Manhattan: Harlem
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, September 3, 2009 at 4:00 PM
The pizza was awesome, as you can imagine. But the tiramisu, firm and solid, with cake in place of ladyfingers, and chocolate syrup squiggled over the surface, was a letdown. Especially after our waiter declared it "delicious" and told us it was made in-house. In a city with tiramisu on every other dessert menu, you'd think it'd be easier to come across a good, or even, great, version. But such is not the case.
So if you have any secret tiramisu haunts, do share in the comments. This serious eater wants to know!
Patsy's Pizzeria
2287 1st Avenue, New York NY 10035 (map)
212-534-9783
www.patsyspizzeriany.com
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 23, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Last Friday we received an email from a reader asking why we didn't have an official review of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que up on Serious Eats: New York. It's no secret we love the place, but I get it. You want some official food porn.
Well, coincidentally enough, a few days before receiving that email I had made the trek to the west end of Manhattan with mountains of ribs and pulled pork on my mind. And we could have eaten mountains of meat after enduring an unexpectedly long wait. Don't go to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night—you'll be greeted by a madhouse of hungry people and wait for at least 45 minutes despite what the hostess tells you. During the wait, we mulled over the menu, soaked in the Frontierland-esque environment, and glared at the people who wouldn't leave their tables. When we were finally seated around 9 p.m., we already had our order ready, and we wanted it ASAP.
And we got it ASAP. Our friendly waiter was atypically efficient and unobtrusive while still giving us enough attention. Dishes came, were eaten, and taken away at a brisk, but comfortable pace. After bemoaning the wait, the service and food more than made up for it.
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Your office is in Harlem, and you order "sandwiches and flatbread pizza from Cosi" for a lunch meeting with the Democratic nominee for President? Shameful. Bill, next time you need to order takeout, might we recommend: Amy Ruth's, Dinosaur BBQ, Louise's, Margie's Red Rose Diner, Charles's Southern Style Kitchen, and Miss Maude's Spoonbread Too. Not only would your food be better, Bill, but you and Barack would be doing your part for Harlem economic development. Soul food in New York needs the two of you more than ever, as this recent New York Times story notes. [via Eater]
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 9, 2008 at 3:30 PM
When I stepped out of the quiet 110th Street 6 train subway station, it seemed unlikely that I would find a Michelin-quality private dining experience less than a block away. But just past the nondescript facade of the Food Choice supermarket was the dimly lit Savoy Bakery. It looked closed, but the address was right. I peeked through the partially drawn curtains and saw an elegant eight-person table setting in a cozy brick walled interior, along with a bright kitchen and, most importantly, other humans.
It's not a restaurant, but it's not not a restaurant. I wasn't sure what to expect when my friend invited me to a tasting at Recette, which labels itself as "private dining." By "private," Recette means they can bring dinner into your home or the venue of your choosing, but their default dining room is Savoy Bakery during the after-hours.
During your meal—a five, seven, or ten-course tasting menu ($135-$210)—the owner of Savoy Bakery and maitre d' of Recette Brian Ghaw describes the dishes created by executive chef Jesse Schenker (previously of the Beard House and Gordon Ramsay at the London) and pastry chef Christina Lee (previously of Per Se and Falai). Unless your friends are chefs in some of New York City's best restaurants and will recreate a special meal for you at home, Recette brings the rare experience of eating quality food, outside of a stuffy environment, with just a handful of other people. And after your meal is over you can discuss the food with the friendly Recette team.
I didn't realize until I was on the train home that the meal was about three hours long. A lost sense of time is always a good sign of an enjoyable dining experience. Here are some of my favorite dishes from the five-course meal (which came to a total of 12 dishes with the amuse bouches and mignardises).
