Posted by Zach Brooks, July 30, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Posting a photo that is meant to convey size is always a tricky thing. Sure, the cookie looks big, but maybe my hands are freakishly small. In this case, you are just going to have to take my word for it: the chocolate chip cookie at the Bryant Park Le Pain Quotidien is gigantic. It's also pretty tasty too. Making the cookie chewy isn't really a practical option for a cookie this size, so they go with the thin and crunchy approach. As somebody who normally likes my cookies soft, I found the crunch to be strangely appealing; the perfect companion to an afternoon cup of tea. Admittedly, it's probably not the best chocolate chip cookie in the city (especially if soft cookies are your thing), but the look on your co-workers' faces when you whip it out will be completely worth the $3.50 price tag.
Le Pain Quotidien
70 West 40th Street, New York NY 10020 (nr. Sixth Avenue; map)
212-354-5224
Posted by Hannah Howard, July 21, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Photograph by nycblondieandbrownie
I have the best job ever. I got to partake in the realization of Zach Brooks' magnificent dream: "To bring together different street meats from all over Midtown to one central location and have a massive taste off." Zach, who is also editor of SE:NY, invited 20 diligent tasters, myself included, to taste and rate 13 different plates of chicken and lamb over rice, from 13 different carts in Midtown. The results were posted today, and the winner was 53rd & 6th Halal Chicken & Rice.
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 18, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Those 600 stores that Starbucks is closing? Ten are in New York City. So sayeth the Times.
Is your Starbucks closing? Here's the list.
Manhattan
All in Midtown:
- 340 Madison Avenue (at 44th Street)
- 400 Madison Avenue (near 48th Street)
- 1600 Broadway (near 48th Street)
- 1675 Broadway (near 52nd Street)
- 565 Fifth Avenue (near 46th Street)
- The one on the fifth floor of Macy’s in Herald Square
Queens
All in Glendale:
- Atlas Park shopping center location
- 8989 Union Turnpike
Brooklyn
Bay Ridge, 8414 Third Avenue (at 84th Street)
Additionally, one Starbucks in Newark is closing, 744 Broad Street.
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, July 7, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Delicate tea based nibbles and drinks with a Japanese flair are the staples at Tafu in Midtown. Chocolate-miso cakes, matcha lattes, mochi creams with sweet beans, and financiers all please the tongue, but if you are going to choose only one, dive for the nutty and just a tad sweet Genmaicha Cheesecake. $4.50 doesn't stretch too far for the long and narrow cheesecake sweet, infused with a blend of green tea and roasted brown rice... but shouldn't you be going for quality over quantity anyways?
Tafu
569 Lexington Avenue, New York NY 10022 (on 51st Street; map)
212-980-1310
tafuny.com
Today at 5 p.m., sample bits of food from Times Square restaurants at this annual block party. We recommend bypassing Applebee's and Hard Rock Cafe in favor of Toloache and Chop Suey. Admission is free; you only pay for the food you eat. 46th Street between Broadway and Ninth Avenue.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 30, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Or, 'Everywhere a Sign'
I've seen animated signage on taxis, bus stop shelters, and subway entrances, but this is the first time I've seen it on a hot dog cart. And in between shouts of "GATORADE" and "WATER," it displays a sexy anime lady, too! Break your mind on a video of the sign, after the jump. Southwest corner of 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue
Continue reading »
Posted by Zach Brooks, May 27, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Editor's note: I don't know how things work at your office, but around this time of day, our collective sweet tooth starts acting up at Serious Eats HQ. Enter Sugar Rush. Every afternoon, we'll point you to something sweet—so you can rush out and get your fix. Enjoy! I know we will. —Zach
Photograph posted to the Serious Eats Flickr Group by Queenie Takes Manhattan.
Strawberry-rhubarb and caramel macarons, available at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, D trains to 59th Street–Columbus Circle Station.
Posted by Zach Brooks, May 22, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Editor's note: I don't know how things work at your office, but around this time of day, our collective sweet tooth starts acting up at Serious Eats HQ. Enter Sugar Rush. Every afternoon, we'll point you to something sweet—so you can rush out and get your fix. Enjoy! I know we will. —Zach
Is "Liquid Center" supposed to be a warning? (Photographs by Robyn Lee)
Walking through Midtown the other day, I thought I'd stop into Macchiato Espresso Bar for a snack, after noticing this on their list of desserts: "Pocket Coffee (go ahead and ask...)" For $1, how could I not?
