bpearis

This week's TONY cover story is "NYC's 100 Best Burgers." The Top Ten are: 1. Donovan's Pub, Woodside Queens 2. PJ Clarks, Midtown 3. Soup Burg, UES 4. Pastis, Meatpaking District 5. J.G. Melon, UES 6. Rare Bar & Grill, Murray Hill 7. Fanelli's Cafe, Soho 8. Paul's, East Village 9. Blue Ribbon Soho / Blue Ribbon Brooklyn 10. MetroCafe & Wine Bar, Flatiron Dist. After that, they have different categories: "Plain & Simple," "All Dressed Up," Mini-Meals," "Steakhouse Fare," "International Style," "At the Diner," "Outer-Borough Burgers," "Old-School Flavor" and "The Modern World." I'm a bit embarrassed to say I've never had any in the Top Ten. Not included in the list is my favorite "specialty" mini burger -- the Popsie Burger at Snacky in Williamsburg (on a slightly sweet chinese bun with Japanese spicy mayo).

Somehow I have to imagine Mr. Ruhlman, like Amanda Hesser and Anthony Bourdain, are receiving a somewhat different experience than what a person like myself would experience. For those priviged as such, I'm sure it is worth it.

I don't remember their ever being a feature review like this Time Out NY before. The reviewer/reporter went there three times and left sort of flabergasted at the way things worked there. I wouldn't call it a vendetta piece, because they did like the food, but it did seem agenda-oriented in a "how does this exist?" kind of way.

And in the Voice, Robert Sietsema visits both Una Pizza Napoletana and Williamsburg's Fornino.

There was indeed more to the story... Read the rest in The Observer, scroll way down to the bottom.

Butter is one of P. Diddy's hangouts... menu is on their website.

Not anymore, it's all gone.

And now both of the reports about this on Slice have been removed. Something is definitely up.

Slice NY called Dom -- the rumor's BS.

I think I heard Los Dos Rancheros (or Salon Mexico as it was later called) had closed. It had gotten really bad. Maybe the best cheap Mexican in the city with some degree of authenticity is Tulcingo del Valle, on Tenth Ave and 46th street. They usually have a couple kinds of mole every day, a long list of worthwhile specials and their al pastor tacos are great. You can read Sietsema's VV report from a year or so ago here. Right up the street (10th/47th) is Tehuitzingo, a Mexican grocery store with a tacqueria in the back. They make the best tacos in the city, hands down, if you ask me. I like the enchilada pork, suadero (pork belly), barbacoa (goat) and chorizo/potato tacos especially. They also have good sopes, quesadillas (squash blossom or huitalacoche) and tortas. They've been renovating their kitchen so it might still be closed, but worth a peek in if you're going to go to Tulcingo del Valle anyway. EDIT: meant 10th ave, not 9th. Whoops.

It's a lamb and lentil stew, very spicy, found on the appetizer section -- though it's nearly as big as all the other dishes. It's the only dish I've gotten on every visit.

I've been back to Angon about three times in the last month or so and am happy to report they seemed to have worked out most of the service kinks. No serious lag time between apps and mains and the crowds have thinned to a still busy but not overwhelmingly so capacity. And the food has gotten better too. My last visit on Friday was by far the best. FIve of us had come from seeing a friend's band and we showed up about 10:40 and they sat us no problem, no grumbling. We ordered the Halim, chicken dopagee, the chana masala and then asked our waitress if Mina would just pick two additional dishes that she thought would compliment the others. She made us two items not on the current menu but were being tried out on a new menu to debut at some later date. Both were fantastic. The first was a shrimp and rice dish -- not biryani exactly, but the sauce on the rice was just great, and nice plump shrimp. The second dish was even better -- beef cooked with pickled mango. I'd never had anything quite like it. Really, really good. The three things we ordered were superb as well, especially the halim (which is maybe their can't-miss dish) and the chicken dopagee (made with lots of onions and spices, not saucy but the meat was moist and tender). With three of those giant beers, I think the bill was $22 a head including tax and tip.

