juuceman

Los Paisanos, on Smith Street in downtown Brooklyn, sells a ton of pork. Great guys, the have a pretty wide delivery zone as well.

Queen remains the best jury duty sit down lunch in the area. Fasacati remains the best pizza in the neighborhood and can be done in an hour, it is closed on Monday. Waterfalls, on Atlantic, has been my go to middle eastern lately. Pete's Waterfront Ale House, also on Atlantic, has a pretty good lunch special. You can go to the Chip Shop on Atlantic if you're craving fried fish. Popeye's is on Court Street. Iris Cafe has decent coffee during the week, they brew Stumptown, but generally don't have a dedicated barista on weekdays. You could get down the hill on Joralemon for lunch and back in an hour. California Taqueria is a bit of a hike (less so if you're in the court on Livingston Street) but is pretty good. Montague Street has a bunch of Chinese (Litchi Nut is the best) and Japanese (Nanatori) places that are fine and do cheap lunch specials, Lantern Thai further up does a big lunch business, there's a Five Guys on the block as well. Nothing incredible, but it works if you're just looking to eat. There's also a Hale and Hearty on Remsen Street.

Note that my post should have read "Great KorEan on 32nd Street, North Side of the Street, street level - Kun Jip." Best Korean bbq is debatable, as it can depend on what specifically you're eating. That being said, Wo Chon, Woochon, on 36th Street, is my go to place. We walk up to Olympic Pita, on 38th Street, two or three times a month. Great schwarma on laffa, good salad bar. Lunch specials give you a ton of food. Kosher. Mr. Broadway's falafel is OK, their schwarma on a baguette is actually pretty good.

Dimple is now Punjab Palace and is no longer vegetarian. Great Koran on 32nd Street, North Side of the Street, street level - Kun Jip. Mandoo has good dumplings and a good fried tofu appetizer. Empire State Pizza on 33rd Street, South Side of the street, has a good 2 slices + soda deal for $5. Good slices as well. Bella Napoli, Madison btwn 30 and 31, has good steam table Italian-American food. Great chicken parm heros, and the Bella Napoli Salad with grilled chicken is a great meal. No 7 Sub, in the Ace Hotel, is interesting, but a little heavy. Stumptown has a small variety of small premade sandwiches on offer, mostly ham and cheese. Wolfgang's, at the bar, offers a decent slight splurge of a meal. Ben and Jack's, on 5th and 29th, offers a similar but larger menu. Mishima, on Park btwn 30 and 31, offers better than average sushi and good and interesting lunch specials. There's a random Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant on 33rd Street, South Side, btwn 5th and Madison, that has a 3 items over rice for $5 lunch special to take out only. Some interesting choices mixed in with one or two more Americanized dishes. Waldy's Woodfired Pizza is a nice break from the usual choices. There's a newish sandwich/salad place on 7th and 30th that's a few steps above the usual dreck offered by these places.

Lupa has always had an interesting seating policy which only now has caused it to be problematic for you. I often eat there, probably 90% of the time at the bar. for whatever reasons, the overall experience just works better for me there. they will not seat people at the bar who just want to drink once there is any sort of a wait for bar stools and people wanting to eat there. like Nathan, they have asked people to shift seats or stand to permit me to eat at the bar.. it's their model, and their policy if you're open and upfront with them about it.. they do have a more casual model in the front room at Otto, where you can stand, or sit at the larger bar, with a better wine list, and more snack type items available. their policy worked out better for you than if you had ordered wine, then later just appetizers, at which point the position they were in would have been a more awkward one.. I'm sure that the cost of the bottle of wine would have dictated their stance towards you, and whether they offered to allow you to order another bottle later in the afternoon.. at the end of the day though, i don't think they want to be known as a restaurant where it's ok to sit at a table and order just a bottle (or quartino) of wine and a small snack..

Lines in the Fast Pass area vary widely, and are very different from those in the general line. 100,000+ people attended last year. Less than 3% had Fast Passes. You do the math.

It's often down the block, from his mid-Madison Avenue vantage point, to the corner, where it doubles back, then doubles back again, and again. Often the longest line at the BBQ. I've said this before, if you plan on going with more than two people, you're insane to not commit to purchasing $100 worth of BBQ and getting a fast pass now. The lines are out of control, and with a fast pass I've never waited more than 10 minutes for anything, and even that is the rarity. Also, in prior years due to FastPass breakdowns, I've gotten plenty of free food.

unsure whether it's been noted elsewhere, but Mei Lai Wah has been closed by the Department of Health and is extremely unlikely to ever reopen.