Delicious Italian chocolate, made by Ferrero (the same company that makes Rocher and Nutella), filled with delicious Italian espresso- and not some espresso flavored syrup, but actual espresso. Despite being told by the lady who sold it to me to eat it in one bite, we decided to take our chances, and see what was going on inside (we're crazy like that here at Serious Eats: New York.)
The "Liquid Center" after the jump...
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Posted by Adam Kuban, May 12, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Humor me, won'tcha?
The ice cream man almost always serves as an icy blast from days long past. Especially so if he's rocking an early-model Ford and dressed in retro mid-century togs, as Jay here is, right down to the belt-situated coin changer.
I encountered Jay yesterday in Manhattan on 53rd Street yesterday, just east of the Museum of Modern Art, where a small crowd of looky-loos had slowed down to admire the customized vintage Ford pickup from which he's selling the usual array of ice cream treats. The truck, he said, had been customized for ice cream conveyance long ago and had been recently salvaged from a fleet of retired Good Humor trucks. Though he originally cited 1942 as the model year, a little research tells me it's likely a 1961 or '62.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 29, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Or, 'Would You Like to Touch My Monkey?'
From Eater's "Gatekeepers" series, in which the blog talks to front-of-the-house staff about their domains, comes this bizarre incident related by George Atterbury, general manager of Grayz:
What's the most outrageous request from a customer that you couldn't accommodate?
A customer wanted to dine with their pet monkey in the restaurant. Literally we had a guest walk into the restaurant hand in hand with a monkey and asked to be seated at the best possible table. I have been witness to a lot of different requests since coming from The Modern but that definitely has topped any request. The monkey was even wearing a little Burberry jacket.
Grayz
Address: 13-15 West 54th Street, New York NY (Midtown; map)
Phone: 212-262-4600
Website: grayz.net
Posted by Ed Levine, April 25, 2008 at 2:57 PM
I have extolled the virtues of Szechuan Gourmet before, but after having another extraordinary meal there yesterday, I must implore you all over again to eat there this weekend. You do not have to go to Flushing to eat great Szechuan food and you can do better than the quite good food served at the various Grand Sichuan branches around Manhattan. Yesterday a friend and I shared three dishes, each one better than the last:
Szechuan Pork Dumpling with Roasted Chili Soy
Photograph taken by Kathryn Yu
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, February 9, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Midtown and Upper East Side chocolate places for Valentine's Day worth a nibble and a few extra calories:
MarieBelle
Maribel Lieberman has gone uptown on us, but her hot chocolate and chocolates are still as good as ever. Don't worry—her Soho location is still open. 762 Madison Avenue, between 65th and 66th Streets; 212-249-4585; mariebelle.com
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, November 12, 2007 at 8:28 AM
The Sullivan Street Bakery situation has been difficult to follow, even for someone like me who's known all the parties involved for years.
Jim Lahey and Monica Von Thun Calderon were the original partners of the Sullivan Street Bakery on Sullivan Street. Last year Jim and Monica dissolved their partnership. Monica kept the original location and renamed it the Grandaisy Bakery, where she continues to use Jim's recipes. Jim kept the West 47th Street location.
So far, so good, right? Monica has now opened another branch of Grandaisy on West 72nd Street, right next to Gray's Papaya. Jim is shortly going to open a pizzeria-cafe on Ninth Avenue and 24th Street. Just to further complicate things for Upper West Siders in need of Sullivan Street Bakery bread, Fairway stopped selling Sullivan Street bread within the last year and replaced it with a Bronx bakery started by a former Sullivan Street employee. These breads look like Jim Lahey's breads, but they're not quite as good.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, how are the goods at the new Grandaisy?
To use a Larry David expression, pretty, pretty good.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, August 24, 2006 at 8:46 AM
I went to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at the Four Seasons Hotel on E. 57th St. last night for dinner. Spent $250 for dinner for two and was certainly not stuffed. Thank God my brother was paying. The dinner included two glasses of wine, one dessert, and six small plates. No coffee, not even iced tea for me.
A few amazing dishes; languostine fritter, gazpacho, sea urchin cauliflower cream. Others were merely good, and in no way special. One dish, foie gras ravioli in chicken soup, was deadly dull.