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 8, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
Talay
701 West 135th Street, New York NY 10031 (at Twelfth Avenue; map); 212-491-8301; talayrestaurant.com
Service: Friendly and attentive, if a little inexperienced. There's even free valet parking
Setting: Is it a restaurant-club, a lovely al fresco dining spot, or a lounge? In fact, it's all three
Compare It To: Asia de Cuba
Must-Haves: Crispy shrimp, Thai beef salad, whole crisp snapper, arroz Valenciana
Cost: $60 for three courses, including a glass of wine, tax, and tip
Grade: B
There's a new restaurant row in town, and it's in a most unlikely location: Twelfth Avenue in the 130s. Tucked among Riverside Park, the West Side Highway, and the huge Uptown Fairway digital billboard, this newly formed aglomeration of restaurants includes the seminal Dinosaur Barbecue, the Hudson River Club (no relation to the now-defunct downtown restaurant of the same name), Covo, and Talay, an Asian-Latin restaurant-lounge comprising three distinct spaces—a lovely outdoor dining space facing an old Riverside Park retaining wall, an indoor dining room featuring clublike lighting and a pulsating hip-hop and rap soundtrack, and an upstairs lounge that starts to get going around 11 o'clock most nights.
The look and feel of the indoor dining room, not to mention the upstairs lounge, would have you believe Talay is more lounge and club than restaurant, but don't let looks fool you. Talay is actually a pretty serious Asian-Latin restaurant featuring the handiwork of two talented chefs, Phet Schwader (AZ, now closed) and King Phojanakong (Kuma Inn chef-owner). Order carefully from the ridiculously friendly waitstaff presided over with aplomb by an unflappable cheerleader–general manager Romi Macasaet, and you can eat very well here.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, June 25, 2008 at 10:45 AM
When my friends and I stepped out of the 137th Street station on the 1 train on the way to a friend's get-together, we all thought the same thing: what would we eat for dinner? How fortuitous it was for us to turn left and behold one of the most beautiful sights in Harlem: a woman selling a variety of tamales out of a street cart. It's like it was there, just for us...along with the other gazillion people who come hungry out of that station.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 14, 2007 at 11:17 AM
A selection of pies and tarts from Trois Pommes Patisserie.
As many of you know I am a pie freak, which in New York is not a bad thing, as New York has quietly become an excellent pie town. Last year some of you might recall I posted about New York's five best pies. It is now time to move beyond my top five pie list in New York, to a place called Pie Heaven.
I have eaten hundreds of pies in Gotham, and I believe that no one should want for a great piece of pie on Thanksgiving. So in honor of Ben Leventhal and the rest of the crew at Eater I give you my current, up-to-the-minute list of fine pie establishments in and around New York. A lot of these places don't allow walk-in pie purchases on either the day before Thanksgiving or on Turkey Day itself, so to avoid extreme Thanksgiving pie disappointment, call now.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 24, 2007 at 8:12 AM
"I keep thinking about all those nice people. Where are they going to get their bread?" —Rosa Morrone
Rosa Morrone in her bakery, from "New York Eats (More)."
Morrone's, one of New York's great Italian bread bakeries, closed its doors last month, and New York City (and the whole country for that matter) is a slightly less warm and hospitable place as a result.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 18, 2006 at 10:48 AM
When I woke up this morning I had a deep yearning for a piece of fried chicken.
I'm actually not that particular about which piece. Thighs, wings, drumsticks and even the frequently dry breast, are all all right with me, because in the end I love fried chicken because of the crispy, crunchy, greaseless exterior coating, in which the breading and the skin become a cosmic one.
So where can I go for my fried chicken fix today?
Three places immediately come to mind:
1) Rack and Soul/Charles' Southern Style Kitchen: Charles Gabriel is perhaps NYC's greatest fried chicken cook. If he used just a little more salt in his batter he would be inducted into the International Fried Chicken Hall of Fame. One note: Last time I was in Rack and Soul for lunch, our chicken arrived two minutes after we ordered it. It had obviously been made well before we ordered it. So if you go at lunch, tell them you'll wait until your chicken is cooked to order.
