Sneakeater
-
Posts
4,452 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Sneakeater
-
-
The bread sticks at Sorella are as good as the ones at Maialino (none of the rest of the food is, unfortunately).
-
Just to pile on, I think the Henry's End wine list is one of the hidden gems of the New York food scene. It really IS just what you're looking for.
-
Does anyone know how that works, practically, though?
If they open a bottle for you that they don't usually use for pairings, what do they do with the rest of the bottle?
-
Shouldn't the name of this thread be "Inauthentic Italian"?
Or, at least, "Authentic Inauthentic Italian"?
-
It's a tribute to how special this restaurant was.
-
True. But sometimes, really, if commercial enterprises fail, you've got to think of why. Unless you just want to be smug. Which is not a very good posture for a discussion board.
-
This is unfair.
I liked Tailor a lot. But I know a lot of people (whose opinions are otherwise trustworthy) who didn't like it at all. To act as if Ochowie's dislike of his meal there had to be the result of some fault in his palate or some strange one-off kitchen failure is simply closed-minded.
If EVERBODY liked Tailor as much as I and most others in this thread did, then it would still be open. Let's not forget that. And please let's cut off the groupthink and permit contrary opinions. Please.
-
THEN
The article is titled "Now I Wanna Eat Some Sausage," which references "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" from the Ramones. Either Sifton is suggesting that Boulud's restaurant empire is like a Nazi stormtrooper assault and his food a cheap, brain-damaging high (maybe that's why she's smiling?), or the references (including the throw-away Talking Heads reference and the weird "rap precinct" line) don't add up.
They weren't nonsensical or misleading. They just didn't add up to anything useful related to restaurant review. If it had been a tweet -- "GABBA GABBA HEY! Now I wanna eat some sausage at DBGB." -- it's catchy, if obvious. As a multi-part framing device for your eagerly-awaited first NYT restaurant review, it doesn't do much.
NOW
I grew up reading Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Roger Ebert, and a few other critics who rose to the occasion when they had less-than-praiseworthy things to share with their readers. I always find myself happy each Wednesday to check out what Sifton's got to say, but I just realized that I've been secretly longing for his droll, astute ear-boxings. Here's his take on Choptank:
The restaurant evokes the Chesapeake region in the way that dorm rooms at Johns Hopkins do: Duck Head khakis in the dresser and lacrosse sticks leaning against the desk, postcards from Rehoboth Beach tacked to the wall along with the covering board from grandfather’s sloop, a thrift-store oil painting, sconces from mom.So there ain’t no pit beef here, hon. Too low-class. No steamed crabs on paper tablecloths, either. (Though they say come summer.) You can’t buy a can of Natty Boh beer. (The company doesn’t distribute up north.) There is a fine Ostrowski’s Polish sausage sitting with its pretzel brother on a plate, garlicky as a Pigtown housewife, but there is no John Waters to Choptank, much less Avon Barksdale or Stringer Bell. The restaurant’s vibe is suburban, as safe as Cal Ripken.
Any review that ends with a quote from the Wire's resident philosopher Snoop (“Deserve got nothin’ to do with it") has me hooked, sure, but I don't think it's merely the (very) clever allusions.
"[A]s safe as Cal Ripken"? Ouch. Bangs would be proud.
Chris, what turned you around?
-
Because it was, to my knowledge, the first -- and it is still one of the very few (if not the only one) -- of the "new" cocktails that really took off at a broad range of bars other than those at which its creator worked.
-
As an objective matter, you'd have to say that the Gin Gin Mule is probably the most significant (and we all want to honor Audrey).
My personal favorites of the decade are the Oaxaca Old Fashioned and Eben Freeman's Waylon.
And of course Don's Benton's Old Fashioned was a mind blower (and we all want to honor Don).
-
I was being totally facetious.
Bacon is the LEAST underappreciated food in the world.
-
-
Bad part of town.
For cocktails:
King Cole Bar at the St. Regis
Ma Peche in the Chambers Hotel
Unless anyone can think of anything, pizza will be ordinary. (Although ordinary NYC slice pizza can be pretty good.)
