Tag Archives: New York
Williamsburg on a Sunday Afternoon
It’s hard to look hip and stay warm, but if you want to get schooled in how to do it, take a trip out to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Fashion is still on the forefront here, even in freezing temperatures.
A trapper hat and pattern-edged coat summon the great Northwest. Salmon colored pants really make it pop. (more…)
Street Chic: Downtown to Midtown, January
While it may be tempting to bury yourself in a plain black puffer jacket for the fifth day in a row, these fashionable folks prove that you can still look stylish in the cold. Layers are obviously key, but these women and men are paying a lot of attention to coats and accessories, seemingly dressing from the outside layer in. Start with a good coat or interesting bag you may have been neglecting this winter and try building the rest of your look around that.
A sculptural, mannishly-tailored coat is a cool Calvin Klein-esque look when paired with skinny black jeans and a gray sweatshirt. The alligator bag ensures that the whole look isn’t too casual. (more…)
Posted in fashion
Tagged New York, street chic
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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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Mia Dona
CLOSED
There may be no second acts in American lives, but there are in the New York restaurant business. Donatella Arpaia, who opened davidburke & donatella with chef David Burke, then Dona, Anthos and Kefi with chef Michael Psilakis, has moved onto act three with Mia Dona, which she recently reopened as a solo project.
As in the music business, solo albums are tough. You wonder if one star will be able to carry it for the whole team or if the magic will get lost in the switch. But pay attention at Mia Dona and you’ll find not just the old favorites but some interesting new notes as well. (more…)
Street Chic: Lafayette and Prince Street, January
When the mercury crept up over 32 yesterday, and New Yorkers emerged from their homes and offices fashionably dressed for the cold. If, like me, you tend to wear the same thing over and over again in cold weather, these looks may give you some inspiration.
December’s Street Chic focused on color, but all black will always be the uniform here. She pairs shiny black leggings with a studded down jacket and lace-up boots. Very on-trend yet very warm and practical. Slouchy knit berets are also a big favorite for women. (more…)
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Tagged fair isle, New York, street chic
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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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Fifth Avenue in December
Perhaps no other city outside of Germany gets as decked out as New York does for the holidays, which makes it a beautiful time of year to shop and look at the elaborate window displays – though unfortunately, the rest of the world seems to have figured that out too, because they’re all here. Monday was relatively quiet on Fifth Avenue outside of Bergdorf’s, with a few well-dressed shoppers mixing with the crowds stopped in their tracks by the ingenious displays.
One of the most exciting developments was color – and not just holiday colors, but all the colors of the rainbow. Scandanavian chic: Her skirt is from the Pendleton Meets Opening Ceremony collection. (more…)
Lunch: Corrado Bread and Pastry
Errands are much less tedious when you can combine them with good food. So when you find yourself on the Upper East Side, soften the blow by heading to Corrado Bread and Pastry on Lexington and 70th for lunch. This is Italian bread done right, with the dark, crunchy crust that Anthony Mangieri described at Una Pizza Napoletano, and soft, spongy interior. It’s always worthwhile to buy a loaf of their ciabatta to go.
There are so many varieties of Italian panini-style sandwich at Corrado that it’s hard to choose, but a good bet is the prosciutto sandwich with mozzarella, arugula, tomato and pesto. (more…)
Posted in food, Italian, New York restaurants, restaurants, Upper East Side, West Village
Tagged bread, lunch, New York
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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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Maialino
An old bit of travel advice goes like this: If you’re looking for a casual place to eat in Italy, go for a trattoria over a ristorante. The word “trattoria” implies that the establishment is a family-owned business where the food is made in house, while the word “ristorante” connotes a more expensive place that’s run as a business, not as a labor of love.
Though Danny Meyer may be renowned for his business acumen, the feeling of a home-cooked meal comes through in his new Maialino, which he specifically calls a trattoria. Despite the madness surrounding its opening in the Gramercy Park Hotel two weeks ago—it’s nearly impossible to get through on the phone to make a reservation, so try Open Table—on a recent night, Maialino was surprisingly calm, orderly and friendly inside on a recent night. (more…)
Posted in food, Gramercy Park, Italian, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged Danny Meyers, 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…)
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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Lunch: Dos Toros
No matter how much New Yorkers try to claim their city’s superiority in various areas—culture, music, fashion, 24-hour delivery of anything you desire—there is one category in which we must concede defeat: availability of good, authentic Mexican food. California has always had us beat in this department. It’s not that we are unaware of the problem. It’s just that, like many great quandaries of the day, we don’t know how to fix it.
Fortunately, two brothers from San Francisco, Leo and Oliver Kremer, arrived in the city determined to recreate Mission-style Mexican here in New York. The new Dos Toros taqueria near Union Sqare provides a much-needed upgrade to the Mexican food situation in Manhattan, which, unlike Brooklyn and Queens, hasn’t benefited from the recent uptick in good taquerias. (more…)
Posted in East Village, food, Mexican, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged beef, lunch, New York
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Patois’ Fireplace Room Remains Unoccupied
While it’s true that La Petite Provence has opened in the old Patois space, as reported by Flo Fab in yesterday’s Off the Menu, it only occupies half the space held by Patois in Boerum Hill before they up and moved to Nolita (and seemingly went crazy). We walked by this past weekend, and the old Patois space has been divided in two. La Petite Provence is “petite” indeed, located the narrow southernmost room without a fireplace.
Patois’ fireplace, days before the restaurant closed in Boerum Hill last winter
Meanwhile, Patois’ wonderful fireplace room still stands empty as winter approaches, with windows papered and no sign of activity inside. Are the building’s owners trying to milk it for all it’s worth? One of the reasons Patois vacated the space, according to a staff member there at the time, was because the building owner kept raising the rent. (What recession?) But we think they owe it to the neighborhood – dammit, to all of New York! – to get a new cozy restaurant in there as soon as possible. It’s getting cold out here.