NYC Tastes

I was so excited to see the sun shining Saturday I was ready to jump into summer mode with both feet. What a better way to jump right in then with a flight of rosés from Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar. I love flights of anything...flights of wine, flights of beer, flights to Paris...you get the picture. I enjoyed each of these but the standout was the Sancerre which was dry with just a bit of fruit.   We were enjoying ourselves so much at the bar we decided to keep the evening going across the street at flagship Blue Ribbon. The bakery downstairs was in full swing...the smell of yeast permeating through the air.. We started out a little healthy with a creamy Cesar Salad... ...but then it was onto Fried Chicken for the main course of the night. This is one of those dishes I dream about.  The skin has the most incredible crunch with just enough salt to keep you licking your lips...the inside is chock full of meat and I usually dip each bite int...

I’m continuing my obsession with Steak Tartare into 2012 and my most recent attack was at Blue Ribbon Bakery in the West Village. But first let’s talk about the bread. This is a bakery after all and here we started out with a nice fluffy loaf and some delicious vermont creamery butter. Onto appetizers I went simple with the Cesar Salad. My salad was a little disappointing to be honest with you. There wasn’t anything bad about it but for $12.75 I was expecting something a little more. There was a lot more yellow leaves than I would have liked and the dressing was only so so. Not the best Cesar I’ve ever had that’s for sure. But we’re here for the meat right? This steak tarter came finely minced with onions, capers and fresh ground pepper on top. There was an aioli and spicy mustard on the side but the meat was so nicely spiced on its own no accompaniments were necessary. I absolutely loved the house made potato chips in lieu of toast points. They were the perfect salty ve...

Mr T had to work all day Saturday so I was on my own. I spent the morning shopping at Trader Joe's and doing various errands that I felt like I needed to get done. Once I was finished with everything I came home and realized it wasn't even noon! What the hell was I going to do with myself all day! I happened to have NY1 on and they did a piece on the Plaza Hotel reopening today. It was like a message sent from heaven! I would go and check out the new hotel! So I grabbed the train and headed uptown to the Plaza. I decided to make a pit stop first at Fika since it was only a block away. I was super excited for my favorite macchiato in the city but unfortunately it was kind of gross. There was a new barista working and I'm not sure what she did but my macchiato was pretty bad. This kind of thing makes me nervous. I told a lot of people about Fika and how much I love it. I really hope no one else goes and gets a bad brew. Oh well..in every one's life a little bad coffee mus...