Category Archives: Restaurants

Gordon Ramsay at The London, New York

It was part of an extended birthday celebration that we made our way to Gordon Ramsay at The London, and it just so happened to be perfectly timed with the week the Michelin list came out maintaining the restaurant’s two-star rating. Not that I follow ratings closely, I actually prefer the little known places that will never have enough pull to get written up in the NYT. But our friend made the executive decision and we followed her initiative. My default answer to many things is “No,” but an offer of food is never one of them.

Any excuse is good enough to eat well. Why not go through an actual list to either praise or debunk each one?

Caviar and hamachi in a tall glass bowl.

The 45-seater dining room is tucked behind frosted glass doors which separate it from the more casual Maze bar and restaurant outside. GR’s formal dining room is cozy and romantic, but could use a good window or two to make it less stuffy inside. I was too intimidated to use my camera flash so you have to excuse the dark photos.

Assorted foie gras

We opted for the tasting menu (called Menu Prestige) on that evening to celebrate over a course of a few hours. Continue reading →

Dressler – Williamsburg, Brooklyn

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It was my wife’s birthday and she had chanced upon the latest list of NYC restaurants awarded Michelin stars. She sent me the website of Dressler in an email and asked what I thought. Like a good spouse I said, “Whatever you want, you get.”

Our choice cocktails for the evening: Ingenue ( Crop Cucumber Vodka, Fresh Cucumber, St Germain, Lemon, Prosecco) on left, and Stackhouse (Kraken 5-Spiced Rum, Fresh Beet Juice, Lime, Habanero Shrub) on right.

Thank god. Dressler blew us away from start to finish, from the ambience of an old wood and steel bar, ornamented carved lightboxes, red leather cushions, and black leather booths. Happy hour started at 5:30. We were so there.

Kumumoto oysters

The relaxed and empty bar before six invited the novice to their specialty cocktails. We ordered our selections and were pleased with the fact that none of them were sweet but instead volunteered their flavor readily: cucumber for the Ingenue and beet for the Stackhouse. The Kumumoto oysters tasted like heaven, like urchin in a half-shell, their trademark smaller fluted shells cleaned nicely for one’s eager mouth. Kumumotos are considered the aristocrat of oysters and apparently have their own following. I want to know where to sign up. Continue reading →

Public Restaurant, New York

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When the sommelier at Public brought the bottle of The Shiner Concern to our table, he asked if we knew what it was about. He went on to say that the winemakers made 55 cases of this wine and distributed it to restaurants with a minimal description of its flavor because they believed that “the only relationship you should have with the wine is your experience with it.” I appreciated this quip and wished that other taste experiences weren’t so preceded by their reputation. That shit was good. But they don’t sell The Shiner Concern retail

We were at Public, a NoLiTa restaurant that looked like a garage from the outside but with a dark, hip, and oil-burner lit atmosphere inside. The single Michelin star drew our group in and we made reservations for a friend’s birthday. We tried the Chef’s Tasting Menu, which consisted of the dishes below.

Grilled kangaroo on a coriander falafel with lemon tahini sauce and green pepper relish.

The kangaroo appetizer was ordered on the side because we had read some good reviews about it. Kangaroo tasted like beef sirloin and it was tender atop a delicious falafel. We ordered two to split among us and were pleased with our encounter with kanga meat. Continue reading →

Bonnie’s Grill, Park Slope, Brooklyn

Coolhaus Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Did I tell you about ice cream sandwiches? I think I did here and here. But I need to tell you again, and more specifically about the wonderful thing that is Coolhaus that allows you to select your cookie and ice cream combinations on the spot. WHUT WHUT is right!

Potato chip and Skor bar cookie and Oreo coffee ice cream sandwich

Continue reading →

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