September 2009 Archives

Every Wednesday Via Emilia (47 E. 21st Street) has a Lambrusco flight deal that's quite a steal - $25 gets you pours of four Lambruscos (red sparkling wine) from the restaurant's home region of Emilia-Romagna plus 4 antipastos.

Last week we were actually in disbelief as we made our way through the deal. It is indeed a heckuva bargain - the wine pours were generous and the portions of the antipasti also sizable. Actually it was one antipasto followed by a clam dish, a pasta and a piece of steak! The only odd thing is they give you one glass so you need to finish the Lambrusco accompanying the previous course before getting the one for the next. But with a steal like this we won't complain about glassware stinginess.

One note to people planning a date here - a small sheet of paper with the deal and specials was attached to the menu - on the bottom it said "Great Cheap Date!! Reserve Today!" Guys, you may not want to show this to your date unless you want a rep as a cheapskate.

One note - the flight is available every Wednesday from 5pm - 8pm but tonight they are closed for a private party until 7pm. We highly recommend you check it out.

Verdict: DEAL!

Chambers Street Wines (160 Chambers Street) welcomes organic winemaker Robert Sinskey tonight from 5 - 7pm. He'll be pouring 8 different wines at the store.

Dutch Kills (27-24 Jackson Avenue) has intrigued us since it opened earlier this year - mainly because it's in the middle of nowhere. Co-owner Sasha Petraske has done some interesting things - Milk & Honey - and some not so - East Side Company, a coffee place? - so we didn't know what to expect. But what we did know was that after Le Fooding (aka Le No Boozing) we needed a drink.

So why would anyone open a bar in this desolate area? Beats us but we were happy to see the bar sign lit up from a block away. This aint' Manhattan folks - they want people to find this place. And when you do find it and step inside, you'll find a handsome joint with seating in the front, a narrow hall, and a smallish bar where all the mixology happens.

Fine and dandy, but what about the drinks you ask? Pretty darn good based on generous sampling.

"Astor Tuesdays" highlights Spain today - get 15% off all Spanish wines. To see the list of 93 wines, go here.

Astor Wines & Spirits, 399 Lafayette Avenue, NYC

We dropped into Le Fooding this weekend - attending both nights, paying our way for the regular admission - and came away less than impressed.

Le Fooding, if you were out of town or hiding out in a cave, was a two-night festival celebrating the new French cuisine, which is less haughty and more accessible to common folk. Whatever. We were there to check out the French chefs and also to get our hands on the fabled Minetta Tavern burger.

Overall, the experience was mixed - each night there were good dishes as well as terrible ones, but there were also logistical issues and the drinks were a big problem. You see, if you paid an extra $30 you got VIP entrance and one hour unlimited Veuve Clicquot champagne. But starting at 7pm everyone (VIPS along with regular 7pm ticket holders) had to buy drink tickets, which were a steep $12 each. Drinks included the aforementioned champagne, wine from M. Chapoutier and cocktails from Le Plaza Athenee in Paris and Dutch Kills. The latter was pretty egregious since cocktails at the bar, just 5 blocks up the street, are only $10.

Booze turned out to be a bit of an issue in general. While in line for one of the dishes, we heard a guy complain about the wine pours. Apparently, when he got the first cup (plastic, naturally) it was almost full and the second cup was much less so. So he asked the pourer and she told him that she was told to get 6 pours out of a bottle (pretty skimpy since most restaurants & wine bars such as Gramercy Tavern or Terroir get more like 4 - 5 pours). He managed to beg another inch of wine out of her - this is for $12 don't forget - but we found this quite obnoxious even if proceeds are for charity. (As it turns out, we didn't even bother with drinks and headed to Dutch Kills afterward.)

Food was seriously mixed - on Saturday the Minetta Tavern burger was good, the barbacoa taco from General Greene was very good (as was their ice cream) while Daniel Boulud's Moroccan couscous was a headscratcher (wasn't this a French event?). The worst dish of the two days was the chicken skewer from Fogon in Paris - it came with a carrot puree that was way heavy on the lemongrass and the chicken was seriously undercooked. On Friday, David Chang's Bo Ssam was dry but the fried corn with scallop butter (Diner) was pretty tasty and the barbecued sirloin from Bigarrade in Paris was very good. As for Wylie's chicken necks, we have one word for you - bones. Not much meat to be had. Best in show was Saturday nights steak with charred aubergine from Le Chateaubriand in Paris. The aubergine (eggplant) was actually a cream on the side and worked perfectly with the juicy, tender meat.

We have no idea if they will do this event next year but after the jump some things they need to do better.

Flatiron Lounge (37 W. 19th Street) has become sort of an also-ran among today's fancy cocktail places. It doesn't have the cachet of PDT/Death&Co/Milk & Honey or a cool East or West Village location and it's older than all the other speakeasy type places. Yet somehow it soldiers on, neither showy nor particularly innovative. Since it had fallen off our radar, we recently popped in to see what they're up to. A pineapple fetish for one thing.

The drinks never blew us away at Flatiron but this time they seemed oddly out of sync. Technically still summer, we expected lots of fresh drinks and certainly the plethora of pineapple threw us for a loop. But we persevered. First up - Maiden's Swizzle (rum, campari, st. germain & a touch of velvet falernum) and Captain Cook's Folly (muddled fresh tarragon, pineapple, lime and pisco). The former was passable while the latter was way too sweet and no attempt to fix it could rectify this folly of a drink. Rathbone's Delight (12 year Highland Scotch, cynar, campari, pineapple) continued the pineapple train - it was also fairly bitter, no surprise considering it contained 2 amaros. Quiet Village (blanco tequila, fresh lime, grapefruit and cinnamon bark) didn't offend but did not wow us either. Cocktails were $13 and not worth the disappointment on this visit.