So Thai can only be fine dining if French techniques have been applied? From my two visits to Spice Market, I can say it's far far away from fine dining. Sripraphai kicks it's ass, food-wise. And from what I hear about Klong, it's good but nowhere in the league of either Sripraphai. Kittichai might be another story. I like what Bruni's doing. He's a little flowery sometimes, but I like his attitude to dining in NYC which seems to include all the borroughs.

Sripraphai certainly deserves two stars way more than Spice Market deserves three (or two for that matter).

but they sat that many in the summer, between the back yard and that weird downstairs area. i don't think it's gonna change anything. they know why people come there.

There isn't a week that goes by where I don't think "I need to go eat at Sripraphai again." I live in Brooklyn where it's a bit more of a trek to get there than those who live in Manhattan, actually (I don't have a car). From midtown, it's a quick trip on the 7 train, much less time than it takes to go from the Upper East Side to Tribecca. It is a destination restaurant, but maybe not for people who need white table cloths.

And what kind of person drives from Manhattan to Sripraphai when the 7 Train is quicker and easier?

They've moved the dining room into what was that Thai grocery store next door. The wall between them is going to come down once they renovate the old space for one big dining room. I agree that this review probably won't send that many more people out to Queens, though I wonder how many people will read this review toda, trek out there only to find it closed.

This week's $25 & Under is more expensive than the main review.

With the closing date looming and the near perfect weather today, the line was murder, about 20 minutes to order and about 45 (!) for the food. But as it was so gorgeous out, it didn't seem to matter too much. For all the talk of the indeed great burgers, no one has really mentioned the Shroom Burger. I had this today and it is f-ing excellent. They take a portabella mushroom, top it with cheese, bread it and then deep-fry the sucker. Toppings are the same as the Shackburger. I wish I'd discovered it sooner. I will be back for it this week.

Was there a Diner's Journal in the Times today? If so, it's not online.

There's a report on Fornino, complete with pictures, on Slice contributor Tien Mao's website.

Fornino in Williamsburg finally opened last night. They are certainly aiming to make serious pies, as below their name on the window reads "The art and science of pizza," which is a little goofy if you ask me. Chef Michael Ayoub, formerly of Park Slope's Cucina, isn't a slave to authenticity like Una Pizza Napoletana is. But he certainly cares about the ingredients and uses organic ingredients, San Marzano DOP tomotoes, artisanal cheeses, house-made sausage and grows his own greens and herbs in a greenhouse behind the restaurant. The restaurant looks great, warm and inviting. Rustic wood, butcher-block style tables, nice lighting (with hand-blown fixtures by Ayoub himself, so I'm told). It's hard to believe this place was The L to-Go [a bagel place] only a few months ago. It's a little smaller than Franny's, maybe about 40 seats total. The wood-burning oven is in the back of the main space. It looked to me as if it may be augmented by gas, but I didn't ask so I'm not sure. I forgot to bring my copy of the menu with me for this post so I may screw up some of the names of things... but the pizza section is divided into three sections: • Pizza Classica, which offers a margherita, marinara and a third which escapes me (probably a white pie of some sort) • Second Generation - Italy, with funkier pizzas that include sausage, soprasetta, roast eggplant, guiancale, a quatro formaggi, clams, etc. I think there are maybe seven pizzas in this category. • Fiorno specialties (maybe this was called Third Generation). These are even funkier pizzas -- Wolfgang Puck-esque -- with surprising cheeses (goat, bel paese[!]), a clam-and-mozzerella pizza, and other modern creations. The pies are different from Franny's and Una Pizza Napoletana in that a) they slice them, and b) they come in two sizes -- 10" and a 16". Prices are lower too. Smalls are $8 - 10, large's $14 - 16. There is one exception, a pizza with fresh black truffles that is $35. They also have anitpasti and a few salads, as well as a daily pasta special. For being on Bedford and North 7 -- right where the L train lets out -- and being blurbed in the Times yesterday, as well as Time Out NY and the Daily News over the weekend and in just about every other local rag, it was surprising not hard to get a table at 8:15. It was crowded but not insane and the staff seemed to be handling things in stride. My friend and I got the margherita and the Rustica (which was a margherita with mushrooms and guiancale [i'm a sucker for the jowl]), as well as the classic arugala/pear/gorgonzola salad. Both pizzas were very good, though I think the oven could have been hotter as there wasnt' enough char on the crust (or puffy pockets) for my taste. But the toppings were first-rate, with the edge going to the pizza with guiancale -- the meat was nice and crispy and there was no shortage of it on the pie. (Franny's guiancale pizza was still better, though.) We also got desert -- three ice cream sandwiches made with various cookies and gelato. The cookies were a little too hard to easily bite through, they need to work on this one in my opinion. You need soft ones so you can sort of tear it instead of sending your front teeth through the freezing ice cream. But it wasn't bad. They don't have thier liquor liscenesce yet, so there was complimentary red wine with the meal -- not sure what kind. We ordered a Napoletana pizza (margherita with anchovies) to go (no delivery) for some friends and our whole bill before tip was $48. I spied Adam from Slice, so expect a more detailed report from those guys soon. On the downside: many of their pizzas had so many toppings it was a bit of a turnoff. I'm a less is more kind of guy. But they're inexpensive enough to warrant giving them a try. I may go back tonight. If they can improve the crust, Fornino is going to be a serious contender. Given it's prime location and reasonable prices, you can't really complain. I don't see how this place won't be packed every night. Fornino 187 Bedford Ave (btwn N. 7th and N. 6th) 718.384.6004

