Flip!

Shopping break at Flip! In Bloomingdales.

Peels

Breakfast at Peels.

Desmond's

Valentine's Day dinner at Desmond's.

In the Tavern at Gramercy Tavern

This evening we went for a belated Valentine's Day dinner at Gramercy Tavern. In this case I was interested to see if we could walk right in and get a table at around 7pm on a President's Day evening and get a table in the tavern without having to wait.

In this case we were in luck, and were able to get right in. The highlight of our meal was a cauliflower appetizer, which was a semi-circular cross section of the head of cauliflower; a unique presentation.

Valentine's Day at Sidecar

Tonight we enjoyed a low-key dinner at Sidecar, the upper floor to P.J. Clarke's on 3rd Avenue. Sidecar is a "reservations only" establishment," an approach which is apparently intended to maintain an exclusive ambiance. Given the much more prominent entrances to the first-floor P.J. Clarke's dining room and the bar itself, the entrance to Sidecar is barely labelled and could easily be overlooked (especially since it requires ringing the door buzzer to be allowed in).

Since we live close by, we go to Sidecar fairly often and have always remarked at the quality of the food, in contrast to the fact that they usually don't seem to have much of a crowd.

Sunday dinner at Craftbar

This evening we enjoyed what has become somewhat of a habit, Sunday evening dinner at Craftbar. The biggest draw for me is the quality of the small bites available, including particularly the olive mix with marcona almonds. At $6, I would assert that you aren't going to get them any cheaper direct from the grocery store (well, at least not at Whole Foods), and not with a side of almonds. And certainly not prepared and delivered to you in an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of tasteful dishes by competent if not overly attentive wait staff.

In addition to the olives, veal meatballs with ricotta are a recurring favorite, served with a side of fettucini pasta. 

Breakfast at Katz's

This morning at breakfast was my first experience at Katz's Deli. We arrived there shortly after 10am, and the lasting impression I have from the experience is that a ticket-based counter ordering system designed for high volume and throughput becomes baffling to the customers when business is slow.

When we entered a uniformed security guard handed each of us a yellow ticket and told us to order at the counter, eat and then present the tickets upon leaving to pay. In retrospect is sounds simple enough, but at the time it was a bit disorienting.

Once past the security station there are a number of ordering stations (cutters) at a long counter running the length of the establishment. Being a newcomer I wasn't familiar with which section of the counter I should head toward in order to order lax and a bagel, but after trial and error (unfortunately trying all of them) I finally got to the one authorized to let me have a bagel. Unfortunately this was not the same one that could give me coffee so I had to double back, but after only ten minutes or so I was able to collect my plates and head to a table and sit down.

After the ordering ordeal things went more smoothly. The bagel and lox were served with small containers of cole slaw and cream cheese as well as onions and tomatoes, all placed on top of a bed of iceberg lettuce leaves. Not being well versed in the tradition of new york bagels and lox I don't think I am qualified to comment on the finer points of the arrangement, but certainly I found the main components to be satisfactory, although nothing that would stand out from other places with a less complicated ordering system.

Sarabeth's UES

This morning we headed uptown to one of our staple weekend breakfast/brunch locations, Sarabeth's on Madison near 92nd. Having visited several other locations in the Sarabeth's empire, most notably the Central Park South and Chelsea Market bakery, we have find the Upper East Side location to be the most consistently pleasant experience in terms of food and service.

One of the things I like about Sarabeth's is that they open early enough for a respectable breakfast time (8am), while not restricting you to a limited menu that transitions into a more substantial brunch menu later in the morning. For a counterexample see Balthazar, where you can show up at 8am but you will only be able to order very few items from the contintental breakfast menu. At 10am they start serving the "full" menu which includes a full range of brunch items. Not at Sarabeth's, though. Here there is no menu penalty for having breakfast or brunch as an early riser, and the menu is consistent throughout the morning.

