Has anyone tried Virginia’s in Alphabet City? Free corkage on Mondays, $30 otherwise.
Menu looks good.
http://www.virginiasnyc.com/information
estela quoted me $60 a few weeks ago.
rebelle - no corkage allowed.
Updated.
If you can, please post the web address of the restaurant.
Wildair= no corkage
Contra next door is $40. O-Riedel tumbler glasses (meh)
Casa Lever $55 to BYO. http://www.casalever.com/
Starting today 7/22/15, I’ll include the date when I update the first post. It will help in the future.
First bottle free, the rest are $15 but they didnt charge us for any at all last night!
Anyone know whether Sushi Seki allows BYO?
I’m going very late so they seem to be the best late night spot for sushi. (They have two locations, UES and Chelsea).
Menu looks pretty good, but am I the only person amused by a restaurant calling itself “Table d’Hote” with a average size a la carte menu?
Monday BYO at Racines- I thought food and service very good.
To be fair, that name dates back at least one, maybe two owners ago and around 20 years. The current iteration of the place is the best.
Goes back to 1978, when they opened. Neat little spot. I grew up a block away and remember when it opened.
Per the Chambers St Facebook page, King Bee on 9th St is now doing BYOB for Sunday brunch and dinner.
http://www.kingbeenyc.com/
Wow . . . that means it predates Busby’s and Island. Which is saying something. (pours one out for Busby’s)
I grew up 3 blocks away . . . . and now live 2 blocks away.
Yep. Haven’t thought of Busby’s in awhile. I take it you’ve been to Sfoglia? Glad to see that corner get some stability. Nothing lasted there since '77 until they opened there in '06. I haven’t been there since Ron and Colleen left in '10, though.
Yeah. Forgive the thread drift but:
Sfoglia is fine, but the service is . . . difficult. They don’t know whether to fashion themselves as a Swifty’s / Orsay type rich man’s diner or a honest-to-goodness restaurant, which leads to awkward situations like being turned away from empty seats at the bar that they’re holding for ‘regulars’. Pricing is eye-watering, food quality is good - different than Paola’s on 92 and Madison, but not necessarily better. They always have reasonably priced Franciacorta BTG and bottle, and my wife and I adore Franciacorta, so that’s a plus. I go once every couple of months, but I don’t find it to be life-changing.
Paola’s, in the old Busby’s space (and formerly of 85th street back to the 80s), is a somewhat better restaurant, but it doesn’t necessarily have better food. It’s different kind of restaurant - more of a place to go on Sunday night for basic pasta dishes; sort of an Italian version of Busby’s. To wit - I went there last night and had shrimp in angel hair. The wine list is an abomination. I’ve had really lovely dishes there (the basic pastas are uniformly delicious) and some duds (a truffle special that had been juiced with truffle oil, for instance). I also go there every couple of months. I like the atmosphere.
Vico is cash-only and so expensive that it hurts. I haven’t been in years.
Morini down on 85th is clearly the class of the bunch; since they made the portions smaller and the pricing lower, it’s a reasonable alternative to any of the above, as long as you are willing to eat lightly. The cooking is incredibly sophisticated - the chef was the last chef at Alto before it closed, and he’s very, very talented. The downside is that the restaurant is the stuffiest of the bunch; it doesn’t have the country-club-dining-room feeling of Paola’s. Otherwise, I’d eat there whenever I wanted Italian.
FWIW, they’ve opened two branches of Via Quadronno in the neighborhood - both owned by the same group that owns Bottega del Vino on 60th (?) and 5th. Neither is good, but then again, nor is Bottega del Vino.
Table d’Hote is the best of the other options in Carnegie Hill. There are the usual mediocre places on Madison - Pascalou, Le Paris Bistrot (nee Bistro du Nord). The mediocre Indian restaurant that went into the old Saranac space closed recently, I wonder what it will be replaced with. Island is still around and is what it is. (It offers $25 corkage, FWIW.)
The light dining available at the Carnegie Hill branch of Lucy’s Whey is pretty good, albeit limited by the Bunsen-burner type facilities they have in the kitchen. ABV, on 97th and Lex, is alright - the new chef is a vast improvement over the prior chef, but the atmosphere is still more bar than restaurant. Super wine list, though - the owner is a huge wine geek and opened the superb Vinyl Wine across the street on 97th and Lex that’s slowly putting K&D out of business.
El Paso Taqueria, on 97th between Madison and Park, is still a better Mexican place than the neighborhood deserves, though nothing compares to the food at the late, great Taco Taco on 89th and 2nd, when the grandma was still alive and in the kitchen and turning out some of the most creative Mexican food I’ve ever eaten. Speaking of 89th and 2nd, you can still go to Chef Ho’s and get the exact same classic NYC ‘Cantonese’ food in the exact same dining room as you would’ve 25 years ago, which is one of the reasons I love the Upper East Side - I mean, I love going out to Flushing or down to East Broadway as much as the next guy, geek out on regional Chinese food, but sometimes your inner 8 year-old just wants freshly-fried orange chicken served on a linen tablecloth, and orange wedges to end your meal.
What else is there . . . the abominable Lex restaurant, on 90th, one of the worst restaurants in the city. Peri Ela, a decent but unexceptional Turkish restaurant on 90th and Lex that’s reasonably BYO friendly. Kaia Wine Bar, a South African wine bar on 91st and 3rd (I know, hardly Carnegie Hill) that has a South Africa chef and food that’s a million times better and more authentic than the vastly overrated Madiba of Fort Greene and Harlem fame.
They opened a branch of Lloyd’s Carrot Cake on 100th and Lex, which is wonderful. Dough Loco is a superb donut shop - about as good as you’ll find anywhere - owned by the ABV guys, located on 98th and Madison.
And Yura’s is still kicking (as is, I believe, the owner Yura, despite her significant health problems) - has been on Madison for about 20 years, started on 3rd for about 10 years before that, and still has superb baked goods and prepared food. Beats the pants off of Eli’s, IMO. I suspect the Nightingale girls keep her in business, but man are her scones good.
Thus endeth the brief thread drift into the sleepy-yet-surprisingly-good food scene of Carnegie Hill.
Les Halles, John Street location, near WTC charges $25, serviceable stems. Accommodating wine steward, but we only had one bottle. Steak frites had a good sized, tender piece of meat with beefy flavor and very crisp, greaseless fries. Excellent french press coffee. Could use a little sprucing up, but seems perfect for this old part of NYC.
Sundays-only no-corkage, 3-bottle limit per table (I think, but not strictly enforced as far as I can tell), at Collichio and Sons at Chelsea.
The four of us, with me being the only relative wine-geek, went for an early dinner yesterday. Good food and overall service, including wine service with offered decanting, Burgundy stems in addition to serviceable all-purpose stems. A good Sunday option for a small group.
Ramon, are they still doing the all small plates thing?
from the top of their dinner menu
“Our dishes are all appetizer-sized.
When dining out in recent years, I found myself ordering
several appetizers in order to experience more of a chef’s
creativity and wanted to offer a way for you to do the same.”
Paul (and Suzanne),
We ate at the more casual Taproom, instead of the Dining room. The menu at the Taproom is slightly different from the Dining room, with regular appetizer-sized appetizers and the portion sizes of the entrees are closer to regular entree-size entrees. Good value for good food and service, I think.
Ramon