NYC Tastes

To kick off Mr. T's birthday we began in Williamsburg with lunch at Peter Luger's.  We made a reservation weeks in advance so getting a table was no issue.  Of course we had to wait to be seated for about 10 minutes as we always do before being lead into the half empty dining room.  I have never EVER been seated right away here- they always tell you to wait.  It's just one of the many annoyances that come with dining at this Brooklyn institution. Of course we put up with it because the food is so fantastic.  The steaks are utterly amazing but lunch is all about the burger.  Mr. T and I usually both order the Cheeseburger medium rare. It's hard to think anything could be better than this big juicy burger. However right before we dined Saturday I read an article Nick Solares wrote for Eater entitled  The Simple Goodness of the Peter Luger Burger .  In it he speaks of the virtue of the beef and says to skip the cheese entirely.  I remem...

This was a crazy and amazing year filled with lots of great food, friends and travel.  It began in January with a fantastic trip to San Diego with my parents.  They learned more about beer on that trip than they probably ever cared to know hitting up spots like Alpine, Ballast Point  and Societe Brewing .  Then Mr. T and I spent a few days in Florida  before embarking on an absolutely incredible trip to Copenhagen  and Brussels  with our close friends and certainly the best beer festival of my life the  Copenhagen Beer Celebration .  Add in a few trips to Buffalo,   Vermont  and Nashville  and I would say we've been pretty busy.  But in the end it's always NYC that holds the biggest spot in my heart.  This year the food was better than ever and with new breweries like  Third Rail  and  Other Half  joining the leagues of Peekskill, Kane and Barrier there's never been a better tim...

Peter Lugers is known best for their mammoth Porterhouse Steaks but their Burger also shares the rave reviews.  It's available only at lunch time, so when Mr. T and I had a rare afternoon free we hopped on the train over to Williamsburg.   Luger's is almost exactly the same during the day as it is as night.  The same long lines of people swarm front room, the same gruff bartenders pour drinks behind the bar and the same basket of bread greets you upon arrival.  I try to ingest most of my carbs in the form of beer but I just can't pass up these long fluffy rolls sprinkled with coarse salt and rye.  It's the closest thing to a Kimmelwick Roll this city offers. The incredible bacon also makes an appearance at lunch.  It's thick and meaty...perfect on its own but extra delicious with the Luger Steak sauce (which is actually quite terrible on steak IMO but oddly delicious on the bacon).  The...

It isn’t every day that one starts a meal with an appetizer of bacon and follows up with an entrée of straight meat. That is reserved solely for Peter Lugers. Well to be completely truthful our latest meal started out with their delicious bread basket and some beers. It’s hard to resist the wonderful smell of garlic and onion coming from the rolls but I never fill up on the carbs here. That would be sacrilegious since my bacon appetizer was on the way. If you’ve never been to Peter Lugers you might not understand the draw of the bacon here but you should. It’s a thick, salty slab with crunchy edges and an awesome smoky flavor. I never cared for the Luger Steak sauce until I tried it on the bacon. Somehow that cocktail sauce flavor works wonders on this piece of pork. And speaking of the steak- here’s the porterhouse for three. Good lord have you ever seen such a beautiful plate of meat in your entire life? No really here’s a close up. The meat is so moist and s...

My two friends from upstate came to visit last weekend and I was psyched! Why? Because they are fun people but more importantly they love good food and wine as much as me! So I knew it was going to be a great weekend. I just didn't realize the amount of food we would eat! Offdah! Talk about being indulgent! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Friday started with a half day of work and then off the Grand Central to pick up the Pitted Pruner and Arian. The one thing I love about the Pitted Pruner is that he almost always knows what he wants to eat. I can sit and contemplate for hours, agonizing over the various choices. The Pruner gets a hankering and that's that. It was no different today. I rolled up and he says "let's grab some sushi." Sure! I already liked the way this weekend was starting. So we head over to Sushi Yasuda. Now we knew we had reservations for Peter Luger later so we didn't go crazy but ordered a couple rolls and some amazing pieces of Eel an...