New York Food & Drink Addresses

Where I ate and drank in New York City

It’s always fun to visit New York where I get to see friends and stock up on essentials. This time I brought back black cocoa powder to make these brownies, crunchy organic peanut butter (there’s now a nut butter mill in Paris, but its peanut butter doesn’t look crunchy), unscented shaving cream and other products (sensitive skin!), and a roll of non-stick aluminum foil, which many have told me is a godsend to bakers.

I also signed copies of my books at Kitchen Arts & Letters and Strand Books and took a five-hour bus ride to visit friends who I went to college and worked with (hi, Patti and Julie!) in upstate New York, whom I haven’t seen in 40+ years, which made this trip especially poignant. And I need to give a shout-out to my college roommate and best friend, who was wondering why I didn’t mention what a great guy he was in a previous post. Perhaps it was that time he threw a bucket of ice water on me while I was taking a shower as a joke? We had a great reunion, and he’s coming to Paris to visit me at some point. When he does, he’d better lock the door when he takes a shower because I have a bit of unfinished business to finish.

I didn’t include places we ate in Ithaca, New York, in this post, but we had fun eating at Finger Lakes Cider House, Moosewood, and The Rook. Plus, my friends took me, on their boat across the lake to the Ithaca Farmer’s Market, which is quite a change from the way I go to the market in Paris…

Here are some NYC addresses that I enjoyed on my trip…

Agnolotti with chicken liver, pea fritters, asparagus with anchovies and hollandaise, and pork chop with smoked onion jus

Claud

The last time I ate at Claud, my dining companion wasn’t in the best form so wasn’t eating much. But I ate everything, and with gusto—it was so good! And I was anxious to go back for more.

I returned with Renato Poliafito of Ciao, Gloria bakery for dinner. Arriving early, I went upstairs to their recently opened wine bar, Penny, which did not disappoint. I had a wonderful platter of raw Countneck clams, mussels, and “dressed” razor clams, accompanied by a glass of sherry. Penny is a great place to dine alone as they have a long counter that wraps around the kitchen, as well as a large communal table. So you won’t be lonely.

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At Claud, Renato and I shared a plate of extra-crisp pea fritters topped with grated pecorino that were fabulous and a plate of asparagus with anchovies and hollandaise sauce. We split the copious pork chop with smoked onion jus that wowed me before, and him, who hadn’t had it. The agnolotti with chicken livers is one of the great dishes in NYC, imho, and even if you’re not a liver fan, I have to insist that you order it if you go to Claud.

For dessert, we split the “dessert for two” slab of Devil’s Food Cake, which is another “must.” Someone told me that they considered it the best dessert anywhere, period, and it’s certainly at the top of my list. I think the two of us made it through half of it, but being a nice guy, I let Renato take the rest home.

Russ & Daughters Café

If there’s anywhere more iconic in New York City than Russ & Daughters, I’m not sure what or where it is. Yes, there’s also Barney Greengrass, but Russ & Daughters was close to “home” (where I was staying), plus I met co-owner Niki Russ a few years ago and was happy to meet up with her again for a nosh.

I had a bialy platter with lox and cream cheese, and we also shared the chopped liver, which was delicious smeared over matzoh, and like everything else, it was the best of its genre. Bialys are an endangered species in New York, and I’m happy they’re still baking them at Russ & Daughters.

I’m also happy that they’re still doing an amazing job slicing lox and smoked salmon. The slices are so thin that you could read the newspaper through it. It really does make a difference, and I left their original shop at 179 East Houston Street with a bag of bagels, a few slices of lox, and some capers for breakfast the next few days.

The Commerce Inn

My friend whose apartment I stayed in has worked in the food world for many years. So when she recommends somewhere, I go. Such was the case at The Commerce Inn, which is a tribute to the traditional early American tavern. It has excellent credentials: The owners have the nearby Via Carota and Bar Pisellino.