Today was pretty cold, so front entry area by the bakery counter was particularly crowded with people waiting to be seated. Space is at a premium here, with only a narrow strip in front of the bakery counter and a couple of chairs next to the hostess stand. Even in the dining room every inch of space is carefully allocated to maximum the seating capacity; on one visit my wife was scolded for rotating a chair around the four-top table that only had three chairs. Apparently the fourth was carefully omitted for ease of traffic flow and they noticed within thirty seconds and corrected the problem when we tried to disrupt it.

We know not to tamper with the seating arrangements any more, though, and subsequent visits have always been pleasant. I am a fan of the sundials of grapefruit with yogurt and granola and this is almost always my choice, but today I selected the green and white, which is scrambled eggs with cream cheese and scallions.

Sundaes and Cones

Close to The Smith is an ice cream shop called Sundaes and Cones. Before dinner I had seen that they were now serving pumpkin ice cream, and since I am a lover of pumpkin in all forms, I was compelled to give it a try.

The Smith

Tonight I happened to be in the East Village when the mood for dinner struck, and so I dropped by The Smith on 3rd Avenue. My previous visit there with wife and child had not gone well, but based on repeated recommendation from friends I decided it would be worth going by myself to see if it was better the second time.

On this visit I settled on the pumpkin salad to start, and then the hanger steak. I decided to forgo the included sides of fries or greens with the steak and instead went with the brussel sprouts listed in the sides section of the menu for just a couple dollars extra.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the pumpkin salad; the menu lists it with blue cheese and cranberries so initially I envisioned a sort of fall harvest twist on traditional potato salad with cubes of pumpkin tossed in a cranberry-laced dressing. I inquired to the waitress about the composition, and she indicated that no, it was an arugula salad with pumpkin seeds and topped with slices of pumpkin. This was confirmed when the salad arrived; the pumpkin effect was subtle and the very thin slices of pumpkin were just the right texture to compliment the crunchy seeds and crumbled cheese. One of the better salads I have enjoyed recently.

When the entree arrived, I was impressed by the large chunk of hanger steak, but was dwarfed by the enormous pile of brussel sprouts next to it on the plate. Definitely a generous portion; no question I got my money's worth.

The hanger steak was very good; exactly medium rare just as I had ordered with an impressive crust on the outside. The surprise star was the pile of brussel sprouts, though. As I found myself drawn to eat more and more of the sprouts (even more so than the steak), I thought to myself, how can it be that I am more compelled to eat these brussel sprouts than the steak? Brussel sprouts are not that good in general. Certainly I like them well enough, although perhaps somewhat of an acquired taste. Yet here I was all but willing to cast aside this perfectly prepared steak in order to eat more of them.

I started to examine the brussel sprouts more closely to see if there was something unusual about them, and then it struck me; they looked as though they had been deep fried. It seemed implausible at first; surely they weren't making "freedom" sprouts? Wouldn't they have advertised them as such if that were the case? The more I looked, though, the more convinced I became. They were either deep fried or else they were sauteed in so much oil that it had the same effect. The outermost leaves were browned and crispy, while the inside was cooked through but not overcooked and mushy. I'm skeptical that effect could be achieved through roasting; easier to believe that the secret is a vat of hot oil.

Breakfast at Tisserie

This morning I was in the mood for something slightly different from the muffins and fruit salad available in my neighborhood, so I wandered down to the Union Square area to have a 7-grain muffin and fruit salad at Tisserie. The muffin was by far the best, just on the verge of being too crumbly. The fruit salad was prepared too long before and sold in plastic cups, and by the time it got to me the watermelon in it had turned to soft fibrous clumps.

By far the most striking thing about the experience was the Americano espresso beverage I ordered. I am well acquainted with the fact that often this preparation can be very hot, since in many cases espresso is added to water that is at or near the boiling point (as opposed to brewed coffee where the brewing process draw out a considerable amount of heat).

Indeed the Americano I got at Tisserie takes over my top ranking for hottest beverage of all time. I detected it was hot immediately and gave it a good twenty minutes to rest, after which I still received minor burns attempting to take a cautious sip.

Back to Bar Americain

Tonight we had dinner at Bar Americain, where we have dined a number of times before and come to view as a reliable choice for a fine meal.

