Tag Archives: bars
Weather Up
If you’re in the neighborhood for The Vanderbilt, it would be a tragic mistake to leave without visiting Weather Up just down the block. Beyond a nondescript white-tiled exterior lies a den for classic cocktails made with small-label bitters, homemade syrups and specialty liquor. Nearly forgotten drinks like the Brandy Alexander find a home at this bar, which has been one of the driving forces behind the pre-Prohibition cocktail trend.
The Bourbon Highball ($9), mixed with lemon, simple syrup and soda, came garnished with candied ginger and had a distinct gingery flavor that tasted just like the sharp spiciness in a can of Vernor’s. (more…)
The Vanderbilt
In its Prospect Heights neighborhood, the Vanderbilt is known as “the expensive place.” Mobbed at first and then dismissed for its small portions at higher-than-usual price tags, the Vanderbilt is quieter now. You can actually see the reclaimed wood in the industrial but rustic front room when it’s not jam packed with people, and when you order one of the excellent cocktails at the marble-topped bar, you can hear yourself speak. You can even walk in and get a table. And if you’re from Manhattan, land of the $15 glass of wine, $15 for thick, peppery slabs of hamachi crudo by Brooklyn’s Michelin-starred chef Saul Bolton will seem like a bargain.
The problem seems to be one of clarification: the Vanderbilt was probably never meant to be cheap. It brings Saul’s artisanal, global cuisine from the more formal restaurant on Smith Street to a wider audience via a small plates menu that touches down everywhere from Japan to Germany. Could you go down the street and get bigger portions for less? Yes. If your idea of fancy food involves Hollandaise sauce, then by all means keep walking. But if you want a kitchen that can do artisanal food very well, you’re in the right place. (more…)
Posted in American, Austrian, food, New York restaurants, Prospect Heights, restaurants
Tagged bars, Brooklyn, duck, New York
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Almond
Tell someone the address of Almond restaurant, and they’re liable to say: “Wasn’t that Borough/Rocco’s/Caviar and Banana/Commune?” The answer is yes, yes, yes and yes. Walking into the space may also make you experience déjà vu all over again, because interior has many of the same elements of its predecessor Borough – the same tables and chairs, the same posh billiards room in back, the same rough-hewn wood lining the walls, the same popular bar scene – with a prettified face lift of coral wallpaper and gilt-framed mirrors.
Before you consider the place doomed, know that while this is still El Chod’s space, the owners of the very successful Almond restaurant from the Hamptons are much of the time, making sure things run smoothly. The crowd has gotten a polish too. Gone are those grubby locavores that patronized Borough, now the crowd includes stick-thin women in wrap dresses and big jewelry, men with winter tans and cashmere V-necks. (“They’re not on our team, ladies,” our waitress whispered.) Chelsea Clinton dined there on a recent night. Celebrities, gays, emaciated women, face lifts: Almond is a Hamptons away from the Hamptons, and I mean that in the best possible way. (more…)
Posted in American, Flatiron District, food, French, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, duck, New York
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The Breslin
The Breslin is a restaurant for people who like to eat. That may sound redundant, but given the lengths to which some restaurants go to accommodate picky eaters (an entrée of “steamed vegetables with boiled egg” at one downtown spot comes to mind), the Breslin embraces food with genuine gusto.
Granted, chef April Bloomfield’s British pub fare is extreme cuisine. Bacon-wrapped eggs, stuffed pig’s foot and fried head cheese are all on the menu, should you be craving them. But there’s also sea bass, chicken (aka poussin) and some excellent salads if you’re not a particularly adventurous diner. The menu—and the food—almost seeks to provoke: the “onion and bone marrow soup with parmesan toast” ($10) turns out to be a particularly meaty, velvety riff on French onion soup, with the bone marrow only adding to a beefy flavor that already existed in the original. Tread carefully, but do not be afraid. (more…)
Posted in British, food, New York restaurants, NoMad, restaurants
Tagged April Bloomfield, bars, beef, gastropubs, marrow, New York
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Brinkley’s
Brinkley’s may be new, but this pubby Nolita spot has an old-school preppy vibe, with Steve Miller Band and the Doobie Brothers playing on the stereo. Outfitted with a huge backlit bar, subway-tiled dining room, and horseshoe-shaped banquettes good for parties of six, Brinkley’s draws a similar bankers-and-ex-debs crowd as Southside downstairs.