Sitting in the ode to the ye olde Yankee tavern, we started with a blackboard special of softshell crabs and a “peasalad” of pea shoots, farmer’s cheese, and lettuce. The long-stemmed pea shoots were unruly to eat, and we both wished we’d gone with the leafy buttermilk salad with greens and herbs. We didn’t try the potted shrimp since we wanted to try the crabs, which were really outstanding. They were priced at $32 for the two and were worth it.

We shared a pork chop with black-eyed peas and a plate of lamb chops with braised escarole; both were very good. Desserts were an all-American Strawberry Shortcake that was nice, although even though it looks like there’s a lot of liquid from the photo above, I wouldn’t have minded even more to hydrate the biscuit. The rhubarb tart, below, ended up being more European than the rest of the menu, although America has adopted the crostata/galette, so perhaps in a few years, it’ll have reached heritage status.

Pan-fried Pork Dumplings

Nan Xiang Long Bao

One of the joys of eating in the U.S. is the diversity of foods. And New York City is the classic melting pot of America, with everything from lomo saltado (Peruvian beef) and jackfruit curry to Xi’an noodles and yakitori, just steps away from wherever you are. One such stretch of a street that’s particularly packed with culturally diverse places to eat is St. Mark’s Place, where the dining scene is constantly bustling.

Nan Xiang Long Bao is a branch of their Flushing outpost, famous for their Xiao Long Bao, soup dumplings filled with meat or vegetables swimming inside in hot liquid. They’re meant to be slurped up from the spoon after carefully piercing the dough with your teeth and sucking out the soup, before devouring the dumpling.

Signature Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings)

Oddly, we liked the soup dumplings the least of everything we ordered. We loved the Chive Box (below, left), flaky dough filled with buttery-tasting chopped chives and eggs, which was listed as a breakfast item but was fine for dinner. The Potherb Mustard Leaf salad (below, right) with edamame and pressed tofu was fresh but could have used a little more seasoning.

The pan-fried Pork Dumplings were outstanding, and we agreed that the generous bowl of Shrimp, Pork, and Vegetable Wontons with spicy peanut sauce was our favorite dish.

Soup Dumplings, and other items, from the menu.

The specialty of the house is the variety of Xiao Long Bao, which includes colorful soup dumplings filled with sea cucumbers, loofah, scallops, and black truffles, but we went with their “signature” soup dumplings, and they didn’t win us over. True, I was with a friend from California, where soup dumplings aren’t as popular or revered as they are on the East Coast. But we really enjoyed the other dumplings on the menu, and I’d go back for those, and that Chive Box.

Abraço

With all the slick coffee shops in New York fitted out with scales, Japanese grinders, and thermometers to weigh and calibrate your cup of coffee, Abraço stands out for being a regular coffeeshop, which happens to have very good coffee and simple cookies and cakes.

You won’t find pistachio-cream-stuffed croissants or other stuff like that, which people are lining up for at New York City bakeries nowadays, but the Brined Olive Cookie (above right) was terrific and made me want to experiment with brined olives in cookies. And the scone was nice too. Not shown was a slice of buckwheat cake that was moist and flavorful, and my friend didn’t quite offer to share his slice (understandably) with me, but I couldn’t help sneaking a few bites of it, and I loved that too.

Swoony’s

The first restaurant I hit on my trip was with pal Brad Parsons. We had our reunion over a few cocktails at Grand Army bar in Brooklyn and tasted some of the new offerings from Faccia Brutto spirits, and when it was time for dinner, Brad suggested heading to Swoony’s, which he wrote about in his newsletter, Last Call by

Brad Thomas Parsons

.

We started with Potato Croquettes with mozzarella and Parmesan—I think croquettes are the new “thing” on New York City menus, and as they say…I’m here for it. We also snacked on a plate of Maytag blue cheese–stuffed olives before diving into a wonderful Iceberg Wedge Salad with bacon, fried onions, and tomatoes, as well as an awesome burger and fries.

