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.
The future of ice cream seems to have ended. Or just needs a publicist. Lulu & Mooky’s has always been an intriguing concept. It’s a little shop on the Lower East Side that makes liquid nitrogen ice cream. You pick your flavor and they freeze it for you on the spot with lots of smoke …
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or a sewer hole), you know that one of the latest fads in the food world is selling food from a truck. New York has always had a history of street food vendors – in fact I give a tour about it with the company Urban Oyster (shameless …
There’s a very interesting phenomenon in this country concerning deli meats. It’s a slowly dwindling cuisine across America. You’d be amazed at how many kids in middle America don’t even know what a pastrami is. When I filmed the last episode of my webseries, Adam interviewed a high schooler who had never had pastrami before …
When you spot more than one celebrity at a place in the West Village, you know they are officially on the map. Well, that and because the smart map apps are pretty comprehensive nowadays. I had no trouble finding L’Arte del Gelato with my Iphone and the line out the door didn’t hurt. I got …
The blurb in Time Out about the Brisket Sandwich at David’s Brisket House ends with a warning: “Don’t forget the gravy.” Guess what? I forgot the f-ing gravy!!! I knew the sandwich tasted a little dry. I got up at one point to ask for more mustard. I don’t know why one of the friendly …
And without further ado, I give you episode three: Brian promises to wait until Adam returns from his summer job to film the next episode. But when he discovers that another food blogger is also making a video about NY’s best ice cream, the competition becomes too much. Also check out: nycfoodguy.com
SADLY, METRO CAFE IS NOW CLOSED. When I first saw Time Out’s list and read that one of the dishes was from Metro Cafe, I almost ripped up the issue right then and there. How could they possibly claim that one of those cheap, generic lunch chains in midtown had one of the best dishes of …
Paulie Gee is the man. Seriously. Paul Gianonne worked as an engineer but had a passion for pizza and dreamed of opening his own pizzeria one day. He became a presence on the NY pizza blogs and started inviting the pizza community over to his house in Jersey to try his homemade pizza. Brilliant idea. …
In anticipation of Episode 003, here are the first two Eat This NY webisodes. You know, it’s like when the season finale of a hit show airs and the network re-airs the previous few episodes. Except I don’t have any special pop-ups or anything like that. I’m going to let these speak for themselves. EPISODE …
If you grew up in this country sometime during the last forty years, odds are you have a childhood memory of eating Chinese food. But the Chinese food we consumed (most likely Cantonese) probably was more Americanized than we realized – egg fu young, pupu platters, and chow mein. And at the end of those …
There are these little cafeteria-type ethnic restaurants all throughout midtown. They’re one step up from those scary steam tables at the corner deli. But some of them turn out really delicious food. However. it’s a little daunting to try to figure out which are worth stopping in to and which are a week away from …
SADLY, BIG GAY ICE CREAM TRUCK IS NOW CLOSED. We all know ice cream makes you gay. And when I say gay, I mean happy. Skippingly, exuberantly happy. And, in the case of a brilliant ice cream truck downtown, we might have to use both definitions of the word gay. Now, of course, enjoying treats …
SADLY, LULA’S SWEET APOTHECARY IS NOW CLOSED. I almost missed Lula’s Sweet Apothecary when I first walked by it. It’s in a very strange location for an old timey ice cream parlor. It’s far east in the Village on a grungy street that’s crowded with dirty dive bars, hipster restaurants and alternative boutique shops. And Lula’s …
SADLY, A VOCE IS NOW CLOSED. The Uptown incarnation of A Voce opened late last year to lots of fanfare and good reviews. Since then, its buzz has seemed to fizzle and simmer. You don’t hear much about it anymore, sitting up there in the Time Warner Building with its beautiful views of Central Park. But …
For the longest time I thought Cones was an Italian owned gelateria. The signs on the walls even call the stuff gelato. And the mouthfeel of the frozen treats are definitely more dense and richer than your typical ice cream. But just because this stuff is made like gelato doesn’t mean it has to be …
I think I can live in this city forever and still discover new nooks, crannies, and hidden neighborhoods in the sky. Tudor City is exactly that. I came to Convivio last year (when I was attempting to consume all of TONY’s 2008 list items) and was amazed to discover this three block stretch of beautiful …
Ice cream at a steakhouse is usually forgettable. It’s often consumed after a gut-busting meal and it’s possibly more painful to gobble up the dessert than it is pleasurable. But even still, the ice cream is rarely more than the usual vanilla or chocolate. And it’s almost never homemade. Quality Meats has never played by …
SADLY, GOLDEN MALL IS NOW CLOSED. Ah, the Golden Mall! It’s a food adventure in itself. For those more timid eaters or the ones with a fear of the 7 train, let me tell you about it. The Golden Mall is in Flushing, Queens (the other Chinatown) and it’s more a basement crammed with food …
SADLY, BROOKLYN ICE CREAM FACTORY IS NOW CLOSED. There is no doubt that, exterior wise, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is the most aesthetically pleasing of all the ice cream shops in the city. It’s on the Brooklyn Waterfront in DUMBO, just down the block from Grimaldi’s Pizza. And based on the lines here (I waited 20 …
A few months ago, I was contacted to audition for an upcoming cable food show called The Bucket List. It was all about food you got to try before you die. The instructions were to follow the script and pick a favorite restaurant that I thought was worthy of this distinction. No question that the …