...more recent posts
My neighborhood (lower east side) has had a definite shortage of places to eat. 71 Clinton was a great addition, but it's only open for dinner, and how often can you eat there really? If you're thinking lunch, forget about it (The Hat? No thanks.) Until now that is. Barrio is a new restaurant on Stanton St. between Ludlow and Orchard. It's a huge space (2 floors, plus roof garden) that the owners put a lot of money into (they bought the building I believe.) But the atmosphere is defintely casual down town (as opposed to, say, the 71 Clinton St. upper east side on the lower east side craziness.) And not only are they open for lunch, they're open 24 freakin' hours a day. Think 3 star Yaffa cafe (if it's possible to imagine such a beast) and you'll be pretty close. The chef is supposedly (like 71 Clinton) a former Jean-George employee (waiting for definitive confirmation on this.) The food is a joy. Very clean. For instance, the toast that came with my brunch on Sunday, had NO BUTTER on it! There's no butter anywhere in sight. Nothing is being covered up or hidden. The tofu sandwich (eating right now) is great. Fantastic whole grain bread. Interesting little sprouts on top (interesting sprouts and shoots seems to be a Jean-George trained identifying characteristic.) And it comes with home-made tarot chips on the side. Every plate seems to have a nice touch like this. Last night we had the vegetable risotto, and a fish special (Pike.) All very good. Not over thought, or over dressed, or over done. Simple. Clean. Fresh. I'll wait for Mike's word on the wine list, but it seems good to me (mostly in the $25-$60 dollar range; few big one$.) No Kendall Jackson type offerings at all. We had a very nice Valpollicella. It's not going to get 3 stars from the Times, but it's not trying to. Praise the lord. A good, simple, no effort required place to eat in the 'hood. It's been a long time coming.
mike and i seemed to have made up for the fact that our hotel and airfare were paid for this weekend (thanks to ff miles and vineyard brands for the "groovey room" at the w hotel) by spending a small fortune at restaurant elizabeth daniel. i'll leave it to wheel to post more detail (he took notes, of course). best vietnamese food ever at the slanted door with an old friend of mike's on sunday. p.s. summer is married and very happy. lovely wedding at restaurant 42 degrees - mw and i were the last to leave the party (as per usual) - couldn't get him off the dance floor...
9/9/00 now on a plane to SF after spending 4 hours in Cincinnati due to a delayed departure...i am wondering which SF lunch spot to drop off the list...the Delta Airlines lunch service begins, no veggie lunch for me as i'm not really on this plane, my veggie meal was eaten by a happy hippie whom forgot to call his own in on my missed connection...lets see Land o'Lakes Classic Blend (65% veggie oil and dairy spread), what is polyglycerol esters of fatty acids?? whom made it?? how?? and why?? it really is a good match for the caramal colored sugared up and dough conditioned bun!!! i wanted to add some salt to it but i hate my salt with dextrose carbonate's and silocate's
what did all the 80's coke dealers retire to the salt industry??...i move to the salad which is unlabeled and i'm happy cause i dont want to know whats in the tomatoe
wine sales via the internet gets a legal boost.
One more thing about my vacation: I ate a lot of lame food. My sister had her kids (9 year old Martin was only interested in onion rings, and only in the Burger King style) so we mostly ate at mid-priced "family" restaurants, which my Dad, who's pretty much given up cooking, also frequents. You always hear how overweight Americans are, but in NY you don't see it so much, at least not in our fashionable Manhattan haunts. The Midwest is making up for us. Everything was overdone and overblown. I call it big food, sort of like big hair: everything seems inflated; larger than life. It turns out that there is nothing that cannot be fried, not to mention covered with melted cheese. What really got to me, though, was the incredible amount of food that was wasted. Between the kids and the seniors, it seemed like most of the food went uneaten, and it wasn't like there were more sensible menu options. They kept offering us doggy bags, but it generally seemed like a bad idea. They would only be thrown out a week later, after the grease had eaten through the Styrofoam containers. There was already enough of that going on in the refrigerator. Maybe it's worse that a lot of people actually do finish those enormous portions, hamburgers the sized of grapefruits, french fries the size (and nutritional equivalent) of sticks of butter. No wonder people get mad if they have to park more than 10 feet from the restaurant door. It made me appreciate the range and quality of food available here, not to mention the talents of some of the amateur chefs among us.
