...more recent posts
Report from the hinterlands of cuisine ...
Boulder Creek, which is somewhat culinarily challenged, had a new restaurant open recently. The Blue Sun has new owners, and has expanded service to include dinner ... and meat! I was all a-twitter.
All I'm gonna say about that is they don't even know how to procure and cook broccoli. Lord, I hope they kept the pancake recipie from the old management.
My mother’s visit was the occasion for several out-of-the-ordinary dining experiences for me:
We went to the new cafeteria at the Modern along with my sister and her two children. It looked like a long line and too much hassle, but they seem to have the crowd-moving down to a science. You look at the menu posted on the wall while you wait on the line, which moves faster than you’d think. They allow entry only as others leave; then you order at a counter and get a number; then they bring the order to wherever you find to sit. Typical museum fare, but fresh and of good quality and not quite as over-priced as you might expect. Generally efficient for such a tourist-filled madhouse.
The same group also did well at Gino’s in Bay Ridge, a popular pizza parlor that also knows how to move ‘em in and out. The pizza is great and the other standard Italian dishes not bad either.
Trying to come up with a Sunday evening strategy I called the Boathouse in Central Park but was told they were completely booked. Mom & I then tried walking from the hotel over to the nearby Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle to see if we could get in to any of the fancy new places there. They have a “dining concierge” who informed us that the only restaurant open was the V Steakhouse, the latest Jean-Georges Vongerichten venue. It turned out there was no problem getting in. Apparently Sunday is not hot at this tourist spot; at least the place was open, but virtually empty at 7:00 pm. I guess that’s early for NYC, but the large room was still less than half full when we left. It was an attractive room, with a nice view and beautiful, almost Tolkienesque tree-shaped columns, but otherwise rather traditional with lots of dark wood and red velvet in classic steakhouse form. The food was fine but pretty straightforward; tourists don’t want weird steaks. It seemed more like a business move than a real inspiration for JGV.
Later in the week we did manage to get into the Boathouse, a place that owes its cache to its picturesque location on the Lake in Central Park. We happened to get there right at 5:30 when they were opening for dinner and seating walk-ins; the place filled up quickly. The food was better than I might have expected: good corn chowder with shrimp; crab cakes; flounder; decent wine list; good bread and attentive service. Again, for a tourist-trap it was efficient and of high quality, if not cheap.
We had good Malaysian delivery from Banana Leaf upstairs with Mike & Linda, and a typically fine meal at Alias, though the food may have been overpowered by the company, as mom got to meet various DMTree-ers in a swirl of conversation and wine. For a lady who will turn 84 next month she held up well, but she may have had enough fine dining to last for a while. At Annapoli, a local Bay Ridge diner where we had breakfast (and I wouldn’t normally go for any other meal) she fixated on the place-card advertising their buffalo burger, and we had to go back to have it for dinner. It was no more than acceptable but it was the cheapest meal we had the whole time, and provided a genuine working-class Brooklyn eating experience, including a $2.95 side salad that could have fed the German army, assuming they want a lot of lettuce and a few weak tomatoes. Good thing I didn’t order the “large” version.
A slightly different stratum of the neighborhood was in evidence at brunch on mom’s last day here, when we went to the French bistro Saint Germain. I’ve had mixed experiences there. It used to be a well-reviewed bistro, but despite genuine French ownership it’s been dumbed-down, with a pathetic wine list, cloying sauces and a reliance on prix-fix deals. I once had a great cassoulet there, but generally find steak frite and breakfast to be the only reliables. For brunch it made a good send-off for mom and the crowd was a bit more cultured than you’d find in most of the local spots, which are peopled by the folks Bill refers to as the “dems and does” (as in “them and those” not democrats or deer.) An dats all.
eater
i hope they arent enjoying bringing me the news that the old puffys i knew and loved is gone, gone, gone.
from the e-newsletter by Michael Hebberoy of ripe, clarklewis and gotham building tavern in Portland, OR:
"wd-50 · ate here two years ago, two weeks after it opened. if you care about american food, and those half crazed geniuses that are pushing its boundaries… then you need to eat at wd-50. this trip I only had time for an afternoon gin sipping session with partner dewey dufresne, easily the most charming man in the biz."
banana leaf, one of our favorite locals, in $25 and under this week.