ate at 2 of them. the chelsea square restaurant is open 24 hours; always good to know. and gee whiz in tribeca is a great place to eat breakfast and watch the world pass by. i had very average pierogis at veselka, but always enjoy the atmosphere there(also open 24 hours). for 2 good neighborhood dinner places (ie; no 'scenes', not too crowded or noisy), i like
industria argentina in tribeca, and trestle on 10th in chelsea. I.A. serves grilled, not fried empanadas as starters and i found them outstanding(hand cut beef in one, and very cheesey cheese/ham in the other). for dinner i had skirt steak with great sauteed spinach and mashed potatoes. trestle is contemporary american food. i had some new hampshire hard cider, a delicious pumpkin/mushroom soup, and perfectly cooked seared salmon with salsify for dinner. the only big name place i tried to go to was locanda verde, the chef being andrew carmellini. dinner reservations were impossible to get only a few days out. i've got NYC friends who really love the place. i'll try again in the future. justjoan

TRESTLE ON 10TH, 242 10th ave. at 24th st.
INDUSTRIA ARGENTINA,329 greenwich st.
MOISHES BAKERY, 115 2d ave.
GEE WHIZ, 295 greenwich st.
CHELSEA SQUARE, 368 w. 23rd st.
VESELKA,144 2d ave. at 9th st.
FRANCOIS PAYARD-on murray st. between northend, and west st.(too new to find on their website)

Munching on a peerless hand made tortilla at Zaragoza the other day, I was reminded again of how essential freshly stone ground masa is to the cuisine and how fortunate we are to have more than a dozen significant mills/tortillerias in town. Then I remembered my friends and relatives in NYC and their always failing quest for decent Mexican, and I wondered what the state of masa and tortillas is in NYC 2012, recalling that for years the lament has been a remarkable lack of masa in the capital of the universe even when places such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Michigan and Iowa enjoy it as the Mexican diaspora lays down roots beyond the Mexican border states and Chicago. In 2012 I am surprised to see that, apparently, the only real fresh masa still comes from one small, still newish storefront tortilleria: Nixtamal in Queens - a place run by a couple of hipster urban pioneers with no prior experience, selling machine-made tortillas that would be bottom-rung in Chicago or LA, for $2.50 a pack (i.e., between five and ten times what machine made tortillas cost here). Anything else is appaarently made from Maseca. No matter what anyone says, that stuff sucks.

I'm not sure how this can be. Some enterprising tortilla mogul from Pilsen or Atlanta or wherever hasn't bought a warehouse in Jersey and started cranking out tortillas for NYC? Please advise.

I haven't had a non-maseca tortilla here that wasn't hand made in the restaurant itself. I don't buy tortillas in this city. Honestly, its like missing an appendage.

Haven't tried nixtamal though I am curious.

JeffB wrote:I'm not sure how this can be. Some enterprising tortilla mogul from Pilsen or Atlanta or wherever hasn't bought a warehouse in Jersey and started cranking out tortillas for NYC? Please advise.

It's the NYC water. Only fit for bagels.

Found another place in Chinatown for good soup dumplings. Nice, thin but substantial skin, tasty pork filling, rich broth. And cheap! 8 for $4.95:



You'll have to venture out to Queens to beat these.

Shanghai Cafe Deluxe
100 Mott Street (between Canal and Hester) ‪
New York NY 10013
212-966-3988
Cash only ‬‎

Try the soup dumplings at RedFarm or Chinatown Brasserie by Joe Ng, they are the best in town right now. I would say better than Nan Xiang. They are pork belly and crab with yellow leeks, shiitake mushrooms, sesame oil, ginger, cooking wine, and more in the filling. They also add a tiny bit of yellow leeks and saffron to the wrappers. Incredibly fragrant and flavorful, without the oily broth you get elsewhere, and super delicate skins. Worth the extra cost for XLB fans.

Couple places to add to the NYC list:

Pisticci: A "green" Italian restaurant in an otherwise-unexceptional block near Columbia University. It has great food at widely-varying levels of fanciness. If you're feeling flush, you can splurge on steamed mussel and grilled eggplant appetizers, then have a grilled skirt steak; if you're feeling cheap, you and a date can share an amazing bowl of spaghetti pomodoro for $8 each. In the middle is a whole range of tasty pastas, my favorite of which is the Fettucine ai Funghi, which features more mushrooms than pasta. I always manage to hit this one up when I'm back in NY.

