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 know he works food magic, but I was amazed that Wylie Dufresne read my mind when composing the menu for his new pizzeria. Stretch Pizza, which feels like a modern somewhat high-end pizza restaurant, is nestled in the Flatiron District, pretty adjacent to the sceney Nomad area. As expected from the man who truly …
Smash burgers, which have infiltrated their way throughout every neighborhood of NYC, are good and all but they get a bit boring. A crisped peppery flattened patty usually topped with American cheese, onions, and pickles. And probably on a potato bun or something similar. Yes, without a doubt, simple, nostalgic, and tasty when done right. …
Founded by a Roman chef during the pandemic, Unregular Pizza has built quite a following thanks to social media and the chef’s bartering skills. The owner traded pizzas for other food with the community during the pandemic. Tike Tok and Instagram are clearly a big part of this company’s business model. When I was there …
The cronut was invented oh so many years ago (11 to be precise!) yet we are still feeling the effects of that groundbreaking mash-up. Chefs (and bakers, especially) are continuing to create visual viral concepts that lure every unsuspecting foodie to wait in a mind-numbing long line to say they’ve tried it. So needless to …
Perhaps the New York hot dog is going the way of the pizza and gaining influence from out west. New Yorkers know Detroit-style pizza is as ubiquitous now (if not more so) as coal oven pies and it seems like most of the new hot dog places are ignoring the sauerkraut for a drag through …
You’d think Williamsburg was a town in Texas with all the new breakfast burrito options. The latest I tried comes from a cute little bakery near the Williamsburg bridge run by a husband-and-wife team who touch on both their Vietnamese and Dominican heritages at Ceremonia Bakeshop. The pastries here, especially the mochi donuts, looked great, …
Is it me or has the “craft beer” scene sort of cooled off? I am sadly not as plugged into it as I once was, despite still following it somewhat, especially in New York. And while there were quite a few brewery openings over the last decade (I remember when there were only four in …
It’s hard not to order dan dan noodles or mapo tofu when visiting a Szechuan restaurant. Those are two familiar dishes that almost always hit home, but I have had them so many times and menus at restaurants like this are often pages long. I came to Shan, a welcome addition to Cobble Hill, during …
It takes a lot for me to write about two dishes from the same restaurant two weeks in a row. It hasn’t happened since 2022 when I gushed over Gage & Tollner. And now Tatiana absolutely deserves at least two of their dishes being highlighted on these pages. In truth, I could probably keep going …
How did we possibly end up with reservations at Tatiana on the one date night we’ve had in months? It was just meant to be, I guess. I had placed a notification on Resy for Tatiana never thinking we would actually get a reservation. I just thought if we had an evening free, I should …
Eating food with your hands is one of the great pleasures in life. We have so many great hand (or finger) food in NYC. Tacos, pizza, bagels. Something I would not have put on that list (until now) is a whole chicken. Cauldron Chicken opened at the end of last year on a part of …
My search for the best pizza in New York continues…. Old school is a perfect term for Vito’s Slices and Ices. From the shadows of nearby Port Authority, this places screams nostalgia. Slices of greasy cheese pizza and colorful Italian ices. This is childhood. Ambiance is one thing (and Vito’s has it in spades), but …
I’m not used to ordering my food by color, but that is really what it came down to for me when choosing which aguachile to order. Of course, each color represents a different flavor, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Mariscos el Submarino opened in Jackson Heights during the pandemic and has been …
Neither Sam nor I have seen an episode of Game of Thrones, but we visited one of the many locales where that epic show was filmed. We explored the southern part of Croatia a few years ago and loved the history, sites, and incredible food. In fact, Sam got to sit on a throne on …
You may disagree with me, but I think a destination bakery is pretty rare nowadays in New York. Expert bakers with great pastries and sourdough loaves are seemingly everywhere. You don’t have to go far to find well-made croissants and cinnamon buns. Radio Bakery, however, which has been getting a ridiculous amount of hype in …
In their old space, I think I may have worked my way through Superiority Burger’s menu of inventive vegetarian fast food. I’m a bit ashamed that I hadn’t been able to visit them in their new location until now. This spring, they came back in a much larger space (with wait staff) in an old …
On the food cart tour I lead, I often talk about how many street vendors hope to one day transition into a brick-and-mortar location. Well, a few months ago that came true for Lai Sheng Zhang, who with his wife, operated a cart in Chinatown, and now has a small little takeout restaurant on one …
Oma Grassa is a moody romantic pizza restaurant, in the vein of Lucali or Una Pizza Napoletana, although with a much shorter wait than either of those two. Not too far from the Barclays Center or Brooklyn Academy of Music, this is a good choice for a neighborhood spot for dinner before or after an …
Zhu Ji Dumpling Stall has been hiding in Flushing for a long time, yet somehow I missed it until now. This is literally a stall just off Main Street where those in the know stop for some cheap and juicy dumplings. The set-up reminds me a bit of Fried Dumpling down an alley in Chinatown, …
During a morning trip to Queens, I found Neapli Bhanchha Ghar open early and so I snuck in for some Himalayan pites. This place has been well-known in the borough for a number of years and in fact, I realized I too had been here but didn’t take good note of the name. That’s ok …