Tag Archives: wine bars
Chefs Club by Food & Wine
There’s something to be said for good bones. Restaurant decor can go a long way in transforming an odd space into a good one – see Claudette, for example – but when you start with something as architecturally impressive as the interior of the Puck Building, you have more leeway in what you can hang on the walls – and put on the menu. It’s an unusual concept to open a restaurant that’s not the vision of any one particular chef or restauranteur but a magazine. Fortunately Chefs Club by Food & Wine Magazine gets a certain gravitas from the surroundings, whereas otherwise it might seem utterly newfangled. (more…)
Posted in American, Cuisine, food, Neighborhood, New York restaurants, NoLita, restaurants
Tagged cocktails, pizza, seafood, wine, wine bars
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Pizza Vinoteca
As restaurant names go, Pizza Vinoteca isn’t the most memorable. It’s the Italian equivalent of naming a restaurant “Restaurant.” But as restaurants go, it’s one worth remembering, because it’s an oasis of pizza- and wine-induced calm in the hectic Union Square area. (more…)
Au Za’atar
Au Za’atar has already gotten a lot of press for a little restaurant in the East Village. This may be because a) it may be the only Arabian-French bistro in the city, and b) it is a new family-run restaurant on Avenue A, where just a block away a neighborhood pub was recently supplanted by the glowing specter of a 7 Eleven. (more…)
Posted in Cuisine, East Village, French, Middle Eastern, Neighborhood, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged baba ganoush, sausage, shrimp, wine, wine bars
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Estela
It’s hard to believe that Estela, the bright and airy new wine bar and seasonally-inspired tapas place on Houston Street, used to be the Knitting Factory, the alternative music space whose soundproofing consisted of sweaters stapled on the ceiling. All traces of grunge are gone, replaced with white marble countertops, globe lighting and brown leather banquettes more suited for a tête-à-tête than rocking out. (more…)
Posted in Cuisine, Neighborhood, New York restaurants, restaurants, Soho, Spanish
Tagged cocktails, Estela review, steak, tapas, wine bars
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Pearl & Ash
As restaurants go, Pearl & Ash has all the makings of a super trendy one. It opened in a one-block area of Chrystie and the Bowery where four other concept restaurants (the Bowery Diner, the General, Cata, Cocktail Bodega) and two cocktail bars (Bantam, Experimental Cocktail Club) have opened in the past year. It has the currently favored __ + __ name scheme, and chef Richard Kuo used to be one half of the popular pop-up restaurant Frej, which was – of course! – Scandinavian. (more…)
Posted in American, Cuisine, food, Lower East Side, Neighborhood, New York restaurants, restaurants, Spanish
Tagged tapas, wine bars
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L’Apicio
It’s hard to believe that Gabe Thompson and Joe Campanale’s new southern Italian restaurant L’Apicio, on the ground floor of a sleek new luxury condo building, is just two doors down from what was once the ultimate dive, Mars Bar (demolished to make room for another luxury condo). Somewhere the ghosts of Mars Bar drunks are spinning in their graves as the new visitors plunk down $13 for a cocktail, but that hasn’t stopped oodles of New Yorkers from descending on L’Apicio. Pretty attracts pretty, and the lofty ceilings, candlelight and rough hewn wood paneling of this restaurant’s interior have drawn a well-heeled crowd – some of whom may happen to live in the luxury condo above. (more…)
Posted in Cuisine, food, Italian, Neighborhood, New York restaurants, Noho, restaurants
Tagged cocktails, pasta, wine bars
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Murray's Cheese Bar
How can a city so obsessed with cheese not have a cheese bar until now? That is the main question that comes to mind with Murray’s Cheese Bar on Bleecker Street. New York has wine bars galore, cheese stands in the Greenmarket and specialty cheese counters popping up in so many groceries, but Murray’s is the first NYC wine bar specifically dedicated to cheese. (more…)
Posted in American, food, New York restaurants, restaurants, West Village
Tagged bars, cheese, New York, wine bars
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Amada at Revel, Atlantic City
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When a Philadelphia-based Iron Chef opens a new restaurant in nearby Atlantic City, it’s time to tune in. Jose Garces is known for his inspired Latin fusion cooking, usually on display at the acclaimed tapas restaurant Amada in Philadelphia. This summer he spun off a new branch of Amada at the multi-million-dollar Revel Resort, the latest attraction in a gambling town that’s on the up and up. (more…)
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Amada review, Atlantic City, New Jersey, tapas, wine bars
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Rosemary’s
In any other town – even in other parts of New York City – it would be a sad tale of recession-era urban blight: a decades-old family business burns down, leaving a blackened shell of a building that sits empty for years.