While the NY Pizza Survey guys were at Arturo's, I went with a friend to Una Pizza Napoletana, which opened on Thursday. A Manhattan branch of the lauded Jersey spot, these guys are serious about their pizza and they adhere to strict Neapolitan rules about what pizza is. (Slice NY scanned their brochure which details the care and extreme lengths they go to make authentic pizza.) When they run out of dough, they close for the evening, and they're only open from Thursday to Sunday. The space (on 12th between 1st and 2nd) is small and sparcely decorated. White walls with framed old b/w pictures haphazardly hung, and lighting that I thought was way too harsh. Maybe seven tables -- all marble tops, which seem a little cold. But the focus is obviously on the pizza and the wood-burning oven that was constantly being filled. There are only four kinds of pizza available, all variations of main ingredients San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzerella, evoo, sea salt and basil; though the Filetti has cherry tomatoes instead of the canned San Marzano. Like Franny's the pizzas are about 12" and are left up to you to cut with a knife and fork. This is all they sell. No salads, appetizers; no bowls of olives. No liquor liscence yet but a nice selection of Italian sodas. We gt there around 5:30 (they open at 5pm) and the place was full, so we shared a table with another couple. We split the Margherita. We noticed after we ordered that almost nobody had their food yet when we sat down. It took over an hour for our pizza to come. I think this was because a) all the orders must have come at once and b) proprietor Anthony Mangieri seemed to wait until the oven was volcano hot till he would put a pizza in. This was evident once our pizza came -- this is some crust. Nice char, the right amount of puffiness (oven spring?) with perhaps the most flavor of any pizza crust I've ever had. (They let their dough rise at room temperature for 24 hours, so says the brouchure.) The toppings seemed secondary to the crust, olive oil and sea salt which were the primary flavors. I would have liked just a little more tomato. This is good pizza made with extreme care... and you pay for it. $16.95 per pizza that I don't think would be filling for your average person (certainly not for two people). While I appreciate the craft, I would much rather travel to Franny's, and don't see myself returning to Una Pizza Napoletana anytime soon. It was very good, just not $16.95-and-an-hour-plus to get it good. I'm glad I went, though. In other pizza news, Fornino in Williamsburg finally opens on Wednesday, October 20. I live in the neighborhood and am hoping for great things.

While you all were at Arturo's, I went with a friend to Una Pizza Napoletana (click here for the post).