Not sure where is best to post this. On Sunday, Jun 8th I will be doing a guest sommelier stint at Foul Witch! They have given me the keys to the Blanca cellar, one of my all time favorite restaurants, and I will be assembling a once in a life time wine list! I will post more details as soon as I have them.
FYI>This is just for fun and my love of Blanca, I am not getting any pay for this…
Robert, what time will you be there? I’ll be at the Decanter event (and mini-BerserkerFest) that weekend, in Manhattan, leaving Sunday mid-afternoon so if you are there in the morning maybe I can squeak by and meet you
Had a great weekend in NYC after our son’s graduation from a high school near Princeton. Will miss having a reason to visit the area, and especially the sandwiches from Olive’s and ice cream from the Bent Spoon!
In New York, we had several good meals. Raf’s on sunday night was a lot of fun. Small/tight space, interesting crowd, and cool staff. Ordered a bunch of the menu, including oysters, multiple salads and pastas, as well as the roast chicken and fries. Bread was delicious, and the spaghetti with bottarga was a standout. Wine list seemed to be mostly natural wines that I had never heard of, which were serviceable but not memorable. Somm was a friendly guy.
Randomly got a reservation at Don Angie last night via an Open Table notification. Everything was great, and my kids really enjoyed it. Low key and approachable service, nice room. No bad bites were had, and I can say the lasagna for two is a great and inventive dish. Definitely seems like it would be less enjoyable as a two-top as the portions are large and it would be tough to make it thru much of the menu. Drank wines by the glass, which were fine, but not super interesting.
Can also recommend a fun wine bar called Elvis across the street from our hotel. Good vibes with lots of young people drinking what seemed like mostly natural wines served by a young staff that was doing plenty of imbibing.
Cheers!
Lived in NJ close to Princeton for 60 years, Bent Spoon was great, Thomas Sweet even better! Just my opinion of course lol
Tom
As soon as I know more details I will post. They do have a brunch but not sure what time it starts.
Last night was my outing at Crevette and it was definitely enjoyable. The Aioli of Spring Vegetables and Skate Cheeks was tasty enough, one of those things where the aioli would make an old sneaker taste good. And the vegetables were certainly well presented. But I was more excited by the things I am unlikely to make at home.
Like the tortilla with morels, the crab agnolotti, their version of seafood paella which was so deliciously briny and seafood gutsy, and the dover sole. Although it was our mistake for not realizing that both the sole and the skate cheeks were done in the same breaded prep. Tasty, but could have been more diversified for us.
Wine list had many good options (although could maybe use some more riesling for being a fish/seafood restaurant, but that’s just my quirk and not a real critique). Pricing was a bit more than 2x retail for many options, so that was endearing as well!
Any favorite Izakyas in NYC? I can’t believe I don’t have one…
Need to fix this. ASAP.
Preferably one with corkage.
been to mew and nonono (which iirc is very close to atoboy) pretty recently
i liked both quite a bit but favored mew
can’t comment on corkage as didn’t ask at either because we were drinking sake
You can BYOS as well!
if i had the same access to great sake that you do i most definitely would!!!
Well, it’s not quite the same access as we have, since we have a warehouse full, but you can buy Kikuhime any day of the week online!
Has anyone been to Teruko yet? The new Japanese restaurant in The Chelsea Hotel, from Sunday Hospitality (Rule of Thirds etc.)
Ha! I had not even heard about it and I just saw George.
The chef is a huge Kikuhime nut and they just placed a massive order with us, including a bunch of ishobin, which suggests they may be pouring by the glass or tokkuri (carafe) as well as selling by the bottle.
I tried delivery from Sobaya last night. For delivery it was good and just what I was looking for. I will order again and maybe try in-person.
Man I used to love going to Sobaya when I lived in the East Village over 20 years ago. Especially for ten zaru soba in the summer. Great to hear it is still going strong.
i had lunch there on memorial day and it was packed. solid value still as well.
love sobaya…usually there for lunch. i dont consider it an izakaya though. try raku if you like sobaya.
my favorite izakaya used to be rockmeisha but that alas closed.
recently went to sozai on 45th street before a show at sony hall. was pretty impressed with this newish place.
I have had a few request for a Ha’s Snack Bar review! Every time I look at the food and menu I appreciate what they are doing but it veers a little more meat heavy than we like with Pâtés and things like beef heart or pig trotters. Having said that I can feel their passion and that it is our type of place and we have many mutual friends with them so we finally went!
Without further ado!
Absolutely loved everything about it. The vibe is outstanding. The food is really inventive, perfectly executed and deliciously unique. I can’t wait to go back.
They open at 5:30. We arrived at 4:30 to inquire about walk ins and luckily a few people who work there know us and they offered to give us a 5:30 resy so we did not have to wait in line. A very hospital move that I will always remember.
So we went over to Cellar 36 and had a wonderful natural elderflower hipster beer.
Post Cellar 36 we arrived at 5:30 on the dot to a line of about 25 people! They only have 26 seats and also take reservations. They do have a few tables outside.
Fair warning you have to know what you are getting into here. The tables are super small and the entire set up is very Parisian wine bar like. The service is leisurely. The wine list is small and all natural. It is loud. The energy is super high and young. Yet we really loved it and can’t wait to go back.
Great info thanks for the review Robert.