But not here. When Village Paper burned down over a year ago and the owners relocated to 8th Street, several restauranteurs started vying for the burned out shell of a building on a prime West Village corner, only to be rejected by Community Board 2. You’d think the community would be thrilled to be rid of a burned out shell of a building, but no. (more…)
Posted in food, Italian, New York restaurants, restaurants, West Village
Tagged antipasti, bars, Bobo, Eataly, New York, pasta, porchetta, wine bars
4 Comments
Amélie
When New Yorkers talk about our favorite French restaurants, we’re usually talking about the type of creaky old (looking) bistros that aren’t exactly au courant with young people in Paris. So where would your average Parisian hipster actually go? Someplace a lot like Amélie, the new wine bar that opened quietly on West 8th Street a couple of weeks ago. (more…)
Posted in food, French, Greenwich Village, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, New York, wine bars
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Il Buco Alimentaria e Vineria
I get a little nervous about going to an Italian restaurant in New York after getting back from Italy. If the meal is bad, will it somehow wipe out the memory of how real Italian food should taste? And just as knockoffs look particularly awful after you’ve seen beautifully-crafted designer goods up close, the comparison to the real thing often doesn’t do a New York restaurant any favors.
So by the time the check came at the Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria on Great Jones Street, I breathed a sigh of relief. This new restaurant and Italian grocery, the younger sibling of Il Buco on Bond Street, may not be exactly like Italy, but the differences are purely New York. (more…)
Posted in food, Italian, New York restaurants, Noho, restaurants
Tagged bars, New York, wine bars
3 Comments
Corkbuzz
“Buzz” is the key syllable in this new wine bar by sommelier Laura Maniec, former wine director of the B.R Guest restaurant group. Since Corkbuzz opened in late November, it’s gotten dozens of press mentions and seems to be constantly packed. Certainly an upscale wine bar by one of the few female sommeliers is a nice addition to Greenwich Village. But there are already lots of wine bars in the city, so what gives?
Maybe what New York’s wine bars needed all along was a feminine touch. They’re mostly patronized by women, yet the owners and wine directors of most serious wine-centric places are men. It seems like a type of machismo for a sommelier to push an intimidating, challenging wine list that does more to prove his own wine knowledge than satisfy the customer. Corkbuzz represents a kinder, gentler approach. (more…)
Posted in food, Greenwich Village, Italian, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, New York, seafood, wine bars
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Birreria
New Yorkers were elated when Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich’s Italian food emporium Eataly opened last year. There was only one problem: Eataly didn’t seem to be intended for New Yorkers. A massive marketing and PR effort across the U.S. and in Europe meant that Eataly instantly filled up with tourists – even the ones who can get decent biscotti at home.
Fortunately, the Red Apple bus crowd does not seem to have discovered the new rooftop restaurant on top of Eataly yet. You’ll still be elbowed by the crowds on your way to the bar at Birreria, but at least none of those elbows will be loaded down with Century 21 bags. (more…)
Posted in Flatiron District, food, Italian, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, BBQ, beer, Mario Batali, New York, wine bars
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Pipa
CLOSED
Nominated for a James Beard award for best restauranteur, Phil Suarez has a knack for creating successful restaurants no matter what the economic climate of the day. Long before he started ABC Kitchen on the south side of ABC Home, Suarez’s Pipa was bringing in the crowds for small plates and sangria. Since warm weather calls out for Spanish-style dining, we revisited this 11-year-old tapas spot to see how it was faring.
Some of the best things about Pipa have not changed, including the excellent, just-fruity-enough, brandy-spiked sangria served in elegant glassware. The moodily pretty space is still decked out with dozens of exquisite antique chandeliers, and you can still buy one from ABC if you’re happy to drop a couple grand. The interior is a good place to retreat during hot weather, and the sidewalk seating is a nice option for sprawling out on cool nights. (more…)
Edi & the Wolf
We weren’t sure what to expect from Edi & the Wolf, a new Austrian place that opened on Avenue C. The stein-pounding din of Zum Schneider across the street? The restrained elegance of Kurt Gutenbrunner’s Wallsé?
Neither, as it turns out. Edi & the Wolf introduces New York diners to a different breed of Austrian restaurant, the type that’s usually attached to a wine cellar and serves typical Austrian fare like schnitzel and spätzle. It’s the brainchild of Eduard Frauneder and Wolfgang Ban of Seäsonal, an Austrian place that was overlooked by many New York critics until it earned a Michelin star. (more…)
Posted in Austrian, East Village, food, German, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged bars, beer, gastropubs, New York, schnitzel, wine bars
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