this is a note i sent to all at our wine company "APB for great food***
i have been eating here almost since they opened (less than 1 year)
and the wine list really really needs help (drink the one riesling)***
finally last night i had to tell them and i/us may try to help
but the food has been and continue's to REALLY ROCK***
KORI 253 Church***
maybe its dont care about the wine
drink the one riesling maybe the beer
have the plum wine with the recent new dessert chef's treats***
for me KORI and WALLSE are my two best of 2000 so far***
peace"
Jim Marybeth and I had lots of good food in Cape Cod (on our first annual visit to the mom's) but the best meal (go starving) was in Providence RI at Empire 123 Empire St. #401-621-7911 in the new up and coming downtown...
Bayard's old review from previous chef will be expensive and new chef is even better i hear....check out thier web site might have to call and get the pearl room
Here's a familiar looking group blog about food. And here's a strange one about not eating food. "You can eat if you want to; that's your prerogative... I used to play that game... I know what it's like... But I'm
just not interested in it any more..."
a flood destroyed the crops of my favorite organic team at the Green Market but still plenty to choise from. bought 3 kinds of tomatoes and two types of corn and cranbery beans....
had lunch at the infamous Gundel (art nouveau building and restaurant since 1896) in Budapest today--very old world--but ok and finished with a 1964 Tokaj!!--the baths here are great, i dont think i will see much of the city besides restaurants and my hotels mineral baths (there are 140 mineral baths in budapest and my hotel/baths were also built in the late 1800's)
great food in the famous wine region Tokaj--more details later
new absinthe in prague called T.H.C.--nice color too--most absinthe's here are clear green and suck flavor wise--this one looks translucent and may taste better cant find a shop open selling it--also in berlin we saw a super absinthe shop--looks like my favorite spanish brand has released a red colored one (why??)
prob not understandable but this could be one of the finest tea shop in the world--wish we had this kind in nyc (they dont do mail order:>(
one of the best middle eastern restaurants i have ever been to, as expensive also...
we had the scarious meal in a long time in an old world (but cool) speak easy-ish super fancy restaurant**very good wines luckly**it was rough (for example brussel sproats au gratin was cold watery and cover in two slices of american style cheese...)we are in prague
Wiley has really done it this time. The white gazpacho and clam appetizer, new to the menu at 71 Clinton St., is quite possibly the greatest thing of all time. I'll try to get a picture next time, and maybe weasel some info out of the chef himself. Best bet: go without a reservation at 6:00 sharp, grab a seat at the bar, and order this app. Get out before the Upper East Side fully takes over. I guarantee you'll be licking the plate (bowl?) clean.
I admire from afar the world of fine dining and hate to muck up the page with my petty, pedestrian miseries but today coming off the roof to avoid torential rain I went to hide and dine at the neighborhood TacoBell and a notice on the door is giving me three days, Aug 13, to deal with the shutting down for renovation of my favorite eatery, I daresay, my shack of sustenance. Is there no end to the hardship? Speaking of hardship I contemplated the life of crime this morning at 6:20 walking the isles of a Save a Center grocery store, having already purchased my heat n' serve lunch (crawfish fettucine), I curiously wandered to the liquor isle to spy the single malt and this particular store had them all behind glass and key, and no wonder, with probably forty varieties, including beau coup Glenns, and a bottle of 18 year-old Macallan's, priced at $71. I became dizzy with desire and saw myself doing a bold smash and grab routine, but instead proceeded calmly to the checkout and paid for my banana, two glazed donuts, bag of peanuts, and the aforementioned fettucine.