Rack and Soul: Superb barbecue with ridiculous portions, plus free refills on the sweet tea, unsweet tea, and lemonade. It does ribs, pulled pork, and fried chicken equally well, and I recommend all of its sides.

Turkuaz: Solid Turkish restaurant, with your standard grilled meats/baba ghanoush/dolma done very well, plus a few special items: The Turkuaz Begendi (Doner meat sliced thin and placed on top of an absolutely unctuous eggplant puree) is pretty awesome, and they also do an excellent Imam Bayilidi (cold stuffed eggplant appetizer) and Arnavut Cigeri (fried liver appetizer). Just a warning: The dining room is huge, but the waitstaff is not, so if you sit in the lovely area with cushioned couches and curtains you will get extremely slow service. It's worth it, though.

Here are a couple of my latest faves:

Ngam
My wife chatted with the lovely Chef Hong as we waited for our table in front of the open kitchen of this East Village Thai restaurant. Before we knew it, the chef had arranged an extravagant tasting for our party of four comprising 15 courses! Each dish was so insanely flavorful, I can't begin to remember everything we had. Maybe it was those lychee-pomegranate martinis we started with!
To me, Ngam is a radical departure from New York City's mediocre Thai food scene.

Coppelia
Situated in a remodeled coffee shop just a few blocks west of Union Square on W. 14th St., Coppelia turns out delicious Cuban and assorted pan-Latin specialties 24/7. If you're in the mood for Ropa Vieha or some chicharron Mac 'n Cheese at 4am, this is your place. Flavors are assertive, drinks are strong and desserts are the bailiwick of pastry-god Pichet Ong. After three weeks, his tres leches cake with dulce de leche icing still haunts me.

My wife and I had a really nice long weekend in NYC recently. I don't have time to write up much about individual dishes. Nevertheless, these are the highlights:

Aldea: This is George Mendes' seasonal, Portuguese-inspired restaurant.
aldearestaurant.com
31 W. 17th Street, NYC.

The NoMad: This is run by the same people who have Eleven Madison Park and is somewhat more casual. With the exception of a rather bland halibut in a very nice broth, this was an extraordinary lunch.
1170 Broadway New York, NY 10001
(212) 796-1500
http://www.thenomadhotel.com/#/dining
(Not to be confused with a different restaurant called simply Nomad in the East Village.)

The Bar Room at the Modern (inside MOMA): The Bar Room is the more causal side of the restaurant. Rustic Alsatian.
9 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019
http://www.themodernnyc.com/
(212) 333-1220

Motorino Pizza: Neo-Neapolitan pizza. Very good.
349 East 12th Street New York, NY 10003
http://motorinopizza.com/

Diner: Diner and Marlowe and Sons are next door to one another and are under the same ownership. Both are seasonal, casual, no-reservation places. We went to Diner, put our name down, went to Marlowe and Sons for some oysters and cocktails, and then went back to Diner for an excellent dinner.
85 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 486-3077
http://dinernyc.com/

Marlow and Sons
81 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 384-1441
http://marlowandsons.com/

Golden Unicorn: Bustling Dim Sum Mega Restaurant that reminded me of Phoenix in Chicago.
http://goldenunicornrestaurant.com/
18 East Broadway New York, NY 10002
(212) 941-0911

And an excellent bagel at Murray's Bagels.
http://www.murraysbagels.com
500 Avenue of the Americas # 1 New York, NY 10011
(212) 462-2830

We hit a few great places for cocktails also:

The Pegu Club
77 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10012
http://www.peguclub.com

Death + Company
433 East 6th Street Manhattan, NY 10009
(212) 388-0882
http://deathandcompany.com/

Mayahuel: Tequila and Mezcal-focused. We went here for a drink while we waited to get into Death and Co.
304 E 6th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 253-5888
http://www.mayahuelny.com

The Bar at the Andaz: This is a hotel in the Hyatt chain. The bar is quite good and features a full open kitchen and bar. By that I mean that the kitchen and bar are literally in the same room as the seats.
485 5th Avenue
New York
(212) 601-1234

The NoMad in the NoMad hotel has a capital M. It's intended to mean North of Madison Square Park.

kathryn wrote:The NoMad in the NoMad hotel has a capital M. It's intended to mean North of Madison Square Park.

