Food Adventuring Around NYC
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 …
SADLY, THE BROOKLYN STAR IS NOW CLOSED. My heart dropped tonight. We got to The Brooklyn Star in Williamsburg to order the roasted maple-crust chicken. It sounded delicious and I had checked their website to make sure they had it on the menu. The restaurant was hidden on a quiet, unassuming street. It was rather small …
Yellow pickled eggs do not sound like a terribly appetizing conquest. But if it’s on the list, I’m gonna eat it. And so this brings me to The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights. The Vanderbilt is not inside a hotel, but rather on Vanderbilt Avenue. It was a bitterly cold night and the bar/restaurant was pretty …
Some might call it cheating, but I call it strategy. I didn’t actually purchase this list item at Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory in Williamsburg, but rather at Bklyn Larder, where I picked up the pickled cauliflower. Now just to set the record straight, I did go to Mast Brothers a few weeks earlier and they …
I went in to the very homey cheese and snack shop Bklyn Larder a few weeks ago in search of another list item: pickled cauliflower. The girl told me that the cauliflower was in the process of being pickled, but they had pickled carrots which I was assured tasted the same as the cauliflower since …
I have recently been referred to as “the pizza guy” among my friends. I have absolutely no idea why. And everybody seems to have a suggestion for what the pizza guy should try next. I love everybody’s enthusiasm. I’ll just feel bad if I go to somebody’s favorite pizza place and then give it a …
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. …
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 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 …
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 …
I am sad to report, at this time, I can not include Totonno’s in my search for the best pizza in the city. Totonno’s might be the second official pizzeria in NY. Anthony “Totonno” Pero was the first master pizziaolo of Lombardi’s. The original Totonno’s opened on Coney Island in 1924 and shut down in …
Di Fara is far-a but good-a I did it. I finally made the journey. I trekked out to the mecca of all pizzerias! Di Fara, out in Midwood, Brooklyn is required traveling for anybody who is even attempting to call themselves a NY pizza connoisseur. There is a level of mystery and intrigue to Di …
If I was on Family Feud and the question was “Name A Place with A Bouncer,” I imagine “pizza place” would not be among the top 5 answers on the board. I’d like to think I’d do well with “strip club” or “dive bar”. But if any of those 100 people surveyed had ever waited …
SADLY, FRANNY’S IS NOW CLOSED. A new day is upon us. Who would have thought a few years ago that you could walk into a pizza place and find out where every single ingredient came from and on what farm it was grown? And I’m not even talking about the required San Marzano tomatoes (which are …