Still, there’s a downtown edge to the darkly lit space with industrial light fixtures, vintage prints on the wall, and coy wallpaper in the bathrooms with illustrations of farm animal breeds (including an “Improved Tennessee Sheep”). It’s as if your old friend Dorrian grew up, developed some taste in food and decor and moved to a loft downtown. (more…)
Posted in British, food, New York restaurants, NoLita, restaurants
Tagged bars, beef, duck, gastropubs, New York
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The Redhead
The Redhead has been playing hard to get for some time now. Though she lives right near by me, every time I stopped by for dinner, she was booked, with waits of an hour or more. Ever since Bruni gave her a star – an honor that many similarly casual spots don’t earn – the Redhead’s dance card has been full.
The only answer is to persevere, because this is one small, inexpensive, urban-rustic place that merits the hype. Unlike so many other places that are carefully set-designed to look like a diamond in a rough but are really just rough, the Redhead has real polish in the food and service. (more…)
Posted in American, East Village, food, New York restaurants, restaurants, Southern
Tagged bars, New York
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Red Hook Beef Jerky
Intensely smoky with a spicy finish, this Red Hook Beef Jerky was off the market for a while but is now for sale again at Sample in Boerum Hill. Made by a Red Hook couple who slice brisket, marinate it in soy sauce and spices and dry it in a regular oven until it reaches just the right chewy-soft texture, this jerky should be a stocking stuffer for all the meat eaters on your list – if you can resist eating it all yourself.
Sample
152 Smith Street between Bergen and Wyckoff Streets
Brooklyn, NY
718-643-6622
SD26
Restaurant partnerships can be a tricky thing. As with any celebrity couple, there are joyous, hyper-publicized births (of new restaurants) and bitter divorces played out in the tabloids (or Flo Fab’s column). So it’s a good thing that Tony and Marisa May are father and daughter, because the dining public would benefit from them sticking together for a while. The new SD26 injects Marisa’s modern, even trendy style into the old restaurant San Domenico, but maintains Tony May’s hospitality and chef Odette Fada’s classic Italian cuisine.
Anyone interested in Italian wine should come here for the bar, where a huge wine selection is listed on Palm-Pilot-like devices. Sort the list by country, then by region or varietal, or sort the entire thing by price. SD26’s Italian wine consultant wrote extensive descriptions of each wine, though a few things get lost in translation to amusing effect: The bottle we chose on a recent night apparently goes well with “white meats and redheads.” (more…)
Posted in Flatiron District, food, Italian, New York restaurants, NoMad, restaurants
Tagged bars, beef, New York
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Revisiting 124 Rabbit Club
We went back to this little basement nook of a beer bar recently – it’s right near local hot spots Minetta Tavern and Mermaid Oyster Bar. Macdougal Street tends towards the touristy and fratty, so this is one speakeasy that’s not mysterious just for the sake of being clever. The black metal basement door repels the hoi polloi and opens for people who look like they have a clue, which should be especially handy now that the annual holiday tourist invasion has begun.
If you’re a fan of craft beers and haven’t been here already, by all means go now. (more…)
Cocktail Trends: El Gin Tonic?
Cocktail trends come and cocktail trends go, and sometimes they even come back again before you even know they went. According to today’s Times, rum is on the up and up, meanwhile, it seems like just yesterday that tiki bar Waikiki Wally’s opened, then closed, in the East Village.
