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Dinosaur Bar B Que in Syracuse, NY. They nail so many meats and sides so well, so often. I've burned a lot of hours at their bar quaffing beers and chowing down apps while waiting forever for a table but at first bite of a Big Ass Pork Plate it was worth EVERY minute!

Guacamole!! It would add a creamy soul to my burger.

Ed, it was great to meet you and many of the SE gang at the Red Hook ball fields last June. Hope there is another meet-up this summer! LOVED the Swingle! I've got some out of town friends dying to try it after I told them about it.
Haven't had the Salty Pimp yet but the Bea Arthur is pretty good. I agree with the quality of the ice cream but the flavor combos make up for it.

Haven't been to People's yet but I had a pineapple & mint pop from La Newyorkina at the Hester Street Fair last year that was very tasty and refreshing!

Have you ever tried the Standing Order concrete at the Madison Sq. Park Shack location? Vanilla custard, fresh cut strawberries and an orange-poppyseed caramel. Very inspired and just heavenly!

Love Shopsins and have a deep respect for Kenny and what he and his family do and the care they put into the food they serve. Have been tehre 2x, once with friends, once with my GF. First time had the ABC (grits and eggs covered in a pork cream gravy, topped with a fried chicken breast and grilled challah toast) and washed it down with a vanilla egg cream. Second time with the GF we split apple-cinnamon pancakes, Bobacaters (green chile cheeseburger sliders), crispy fried potatoes and butterschotch ebelskivers. LOVED it all! Pricey, you bet!

Got yelled at the first time I was there (rightfully so, but they didn't kick me out) and had some pretty off-color banter directed at my GF and I on the second visit that was purely tongue-in-cheek. Had a really nice conversation with Kenny that helped me to understand why he does what he does the way he does it. Not for everyone though. I would never bring my family or certain friends for fear they would cry if yelled at or some of them are just like mumurthigal's friends! I trust that whatever they are doing in the kitchen (whether the food is canned, frozen, fresh, dried, powdered, what have you) is gonna end up as something special.

Kenji, thanks ever so much for this list! I've been eating at Vanessa's for a few years now and it's my go-to spot when out of town friends come or if I'm putting together a food tour. Not so much a fan of the 14th Street location as they seem to not have a system down for getting the food out quickly and around 8-9 at night they run out of some dumplings and the sesame pancakes.

I made it to Prosperity because of this list and my first though upon walking in was, "Wow, they sure do put the DUMP in Dumpling!" Great dumplings and sesame pancakes though.

Thanks so much for this list! I can't even begin to tell you how many of these write-ups are so helpful to me when showing out-of-town friends the good eats in the five boroughs. I wish I could say I liked the cinnamon sugar doughnut at Pie-n-Thighs but when I went with my friends the flavor was just right but the texture was very tough and dense.

Have you tried the Warm Brioche Yeast Squares at Dessert Truck Works on Clinton St.(LES)? I had them a few weeks ago and they were awesome. They don't fry or fill them until you order. They come two to an order for $6. Not cheap, but really good. Rolled in sugar, I had one filled with vanilla cream and the other with Nutella. Yeah!

So the sandwich is not warm/hot at all? It does sound tasty but I am so in love with the toasty, crackly-crunch of a well-pressed cuban and the gooey cheese, I'm not sure I'd schlep 2 hours for this one. Maybe if I was in the nabe...

I would so love to do this but I'm running a race in Central NY that same day. I will definitely forward this to my foodie/running friends!

Leah & the Team...WOWEE!!!!

What a daunting and most delicious quest you went on! Knights of the Baked Goods Table, you are! I journeyed on a one-man 17 stop (it was supposed to be 30 stops) cupcake tour a couple of years ago and posted it online. But this is just mind blowing. I went by Baked after the Red Hook Meet-up but I was too full after the key lime pie to even contemplate stopping, but at least I know where it is now.

Huge fan of the Lemon Pucker cupcake at Two Little Red Hens, the Red Velvet at Big Booty and I am seriously missing Pichet Ong's now shuttered Batch in the West Village. I had one of my most favorite cupcake (and food) experiences ever at that shop. I'll have to hit St. Mark's to check out Spot!

There are sooo many cupcake shops in the city yet it is the rare place that is able to balance a light, moist (yet not sticky) cake with a frosting that pops with flavors other than sugar, as it should be a supporting element to bring out the intended flavors and not enaging in a "look at me!" diva-ish grab for attention.

If ever you need an extra set of taste buds to lighten the load in an upcoming test, I am yours!

Kudos!

Brad! This is an awesome report! I'm from Rome and went to Utica College so I spent many a hot summer day and muggy July night playing mini-golf and eating soft serve. I've only been to the Nicky Doodles in Rome but I loved the hot hom sandwiches. Not a huge fan of the syrup flavor mix-ins. I'm a classic twist kinda guy.

I was just in Utica over the weekend running the Boilermaker and I would almost have killed for some of the foods you ate! They're all my childhood! I've always thought of the area as Central NY but I suppose it's relative to where you live/where you're from. My girlfriend's family (Brooklyn bred all the way) say that Yonkers is Upstate NY. We did manage to snag some soft serve at Sno Top in Manlius on Sunday after the race. My girlfriend's vanilla-raspberry twist was perfect. If you get a chance, head to Utica for some tomato pie at Joe's in Whitesboro, Roma Sausage Co. or Napolis on Bleecker and some BBQ sandwiches and ice cream at Voss' BBQ in Yorkville.

When you REALLY believe that dinner at Applebee's IS "eating good in the neighborhood"! Sadly, I do know people who actually believe this.

Wow, Ed!! Great photos and write-up. I just walked by there last night and peeked inside. I must return to taste the goods. Thanks!

I just ate the Black Label burger for the first time on Monday 06/21/10. I had been very excited to try it, haivng read about it for many months. My first impression was that it was much smaller than I had expected. One of my dining companions who also ordered it thought the same when we compared notes after dinner.

We ordered it medium and it appeared closer to medium rare, which I usually don't like, but it worked for me on this night. Very juicy with a perfect proportion of bun-to-onions-to-meat. I thought I had tasted blue cheese in the burger, but after reading this article again, I guess it was just the aging of the beef.

While I did enjoy the flavor of the meat and the balance of components, it just doesn't seem to be worth a return trip for $26, for me anyway. I still feel that the burger at Peter Luger's has a more pronounced beef flavor, is bigger and cheaper at $8.95. Yes, I know that price is only for the bun-meat-bun, but I had a basket of their rolls with the steakhouse sauce, a diet coke, bacon-cheeseburger with fries all for $24.00 (tax and tip included) and I would happily hand it over again for the experience that I had.