Posted by Jessica Allen and Garrett Ziegler, January 9, 2012 at 11:45 AM
Wienerschnitzel with German home fries [Photos: Garrett Ziegler]
To get to Nürnberger Bierhaus, we took a subway, a ferry, and a bus. It was worth it. As we entered, everyone at the bar turned, curious to see who was letting in the cold. We sat ourselves at a two-top, beneath wallpaper decorated with castles, sipped a light lager, and admired the collection of steins nearby. Garlands crisscrossed the yellow-and-brown dining room, while college basketball played on the flat screen and reflected off the plaques testifying support of local firefighters and police officers. This German restaurant on Staten Island crosses Middle America with Mitteleuropa. The result offers a warm, homespun atmosphere and yeasty, meaty staples.
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Posted by Howard Walfish, September 22, 2011 at 10:15 AM
[Photographs: Howard Walfish]
When it comes to dining in the five boroughs, Staten Island often gets left off of the radar. People are willing to make the trip out to Flushing or Sunset Park, but rarely across the water. I'm sure part of it is the trip itself; to get to Dosa Garden I had to take the train to the ferry, then another train, and then I had to walk (uphill) for almost a mile. Yet the stretch of Victory Boulevard between the Tompkinsville stop of the Staten Island Railroad and the restaurant was positively flush with sights that would make even the most jaded New York foodie sit up and take notice: a roti shop, a Nigerian grocery, and multiple Sri Lankan restaurants.
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Posted by Jessica Allen and Garrett Ziegler, January 18, 2011 at 10:00 AM
Editor's Note: Here's Jessica Allen and Garrett Ziegler, of We Heart New York, who join us with Date Night—a different (and not too pricey) pick each week.
Each night from Wednesday through Sunday, Enoteca Maria, behind Staten Island's Borough Hall, features a different Italian grandmother cooking her hometown specialties. Hearing this, you no doubt expect red-checked tablecloths, candles stuck in Chianti bottles, heaping mounds of spaghetti, and perhaps "Volare" playing softly on the stereo, as we did. But when we walked in, that night's Nonna (Rosa from Schio, Veneto) was swaying her hips to Bright Eyes and separating rabbit parts. Few things stimulate our appetite like a thwarted cliche.
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Posted by Sara Markel-Gonzalez, September 23, 2010 at 10:00 AM
[Photo: Sara Markel-Gonzalez]
This week we go back to Staten Island, where I've been exploring Victory Boulevard in the next few Staten Island trips, searching for the best tacos. El Gallo Azteca was the first stop, and all I can say is it's going to be tough to beat. While I only had two types of tacos—their famous lengua taco, and a taco al pastor—I was able to see the beauty of how, sometimes, a few simple ingredients can become so much more. Corn tortilla, meat, onion and cilantro. A squeeze of lime, a splash of salsa. Not much to it, so it seems—but a good taco is magical.
The lengua, ($3.00) sliced in thin rounds, was unbelievably tender and meaty, tasting like a great slow-braised cut of beef but softer. The warm tortillas, the tender meat, the crunchy onion, the fresh cilantro, and some spoonfuls of spicy salsa combined to make each bite more enjoyable than the last. Every ingredient was important, and every ingredient was as simple as it could be. It was a taco that I was sad to finish. But the next taco was almost as good.
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Posted by Sara Markel-Gonzalez, September 2, 2010 at 2:00 PM
[Photo: Sara Market-Gonzalez]
It's perfect beach weather again—and a perfect week to again combine two of my favorite summer activities: going to the beach and looking for great tacos. (Although that last is a year-round activity). I took the ferry out to Staten Island in search of this combo and found more than I imagined.
South Beach on Staten Island is an amazing place. I admit that I was surprised to find such a nice boardwalk, clear water, and fine sand in view of the Verrazano Bridge, but I've barely spent any time in Staten Island. That's definitely going to change, though, since there are lots of taco-eating opportunities to be had in this borough.
After getting my feet wet, I walked a few short blocks from the beach down Sand Lane to La Canasta Bakery Grocery, a small shop that sells Mexican products, bread, and food to order. (It was featured in Serious Eats this year in a Staten Island Eats post, but I wanted to go back for a closer look at the tacos.)
I got a good feeling as soon as I walked in the door. The place just felt right, and I could tell I was going to get some great eats.
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Posted by Vincent Gragnani, April 6, 2010 at 2:00 PM
Bistec tacos. [Photographs: Vincent Gragnani]
As do many Southern Californians who relocate to New York, I once ignorantly lamented the dearth of Mexican food in this part of the country. But a quick look around and I found that my own borough is home to a rapidly growing population of more than 11,000 Mexican Americans. Most live in the North Shore neighborhoods of Port Richmond and Tomkinsville, but my first contact with Staten Island's Mexican American community was at La Canasta, a tiny corner grocery store and deli in South Beach, just two blocks from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk.
The Virgin of Guadalupe guards the doorway, flanked on one side by stacked packages of corn tortillas and on the other by bins of dried chilis in nearly a dozen varieties: serrano, pasilla, ancho, arbol, pulla, costeño, the list goes on. Young families and day workers eat at long banquet tables while watching news, fútbol or telanovelas on Univisión. Like most of Staten Island's Mexican American community, the owners of La Canasta are from Puebla, in Central Mexico.
