Food Adventuring Around NYC
Brian Hoffman is a classically trained actor who is now a full-time tour guide, blogger, and food obsessive. He leads food and drink tours around New York City, which not only introduce tour-goers to delicious food, but gives them a historical context. He has written food articles for Gothamist and Midtown Lunch in addition to overseeing this blog and a few food video series, including Eat This, Locals Know, and Around the World in One City. His latest series is an international cooking show with his son which can be found on this site.
I’m doing my best to strategize with the list. Last year I missed out on certain dishes because the restaurant’s menu changed. I’m trying to get all the possible seasonal dishes first to make sure I don’t miss out again. The most obvious one is the chestnut cake doughnut at Doughnut Plant. I figured they …
If there’s a battleground for the pizza wars in New York, it might be on Bleecker Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. In the middle of the street, you can find the old standby John’s of Bleecker, which has been there since 1929. And directly across the street is the new favorite Neapolitan style …
Kombucha is a fermented tea that is purported to aid in digestion, detoxing, and hipsterness. It’s one of the latest health crazes in the urban areas of this country. I’ve been drinking it for a while in bottle form from my local health food store. The intense effervescence takes a while to get used to, …
And the list nostalgia continues. I first discovered french dip sandwiches at T.G.I. Friday’s. And even though I’m not terribly proud of it, Friday’s was a huge part of my adolescence. It was in the same shopping center as the local mall so I spent many social hours being waited on by servers with flair. …
So this list keeps making me feel young again. First, fried chicken and now these little cookies known as snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles are basically sugar cookies that have been rolled in or sprinkled with cinnamon. They’re not my favorite cookie (give me chocolate chip over anything else), but how can the name snickerdoodle not bring you …
New York is a big city for sure, but not so big that a sense of community is lost. In Brooklyn, there is a huge community of artists and musicians and most of them never leave the borough, unless they have a gig or a David Byrne lecture to attend somewhere. And many of the …
My very first excursion on the Time Out Top 100 list was pretty easy. Since I’m still technically working on finding the best pizza in NY, I was relieved to see that there are five pizzerias featured. It’s always nice to kill two birds with one stone. And speaking of birds, the selection from Roberta’s …
There are so many different possibilities with pizza. You can have thin crust, thick crust, white, deep dish, stuffed, vegetarian, organic, kosher, leftover. The variations are endless. And what’s great (but daunting for me) is that New York seems to offer every single option. One type of pizza that was completely foreign to me was …
There have been a few times in my 8 years in New York when I’ve stayed within the 5 boroughs yet felt like I was in a vacation town somewhere far away. Going out to Coney Island makes me feel as if I should be walking around in my bathing suit and drinking piña coladas …
SADLY, CO. IS NOW CLOSED. About a year ago, the hip new pizza movement in New York City became evident when Jim Lahey opened a spare, homey pizza restaurant in Chelsea with lots of natural lighting. Lahey is first and foremost a baker and has been making delicious pizza-like concoctions at Sullivan Street Bakery for years. …
When you think of pizza, generally the ingredients that come to mind are cheese, tomato, bread, basil, maybe pepperoni or sausage, mushrooms or anchovies, maybe even olives and garlic. Thanks to California Pizza Kitchen, pineapple and BBQ chicken aren’t so far-fetched. But one ingredient that is often involved but not predominant is salt. Well, the …
SADLY, ROSERIO’S AND ROCKET JOE’S EAST ARE BOTH NOW CLOSED. Pizza and beer. Well, probably more accurately, beer and then pizza. There’s nothing better to indulge in after a late night of bar hopping than a greasy slice of NY’s treasured pizza. And I feel like there’s no better neighborhood in Manhattan to experience both …
Even self-proclaimed foodies like myself have been known to make mistakes. They don’t happen often, but most of my mistakes come from ordering food. That’s probably why I’m so neurotic when it comes to choosing an entree. I want to make sure I try the best option on offer. “Live today like it’s your last, …
SADLY, RAY’S PIZZA IS NOW CLOSED. You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension of many pizzerias all claiming to be the original and famous Ray’s. A journey into a wondrous city of entrepreneurs who have no imagination. That’s the red font up ahead and the aroma of cheesy grease – your next stop, the (Pizza) Pie-light …
Unless you inherited one or were grandfathered in, it is illegal to own and use a coal-burning oven. It’s bad for the environment and it’s competition for the likes of Grimaldi’s and Lombardi’s. We don’t want any black lung or broken knee caps. You can imagine whenever a coal-burning pizzeria closes, many budding NY pizzaioli …
According to dictionary.com. “pizza” is defined as: –noun, a flat open-faced baked pie of Italian origin, consisting of a thin layer of bread dough, topped with tomato sauce and cheese, often garnished with anchovies, sausage slices, mushrooms, etc. So there we have it folks, an actual definition of one of our favorite foods. Now, I …
Things are constantly changing in this city. It feels like more so than the rest of the world. There’s always a new fashion, a new restaurant, a new Apple Store, a new cockroach tormenting my roomates. The art and science worlds are two that never seem to stop evolving. Technology is constantly surpassing us to …
According to their website, the owners of Serafina were lost at sea and swore if they ever got rescued, they’d open up an Italian restaurant. Can you imagine Tom Hanks in Cast Away telling Wilson the volleyball that all he wants to do if he is rescued is open up a chain of Red Lobsters? …
It’s the dream of every foodie to discover a secret unexploited gem. Something that people will be talking about and will push the business to the next level. Of course, that and to be a contestant on Supermarket Sweep. (Is that show even still on the air?) I want to announce to the world (wide …
“Here try this slice while you’re waiting.” “You only ordered one slice? Have this one too.” “Since you’ve never been here before, I wanted you to try this.” These are not statements you hear at a New York pizzeria. Free pizza? Generous employees? These would make sense if I was in some Italian grandmother’s dining …