We have been there on several previous occasions and always enjoyed it; however, on this particular evening my wife was quite disappointed in her food. The fig and prosciutto appetizer was good, but she found the smoked chicken entree far too dry and without flavor. She was also of the opinion that the bread served beforehand, normally an eagerly anticipated treat including mini-baguettes, micro-buttermilk white loaves, and herbed corn sticks, was not nearly as fresh as we had enjoyed previously, even verging on stale.

Adding to the negative bent of the evening, we had ordered a plain pizza with cheese for our son, but on it's arrival he pronounced it inedible after a single bite. I wasn't sure what was wrong with it, other than the fact that when they say "plain cheese," that's exactly what they mean; just a thick layer of cheddar cheese melted over a thin crust.

On the other hand, I enjoyed my the hanger steak entree quite a bit, including the signature steak sauce that was heavily laced with mustard and horseradish.

I would be willing to bet that the issue on this particular evening had more to do with it being a Sunday night and the kitchen staff on duty being the B- or even C-team left to finish out the weekend while the first string rests up for the following week. I have experienced this common phenomenon often before, but it was unfortunate to see it repeated in a restaurant of this high profile and caliber.

SoHo Park Pickles

Around lunchtime we had an interest in a light lunch, and ironically we found ourselves at SoHo Park, purveyor of many varieties of deep-fried potatoes and other vegetables, as well as a wide range of mayonnaise-based sauces.

While our son was only game for the fries, the adults opted to try something a little bit different and so we chose the fried pickles. Having enjoyed similarly named foods in the past, we were fully expecting deep-fried pickle chips (i.e. thin found cross sections of pickle possibly with ridges, as you would find in a jar of Vlasic hamburger dill chips).

Instead, what we received were pickle spears, and after trying these I have to say that it is an objective statement of fact that fried pickles are better made with chips than spears. The reasons are as follows:

• Chips provide a significantly higher surface-to-volume ratio than the equivalent mass of spears. For deep fried foods surface area equals fried batter, and so it goes without saying that increasing the crunchy outside to pickled cucumber inside ratio means better eating.
• The larger volume of pickle packs more liquid content, which likely means that it is much more difficult to drain, pat, or squeeze out enough moisture so that the outside will be dry enough to allow the batter to cling properly. Although the spears were clearly well cooked and the fried outside initially crispy, the batter easily flaked off because no matter how much moisture is driven out of the pickle surface, the thick spears still retain plenty inside which quickly rises back to the surface one the pickles start to cool, making the batter slough off in an unappealing manner.
• When served in the basket, the spears make for a much heavier, denser serving mass, easily packing efficiently into the available space. I think we probably had a whole jar of pickles in that one serving basket, which probably weighed a couple of pounds, and they were closely packed together which increased the tendency to get soggy and lose their coating. With fried foods it's much better if the individual pieces are small and oddly-shaped so that as they tumble into the serving container there is plenty of air space and overall the portion seems lighter and more airy.

By far the best part of the experience were the various sauces; both the fries and pickles came with two choices and so we were able to try a total of four. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with anything that's whipped into mayonnaise, but still we found the variety interesting, with the basil mayo being the best. We did try one non-mayonnaise choice, the spicy ketchup, which was also excellent.

Off the Menu at Balthazar

This morning we decided to drop in on Balthazar for breakfast, our first time eating there before 10am when they start serving brunch. Earlier than that on weekends they only serve a continental breakfast which we though would be okay, but on arriving we discovered that a couple of crucial items we really wanted were not on the menu.

Specifically, we were looking for a couple of breakfast staple items, bacon and fruit salad. After a quick discussion about the continental menu and the conspicuous lack of these items, we decided we would take our chances and ask the waiter whether the kitchen could possibly prepare them for use even though they were not officially part of the continental board of fare. We had in mind, of course, the fact that it was 9:30 and at 10:00 they would begin serving a full brunch menu including both of these items, so it didn't like that great a stretch, but one never knows what sort of reaction the question will produce.

My wife went first, her assigned request being for the bacon. The waiter handled that one fairly easily, with a perfunctory answer that brunch items were not available without exception. There was no hint of relent or apology in the tone (not that this was expected).