The bottled kind that you squeeze and white stuff comes out of. Er, Japanese mayo. Too sweet for me. regards, trillium ← no, what I meant was...which menu items were using it? ← a lot of the non-local momofuku/chang press discusses his use of kewpie mayo.. look, this thread is slightly off.. you have an agenda and a listing of places that you'd like to visit.. none of them are really all that innovative or offering things that you indicate you can get from the source, and yet you want to try the nyc versions.. those of us who eat out a lot here enjoy the momofuku's because they offer something different from the standard ethnic food that you're apparently looking for, which is why they're offered up and almost pushed down your throat.. but to come here and go to the random sushi/kaiseki/korean bbq/etc joints that are fine, but considering the higher quality outlets of all of these places in the US, especially on the West Coast, I think it's a waste of your time to make it a point to hit them and not eat at Ssam..

This is our 'go to' olive oil.

This is my point in my post above. Go to Irving Place (Pete's Tavern, 71 Irving , Friend of a Farmer, Casa Mono, Bar Jamon, Pure Food and Wine, Cibar) and a whole new world of opportunities opens up to you though.

ehh.. all things being equal, being on the East Side of Union Square is, in my opinion, a better way to go.. i lived on Union Square, just off of 5th for years and moved closer to Irving a few years ago.. it makes a world of difference.. there are very few neighborhood 'go to' options on the blocks that you mention, they're not really that residential, and for things like a cup of coffee in the morning, normal drop in lunch places, and neighborhood dining options, etc., you won't do that well.. you can easily hit the greenmarket, there are a bunch of under rated places to eat that you wouldn't make the trek from 5th to eat in but are great for Tuesday night dinners.. on the East Side of the Park, the walk across Union Square isn't a big issue, it puts you closer to the East Village, and you don't have to deal with the tourist overflow that those blocks give you..

An article in this morning's NY Times recommends El Naranjo. Does this mean it is re-open (with Iliana?) or are they just behind the times with their information? ← the Times article seems to rely on old information, giving the website of the old Naranjo restaurant, and not mentioning that it was sold and has both a new chef and a new menu.

Actually, that's the owner's position, and the position of everybody who says the "his place, his rules" truism ends the discussion. My point is that Chris was treated inhospitably, that there was no justification for doing so -- as in a good reason, not the "his place, his rules" power play -- and that it is simultaneously grandiose and petty to care if one person in a half-empty bar is using a laptop computer quietly in the corner. ← Have you ever been to the University Club, or anything of a similar ilk? Almost all of them have rules against not just laptops, but cell phones, and really any sort of business discussions. Restaurants and bar owners make conscious decisions about whether to have televisions in the bar area. If they choose not to, they're going to lose a lot of business to the type of crowd that insists on watching television while they drink, while simultaneously giving them a small bump in business from those who appreciate the lack of televisisions. It's likely a poor economic decision, but it's one that been made. So Chris walks in to a place that has made the decision not to have a television. He pulls out his lapton, which the owner doesn't like. The owner comes to him immediately, before he has paid for his drink, and basically lets him know that he can't stay there with it. He does it nicely, and seemed to be polite throughout the entire interaction. Lets say that the owner didn't say anything to him, figuring that he was in the corner, the light wasn't bothering anyone else, and someone else walks in and sits down at the bar and pulls out their laptop in the middle of the room. This obviously throws off the entire aestheric and vibe that the owner is going for. It's now going to be a lot harder to deal with this situation, given that Chris has been there for 20 minutes, has had a drink, and has been working on his laptop not disturbing anyone. I don't blame the owner at all. His place, his terms. We refuse the right to serve anyone. I'm one of those who hates the glare and light of the television, laptop, and often even the blackberry, when I'm leaving the office and just want a cocktail at the end of the night on the way home.

there's an italian place on 8th and 30th or so that makes their own sausage, and has incredible sandwiches.. i'm sure that it's on this thread or that a quick google search will show it..

So to be clear, this was a meal that was put together for the press, and for which no payment was made to the restaurant?

Nigel Slater offers a few baked/roasted chicken wing recipes in his Kitchen Diaries. My favorite has you break down the wings, remove the tips, toss the raw wings with fresh lemon juice, honey, black pepper and salt. Roast until done, they're nice and sticky with some heat and a good amount of flavor. I've become pretty good about ordering a grilled chicken breast with buffalo wing sauce on it and a side of blue cheese at my local bar. Makes me feel a bit healthier than eating 20 wings.