I've corrected my original post.

kathryn wrote:Try the soup dumplings at RedFarm or Chinatown Brasserie by Joe Ng, they are the best in town right now. I would say better than Nan Xiang. They are pork belly and crab with yellow leeks, shiitake mushrooms, sesame oil, ginger, cooking wine, and more in the filling. They also add a tiny bit of yellow leeks and saffron to the wrappers. Incredibly fragrant and flavorful, without the oily broth you get elsewhere, and super delicate skins. Worth the extra cost for XLB fans.

I went to RedFarm a couple of weeks ago and thought the soup dumplings were good but not the best in town and were extremely overpriced. Also found the main courses at RedFarm were average. Lots of hype around the place, and my fellow foodie friends love it, but I thought it was just "good." Took a friend with me who's from China, and he was pleased by the appetizers but not by the main courses--said the mains "could be found at almost any Cantonese restaurant in NYC."

Joe Ng was there that night, btw. And they're opening another RedFarm on the UWS.

For those of you who like fresh tortillas, some friends of mine (ex-Texans) are doing tacos at the New Amsterdam Market and pressing tortillas to order for each taco.

They're called Lone Star Taco. The chef is ex-Bouchon Bakery. He's originally from San Antonio, TX.



Every Sunday at the New Amsterdam Market. They're serving breakfast tacos as well.

There are just so many restaurant choices in NYC that it's easy to miss a little gem like Danji. Sure, it resembles a lot of other places; white brick walls, tightly packed natural wood communal tables, Edison bulbs. But the food, Korean tapas, really sets it apart.

My companion and I ate, or rather, devoured:

Scallion & korean pepper pancake
Spicy pork belly sliders- scallions, cucumber julienne & gochujang
Braised short ribs w. fingerlings, cipollini & toasted pine nuts
Spicy 'K.F.C.' korean fire chicken wings- honey, garlic, four chilies
Tofu w. ginger scallion dressing (This was amazing. Think savory marshmallows, deep fried)
Bossam- braised pork, scallion, dehydrated daikon kimchi, cabbage wrap

And several splits of sake.

We were comped most of the drinks, as they asked us to move tables to accommodate a party of four, which included celebrity chef John Besh. As we were leaving, we chatted with Besh, who also effusively praised the place. Maybe they comped him some sake, too!

Danji
346 W 52nd St. (Btwn 8th & 9th Ave)
(212) 586-2880
http://www.danjinyc.com/

My favorite pizza in New York doesn't come from deep in the bowels of an old Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn; it's not made by a dour old man seasoned with layers of baking flour and marinara sauce. Nor is it made by a DOC certified, obsessive type chasing the perfect, pillowy-charred disc of yeasty Neapolitan nirvana in ovens breathing fire at 1000 degrees. It's not a New York stalwart, known from coast-to-coast, attracting Die Hard New Yokkaz and tourists alike.

My favorite pizza comes out of a non-descript joint on Ave. B and 12th Street. The crust is thin and shatters at the edges. The sauce is a bit sweet. The cheese is salty and oily. My favorite toppings are fresh cut button mushrooms and pickled jalapenos. I could probably house two of those 16-inch pies in a sitting if I tried, and I wouldn't regret it. As with any pizzeria in New York, don't order sausage. It tastes like cat food. This isn't Chicago, jo. But I think I might like this pizza better than even anything I've had in Chicago. Maybe.

Gruppo Thin Crust Pizza
186 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009
212-995-2100
http://gruppothincrust.com/

Paul SL, I also really enjoyed Danji on my last visit to New York.

I agree that the scallion pancake and bossam and can also vouch for the bulgogi sliders which were just fantastic.