Then it was my turn, with the request for the fruit salad. This time the waiter seemed quite taken aback. His first response was an awkward pause, followed by an admonition that he would have to check with the kitchen (emphasized with a broad gesture in that general direction). As I was following up my request with an attempt at assurance that we know it wasn't time for brunch yet so no problem if they couldn't manage it, he again held up his hands and indicated that he was going to have to check them "them" (meaning the kitchen, I think).

Apparently he meant that he would have to check before he could continue with taking our order, because at that point he backed away slightly before turning and heading off to the kitchen. I was left feeling like we had done something inappropriate at that point. I wouldn't have been surprised at that point if we had simply been ushered out by the management.

Instead, a couple of minutes later new a women appeared at our table. Apparently she was also on the staff in some sort of escalation capacity, and she asked us if indeed we were the ones who wanted the fruit salad. I wasn't sure what to say at first, since I thought it possible that she would be the one responsible for implementing management policy of showing us the door for our excessive pattern of unreasonable requests. Instead, though, I admitted that we had indeed inquired about ordering off the menu. She then told us that they had exactly one fruit salad in the kitchen (and no more), and then asked if we would like to have it.

This still seemed like a trick of some sort, with the progress of questions and the strange behavior of the waiter. On the other hand, this new person was fairly upbeat and seemed on the surface to be enthusiastic about the prospect of us taking the fruit salad off their hands. Also, I figured there were still plenty of places around the area to eat breakfast if this suddenly all went wrong and so decided to accept the offer of the fruit salad.

After nodding in confirmation, the woman disappeared and a few moments later our waiter returned. We weren't sure about the status of the order, since the waiter had left somewhat abruptly. There followed a somewhat awkward exchange where he asked if someone had come to see us, to which we answered yes, that we had been generously offered a fruit salad. He then asked if we wanted it, which by that point really seemed strange given that we were going through so many layers of questioning to get it.

By this time it was nearly quarter before ten, and so it wasn't long before we started seeing lots of fruits salads being whisked around the dining room, heightening our feeling that this was indeed a strange way to handle our special request.

Once our food arrived (including one bowl of fruit salad), we began to speculate on the amount we would be charged for this highly irregular option. I was sure that the extra grief the kitchen had gone through to fulfill the off-schedule request would be deemed worthy of a price somewhere in excess of $10, but it turned out that we were charged only $5, which was the same as the price of the granola and yogurt bowl with fruit, which incidentally was available on the continental breakfast menu.

Journey to Mars 2112

This evening we traveled to Times Square to visit the space-themed restaurant Mars 2112. Certainly one doesn't go to a place like this for the food; in fact anyone not accompanying male children under the age of 12 should automatically be barred at the door as a preemptive measure to prevent any misunderstandings related to the labeling and signage that indicates this is in any way related to the traditional meaning of "restaurant & bar."

Instead, this is of course an entertainment complex that happens to subsidize the cost of the various novelty decor, television displays, and pseudo entertainers in martian costumes through sales of food and beverage items. On this particular night it was my goal to entertain our six-year-old son, and having done some research on the place beforehand I was fully aware of the prospects going in. Thus expectations on the food front were low.

My rule in situations like these is to stick with the most basic items that are hard to mess up, and so we ordered the chicken fingers and a cheeseburger with swiss cheese and mushrooms for he and I respectively.

I always find the handling of a burger order to be a revealing indicator of the quality of a restaurant operation, specifically with regard to how thoroughly the meat is cooked. One option for the restaurant is not to ask and simply serve the burger well-done, which is the safest and hardest to botch from a safe food handling or competent preparation standpoint.

A restaurant that fancies itself a notch above fast food or entry-level family restaurant will ask the diner how they prefer the burger cooked. This gives the diner the impression that the kitchen is more sophisticated and accommodating, and if done correctly can result in a higher degree of customer satisfaction. On the other hand, going this route can is not without risk for the restaurant since they will have to ensure that a) the quality of the ingredients along with their handling and preparation are sufficient to ensure that the desired temperature can be achieved without making the diner violently ill, given that medium-rare and below precludes cooking the meat to the FDA-recommended 160F and b) the line cooks have the skill actually to come close to the requested temperature consistently. For me the worst is when I am asked how I want it (as long as I don't see any obvious warning signs I wil ask for medium-rare) and then have it delivered well done. Better not to ask than to set expectations and not deliver.

