So I wish I had more pictures to share with everyone, because I probably just had one of the best eating weekends of my life. From high-end to low-end I covered the spectrum of New York City eats & drinks. I’ll try to keep this short, but I want to make sure I capture all the deliciousness within one post.
DAY ONE
We arrived seamlessly on Thursday afternoon (unlike our 13 hour return ordeal) so we started our vacation with a late lunch at Bread – Tribeca. The winning dish was the imported cheese pizza with truffle essence. Good start to the weekend.
But lunch doesn’t even come close to comparing to dinner. How can you beat Le Bernardin? Even though the restaurant requires gentlemen to sport a coat it doesn’t feel overly stuffy. In fact, the restaurant seemed a lot livelier than I expected. As you can imagine, the service was impeccable. I’m pretty sure they replaced our butter over 4 times throughout the meal. Apparently their guests shouldn’t have to resort to eating from a butter dish that is less than half-full.
I obviously didn’t take any pictures at Le Bernardin, but I don’t think my terrible picture taking skills would do this meal justice anyway. The winning dish from this meal was the Skate, lightly cooked and accompanied by a brown butter dashi broth. I literally could have downed an entire glass of the broth. The runner up was the Vietnamese style Hamachi – just a simple and delicious dish.
After dinner we made a stop at Terroir Tribeca for a wine nightcap (winecap, maybe?). Cool little wine bar in TriBeca that has an unusual affliction for Rieslings.
DAY TWO
Day one was tough to follow, but we tried our best. We brunched at Bubby’s – a TriBeca institution. I feasted on a pretty basic breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon & grits. Except the grits were anything but basic. Cheesy, creamy indulgence. I’d probably go back and just eat a huge bowl of grits followed up by one of their homemade pies.
Day two weather was pretty crappy – swelteringly hot one minute and then pouring down rain the next. But we fought through the weather and made our way over to Brooklyn for some exploring and more eating/drinking.
Our first treat from the heat was Uncle Louie G’s Italian Ice. I didn’t eat much Italian Ice when I lived in the city, but I’m not sure why. I’m going to try to make up for it by eating extra snow cones for the rest of the summer.
Our second treat involved whiskey. We stopped in at Char No. 4 on Smith Street for an afternoon cocktail and our first dozen oysters of the trip. This place is seriously cool. They have a wall of whiskey:
And we had some really creamy oysters from Fanny Bay to accompany our afternoon bourbon cocktails.
For dinner, we met some friends at the West Village restaurant Yerba Buena on Perry Street. I don’t usually associate good latin fare with NYC, but this place was pretty stellar. One warning – everything is super spicy. Even the cocktails. But the duck ropa vieja I had was spectacular, as was Malbec braised short ribs with the poached egg on top. But prepare yourself for a lively & loud scene. It would definitely be a good precursor to a night on the town.
DAY THREE
Brunch at Jane in Soho. Solid meal – they have lots of benedicts to choose from if you’re a benedict kind of person. I just can’t get over my cooking class that covered hollandaise sauce where I had to combine raw eggs and butter for two hours. It’s unfortunate, but I’m scarred by it.
Later that afternoon we made a stop at the Grand Central Oyster Bar for a few (okay, 48) oysters as an afternoon snack. If you’re an oyster lover then it’s a must-stop place in the city. My grandparents used to take me there when they came to visit me, and I still love the old-school feel of this New York iconic restaurant.
Dinner was one of those experiences that only happens in New York. Or Japan, but I’ve never been there. We had a late night meal at Sushi Azabu in TriBeca. It’s literally a tiny upscale sushi restaurant in the basement of Greenwich Grill. You have to walk in, tell the hostess the secret password (We’d like to eat Sushi Azabu), and then she walks you down to the secret basement restaurant that only holds around 15-20 people at most. I’m not even sure what or how we ordered through the primarily Japanese menu, but we somehow ended up in sushi and sake heaven. I highly recommend this place for any sushi lover.
DAY FOUR
Okay, this is getting long, but I’m almost there.
Brunch at Hundred Acres on MacDougal Street. This meal alone might describe why I think I gained a few pounds on this trip. For starters I ordered the glazed buttermilk cake donuts with chocolate dipping sauce AND the warm cream biscuits with homemade jam and honey butter. But the big winner was my main course – the burger – pasture raised beef, vermont cheddar, vidalia onion mayo. This was my favorite brunch stop of the trip.
You’ll notice a pattern here. Brunch, snack, dinner. My favorite snack was my last afternoon snack – dumplings. I LOVE asian dumplings – especially handmade pork dumplings that cost $1 for five dumplings. Seriously – only 20 cents a dumpling. Next time you’re craving dumplings head to Prosperity Dumpling on Eldridge Street in Chinatown. It’s so cheap it’s worth the splurge on a cab ride to get there.
And the final meal…Babbo. I’ve always wanted to go to Mario Batali’s signature restaurant in the village. I used to pass it almost every day on my long walk to work. And you would think that I might be disappointed after waiting almost six years to actually eat there, but I can assure I was anything but. Each course was impeccable – from the grilled octopus starter all the way to the pistachio and chocolate semifreddo. We didn’t eat until 10pm on a Sunday, but the restaurant was still packed at that time. If you haven’t been there, go there. Now.