Desserts were Vanilla soft serve, which was served nature (plain), and a retro-looking Chocolate Mousse with strawberries, served in a parfait glass, both of which were parfait.

Clothes Fall Off and Backwoods Barbie cocktails

Grand Army

Zooming up to the top of great cocktail places in Brooklyn is Grand Army. They’ve been featuring “themes” for their cocktail menus, and the current one pays tribute to the Grand Ole Opry.

I started with a really great Clothes Fall Off cocktail, mixed up with blanco tequila, mango, habanero, lime leaf, and pineapple, and followed that with an equally excellent Backwoods Barbie, a martini variation with vermouth blanc, cucumber, and melon.

(

Brad Thomas Parsons

explains the whole menu, and the names of the drinks, here.)

The bartenders, wearing custom Wrangler denim vests, did a great job honoring the legendary ladies and gentlemen of the country-western music scene. And as they say—again, I was there for it.

NYC Greenmarket

While not a restaurant or bar, it’s hard to talk about good food without mentioning the spectacular NYC Union Square Greenmarket, which supplies a number of restaurants with local produce but is mainly where a lot of New Yorkers shop.

I picked up a loaf of toasted sesame sourdough bread from She Wolf and marveled at these tiniest of eggplants…

With summer just around the corner, strawberries were showing up at the market. A few followers on social media, in addition to admiring the photos of the produce that they thought was at the market in France (I had to note that this market is in New York City), thought the prices were astronomical.

The market ain’t cheap. On the other hand, picking strawberries is very hard work, and the costs of paying the workers who grow, pick, and sell the berries at the market (not including taxes and fees to set up at the market and gas and tolls getting to and from the market) add up. No one’s been able to figure out how to get good-quality, fresh food to people at affordable prices while paying the people who grow the food, and participate in its distribution, a livable wage.

Locally grown strawberries at the Union Square Greenmarket

I wish I had an answer. We have the same issues in France, and like in the U.S., many people shop for value and price and find the cost and/or availability of organic or locally grown food out of reach. Eating good food is a priority to me, so that’s what I choose to spend extra on, but I know that’s not the case or possible for everybody.

(That same week, my friend Jane from La Cuisine in her newsletter posted a picture of baskets of strawberries at a market in Paris that were priced at €9,50. When I mentioned to her that people were stunned at the prices in New York, she said that the persistent rain in France has been a disaster for growers, and they’re having problems, too.)

Everything bagel with cream cheese, dill, capers, onions, and smoked salmon

Apollo Bagels

I try not to hit places that are trending since I don’t want to wait in line for an hour for a slice of pizza, which was the case at the new L’Industrie pizza, a West Village outpost of a Brooklyn favorite. But part of it was my fault as I made the mistake of going on a Sunday, so I didn’t get my pepperoni slice.

Apollo Bagels, which was a block away from where I was staying, was mostly empty at 7:10am (hmm…maybe I should have hit the pizza place that early too—I don’t mind pizza for breakfast), so I ordered a bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, dill, and capers ($15) and a few bagels to bring back to Paris for friends.

While waiting, I realized it would’ve been more cost-effective to buy a half-dozen bagels ($14), so I ended up dropping the equivalent of 6 baskets of locally grown strawberries on what a friend said was essentially “flour, water, and yeast,” but the bagels were really great; the Everything and Sesame bagels were completely coated with seeds, and baked until crisp, and I hope my friends in Paris appreciate my substantial investment in their happiness.

Superiority Burger

I’ve wanted to go to Superiority Burger for ages, especially after it got so much press after opening in 2015. The attention brought those dreaded lines of people. But a move to a larger space, a former Ukrainian diner, was ten minutes from where I was staying (I love the East Village!), plus they’re now open for lunch, which thinned out the crowds and prompted me to go.

The place has a fun diner/coffee shop vibe that isn’t contrived, with nods to other local businesses on the paper placemats and worn maroon vinyl counter seating and banquettes.

