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.
When a man dressed in a costume or some traditional garb tries to hand me a restaurant menu in Midtown, I usually avert my eyes and try to make it past him without embarrassing either of us. Well, today I not only took the guy’s menu, I actually went up the stairs to try the …
Long before Kesté opened to great reviews and pizza fanfare, there was a modest little pizza joint down the street that specialized in wood oven pizzas. Their sign reads “The Original Brick Oven” referring to the wood ovens that were used before Genaro Lombardi was forced into cooking his pizzas with coals. And they were …
One of my consistently favorite restaurants in New York over the years is Kuma Inn. I remember my first experience there many years ago (but barely since I got wasted on their sake flight). The food was great, the service was friendly, and I was amazed that the chef personally came by each table to …
Some of the dishes on the list are obvious. Others I cant quite figure out why Time Out included them. Is it to publicize a specific restaurant? Or do these dishes have a sentimental meaning to one of the writers? For instance, the drink on our list at the very sleek, but welcoming Bussaco is …
I wonder how the people of Naples ate their tomato flatbreads in the 1700’s. I mean, if they wanted it for dinner, did they just eat them in the dark? Not knowing which topping they ended up with? Or did they eat them by candlelight huddled around an old table? Well, I don’t think Mark …
One of the things I love about this list adventure is that it takes me to places I would never normally enter. Like this little hole in the wall bakery in the middle of Flatbush (an area of Brooklyn I have not spent much time in). I’d probably walk by in another circumstance and not …
The relatively new Flushing restaurant M & T is a total dive that specializes in Qingdao cuisine. If my Chinese (which is limited to the back of fortune cookies and Internet research) serves me correctly, Qingdao is pronounced Tsing Tao, just like the region’s famous beer. Even with the three Chinatowns in NYC, it is …
Now I want to say up front that this doesn’t even come close to being a complete critical analysis of Brooklyn’s slice joints. There have got to be hundreds of them and I bet at least half those are worthy of a special trek. But there were two places that had been coming up quite …
Here is the first episode: In order to gain credibility for the web series, Brian invites his work friend Anthony (an authentic Italian) along to find the best pizza in NYC. Eat This NY: PIZZA DAY from Eat This NY on Vimeo.
SADLY, PRIME MEATS IS NOW CLOSED. I’ve never been a fan of big steakhouses. Maybe it’s because my soul was drained when I worked at Del Frisco’s for years, but I just don’t feel like I fit in with the white table cloths and the excessive spending and gluttony. It’s about power just as much as …
It’s very exciting to have a secret over everybody else. Whenever I bring a date or an out of town friend to a little bar in the back of a hot dog stand or a garage or a cemetery or wherever, I feel like the coolest, most “in the know” guy in the world. For …
SADLY, PRIME MEATS IS NOW CLOSED. The pretzels at Prime Meats in Carroll Gardens are not the ones you get on the street corner in Times Square and they’re not the crunchy Snyder’s variety that you get in the grocery store. However, these side orders are an interesting combination of both. Each $3 order gets you …
As far as I knew, a financier is somebody who handles money. The word makes me think of somebody who could manage my money or figure out a way to double my money. A chocolate financier just sounds completely racist. But as it turns out, a financier can also refer to a French tea cake. …
You have pre-conceived notions about certain things (we all do) and then when it turns out that your expectations are completely wrong, it takes a little while to adjust. That was the case when we walked into Katsuno, a little Japanese restaurant in the middle of suburban Forest Hills. I sort of expected this place …
Mondays are not the most popular night to go out for dinner, but you’d never guess that on the day before Tuesday at Buttermilk Channel in Carroll Gardens. It might be their special $25 three-course prix-fixe menu (which is a great deal) or it just might be that this place is part of the latest …
SADLY, WALDY’S WOOD-FIRED PIZZA IS NOW CLOSED. It’s really amazing how many places advertise that they have the best pizza in New York. Some signs even proclaim the best pizza in the country or the world. I mean, who are these people? Can a chef decide he has the best pizza in the city and …
I’ve started going out early recently. Partly because I am getting old and tired but also because you can avoid the crowds and get into hot spots if you go early enough. I had not been to Draft Barn previous to this night, but I assumed it was a hot spot, partly because it was …
SADLY, MOTO NOW CLOSED. I do enjoy beer, but I’ve never been one of those “alcoholic types” who drink it in the morning. Hair of the dog and all that, sure, but I don’t find myself sloppily hung over too much anymore. Well, granted, by the time I got the Breakfast Beer at Moto, it …
Clover Club is another of those repeat spots from last year. I sometimes think Time Out picks the hippest bars and restaurants first and then tries to find an item that might qualify for the Best 100. And Clover Club is definitely one those hip bars. I came here last year (thanks to the previous …
Okay, so when it comes to Tarte Flambées, I am definitely a little bit jaded. For those uninitiated, a tarte flambée is an Alsatian flat bread with smoked bacon, softened onions, and créme fraîche. I feel like I’m at work. You see, at The Modern (where I work), our Chef Gabriel Kreuther is Alsatian and …