NYC Tastes

I absolutely love Memorial Day Weekend in NYC. Most people clear out, headed to the Hampton's or Berkshires, leaving those impossibly hard restaurant reservations wide open for people like me! So this year we kicked things off at Carbone so I could finally have my favorite noodles in the entire world once again. Of course before the noodles actually arrive there's so much more at Carbone to enjoy.  Every meal starts with a gratis basket of bread filled with crunchy garlic loaves and mozzarella & tomato topped grandma bread. Freshly sliced salami with parmigiana cheese. And a bowl of pickled cauliflower dotted with spicy chilies. For our appetizer we split an order of the Scampi alla Scampi; enormous prawns roasted with butter, lemon and garlic.  These looked like they would be challenging to eat but they came out of the shell quite easily with little lobster fork. Then we moved onto our favorite dishes of the entire me...

Wow 2016 is almost over and what crazy year it was.  If I was to look simply at the year in American culture I would have to use the word devastating.  So many incredible artists passed away, the political state of the nation was a non-stop roller coaster ride of shock, disgust, anger, frustration and for the first time in a while the future feels incredibly uncertain.  Of course the NYC dining scene took a huge hit this year with the closing of classic restaurants like The Four Seasons, Les Halles and most recently Blue Ribbon Bakery Kitchen.  I was saddened most by the closing of my two favorite cocktail bars; underground vodka great Pravda and the gorgeous Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Terminal.  We also lost the fabulous  Juni , my go-to spot for a fancy lunch from Shaun Hergatt.   But I'm always one to look on the positive side and 2016 was actually a good year on a personal level.  Mr. T and I had some great East Coast trips to B...

It's so wonderful when a restaurant meets each and every expectation.  Especially when the stakes are so high; a Michelin starred, Saturday night 50th wedding anniversary kind of high.  But from the moment we walked in the door of Carbone, this mobstyle red sauce Italian joint decked out with brass chandeliers and tuxedo clad waiters hit the mark in every possible way. To begin a few gratis bites from the kitchen including a big bowl of rustic Italian bread, tomato focaccia and buttery garlic toasts... ...followed by ribbons of salami, bowls of pickled cauliflower and hunks of parmigiana cheese taken straight from a hollowed out wheel.  This was a delightful way to begin the special occasion and helped ease the hunger pains as we debated just about everything on the Flintstone sized menus. We finally decided on Baked Clams prepared in three different styles; classic oregano with breadcrumbs, "casino" topped with a slice of lardo and an absolut...

The Torrisi brothers newest addition to the NYC scene is Santina, a kitschy Coastal Italian restaurant located under the entrance to the Highline.  I've always said one of my favorite things about living in NYC is the ability to feel miles away by just entering a different restaurant or bar.  When I'm feeling French countryside I head to Bouley, Sakagura for Japan and now Santina, for when I feel like being on some sort of bizarre Italian cruise ship. There's palm trees, orange trees and glass chandeliers...loud cha cha music playing overhead and men dressed in pastel cabin outfits pouring cocktails to the fashion elite crowd.  It's just bizarre ...but also kind of fun.  After my initial shock I kind of got into the whole crazy atmosphere beginning with the house specialty Cecina. This enormous chickpea-flour pancake arrived in a cast iron skillet to be rolled into Italian style tacos.  I chose the Calabrian Tuna as my filling, a spicy blend of tuna...