I was on my own, so I went with the Superiority Burger, which a reviewer for Eater said a year ago was “near perfect.” A side of fries was $12, which was on the high side (that’s almost two baskets of strawberries), so I assumed it’d be a lot of fries, but the waitress assured me it was a reasonable portion. The Superiority Burger (SB) came out open-faced, with eggless mayo, Muenster cheese, roasted tomatoes, and a heap of shredded lettuce, which you assemble by pressing the two halves together.

The SB suffered the fate of other veggie burgers by being kinda mushy, and the patty got lost in the sauce, along with the other mishigas. While it’s probably not fair to compare the two, the $18 Superiority burger didn’t taste that much different than the $7.99 Shack Burger at Shake Shack. The fries, however, were a revelation: extra, extra crisp and truly some of the best I’ve had. A friend who lives nearby agreed with my assessment and said the sides are the best part of Superiority Burger, and while I didn’t try any, the desserts are supposed to be good as well.

Shoestring fries, Wagyu filet mignon, Liver and Onions, and Mandarin-style duck

Le B.

I’m not big on fancy dining but what their website describes as “a stylish supper-club setting, taking inspiration from a 100 year history in downtown New York,” Le B. sounded like a fun place to go.

The two friends I was dining with don’t drink much, but it’s hard for me to imagine going to a vintage-inspired supper club and not having a cocktail, so I started with a drink called Bemelman at the Ritz ($24) made with caviar vodka, oak-smoked vodka, and Japanese bitters. I’m generally a gin-only martini guy (a vodka martini is technically a Kangaroo), but the cocktail was great.

Checking out the menu, the take-your-breath-away prices made us pause about ordering too many things and made me glad my friends didn’t drink. Wines by the glass started at $38.

We had to order the Onions Nancy, a take on onion soup dip served with what the menu said were pommes soufflés. I didn’t notice any air between the potato slices, which were freshly made potato chips. We ate most of them before we finished the dip, and the waiter quickly brought more. Liver and Onions was a satisfyingly savory dish of French Puy lentils, which the waiter said were served “al dente"…and I was thinking to myself, Who wants crunchy lentils? Thankfully, they were cooked through perfectly and served with a sautéed slab of liver and a rich sauce smoothed out with amontillado sherry.

The Crab Wellington was excellent, wrapped in delicious puff pastry and flavored with pimentón, makrut lime, and curry. We also split the wagyu filet mignon, which is prepared table side. We were told it would serve one, but we split it three ways, and it was plenty of beef. There was no price listed on the menu, and I was glad I asked before we ordered it as it was $190. The steak was very good, and it was fun watching it being cooked next to our table, but I was glad (and so was my credit card) that it ended up being enough for the three of us.

But please, to all restaurants, when waiters tell you the specials, have them tell diners the price as well. Same with wine suggestions.

We ended with crêpes suzette, also prepared table side, and a bowl of dark chocolate–mint sorbet.

I left wondering who this restaurant was for. Our bill ended up being around $250 each. It might be a place to go if you want to throw caution to the wind for a special night out and choose one of the tasting menus, or if you’re looking for a place to celebrate selling your Tribeca loft for 3x over the asking price, but I’m not entirely sure who the clientele is for this kind of restaurant these days. They did make it a point to take $20 off the bill since we split a soup course three ways, which was nice.

A crabmeat curry, Duck Noodles, and vegetables

Soothr

Thank goodness I’m not a food critic because I can’t recall the dishes we had at Soothr, a Michelin-noted Thai noodle bar. A friend I worked with years ago at Chez Panisse, who now has sixteen restaurants (!), ordered for the table and took us out. But the Duck Noodles above were memorable, served with noodles and baby gai lan. And while I prefer the nearby Fish Cheeks, we had a lot of fun here.

Han Dynasty

An East Village (and Upper West Side) favorite, Han Dynasty is a reliable mainstay for Sichuan food. The cumin lamb, above, is very popular, and their Dan Dan noodles are also very good, as are their dumplings in chili oil.