Rack and Soul: 2818 Broadway (109th St.) 212-222-4800
Charles' Southern Kitchen: 2837 Eighth Avenue (152nd St.) 212-926-4313
2) Blue Smoke: Kenny Callaghan's fried chicken was inspired by an unscheduled stop I forced him to make at Gus' World Famous Fried Chicken , when we were driving back to the Memphis airport after spending two days eating barbecue at the Southern Foodways Barbecue Conference. Though nobody at Gus' let him get too close to the kitchen, he must have picked up something he put to use. The fried chicken here is amazing, crispy and crunchy on the outside, moist and delicious on the inside. Note: It's only served at dinner. I've begged them to serve it at lunch, but they wouldn't do it.
You can order it when you are listening to music at the Jazz Standard downstairs. It is the best thing I've ever tasted in a club.
Blue Smoke: 116 E. 27th St. (between Park Ave. South and Lexington Avenue) 212-447-7733
3) Jacque-Imo's NYC: Jacque-Imo founder Jacques Leonardi had the wisdom to hire the late, great Austin Leslie when he opened his Jacque-Imo's in New Orleans. Austin Leslie passed on recently, but you can eat a reasonable facsimile of his wondrous fried chicken at the Jacque-Imo's NYC on Columbus Avenue. There it's cooked to order. At the branch in Grand Central, the fried chicken has obviously been sitting around too long.
Jacques-Imo's NYC: 366 Columbus Ave. (77th St.) 212-799-0150
Posted by Ed Levine, August 1, 2006 at 3:29 PM
By popular demand, here's a list of my top ten pizza slices in NYC:
1) DiFara (you all know where it is)
2) Adrienne's (Old Stone St., Wall Street)
3) Patsy's (117th and First Avenue)
4) Joe and Pat's (Staten Island)
5) Nunzio's (Staten Island)
6) Sullivan Street Bakery
7) Sal and Carmine's (102nd and Broadway)
8) Joe's (Carmine Street and Park Slope)
9) Grandma Slices at Maffei (22nd and Sixth)
10) Louie and Ernie's (Bronx)
Anybody beg to differ?
Posted by Ed Levine, June 16, 2006 at 5:27 PM
A reader has asked me for my list of top five barbecue joints in NYC.
What are yours? This is one everyone has an opinion on.
The more pertinent question is whether there are even five barbecue joints in NY with the hunger, passion and knowledge to do right by 'cue. I ended up writing about seven.
In alphabetical order (almost):
Blue Smoke: Danny Meyer, Kenny Callahan and Mark Parisi-Maynard are trying to do right by cue' lovers in NYC, and most of the time they succeed, although inconsistency continues to plague the 'cue here. The ribs are consistently excellent, the brisket less so, and the fried chicken at dinner rocks. On average I would give Blue Smoke a 90.
Daisy May's BBQ USA: Adam Perry Lang has hung up his fancy-pants toque in favor of the pursuit of the ultimate 'cue. I haven't had his barbecue recently enough, so I'll give it an incomplete for now. But I know Adam has been faring well on the competition barbecue circuit, so he's still got the smoke in his veins. In general I find he tries a little too hard with his barbecue sauces. His meat is generally far superior to his sauces.
Dinosaur Barbecue:John Stage took a lickin' from the critics when he first opened, and based on my recent experiences there, the critics were dead wrong. Stage knows his barbecue, uses plenty of real wood, and again has a passion for doing 'cue right. I'll give the it a 90.
Rack and Soul: I went early to Rack and Soul, and I found the barbecue hard to judge as it was slathered with very sweet barbecue sauce. So I'll give it an incomplete until I return. Charles Gabriel's fried chicken was way good, however. The chicken gets a 93.
RUB: Paul Kirk and his partner have done a pretty good job with RUB. The brisket is dry, the burnt ends rock, the ribs are generally damn fine, and I don't ever order barbecue chicken, but the duck was surprisingly good the one time I had it here. Burnt Ends: 92,Brisket: 70, Ribs: 88
Virgil's: You can't expect great barbecue in Times Square, but Virgil's serves up a creditable plate of ribs. I give it an 82.
One final entry not in alphabetical order:
Pies N Thighs Many writers I know and respect speak very highly of the pork shoulder here. The only time I had it, it was so smoky it tasted of nothing but smoke and vinegar. I'll be back, so for now it's an incomplete.
