NYC Tastes

Resto used to be one of my favorite brunch spots of all time. Unfortunately we've had some serious service issues in the past and decided to take a good year off. I'm happy to report we finally went back and it is right back in the top of my brunch list again.  Mr. T ordered his old favorite the Hangover Pasta. This aptly named dish was as delicious as ever with huge chunks of ham and a nice sunny side up egg.  I decided to try something new and ordered the Baked Eggs with house pancetta, tomato, rosemary and pecornio.   OMG this dish was so good!  I love Baked Eggs but this seriously rocked every other one I've ever had.  The eggs were perfect, the sauce had just the right amount of spice and the rosemary and pecorino brought it all home.   We added a buttery, crisp country biscuit with red eye gravy and a fruity Framboise Mimosa to drink. It's been way to long Resto.  I'm so glad ...

Last weekend the Madison Square Market opened up again with lots of unique shopping stalls and a bunch of food and drink vendors. There were a few guys from last year that returned- Cabrito, Wafels and Dinges and Suzette but honestly it mostly newcomers. Iilli, Almond and Resto made sense to me since they are right in the neighborhood. However I was shocked to see two Brooklyn guys- Roberta’s pizza and Pies N Thighs! I have always wanted to try out Roberta’s and don’t make it out to Bushwick that much so that was my first stop last week. They had some really thick Sicilian slices for $5 called the working man special but I wanted to try out one of their thin crust pies. Look at this pie! As you can see the crust was gorgeous with lots of charred bubbles and a super foldable middle. The tomato sauce was a little on the sweet side but the fresh mozzarella and basil really shined. See how it’s made? They brought their little oven outside. How cool is that! This was a very good p...

Sometimes one indulges a wee too much in the pleasures of beer and wine. I like to refer to it as tippling. Tippling defined actually means drinking alcohol in small doses over a long period of time. Hmmm… sometimes those small doses really add up and your tippling leads to toppling. For those mornings when you’ve “toppled” let’s say luckily there a place you can go to cure those hangover blues- Resto. I’ve written about Resto a bunch before. Its right near my apartment, carries a great selection of Belgian beers and has a fantastic brunch. The one brunch dish I’ve failed to highlight before however is the Hangover Pasta. Yes that’s actually the name and oh so appropriate. A big bowl of noodles comes out littered with big chunks of Vermont Ham, creamy gruyere cheese, spicy black pepper and topped off with a fried egg. It’s seriously rich and seriously delicious. This dish will coat your stomach in two seconds flat. Follow it up with a side of crispy bacon and you're set to go. This...

For New Year’s eve every year, a group of us have been regularly finding a dinner and drink deal where we can celebrate with some good food but without the hassle and craziness that goes along with this annual night. One year it was a great meal at Sala One Nine where the food and drink for 3 hours was plentiful. One year we went to Angelo & Maxie’s where the food and drink deal was also great, but the crowd got a little out of hand for us. This year we were throwing around ideas of what to do when we got an email from Resto about their New Year’s eve event. The Pig & Poularde in Half Mourning Large Format Feast. For $150 it promised some amazing dishes made from two animals from local farms. A bunch of tasty desserts and all the Belgian beer, wine and spirits you could handle. Hmm…tons of meat, all the Belgian beer I can handle….Maybe one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made! We got there right at the start of the event at 9:30 and they were still setting up so we...

Sorry my posting has been a little bit sporadic lately. This post is actually about a brunch we went to two weeks ago. Somehow this got lost in the shuffle of things that was the end of summer. The second week in September was the 2nd annual NYC Craft Beer week. This is a great time in NYC with tons of beer events, special cask ales and just a celebration of everything beer. I got an email Friday night from the Belgian restaurant Resto informing me of a Kegs and Eggs brunch they were hosting the next morning I’ve written about Resto a few times in this blog and I find it to be inconsistent. The dinners I’ve had there have run the gamut from being really good to almost inedible. However I have always enjoyed their brunch and this looked like a good deal so we decided to go. Here’s the deal as per their email “Resto will serve a traditional English Breakfast - Eggs, Blood Sausage, Heirloom Tomato, English Cheddar, English Muffin and Home Fries served with two draft beers fro...

So we returned to Resto for dinner with friends on Thursday night. It was a lot more crowded than it was for brunch and we couldn't even get a seat at the bar. The tin ceilings make it quite loud and it was difficult to here everyone once we got seated. Our waiter ended up being the same guy we had at brunch and once again we had excellent service. They have such a fantastic Belgian beer list it was difficult to choose just one. I decided to have the Corsendonk Brown which was a good choice. It was really malty but surprisingly light for a 7.8% beer. For my appetizer I got the special Heirloom Tomato and Bacon salad which was the highlight of the meal. It was so fresh and tasty. Other appetizers were the deviled eggs, sausage special and double cooked pork. The sausage was nothing special but the pork was quite tasty. The deviled eggs on the other hand were the most fattening things I think I've ever eaten. Grease was literally dripping from the toast they were sitting on. ...

So I had 2 wonderful friends visit me this weekend and we spent our Saturday night catching up over many great beers at Zum Schnieder and DBA . We woke up on Sunday at 1:00!! I haven't slept that late in ages! We were not feeling too hot to say the least and needed a good brunch to recover. We didn't want to travel far so I suggested just walking up to Penelope. As we got about a block away, we could already see the line of people waiting outside. We decided to make a detour and headed to Resto . We walked in and got a great table in the back. The place was full but not packed. We all felt like a little hair of the dog would make us feel better so we got some mimosas. My friend got a regular one with fresh squeezed orange juice. The acidity of OJ always bothers my stomach so I got one with pineapple juice. This was one of the best mimosas I've ever had. For my meal I decided to get the Egg White Frittata . This was the first fritatta I'd ever eaten. It was good ...