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Posted by Vincent Gragnani, February 15, 2010 at 2:00 PM
If the original Bayou on Staten Island was an eclectic Bourbon Street bar, the newly renovated restaurant is now a stately, elegant French Quarter establishment. A mini Galatoire in New York City's southernmost borough.
Elegant mirrors and chandeliers, fleur-de-lis in relief, and framed jazz posters have replaced the stuffed alligators, hanging beads, and Louisiana license plates that adorned the walls of this restaurant and bar for its first six years. Exposed brick walls now include recessed cutouts, where masquerade masks are illuminated by candlelight. Thick red curtains separate the bar from the dining room.
As my waitress two weekends ago so succinctly put it: Bayou grew up.
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Posted by Vincent Gragnani, February 10, 2010 at 4:00 PM
There are five boroughs in New York City, but in the food media world, some get more attention than others. So please welcome our new Staten Island correspondent, Vincent Gragnani. —The Mgmt.
[Photographs: Vincent Gragnani]
What makes Chez Laurent unique is not its location—a strip mall in Staten Island—but the feeling you're eating in a home somewhere between Paris and Lyon. Chef and owner Laurent Chavenet and his wife, Esperanza, run the entire show here. They seat you, take orders, prepare and serve the food, and clear the plates—with Esperanza often holding the couple's 2-year-old son, Daniel.
I had heard Chez Laurent was tiny, but when I first pulled up two years ago, I found a bakery sandwiched between a pizzeria and Chinese takeout. With red-and-white checkerboard curtains, Chez Laurent's facade may not suggest fine dining, but it is inviting.
This bakery that converts to a bistro on Friday and Saturday evenings seats only a dozen people, at tables with checkered tablecloths and an Eiffel Tower tea light. The menu here is limited and changes weekly, but you can usually count on favorites such as an escargot appetizer or shrimp Provençal entrée. The menu always includes a several-course "tasting" lineup.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 10, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Nostalgia goes a long way. This vintage 1956 Harvester International Metro van, home to Skippy's Hot Dogs, all but begs you to stop--even if you're full of pizza, as we were when we visited recently.
"First time here," said Skippy's proprietor Dawn Bellach, issuing not a question but a statement.
"Yeah," I said. "Do we look like that much like flustered newbies?"
"I've been here 30 years," Bellach said. "I know who's new and who's a regular."
So we did as any newcomer would do and asked for the most popular thing on the menu: the chili cheese dog. For good measure, we also ordered a hot dog with mustard only.
"You want that chili dog with hot or mild sauce?" Bellach asked.
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Posted by ninalalli, October 23, 2008 at 11:30 AM
As a New York kid, I regarded Staten Island only as a strange place where one visited elderly Italian relatives a few times a year. A place where dimly-lit, doily-strewn rooms had their own color themes and frilly glass dishes of ancient hard candies sat on coffee tables. Eating out on the Island was exotic, in its way—this is where I learned that spaghetti could be a side dish.
Now I'm all grown up and the old ladies have moved on to boroughs in the sky, but I'm still compelled to travel to Staten Island to eat, on occasion—much to my own surprise. The fare is more likely to be enjoyed standing up, though, and without a giant spoon for twirling noodles. Victory Boulevard, in Tomkinsville, a short stroll from where the ferry spits you out in Saint George, is home to a handful of Mexican delis and taquerias well worth the boat ride.
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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?
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 1, 2006 at 12:29 PM
A reader e-mailed me about the Pala post and asked if I was a fan of Denino's, a Staten Island pizzeria. In Pizza: Slice of Heaven
, my book about pizza, I wrote the following about Denino's:
At Denino's, the pizza box says it all: IN CRUST WE TRUST. They should trust their crust, because it is light and crisp and plaint. Denino's is a classic red-brick tavern pizzeria (with a separate dining room), but it is just as welcoming to kids after a little league game as it is to middle-aged softball players coming in for a pie and a brew after a game. I'm crazy about Denino's sausage pie, which features fine sweet Italian sausage made fresh every day by a local butcher. If you want to go vegetarian, try the white pie, made with mozzarella, onions, fresh garlic and a splash of olive oil. After fifty-four years you might think the Denino family has gotten bored with making pizza. Not so, according to third-generation co-owner Michael Denino: "We still put our heart and soul into every pie.
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 30, 2006 at 12:40 PM
I find most chicken and/or turkey sausage dry and tasteless. So when I discovered DiPaola's Turkey Sausage at my local greenmarket a couple of years ago, I was thrilled. DiPaola is a local poultry farm located in Trenton, NJ. Its sweet turkey sausage actually tastes like good Italian sausage. It has enough fat in it to keep the turkey meat moist and the right amount of fennel seeds. It tastes great formed into turkey sausage patties, crumbled into pasta sauces (I just brown the sausage and throw it into some Patsy's Marinara Sauce), or served alongside a couple of softly scrambled eggs in the morning.
DiPaola Turkeys, Trenton, NJ Ph: 609-587-9311
At 16 New York greenmarkets, including Union Square on Wednesdays and Fridays; Grand Army Plaza, Fort Greene, Borough Hall and Cortelyou in Brooklyn on Saturdays; Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on Wednesdays; West 97th Street on Fridays; St. George and Historic Richmond Town, Staten Island, on Saturdays; Columbia University on Sundays.
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