Tag Archives: fireplaces
Salinas
While the rest of New York crams into Birreria, it’s time to explore alternatives a little off the beaten path. After all, no matter how strong the draw of a new place, outdoor dining should be about relaxation, not suffering through a crowd-induced panic attack.
One outdoor spot that opened recently with a sliver of the press attention Batali’s place has gotten is Salinas, an enchanting little tapas place in Chelsea. The main wow factor here is the decor, designed by hair and makeup artist Donald Mikula and his wife Mary Catherine. There are vintage-y Spanish touches like wire mesh fronted bar cabinets and exposed stone walls, hanging flowers and flattering lighting. (more…)
Posted in Chelsea, food, New York restaurants, restaurants, Spanish
Tagged bars, fireplaces, New York, outdoor dining, tapas
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Best Outdoor Dining 2011
As much as we complain about the heat, it’s so nice to be able to dine al fresco when summer finally comes to New York. But what we’re looking for isn’t any old table plunked on a sidewalk next to a major truck route, but a nice setting, fun scene and preferably some good food. Here is an opinionated guide to the best outdoor dining in town. (more…)
Posted in food, restaurants
Tagged bars, BBQ, burgers, fireplaces, guides, New York, outdoor dining, pizza
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Ciano
CLOSED
Shea Gallante is perhaps best known as the former chef of Cru, the now-shuttered restaurant with a hefty tome of a wine list and prices that went into the thousands. The only thing more starched and staid that the atmosphere was the clientele, consisting mostly of older men murmuring reverentially over their wine. If you paid attention, you could hear a bleating side-note: the food was quite good. But it almost seemed inappropriate to mention the fare, as long as it went with that Bordeaux.
Mirroring the trajectory of the New York dining scene, Gallante decamped from Cru after the crash to open a new, more casual place. Italian, of course. If the sky were raining hellfire, New Yorkers would immediately head to the nearest homey Italian restaurant for comfort food. But don’t expect to find a cozy afterthought of a meal at Ciano. (more…)
The Lambs Club
A friend of ours once had a suitor we nicknamed “Dinner in Midtown.” That was what he asked her to do on their first date, and from then on, the prognosis for the relationship was not good. Could anything be less sexy, less likely to lead to a romantic liaison than dinner in Midtown? No.
Little has happened in past ten years of the New York dining scene to change this. Midtown restaurants can be interesting, full of power brokers and good food, or they can be utterly lame, full of frat-guy brokers and Houston’s-esque steakhouse fare. But in either case Midtown restaurants have been consistently unsexy – until now. (more…)
Posted in food, Midtown West, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged American food, bars, Eric Wilson, fireplaces, foie gras, New York
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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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Ye Waverly Inn
I was there the night Ellen Barkin threw a glass of water in Ronald Perelman’s face. Sadly, I didn’t see it happen, but that was all the inspiration I needed to keep coming back to the Waverly Inn.
With Page Six headlines like this one, most New Yorkers would be hard pressed to say they’re attracted to the Waverly Inn for the food alone. After a slightly rocky start, the kitchen is turning out meals that are “surprisingly good,” as Nathan Lane would say. It’s Yankee cuisine – very American, with British touches. The prices are low, as they were to attract artists when the Olde place first opened.
But first, the setting, because this is one of the most special interior spaces in New York. The buiding itself dates to 1845, though it didn’t house the Waverly Inn until 1920. The inside retains the low ceilings and slanted floors of the olde Waverly Inn. The gray-maned owner Graydon Carter often holds court in the see-and-be-seen front dining room, which winds back into little nooks and opens into a second dining room with a fireplace (an excellent place for a tryst, if only there weren’t so many media people around). Antiqued mirrors give way to more walls painted ruby red, and an elaborate mural of various famous people in sometimes lewd poses of Greek revelry snakes along the far wall. The dining room feels more like old London than any place I’ve been in New York. It’s truly a wonder.
A brief survey of the food, since, as mentioned, it’s not really the point. The frisee salad has just the right lemony, vinegary tang to balance the creaminess of the poached egg, and the lardons are toothsome. The vegetable plate won’t win any prizes for presentation – it arrives as a slew of sauteed vegetable nubs – but it certainly tastes good. A moment of reverence for the biscuits. So light and flaky, they are the ultimate Yankee version of a non-buttermilk biscuit. It would take superhuman willpower to resist devouring the whole thing, especially when it’s slathered with the sweet butter that comes alongside. I’ve only seen the popovers at the Harvard Club inspire the same kind of fanatacism.
The chicken pot pie is an Olde Waverly Inn standby. The creamy chicken stew inside is exactly what it should be, if a little bland. But the pastry! The crust that tops the pie makes the whole dish. It makes me want to burst into the kitchen and demand, “Who are you?” to the pastry chef.
One signature dish here, the macaroni and cheese with shaved truffles, was once just the Monday special but is now available every night (see preview menu, below). I didn’t get it, alas, because I loathe truffles, but everyone else seems to think it’s great. My friend opts for the tuna tartare, and like most of the dishes here, though it isn’t wildly creative, it is fresh and well put-together.
A note on getting in: Though the restaurant is still “not open,” it is possible to eat there if you frequent the bar until the staff recognizes you, and it also helps if you live in the neighborhood. If you don’t know where the intersection of Bank and Waverly is, that’s probably a sign that you should do the rest of us a favor and just stay away.
Ye Waverly Inn
16 Bank Street, at the corner of Waverly
212-243-7900
Posted in American, food, restaurants, West Village
Tagged fireplaces, Graydon Carter, New York
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