I was concerned when my New York friend crowed that this was the only Michelin-starred Korean restaurant in the world (seems to be true) that the flavors might be overshadowed by elaborate plating. The plates did look pretty, but the flavors were there.

gastro gnome wrote: The plates did look pretty, but the flavors were there.

Funny, the plates were empty before I noticed the presentation! I'll be going back soon, and this time, I'll take a glance before I dig in.

Continuing my exploration of NY XLB, I managed to hit four spots over Thanksgiving, two in Queens and two in Manhattan. I apologize for the crappy pics - didn't travel with my good camera. Anyway, first stop was Queens: This was my second visit to Nan Xiang, and it continues to be my gold standard for XLB in the US . . . I prefer them to those I recently tried at Din Tai Fung on a trip to LA. The XLB at Nan Xiang feature very thin wrappers that don't stick, and offer a ton of flavor, plenty of soup and just the right amount of fat. I just love them.


Nan Xiang XLB



I then hit Joe's Shanghai immediately after Nan Xiang, and while Joe's offered good XLB, they didn't come close to measuring up to Nan Xiang. The wrappers were pretty thin, but the soup was not nearly as flavorful as that at Nan Xiang. Unfortunately, Joe's problem was mostly that I was there right after Nan Xiang because in reality, they were pretty damn good XLB, and better than what I've found in Chicago.


Joe's Shanghai XLB



In Manhattan, I visited two spots in Chinatown. I first visited Shanghai Cafe Deluxe. The XLB were really delicious and featured a lot of delicious soup, more than I've ever encountered. The only negative was in order to have all of that hot soup remain in the dumpling, they apparently believed they needed to make the wrappers a little thicker, and these were too thick in my opinion. But they didn't stick and the soup and pork were delicious, and would beat the dumpling pleats off any XLB in Chicago.


Shanghai Cafe Deluxe XLB



Second and last stop in Manhattan was Shanghai Asian Manor. The XLB wrappers here were the least pretty of the four, but they were also the thinnest. You could easily see the soup moving around inside the wrapper. But two of the wrappers broke when lifted - a little sticking. And while the flavor was good, I preferred the flavor of both the soup and pork filling at Shanghai Cafe Deluxe.


Shanghai Asian Manor XLB



Overall, three very nice (and one excellent) versions of XLB, better than any in Chicago. I just love XLB and enjoyed the opportunity to sample several of NYC's best over Thanksgiving . . . a nice respite from turkey.

In the city for my 40th birthday:

Seasonal

http://www.seasonalnyc.com/

there is a companion, 2nd tier Austrian restaurant: http://www.ediandthewolf.com/

my friends took me to Seasonal to celebrate

sedate, taupe space...top welcoming service

one of the best sommelier experiences I've ever had; "what do you like?" ...I replied, "stone, moss, iron"

An Austrian pinot...one bottle of many...an Austrian pinot? My grandfather was the German wine connoisseur...as I recall he was always Rieslings on his trips abroad

I always figured a density to Osterrecheian cuisine. This was sweetbreads and watermelon cubes(almost Gen. Tso's), spaetzle so light they should have orbited us, tiny luminous dumplings, worlds in some delicious solar system.

I had skate

post bottles we resigned ourselves to desserts:

two rounds of rowanberry schnapps: ghosts, vines, thorns, small rundown cottages, the forest at midnight

house comped a round of pear schnapps: "this is what most people enjoy, please"

perfect pear, the Swarovski crystal of pear, drinking it

and, the "surprise" birthday chocolate torte

and further desserts

we walked it off on the road to The Rum House: http://www.edisonrumhouse.com/

Danny in his popped collar neon green Lacoste passed by me on his cellphone, paused, introduced himself, said, "Hi, I'm Danny, and I have really good cocaine."

Ahh, it IS a good birthday in New York.