Flatiron Lounge
37 W. 19th Street, 212-727-7741
www.flatironlounge.com

This Thursday 9/24 is the annual Joy of Sake, one of our favorite tasting events of the year. Again taking place at Webster Hall, The Joy of Sake is the largest tasting of sakes outside Japan.

Imagine 270 sakes spread over 3 floors - a veritable adult playground. On top of that, you'll get to sample dishes from 15 top NYC restaurants including newcomers Matsugen and Ajna Bar. No word if Top Chef Hung himself will be in the house but we bet he likes a good party.

Tickets are $80 in advance and can be bought at JoyofSake.com or at 888-799-7242.

The other night we dropped in the bar at the Ace Hotel. It was oddly quiet - isn't this supposed to be some sort of hotspot? The short cocktail list was as uninspired as the guests lingering in the shabby-cool space. Unfortunately what plays well in Portland seems kind of forced in NYC. And then there was the bathroom...

First the booze - what drinks we did try were bleh - The Flatiron ($12) was a dull version of a dark n stormy - neither dark nor stormy, so there really was no point. They do donate $1 of the price to Madison Sq Park though so it's not a total wash. The Ace Old Fashioned ($14) should have worked - reposado tequila, agave nectar, bitters - but was also flat. Bitter Lemonade (prosecco, aperol, fresh lemon) was hardly lemonade at all - just a bit of lemon - and a dash of simple syrup (not on the ingredient list) gave it an unwelcome sweetness. Hey folks, bitter means bitter.

Worst of all was the bathroom (right) - maybe it was trashed by peeved residents not otherwise allowed in the lobby - but this is really inexcusable in a supposed upscale hotel looking to make a good first impression. Sorry guys, you gotta clean up once in a while.

Breslin Lobby Bar at the Ace Hotel
20 W. 29th Street

Since the Manhattan is a cocktail near & dear to our heart - plus Monday is the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Experience not to be confused with The Manhattan Cocktail Classic which is a series of events about cocktails in general - here's a link to an interview Metromix did with Dave Wondrich. Key takeaway, "The easiest things to do are to measure everything and to stir it--don't shake it. Stirring it gives it a really rich and silky texture."

You betcha.

Today is the day when the new SD26 shows its face to the world. Last night was the requisite opening party, thrown by Tony May along with Eater and the Food Network Food & Wine Fest folks. Generally these things are a disappointing affair - light on food, tough to get a drink, etc. But I'll tell you one thing, Tony May knows how to throw a party.

First a little back story - Tony May may not be a household name in NYC these days - San Domenico was on less-than-hip Central Park South and considered old-school - but the man is the godfather of Italian cuisine in America. He ran the Rainbow Room when it was relevant and then decided to introduce real Italian food to New York in a time when Italian equaled spaghetti with red sauce and meatballs. He brought over ginormous chef Sandro Fioriti 25 years ago for the first authentic taste of Rome and ran San Domenico as a glam Michelin-star type of restaurant. Michael White? Scott Conant? Andrew Carmellini? Mario? All these guys are kids playing in a sandbox Tony May almost single-handedly built (Lidia Bastianich gets an assist on this point too) and some worked in his kitchen, too.

Now Michael White works where San Domenico was, at the underwhelming though certainly stylish Marea. And Tony May headed down to Madison Square Park to open a very large new spot.

As per the usual, the room was full of media types and food luminaries - Morimoto, Payard, Marc Murphy, Cesare Casella, Joe Bastianich, the aforementioned Sandro, etc. - but the surprise of the night was the food (yes, we're a booze blog, and we'll get to that)...

Opal (251 E. 52nd Street) has gone football crazy this year - see below.

We've hit Raines Law Room (48 W. 17th Street) quite a few times since it opened and we have to say it is constantly getting better and better. At this point, some of the buzz has worn off - people are fixated with places like Mayahuel or the bar at the Breslin - but for our money we'd rather be at Raines. Plus it's a lot easier for us to get in.

The secret to Raines' success is that the cocktails (most $13) are just that good. A recent sampling confirmed what we already knew - the breadth of possibilities makes this the best new bar in NYC.

We tried a mix of new concoctions and old favorites and came away impressed by the newbies.
The Five Points (Lairds Applejack, Dolin vermouth, Marie Brizard apry, amaro ciociaro, orange twist, brandied cherry) was complex and very good. The Communist Daughter was perhaps the best use of Beefeter 24 gin we've had (ably assisted by aperol, grapefuit juice and a spritz of pernod absinthe). The Iconclast (Johnnie Walker Black, amaro averna, Marie Brizard creme de cacao, lemon juice, orange bitters, a rinse of green chartreuse) was dark, smoky and delicious. And there was certainly no suffering to be had while enjoying the Suffering Bastard (Bulleit bourbon, Plymouth gin, lemon juice, sugar and muddled ginger), which was a great balance of smooth and bracing.

And as always a trip would not complete without the Gold Rush - just make sure they aren't skimpy on the bourbon. Raines Law Room is the real deal and it just seems to be getting better and better.