I don't know of any decent butcher that is open on a Sunday. The closest we've come (and it's not that close) is the meat counter at Dean and DeLuca in SoHo. To answer the question upthread, Florence doesn't have a website. They actually do a decent restaurant trade, which is a bit odd, as described above.

Tasty Dumpling is (was?) run by Vanessa. I believe Calvin Trillin wrote an article about her, I believe he also stops there on his eating tours. Tasty is my favorite of the cheap dumpling spots, offering a number of different options, including very good boiled vegetable dumplings. A number of dumpling based soups are available, as is a decent chinese vegetable with noddle soup and decent cold noodles with sesame sauce. The pickled cabbage is great there, when they have it. They've also opened a branch on 14th Street, just east of 3rd Avenue, that offers the full dumpling assortment plus some low end sushi and teriyaki. Dumplings here are $2, instead of $1, but they are more frequently freshly cooked. Both locations sell bags of frozen dumplings that are great freezer standbys. The best offering might just be the egg and scallion pancake (box) that they offer downtown. Freshly scrambled eggs with scallions and soy sauce inside a bread like shell. I think it was fried, it was a while ago. Delicious.

probably easier to close a street on Sunday.

It's happening this year (as opposed to other years in the past when they haven't put it on) but it's on Sunday.

After the service disasters at our meal the night before at Barbounia for my mother's birthday, I needed to relax and enjoy myself. I did. It cost me a bit more in the end, but I didn't complain. Nor did the ricotta (or lack thereof) ruin the meal for me. It was a minor annoyance, but one that passed. It seems that with all of the raves about service that this place got when it opened, they should have performed higher. I will say that the food is among some of the best that I've eaten in a while in Manhattan. The menu is a bit odd, there are multiple pastas with meat sauce, and a $23 dish of meat ravioli in red sauce, but the pastas are at or above the level of the pastas at Lupa, long my standard for very good pasta.

Because: In that dialog, the customer arguably made the invitation to go off program. ← No way. I ask this question all the time. The sommelier is always all too happy to show off his wine list and discuss why the (usually) $40 - $80 bottle of wine is the perfect thing to drink given the season, the food that the restaurant is serving, or whatever it is because it just works. There's very little to be proud of for having a 2004 Super Tuscan on your wine list - it's too easy, like serving fois gras and truffles when someone asks what you eat at the end of a shift. While I do feel that he upsold, I'm more disappointed - I gave the sommelier a chance to shine and introduce me to something new and/or different, and he didn't. From our conversation, there was no question that that's what I was looking for.

Please help me understand this. When the champagne was delivered, did you ask where the bread and cheese were? Did you ask to speak to your waiter or the maitre-d? When you ordered your dinner, did you mention that you were wanted the cheese before your appetizers? What the fu... This is the kind of stuff in medium to high priced places that drives me crazy!! ← We were seated. Waiter came by and asked what kind of water we wanted, and whether we wanted a cocktail or a glass of champagne. Brief discussion, we asked for champagne. I inquired what they had and he gave me the list, indicating that the Henriot, for $23 a glass, was the better choice. There might have been another at a pretty similar price, within a dollar. I inquired whether they had the ricotta and he said that they did, it was wonderful, so we ordered it to start and he said he would bring it right out. Drinks were delivered, as were menus. Waiter disappeared. He returned to answer any questions and take our order. Waiter disappeared. Sommeiler showed up, we chatted about wines from Southern Italy, I let him know I was interested in something like a Nero D'Avolo or perhaps a Frappato, and indicated price range ~$50 - $60, of which there was a huge range on the menu, probably in excess of 100 bottles. He hems and haws a bit, so I ask him what he's drinking, it being summer and all. I'm immediately upsold to a $170 Super Tuscan. He swears that it's what he drinks at the end of the night. We chat a bit more and settle on another Super Tuscan, in the range of $120. He returned with it almost immediately, poured, and disappeared. Appetizers were brought over somewhat quickly by people other than the waiter. Waiter returned after we had finished appetizers and I informed him that the ricotta had not appeared. He thanked me for letting him know and disappeared. He was slightly more attentive for the remainder of the meal, and they comped us an espresso at the end. We were celebrating my girlfriend's birthday, i indicated this on the opentable reservation request, and they brought out dessert with Happy Birthday written on the plate and a candle. Nice and low key, I appreciated it.

we ate here on Saturday night, and took your advice, ordering the ricotta as the menus were dropped off, along with two glasses of champagne.. we checked out the menu for a little while, then ordered a special salad with figs as well as the shrimp ravioli to begin, followed by the the black cod and the gnocci with lamb ragu.. they forgot the ricotta.. completely.. the food was great, the service for the rest of the night was pretty good as well..