Brooklyn/Flatbush is Kush: The Noise between Stations

S.......'s (cheap<and pretty>Dark and Stormy) (my friends would stab me in the throat if I posted the address)
Spice(great pork belly stirfry): http://www.spicethainyc.com/spice/home/index.html
Ample Hills ice cream(our friends call it "ample bosom" but they're funny like that)...http://www.amplehills.com/

John Dory

http://thejohndory.com/

I knew I was home when they played the last track off of Disclosure's album(a group I've been touting as my "Summer Jam.") For everyone else it's the new Empire of the Sun...which ain't bad. For me it's been, Merchandise, Disclosure, Kanye, Eleh, "Sweet Virginia" off Exile, and David Byrne's Rei Momo.

best oysters(two tiers, East and West coast) I've had since Hog Island Oyster Co. at the Embarcadero when I was out there opening Roseville(Hog Island's cilantro mignonette is better)...but, oh, those teensy creamy, ball-busters at John Dory...orgone box in a shell

grilled octopus almost as good as Cafe Spiaggia, etc.

loved John Dory

The Breslin for cocktails(a dear friend's the bartender so nothing's in question...we talked about their new program of shrubs nights before).

a cocktail built around Shiner Redbird! a drink that drinks like ham!



Bastille Day on Smith in Brooklyn(this must be the place I waited years to leave)

petanque courts obscured by sweaty French in coveted Ricard-banded white Summer fedoras

Brunch beforehand at Char No. 4 http://charno4.com/

Our Breslin connection got us the table in the back. You hear "a focus on pork and bourbon" and think Louisville, and been there done that, you think dark wood, you think that's a bit heavy for heat in the nineties and the unrelenting sun, you would be wrong...

the sincerely-accomodating server led us through the dark wood paneling of the interior to a new adjunct, an aery built of canvas, blonde wood, skylights

I liked our server

I had a Bourbon Ting( Jack, Grapefruit soda, jerk bitters) and
the best sazerac I've had in a year, since Louisville, @ Proof

brunch:

soft, crumbly biscuit with almond butter and blueberry compote
two poached eggs with cheddar grits and thick-cut house bacon

Bastille Day was Hell

they had a guillotine

I had a few St. Germaine cocktails from the stand, stood back by the Ryder truck near the bandstand and luxuriated in the effervescent chill when the guys lifted the loading dock and retrieved the kegs.

also, .99 pizza(don't ever do 99 cent pizza)

and

http://nymag.com/listings/bar/corner_bistro/

cash only...

good, cheap, medium rare burger

Had to share a lovely little pub we found wandering in TriBeCa last weekend - The Cricketers Arms.

http://thecricketersarmsnyc.com/

Near the Northwest corner of West Broadway and Murray Street, this place offers the standard British vibe (football on the tele, boisterous, fun-loving ex-pats and lots of dark wood) and excellent food at (NYC) reasonable prices. What we ordered:

Battered mushrooms app - served piping hot, crispy and the garlicky mayo was the perfect complement
Three-cheese onion soup - OMG this was a bowl to savor down to the last spoonful. Wonderfully rich and complex broth. I wanted to swim in it.
The Ploughman Toastie - a sandwich that will stick to your ribs. Tender and flavorful pork, snappy pickles and stout cheddar made a great meal. Fries crispy and hot with a squirt of malt vinegar - Aye!
Lamb tikka masala - tried this never having tried it before - delicious lamb dish with a depth of flavor from a long marinade. I would go there again.
The Guvnor - basically a french dip with an english accent - the Davooda bairns split it and ate the whole thing.

Two Guinness proper pints for me, a Sauvignon Blanc for the missus and sodas for the boys - and we're out the door for $105 including tip.

District 12

4893 Broadway, New York

10034 Inwood

@ 207th

I didn't know I'd like it at first; they are CLEARLY engaging a wannabe crowd. "Hot" waitresses with tits forward. Men with cuffs flapped back. We were hungry, anyway, and took a chance. Servers on point. Waters, beers. A perfect medium rare burger and this after indulging at Rare. Our server perched us on the balcony overlooking a biergarten rife with birthday parties. Seemed like this place had always been here. My burger arrived(and I'm a bitch when it comes to burgers....no catsup, no fucking mayo...Depression-era only). My first bite, I didn't discern any pink. Now I'm pissed. I was encouraged to chill out. My second bite tasty, voluptuous, beef. I asked another server for mustard. He played some b.s. non spreche de englische card(I'm encountering a smidgen of anti-whitey in the hood). He said there's no mustard in the house. Whatever, I bitched about it with my partner. Another server appeared at the table, with a tub of said condiment. He had overheard the conversation. Fucking A. There was a cock of the walk, he kind of shunted me aside as I abluted myself at the basins downstairs. A manager, I grokked. I grokked him and asked after him, indeed, a manager. I engaged him as to the level of his service recovery. Excellent. And met the owner as well. District 12's been there a month yet they exemplify incredible guest recovery. Nice.