Pisellino

If you’re looking for a place with the feel of an Italian aperitivo bar, you can’t do any better than Bar Pisellino. The corner caffè is picture-perfect, without feeling like a Disneyland version of the real deal, and I had a Negroni Sbagliato, the low ABV cousin of the Negroni, which was the perfect refresher on a hot New York City day.

Dante

Consistently called The Best Bar in the World, certainly Dante deserves that honor. The only challenge is getting a seat since the bar has become popular.

Once you do, whatever you order is going to be delicious, from the Espresso Martini to the frothy orange and Campari Garibaldi. They also do mini-cocktails, if you just want a little nip or to taste a few of their expertly made cocktails.

Win Son Bakery

Win Son Bakery has a special place in my heart as does Trigg Brown, the co-owner, and pastry chef Danielle Spencer, who make me feel like I’m at home, even though I couldn’t make any of these Taiwanese pastries in my home kitchen as good as they can. (Although they do have a cookbook, so maybe someday I’ll try.)

You can watch Trigg making some of their specialties in this post:

I’m trying to get him to Paris to do a pop-up. But until I do, I make Win Son bakery in Williamsburg one of my must-stops when I’m in town.

Thai Cobb Salad

Golden Diner

Another must is to see Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen. We met up for lunch at Golden Diner, a friendly and fun diner she suggested in Chinatown with the flavors of Asia winding their way through the foods, which are riffs on classic New York City diner fare, with omelets, egg sandwiches, matzoh ball soups, and Cobb Salads, like the Thai Cobb salad we had with egg, bacon, peanuts, avocados, and herbs with a “Thai bird” (chile) vinaigrette.

Deb was effusive about the scrambled eggs in the breakfast burrito, which were, indeed, light and fluffy and mixed with American cheese, crisp potatoes, and pico de gallo, but I did miss having some hot sauce to drizzle over the burrito.

The showstopper, however, is the Honey-Butter pancake, which usually comes two per order, but the friendly staff said we could have just one. It was pretty great (thanks again, Deb!), and I don’t know if I’d ever be able to have regular pancakes again after this version, although pancakes aren’t a thing in Paris, except for the pre-made ones they sell in supermarkets in France, which I take a pass on…

Pancakes in France

On the way home, we stopped at Red Gate Bakery, which had a very enticing selection of cookies and cakes, from Peanut Butter Miso cookies to Toasted Coconut Banana Bacon cake. It was hard to choose, but I went with the Bagel Cookie, because I am in love with everything bagels and their namesake seasonings.

It sounded like a good idea, on paper, but not sure about onion seeds in cookies. However, a woman next to me in the bakery adored the cookie, and everything else looked really good. So I need to go back.

Robert

Another friend who is a must-see when I’m in New York is part owner of Robert, a restaurant with a spectacular view of Columbus Circle and Central Park.

Seared scallops with chimichurri and black garlic-potato puree

I like to enjoy a Mad Manhattan or a classic Martini before having a round of Burrata with prosciutto di Parma and tomatoes followed by the Amish roast chicken with roasted potatoes, seared sea scallops, or a burger while watching the sun set over the park.

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Superbueno

¡Me gusta Superbueno! Another night out with

Brad Thomas Parsons

, thanks to his extensive knowledge of where to imbibe in New York, led me to Superbueno.

We scooped up guacamole along with sipping Adobada Bam Bam slushy cocktails with mezcal, adobada falernum, pineapple, lemon, and pineapple shrub, which bartender Kip Moffett serves up, sometimes with the aid of a barback friend…

We also had Al Pastor Yaki tacos, with pineapple “cured” pork, served skewered yakitori-style along with salsa verde. This place is a lot of fun, but I’m sure during prime hours, it gets crowded, especially since they were named #2 of the top 50 bars in North America.

When things do get going, the bartenders start swinging the lamps, and the fun (and drinks) continue…