But you really don’t realize how ridiculous cocktail trends are until you see them at work in another culture. In Barcelona right now, the coolest possible drink to order is not something involving bitters, chartreuse, absinthe, or even rye, it’s a good ol’ gin and tonic, pronounced “GIN TOH-neek.” That’s right Mom and Dad: Your taste in drinks is big in Barcelona. (more…)
Posted in food
Tagged Barcelona, bars, East Village rants, travel
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Mermaid Oyster Bar
Though food critics always seem to be on the hunt for latest new undiscovered place, most of the real buzz this year has been about new restaurants by old masters. Just try landing a table at Danny Meyer’s Maialino on opening night or getting through the door at Keith McNally’s Minetta Tavern without a reservation. With established brands like these, a market of loyal followers is already in place before a new restaurant even opens.
Which is why Danny Abrams’ Mermaid Oyster Bar will probably thrive in the space that once housed the charming but ill-fated Smith’s on MacDougal Street (never helped by the fact that it opened at the same time as “The Smith” on Third Avenue). The redesign shows signs of an expert touch.
Posted in American, food, Greenwich Village, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, beer, Bloody Marys, duck, lobster rolls, New York, seafood restaurants
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Henry Public
If you didn’t know this Cobble Hill space was an old TV repair store until just a couple months ago, you would think new gastro pub Henry Public had been here forever. Past an antique bar, refurbished gas lamps and black and white photos of Frederick Douglass and the old Brooklyn Eagle headquarters hang in the dining room, where the wood paneling and marble fireplace date the room to sometime around the turn of the last century. But this carefully curated mix is actually the result of years of scavenging by owners Jen Albano and Matt Dawson, also the team behind the Brooklyn Social Club, who’ve created an old-timey bar and restaurant that actually feels authentic.
Though it opened just a couple weeks ago, the place was already packed with a mostly local crowd on a recent weekend night. Many were there for the drinks: pre-Prohibition cocktails involving things like egg whites and obscure liqueurs. (more…)
Posted in American, Boerum Hill, food, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, beer, Brooklyn, burgers, fireplaces, gastropubs, New York
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The Crosby Bar
The idea of an $18 cocktail may seem crazy in this economy, but you’ll find little price resistance among the crowd at the Crosby Bar in the new Crosby Street Hotel in Soho. It’s worth going for the design alone – a very cool, British pop interior with mod globular lighting, folk and modern art, and interesting touches throughout. (The parent company, Firmdale Hotels, owns several hotels in London.) There’s a long pewter bar, double-height ceilings, and a cocktail seating area that feels very Fez like. It’s already attracting trendy crowd – think pretty women clad in fur vests, over-the-knee tights, fancy handbags, etc. It could be the next Rose Bar.
Alas, the Crosby Street Hotel opened just before winter, so we won’t get to use the beautiful outdoor courtyards very soon. But if you can stomach $18 cocktails, the bartenders mix them well. We tried a couple classics, a Manhattan and a Sidecar. The only thing I found aggravating was that champagne cocktails cost an additional $2, bringing the price up to $20. Maybe they should have just charged $18.50 across the board and called it a night. More stealth photos, after the jump. (more…)
The Ten Bells
You know the feeling: You get older, but the neighborhood stays the same age. So it is on the Lower East Side, where beer-soaked dens with an American-Apparel-clad clientele don’t have the same appeal after you’ve been there, done that umpteen million times.
Fortunately, there’s the Ten Bells, where you can actually get decent – make that very good – wine by the glass. We didn’t go as obscure as Eric Asimov did in his recent visit, but we also got some sparkling fresh, briny Malpeaque oysters ($2 each) and deceptively spicy papas bravas ($5) with a nuanced 2006 Rioja Arbanta Llorens for $9 a glass.
Best of all, it’s all enjoyed amid the company of grown-ups.
The Ten Bells
247 Broome Street, between Orchard and Ludlow Streets
New York, NY
212-228-4450
thetenbells.com
The Breslin Bar Is Open
While we may have to wait a little longer for April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman’s new restaurant to start serving, the Breslin Bar in the lobby of the Ace Hotel is already open. It’s worth going to this new spot north of the Flatiron District just for the interior alone, designed by Roman & Williams: think 1940s school for math and sciences. The oak-paneled bar area in the back, decorated with vintage books, attracted a cool, laid back crowd on a recent weeknight.
More (iPhone) photos and details, after the jump. (more…)