In this case I asked for medium-rare and the delivered product was a solid medium, which was a pleasant surprise given my expectations. The rest of the food on both our places (fries, chicken tenders) was competently deep-fried, and so we finished our meal without a major disappointment.

The most negative thing I found about the place was that the A-1 steak sauce on the table was clearly stretched very thin through and showed substantial dilution. I expect that kind of thing from a public school cafeteria, but it should be absolutely forbidden in commercial restaurant operation.

On the whole, I would probably avoid eating there again, but doing so wouldn't be the worst thing in the world (or on mars).

Otto

Tonight we were in the mood for something reliably good for dinner, so we headed down by Washington Square Park to eat at Otto. At this point I can say from experience that the experience there on a Sunday evening is much different from a Friday or Saturday night. The beginning and middle of the weekend at Otto seem dominated by a younger crowd eager to see others and be seen, but certainly not to converse with each other since the ultra-loud audio system would seem to ensure that the only way to communicate with hand signals. Not that people don't try to yell over the music, though, which adds another layer of noise to foundation of eclectic popular, alternative, and electronic music selections.

On Sunday evening, though, the music is toned down and coincidentally or not a completely different clientele shows up. It wouldn't be hard to convince me that someone is coordinating a flash mob of strollers to storm in every Sunday at 6 PM, despite the fact that they can only get in by accomplish a miracle of volumetric geometry by threading them through the revolving door that serves as the single customer entrance. Lucky for us our son is well past the stroller stage and can slip through the door under his own power.

For tonight's dinner we repeated a standard formula involving a selection of antipasti including meat, cheese, and vegetables. This time we go for the daily special bresaola, a trio of cheeses including pecorino peppercorn goat and gorgonzola, brussel sprouts, and alfonso olives.

The wide variety of antipasti combined with the fact that every time we have visited they are all executed very well is probably the number one reason we enjoy this place so much. Every one we have tried has proven excellent, without any hint that the range of choices is being constrained by a scarce allocation of attention to detail and quality. The best choice tonight was the brussels sprouts, which had a really good roasted flavor without any hint of the unpleasant taste that can arrive from ovvercooking.

The only negative comment I can make about the experience of eating here is that the food runners typically deliver the food in a gruff, almost grudging manner. Certainly it's understandable that they are in a hurry, and if it were the army of kids running free from the strollers I could sympathize as well, but since this seems to be the case all through the weekend I don't think it's just the strollers.

In any case, tonight's entrees included pizza with roasted cauliflower and spaghetti carbonara, and our son enjoyed the kid's plain cheese pizza. Currently Otto holds second place (behind Crispo) in my own personal ranking of Manhattan carbonara dishes, which I have a specific sentimental fondness for.

Ruby Foo's

Tonight's evening meal was at the Upown location of Ruby Foo's on the west side of town. We went there based on a brief investigation that suggested it was a good place for family entertainment, based on the strength and novelty of the kids menu as well as the wholesomely boisterous atmosphere.

The kids menu in question indeed contained some interesting items such as the pb&j roll, but unfortunately it seems that most of the creativity in producing the menu went into the naming of the items rather than ingredients or preparation. Our son opted for the intriguingly named Samurai sword chicken tenders, which produced some above-approve interest and anticipiation. When they arrived, however, it was apparent the the "Samurai" influence must have been intended in an abstract or symbolic sense, and practically speaking they were no different from the "chicken finger" chicken tenders available at nearly every other restaurant on earth.

Luckily a couple of the starters we ordered had some kid appeal, including the bao buns stuffed with barbecued pork and the spring rolls. The barbecued eel and avocado roll was rejected out of hand without even a tasting, though, based solely on excessive eel content. For adult tastes, all three were just fine, although not anything that couldn't be executed just as well by the line cooks at a reasonable competent TGI Fridays.