A birthday dinner for Paul Hamilton(of Reggie Wilson Dance Company) last night @ http://www.osteriamorini.com/

beautiful food

I'll try to remember all of it: first, an intense Manhattan as requested made with rye and Regan's orange bitters.

At table: the dinner party is first served a course of quenelles with crostini, there were 6 of the quenelles I think; lamb's tongue, fava bean?, and a fat of some sort stand out (I forget the others, no slight, just me). Honestly, we were like the mobster's table in Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His wife and Her Lover. A terrible gorging, multi-armed entity, shoving awesome shit into our gullets. It was revelatory.

I ordered a lardo and weinkase lagrein and castel rosso; best lardo ever, no lie. I could've eaten that all fucking night.

Table Hoods ordered mortadella, soppressata, speck...NOW, there was a guy next to the bar operating an ostentatious machine; a huge hand-cranked red-enameled slicer. He retrieved meats from a frosted-glass refrigerated case above the bar and literally manhandled that bitch achieving vellum-like slices of meat. Cranked it, and cranked, it...impressive.

The house offered us cocktails of a special cucumber vodka.

We drank a bottle of some Sardinian. I love Sardinian reds.

Their duck pate was some of the best I've had; certainly a cut above commercial varieties...heavy on the sweet, yet counterbalanced by it's carefully-curated meatiness.

house buffala mozz with tomatoes, grapefruit, figs; a dream of a caprese, the cheese as tangy, grassy, assertive as a buffala could ever hope

the house kept comping us stuff, I can't recall exactly...I'd get passed a bite, then and on it went a pointillista's bursts of slightly out of focus color

then pulpino
steaks
veal
truffled cappelletti

and coffees
and cherry/bay leaf sorbet

and the obligatory chocolate torte for the birthday boy

and during and after all this we're discussing narrative in contemporary dance, what I said was that as far as I'm concerned anytime the body is involved in the frame there's narrative; a story is spoken

then:

http://whiskeytownbar.com/

We went with Paul to meet some other friends. The bar smelled like a backed up toilet. Somehow that was okay though. Laphroaig, Red Breast, Budweiser, Stella. A DJ arrived, played Soul 2 Soul!

I've had two meals @ http://www.indianroadcafe.com/ which is like a cross between http://www.casanueva.com/ and the lamented http://askville.amazon.com/Dawn-Cafe-Sa ... 2555(weird paste, I know...they made my favorite tuna melt, ever and American Music Club's Mercury album has photos of them breakfasting there in the cd booklet).

After a hellbus(hello! Wesley!) hike through Inwood Park, T and I stopped for drinks at Indian Road(him, smoked margarita, myself, a Dark n Stormy). My tummy wasn't feeling all that great. T insisted on a bite. We had pumpkin soup and shared the grilled octopus. I mean, the breakfast I had before was perfect; great scrambled eggs. This soup was, well, it begged for an umami element, I don't know if it was entirely vegetarian, or not, but it screamed for chicken stock and a drizzle of basil or walnut oil or something, maybe some parm scattered atop. It was tasty enough, I suppose, and on my sore stomach; placative. The octopus...well...I'm in search of the octopus that compares to Spiaggia's years back. This was tender...enough...yet, gritty with char. I did enjoy the jalapeno aioli underneath. And maybe it was just me, just my messed up stomach. The soup really did help with that. I enjoyed my Dark n Stormy, again, ordered it because of the ginger beer element. And I tried a Meadow of Love absinthe. No absinthe service whatsoever(and, by that I'm not looking for a decanter and flaming sugar cube, just a few cubes of ice, some distilled water, at least). Roughest absinthe I've ever imbibed...rougher even than the dyed abomination a friend made me from wormwood and Ricard and god knows what else for my last birthday in college...when the next day we all shit green. Not good.