We stayed at the Historic Blue Moon Hotel on Orchard at Delancey. It is reasonably priced and had good reviews.
Walked in and thought we had made a mistake. It’s in an old tenement and the entry looks like the conversion was recent and minimal. There’s a bar with desserts in glass cases, and various prepared foods in other cases scattered around. We got there at 1:15, the desk clerk said check-in was at 4. He was talking on the phone in what seemed to be Russian, was hollering in Spanish to some of the staff and spoke perfect Noo Yawk English. I asked if we might get in earlier, happy to pay; he waved airily and said give him a few minutes. Fifteen minutes later, no extra charge, we checked in to a very large room by Manhattan standards; clean, comfortable and attractive.
The owner is a local Jewish artist with an Italian father. His family bought this and he spent five years restoring and renovating it, keeping lots of original touches and left-over artifacts (the upper floors were untouched from the 1930s - 2001!). We tried only a few things from the ground floor restaurant and café, they were excellent.
Looking for a reasonably priced, personable hotel in lower Manhattan? I was, and I found it.
We booked Il Posto Accanto for dinner. This is a small neighborhood pasta joint with a reputation that goes far beyond local. The wine list is extensive and excellent; prices are not bargains but also not crazy. There is a selection of wines with bottle age, mostly trophies at what are sane prices for that kind of stuff; $850 for 2005 Chave or $2K for 2007 Rayas is not much over retail. We just had glasses, I don’t remember the details on mine, but it was an excellent Pinot Bianco blend.
The food was incredible. Eileen had tortellini di coda (oxtail). I think this was literally the first time she did not offer me a taste of her dish. I wasn’t angry so much as astonished. I had wonderful house-made pasta with seafood, our guest had grilled salmon, everybody was happy. After splitting an affogato, Eileen and our guest were even happier. I’ve eaten here half a dozen times, cannot recommend it highly enough.
Eileen wanted to eat at Katz’s, a few blocks away. But she recoiled at the size of the sandwiches (even a half would be way more than she wanted) and it was cold and raw out. A block away from Katz is the retail outlet of Russ & Daughters, the seafood equivalent. However a block away from our hotel Russ & Daughters has opened a café. The bagels and lox were as good as any I’ve ever had, and I have had a LOT of bagels and lox! Eileen had a mushroom barley soup, almost black in color, exceptionally rich, filling and good. Perfect to drive away the cold.
Dinner was a board OL, I posted on it in wine talk.
[Mutated Tasting Success - Uncle Lou, Chinatown NY, 1/4/24]
In brief, Victor Hong recommended Uncle Lou’s in Chinatown, outstanding food at extremely reasonable prices and BYOB for $20/btl, but they’ll do $20/person.
I really hadn’t been anywhere in Manhattan since COVID, was glad to get back to my old stomping grounds and had a wonderful time in this funky little village, still holding the rest of the city at arm’s-length. The streets are full of individual, oddball little shops. The Essex Market has great traditional vendors. Eileen likes Bon-Bon, a Swedish candy store. I don’t eat licorice, but they are apparently as good as it gets. I’m now a pretty rural guy, but it was good to get back to my roots for a brief visit. I’ll go again when it gets a little warmer.
Dan Kravitz