For our entrees we selected a couple of Ruby's special bowls, including the chicken yaki soba and the Thai garlic chicken. Initially my wife ordered the yaki soba, but after a note of caution from the waiter about the fact this preparation was pretty spicy (in fact the spiciest on the menu, he indicated) she chose the Thai chicken as an alternative, based on his assurance that it would only be mildly spiced.

When the dishes arrived, after a couple of bites both of us agreed that if the Thai chicken had any less heat than the yaki soba (which indeed was quite spicy, particularly for a mass-market family place), it was only by a very slim margin. They were so close, in fact, that we took the unusual step of inquiring to our waiter, in response to which he offered to have it remade without the hot Thai chilis. We agreed to this solution, but couldn't help wondering why that possibility didn't come up earlier the first time we ordered.

Overall the food was just okay; definitely not something I would go across town for again.

The Diner, Meatpacking

To close out the weekend we headed down to The Diner, Meatpacking, lured by the hope of expertly prepared comfort food and a kids menus that includes a scrambled eggs and french fries combo (as entree and side that is, not combined hash-style).

The adults had the steak sandwich and the Kobe sliders, about both of which we could offer no complaints. With simple food like this, the kitchen just has to make sure there are no glaring mistakes that would jar the diners away from the enjoyment of ingredients they know taste too good not to be in direct conflict with continuing good health. After all, it's hard to go wrong combining tender slab of decent quality meat with cheese, some onions, peppers, and a dollop of mayonnaise and coaxing it onto a hunk of bread. Not impossible (certainly I have seen it done and can point out some places it's done on a regular basis), but it takes some effort. No problem here, though, as it was executed quite well down to the proper degree of doneness (medium rare).

The best thing about eating at The Diner, at least from our table, was the opportunity to sit halfway inside and outside on a nice day and enjoy the passing slice of life that is the meatpacking district. We were lucky to have a table facing The Apple Store, which provides ample amusement just by itself. If conversation starts to slow, it can be fun to try to keep a running tally of those who are/aren't dressed in black as they enter the store.

Café Frida

This evening we traveled across town to Café Frida, on Columbus Avenue behind the natural history museum. This was our second trip there in the past couple of weeks, and on the basis of this visit it may now have secured the top spot in our family Mexican restaurant rotation, despite the extra distance.

The outside appearance of the place isn't anything remarkable, and I would assume it's intended mainly to minimize attention and walk-in traffic off the street. In addition, there is an unpleasant feature wherein as soon as you enter you feel like you have stepped into a frosty wind tunnel courtesy of the air curtain generated by a massive vent above the hostess station. High marks for minimizing excess energy use from cooling/heat loss via the doorway, but since you have to stand in the midst of this vortex while negotiating with the hostess and waiting to be seated, it makes the initial part of the dining experience uncomfortably like being processed through a decontamination chamber.

Thankfully the dining room itself doesn't suffer from this defect, and although the tables are densely packed into a small area it feels comfortable and friendly rather than overcrowded. There weren't nearly as many oil paintings on the walls as I would have expected given the description from OpenTable indicating the interior is inspired by the restaurant's namesake artist, but I suppose I was reading it far too literally. The influence is definitely understated with just a single portrait of Frida and an absence of cliched Mexican paraphernalia like sombreros, serapes, and pinatas.

All the main dishes were excellent, including the standard but well executed tacos al carbon with avocado and smoky chili sauces on the side. What makes this place stand out for us, though, is the selection side dishes. The rice casserole with zucchini and corn as well as the fried plantains are staples, and the corn souffle and roasted jalapenos are definitely worth trying.

Brunch at Balthazar

This morning we headed down to Balthazar in SOHO for brunch. We got there at about 9:30, and were surprised to be presented with a 45 minute wait (apparently a lot of other people have heard of this place). In any case, going against my usual policy which forbids waiting for breakfast, we decided to stay, and were seated after about 35 minutes.

The baked goods were excellent, and we all agreed that the they were worth the 50% relative price increase over our standard bakery brunch (Le Pain Quotidien). Hazel nut waffles were quite good as well.