A Fork And A Suitcase

I have decided that this summer I will try to explore breakfast spots in NYC.  So, I began at the place that is always packed - Clinton St. Baking Company.  I have been meaning to try their pancakes for a while, but dreaded the lines that I have heard so much about.  Well, my son and I got to the restaurant on a Wednesday morning, at about 11 and were seated immediately. Clinton St. Baking Company is located right off of Houston, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  This neighborhood was once home to immigrants from Eastern Europe,  had a seedy period in the 70's - 90's, and is now a hip area full of boutiques, restaurants, and even a Whole Foods. CSBC is comfort food to the max, and a great place to satisfy your hunger for something more substantial than a poke bowl.  Did you know that they now have locations in Tokyo, Dubai, and Singapore?  There were certainly plenty of choices but I only had pancakes on my mind.  Besides a freshly b...

I tend to get very focused, okay, obsessed, when I have a specific goal in mind.  It was time to plan our wedding anniversary lunch, and with a thousand of terrific possibilities that are part of the vibrant culinary scene in NYC, I went to work.  It would have been too easy to just "settle" for the best - Eleven Madison Park, Per Se, Le Bernardin , etc.  I wanted something different and unexpected; I wanted a challenge of finding a place that was unknown to us. I considered Aska, a spectacular restaurant in Brooklyn, I thought of heading in a whole different direction and going for some mean dumplings in Chinatown, but at the end I chose something that has always intimidated me: CAVIAR. Caviar Russe (one Michelin star), is located on the second floor of a four story building on Madison Avenue.  This beautifully decorated restaurant consists of an open kitchen, a large room with about 8 tables and a smaller private dining room.  We were there on a blustery ...

With the memory of my last visit to ABC Kitchen still fresh in my mind (February), I promptly booked a table to see what they have prepared for the Summer Restaurant Week.  ABC Kitchen is one of three  Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurants located in the beautiful ABC Carpet & Home.  The other two are ABC Cocina and the plant based ABCV,  all are great and worth a try.  Cocina and Kitchen offer a special Restaurant Week (semiannual even where almost 400 restaurants offer three-course Prix-fixe deals for lunch- $29, and dinner -$42) menu.  I try to book early as some of the more sought out restaurants fill up rather fast. With today's overused buzzwords like sustainable, locally sourced, curated, being part of the menu, one would expect a certain level of pretentiousness, but this restaurant seems to have a good balance of very high quality of food and a relaxed atmosphere.  I found the service to be welcoming, pleasant and the organi...