May 31, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
MP Taverna Detour
Consider it a detour on your trek to the Hamptons where you can fill up on splendid meze and bitter greens while avoiding the worst of highway traffic
May 23, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
The Dutch
The dining room is half-empty awaiting hipsters, nocturnal inheritors of the earth, and ritzier-than-thou tall women who tend to swarm latish...
May 16, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Coppelia Night Music
The film noir romance of still forbidden Havana. The lure of breakfast all day in a 24-hour diner. A bright beacon of retro charm and gentle prices…
May 9, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Stuzzicheria 2nd Time Around
Now there's an ambitious new vibe, an appealing vintage country charm and somewhat higher prices...
April 25, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Red Rooster Crows
It draws a standing room only crowd that is as diverse as its menu…
April 18, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Flirting with Fiorello
I have a love-hate relationship with Café Fiorello. It’s my neighborhood easy drop-in before or after a movie. It used to be a once-a-week affair a dozen years ago when the Road Food Warrior and I would split an antipasto plate
April 11, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Marc Forgione’s DNA
There is old fashioned chef DNA here, not only because he is Larry Forgione’s son and grew up in restaurant kitchens, but in his respect for another era
April 4, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Pier 9
We’re grazing the menu at Eric Hara’s more than a fish shack...
March 28, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
David Burke Kitchen CLOSED
Maybe he doesn’t trust that his Upper East Side loyalists can be dragged downtown to this folksy Soho cellar lair just for his cooking, though it’s mostly good and even remarkable….
March 21, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Spasso: Sitting Tight
It’s beyond intimate with the strum of good time squeals and cries almost drumming out the music. In this spirited young crowd I feel like an intruder…
March 14, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
La Silhouette
Discreetly, unremarkably, unobtrusively in the austere streetscape, it has parked itself inside what was a garage on West 53rd Street...
March 7, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Socarrat’s New Crunch
I imagine I am already hearing the tat-a-tat of spoons scraping iron paella pans. But there is a defined prologue here. I need to catch up with our friends...
February 28, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Embers Is Smokin’
I could almost taste the sticky torrid combustion to come from the fusion of Todd English and Ian Kittichai...
February 21, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
What Happens When & Why
It’s a chance to revisit Chef John Fraser’s very personal style of cooking at $58 for three courses, a discount from the pricey entrees at his three-star Dovetail…
February 14, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Bowlmor: Stadium Grill
It’s a chef’s dream: a mouthy blond scarfing your nachos with unabashed joy on the front page of the Times Dining…
February 7, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Patricia’s: The Son Also Rises
We have been spirited away to somewhere in the Bronx. This zuppa di funghi is thrilling…
January 31, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Holy Basil: Tulsi
Sheer white curtains wrap three sides of our table in a veil of serenity, a luminous stage set to showcase the solo turn of chef-partner Hemant Mathur...
January 17, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
The National Pastime
Half full, the place has a gentle buzz and light from paper shaded bulbs above is calculated to illuminate food and menu...
January 10, 2011 | BITE: My Journal
Ai Yi Yi Fiori
The best laid plans of mice and chefs are easily knocked awry. With his raucous, casual late night Morini jammed tight but the kitchen still half-baked, chef-owner Michael White…