-
You're in a tough spot. I could never really recommend eating dinner at 5:15. But in the end, yeah. (Nurse your cocktails, and delay putting in your dinner order -- that's what I'd recommend.)
-
It's a bit cramped. The tables are smaller, and closer together. I think the ceiling is lower (although it may just SEEM that way). It just isn't as nice as the dining room.
I mean, it's the bar.
-
Also, if you mean your wife likes the look of the DINING ROOM at Daniel, then eating in the lounge won't give her that look. I eat alone at the bar at Daniel with some frequency, but I wouldn't really recommend the lounge for a dinner a deux. For that I'd hold out for the dining room.
-
I too like the look of the menu at Daniel better than Jean Georges.
So I hope your wife will believe me when I say that food at Daniel, while sometimes excellent, can be disappointingly uninspired in execution (no matter how good it looks in theory). I like going there -- but only because I live in New York, and so can stand the risk of a so-so meal on a given night here.
Jean Georges is the better restaurant.
-
They do, however, serve the full menu at the bar at Esca, do they not?
Not only do they, but Victor the bartender is one of the great hosts in New York.
The problem with the bar at Esca is that in its current iteration, it's tiny: no more than six seats. (It used to be huge.) So if you walk in during prime time, you can't count on getting seating there.
-
While it's not Murray Hill, you also might be close enough to see if you can grab a couple of seats at the bar at the newly opened Maialino.
Re: grabbing seats at the bar at Maialino.
THEY DO NOT SERVE THE FULL MENU AT THE BAR AT MAIALINO. THEY SERVE A BAR MENU. NO ONE I KNOW WHO HAS HAD THE BAR MENU THINKS VERY MUCH OF IT.
(We all must collectively insist on this being changed.)
-
B: Eat somewhere else before your show at Birdland. Nothing wrong with an occasional 7 P.M. dinner.
This is an interesting sidelight.
If I'm eating before (rather than after) a performance, I always strongly prefer to do so in the neighborhood of the performance, so I don't have to travel there. There's too much angst in needing to get a cab on time (and not getting caught in unexpected traffic) when you're on a tight schedule. (This is one of the many reasons why I hate to eat before rather than after things.)
-
Birdland is great.
If I had a 9:30 show there, I'd try to snag a hard-to-get 7 PM reservation at Esca.
Barring that, consider the not-great-but-perfectly-acceptable Chimmichurri Grill.
-
Also in the Theater District, Casallula (52nd St. -- I think? -- just west of 9th Ave.) for wine and a snack. Great place (even if their legendary cheeseologist -- OK, what's the word for that? -- recently left).
-
WAIT! I just thought of a good place for drinks near Les Halles: the uptown 'inoteca, on 25th St. (I think?) & 3rd Ave. (Also, when you see the food they serve you'll feel even sorrier you ate in Les Halles.)
Also, in the Theater District, the Blue Bar in the Algonquin Hotel is Not Terrible. Just don't expect to see any New Yorkers there (or in anywhere in the Theater District, for that matter).
-
1. We're seeing a lot of theatre. Any good places to go for a drink after the theatre nearby the theatre district?
This may be hard to believe, but the answer to this is actually no.
2. Dinners are booked at Les Halles (Park Avenue), Aldea and Jean Georges. Again, any nice places to go in those areas after dinner?The Rye House, which just opened down the block from Aldea, is very nice.
There's nothing good near Les Halles. (You'll be sorry you're eating there, BTW. It's pretty bad.)
For Jean Georges, you might consider the lobby bar in the Mandarin Hotel across the street. (Non-guests can still get in, right?) I wouldn't be caught dead there myself, but you might not be as much of a snob as I am. The view is concededly great.
3. We will be at the Lincoln Center for a matinee - any nice places for a lunch (nothing too massive as we're going to Aldea that evening) in the area around Lincoln Center?I can't help but recommend Bar Boulud, which IMO towers over everything else in the area (with the caveat that you order gently).
THE BEST: Flushing Chinatown
in New York: Dining
Posted
It may be important to note that Xian's Famous Food now has a Manhattan location:
88 East Broadway #106
(btw Forsyth St. & Pike St.)