Dinner at Bocca

Tonight it was extremely cold outside when we left work, and so my friend and I were interested in the closest place we could find to get a decent meal. Our first stop was Les Halles on Park Avenue, but at 9:00 on a Friday night it was packed and so we moved south in a taxi. We tried Bocqueria and Pipas hoping for some tapas, but were faced with long waits at both. We speculated that the cold weather must be forcing pedestrians off the street into any available restaurant, causing the overcrowding, and were about to head into a movie theater to make do with nachos and hot dogs when we happened on Bucco, which neither of us had visited before.

Luckily there was only a brief wait at Bucco, and so we readily agreed to wait at the bar until our table was ready. I ordered one of their specialty cocktails, the Red Hook, which is a variation on the traditional Manhattan that incorporates a splash of Angostura Bitters.

Within a couple minutes of receiving our drinks, we were surprised to find that our table was ready, and so we headed back to be seated. One comaint I had was that they asked us to settle up at the bar before being seated, pretty much left us to our own devices with regard to getting transferred to the table. Of course finer restaurants would seamless have a server whisk the drinks away on a platter to be re-served at the table while transferring the check. I didn't expect that kind of treatment, but I did find it pretty inconvenient to wait for the bartender's availability yo pay the check and then negotiate my way through the crowded bar area with a ful-to-the-brim cocktail sloshing about.

We made it to the table after a few minutes, though, and quickly made our selections. We chose to start with an appetizer platter consisting of 3 meats and 3 cheeses. The quality of the salami, mortadella, and prosciutto was excellent, and the cheeses (particularly the soft Robiola) were the perfect complement.

For dinner I selected a gnocchi dish with wild boar ragout, while my friend chose greek-style spaghetti. I thoroughly enjoyed the gnocchi, which had just the right pillowy consistency and authentically varied shapes. The ragout was very good as well, slightly spicy with meltingly tender shredso of boar meat spread throughout.

Primehouse

Tonight I joined a colleague after work at Primehouse on Park Avenue. We had attempted to go to our usual favorite Les Halles, but despite the fact that it was 10:30 on a Thursday night it was packed, and we found ourselves waiting 15 minutes for a table. After debating the whole time about whether about the pros and cons of leaving versus continuing to wait, we finally decided to tell the hostess that regrettably we were heading out somewhere else. Of course she indicated that she was sorry and that we were next on the list to be seated. We stuck to our decision, though, and headed off down Park Avenue towards Primehouse.

Admittedly 10:30PM is not really the ideal time to consume a large quantity of red meat; much less if one intends to toddle off to bed immediately afterward. Nonetheless, we were hungry and happened by immediately after our disappointing rejection from Les Halles (also in no small measure a carnivore's paradise as well), and were therefore persuaded to head inside. We figured if there was no wait we would eat there; otherwise we would just move on.

Notwithstanding the crowd of people in the lobby, we found that there was no wait for our party of two, and so we were quickly shown to a table. Given our recent experience at Les Halles, my hungry and impatient colleague immediate started a ten-minute stopwatch to countdown the time until we would leave unless we saw a waiter or waitress to take at least our drink order. Perhaps unreasonable, but understandable given the wait we had already experienced and our level of hunger by that time.

Luckily the waiter appeared just in time to take our drink order. After that he quickly returned and took our dinner order. We both selected the tableside preparation of Ceasar salad, with the optional imported white anchovies. For the main course, my colleague selected a sea bass preparation, while I chose the bone-in pork chop with stuffed apple.

Much to my surprise, when I asked the waiter his opinion (which I often do, if for no other reason than for curiosity's sake to see whether the staff is actually trained in eating what they server), he recommended the pork over the filet mignon that was my main alternative. Here we were at a place called Primehouse, and the waiter recommended a pork chop. No prime steak was going to be delivered to our table.