We got major attitude initially until I hit it off with one of our servers who used to work in a pizzeria in Staten Island. We compared Staten Island pizza notes. We both declared our love for Joe and Pat's. Said server even gave me a taste of the Alsatian pastrami cured and smoked in-house that's served with potato salad and foie gras. Katz's has nothing to worry about.
Maybe it was just too early, maybe we ordered wrong, or maybe this is another misguided line extension of one of the world's great chefs. At this point I don't feel the need to return. I would much rather eat at Daniel or Jean Georges for its incredible $28 two course lunch. You even feel full after you eat it.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 10, 2006 at 6:50 AM
ELE's Jeff asked for my list of the best hot dogs in Manhattan:
Photo courtesy of liaoyusheng.com
Gray's Papaya: Great natural casing, all-beef dog made by Marathon, Sabrett's parent company. I ask for mine well-done, not that any of the counterpeople listen. Many locations, I go to the one on 72nd and Broadway.
Papaya King: Virtually the same hot dog as Gray's (there's one secret spice added), but the mustard is spicier and the bun is more or less toasted. Multiple locations, but I go to the one on 86th and Third Avenue.
Katz's: The best deli dog in lower Manhattan. They give you more sauerkraut than either of the above-mentioned spots, and the hot grill gives the hot dogs a great crust. Houston Street and
The Shake Shack: The SS serves the only true Chicago-style dog in NYC: A Vienna Beef hot dog, poppy seed bun, and sport peppers as one of the condiments. I wish they would grill the hot dogs instead of steaming them. Have the frozen custard for dessert. In Madison Square Park at 23rd and Madison.
Artie's: A big kosher-style deli dog properly grilled. It would be hard to finish two hot dogs here. At Artie's I get cole slaw and sauerkraut on the dog. 82nd and Broadway.
Brooklyn Diner: A humongous (easily sharable), expensive, natural casing, all-beef dog served with crispy, wispery onion rings and very good sauerkraut. 57th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue.
For more on NYC hot dogs check out my Times story.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 6, 2006 at 12:26 PM
Sometimes food writers get invited to preview meals at restaurants that are about to open. These are called Friends and Family Meals, and they are often fascinating and frustrating experiences. Six weeks ago I was invited to one such meal at Dona, the new Southern European (whatever that means) restaurant opened by Donatella Arpaia (of David Burke and Donatella, a good restaurant, certainly, but not one of my favorites) and chef Michael Psilakis
of Onera, one of the best restaurants on the Upper West Side of NY.
This meal was, frankly, a disappointment. Mike was trying way too hard to come up with a new approach. The result was overwrought, overthought dishes that sometimes had three too many components or ingredients.
There was one dish that consisted of a puddle of pea soup, a mound of shrimp risotto, a whole shrimp and some fried zucchini. It was two entire meals and four dishes on one plate.
So when a friend invited me back for a meal at Dona last night, let's just say I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. In fact, I was dreading it. The ameuse, or chef's welcoming bite, was interesting but didn't bode well for the rest of the meal. A spoon of perfectly delicious crabmeat was on a plate next to a shotglass of melon soup with some kind of liqueur in it. Our waiter said the chef wanted us to dip the spoonful of crab into the shotglass of soup. I demurred and just ate the crab and drank the cold soup separately. They were both very tasty, but I'm not sure if they belong together.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, April 9, 2006 at 12:16 PM
In New York it's easy to forget about certain restaurants and chefs. Take the Sea Grill and Ed Brown. It's a corporate spot, owned and operated by Restaurant Associates, and though the well-spaced tables overlook the Rockefeller Center skating rink, the Sea Grill feels like a corporate spot, at least it did when I had lunch there last Friday (at dinner I presume there are fewer suits and a little more soul). But Ed Brown is a first-rate chef who uses his corporate resources wisely to buy the best ingredients on the planet. He then does his level-headed best not to mess with those ingredients very much. His food is disarmingly simple, his flavors direct and vivid. My lunch was very tasty indeed. I started with a snapper carpaccio with pickled red onions and baby cilantro, and then proceeded to a wonderfully meaty plate of sturgeon cooked a la plancha served with wilted spinach. The sturgeon had a lovely caramelized crust and the spinach delivered a surprising flavor punch. For dessert we had a palette of mini-ice cream cones and a couple of chocolate-covered banana mini-ice cream bars. There's not much new going on at the Sea Grill. When William Grimes last reviewed the restaurant for the Times, in 2000, he wrote about the same carpaccio presentation I alluded to above, and the same set of mini-ice cream cones. But it's still a treat to eat well-executed food prepared by a talented chef who still seems to care. Ed Levine Eats gives the Sea Grill a 90. The Sea Grill is at 19 W. 49th Street, 212-332-7610.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 24, 2006 at 12:45 PM
When I was growing up in deepest New York suburbia (Cedarhurst, LI), slices of pizza were fifteen cents. Forty years later you can pay up to $2.50 for a piece of 'za. So I was sent hurdling back to my youth when I passed a sign advertising 99 cent pizza. I couldn't pass up that kind of bargain. I ordered a slice, the Hispanic man behind the counter handed me a fresh, hot slice that needed no reheating. I took a bite. It was perfectly acceptable New York pizza, better than chain except Bertucci's. I started thinking about other food experiences across the country and what they cost. A meal at Masa in NYC costs $350 before drinks, tax and tip. That means for the same price you can get 350 slices of pizza at my new discovery. That means you can have a slice a day for for more than a year for what it ends up costing someone to eat at Masa. I then grabbed a flyer. The name of the place appears to be 99 cent Fresh Pizza. Now that's what I call great marketing, when the promise is in the name. 99 cent Fresh Pizza is at 569 Ninth Avenue (NW corner of 41st St.).
Posted by Ed Levine, February 24, 2006 at 1:01 PM
Three months in the slurping, my chicken soup piece came out Wednesday in the NYTimes. For those of you who don't read the Times, I am going to list my ten favorite chicken soups (I sampled a hundred) here, along with a few others I really liked that just failed to crack the top ten:
- Blue Ribbon Bakery 33 Downing Street (Bedford Street), (212) 337-0404. Matzo ball soup, $7.75.
- Cubana Café 110 Thompson Street (Prince Street), (212) 966-5366. Chicken soup with avocado, tomato, cilantro and yuca (cassava), $5.
- Fred's at Barneys New York 660 Madison Avenue (60th Street), ninth floor, (212) 833-2200.
- Estelle's chicken soup $8.
- Grand Sichuan International 229 Ninth Avenue (24th Street), (212) 620-5200. Chicken and pea shoots, $8.95; chicken with pickled cabbage, $7.95.
- Hearth 403 East 12th Street (First Avenue), (646) 602-1300. Chicken soup with escarole, chicken dumplings and pastina, $12.
- Momofuku Noodle Bar 163 First Avenue (10th Street), (212) 475-7899. Chicken noodle soup with Shanghai thick noodles, onions and scallions, $11.
- New Chao Chow Restaurant 111 Mott Street (between Canal and Hester Streets), (212) 226-2590. Chao Chow wonton soup, $3.50.
- Perry St. 176 Perry Street (West Street), (212) 352-1900. Chicken soup with vegetables, avocado and dill, $13.50.
- Pio Maya 40 West Eighth Street (Avenue of the Americas), (212) 254-2277. Chicken soup, $3.25.
- Sripraphai 64-13 39th Avenue, Woodside, Queens, (718) 899-9599. Chicken soup with mushrooms, coconut milk and galangal; Cornish hen in hot and sour soup (tom-zap), both $7.
A few others I really enjoyed:
- Akdeniz 19 W. 46th Street (bet. Fifth and Sixth Aves.) 212-575-2307; Slightly creamy chicken soup that comes to life with a squeeze of the lemon they serve it with.
- Al Bustan 827 Third Avenue (bet. 50th and 51st Sts.) 212-759-5933 Lebanese Chicken soup enlivened with the same lemon squeeze and, surprisingly, a touch of cinnamon.
- Azuri Cafe 465 W.51st (between 9th and 10th Aves.) 212-265-2920; I was lovin' the chicken soup here until I put the first piece of matzo ball in my mouth. It was ice cold. So I cut up the matzo balls into little pieces and let them sit in the soup for a minute or two to heat them up. Brilliant!
- Brooklyn Diner USA: 212 W. 57th Street (between Broadway and Seventh Ave.) 212-977-2280; Fine classic chicken soup with moist chicken and a toothsome broth.
- Teresa's 103 First Avenue (between 6th and 7th Sts.) 212-228-0604; If the noodles were al dente at this Polish coffee shop, this bargain chicken soup ($2.75) would have cracked the top ten.
