BITE will keep you in touch with what I’m eating and what I love and what I left on my plate. I’ll share dialogues I have with heroes and divas, princes and barracudas and what I overhear from the next table. Not every day will I have a meal worth writing about, I suspect, not good enough, not bad enough. Dear friends have asked me if I could try to be meaner so I fit in better on the net. I intend to try. As any man who has lived with me will tell you, I was born to be a critic. Of course, isn’t it the critic who has the thinnest skin of all? I must admit to a certain anxiety. It’s been a long time since I wrote without an editor, a fact checker and a copy-reader to catch my errors, misspellings and typos. I apologize in advance. I’m left-handed and that can sometimes be confusing. I might have stopped reviewing restaurants twenty-five years ago when my first novel, Blue Skies, No Candy lingered on the best seller list. But I am addicted to instant gratification. So I’m still here. On my death bed, I am sure my last words will echo those of the sister of Brillat Savarin:
“Bring on dessert.”
May 14, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Dragonfly
My friends on the Upper East Side endlessly complain they have nowhere to eat except for the usual Italian fixtures…
May 7, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Almayass
Finally the small plates start arriving — torturously slow, yes — but shockingly good, layered with intense zaps of lemon, garlic and peppery olive oil…
April 30, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
NoMad
It seemed as if the entire waxed-and-polished floor entourage from 11 Mad had been shanghaied to launch this new dining scheme…
April 23, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Clyde Frazier’s Wine and Dine
It's impossible to miss, there is Walt Frazier times 25 or so in a staccato of bigger-than-life-size panels stretching from 37th to 38th Street.
April 16, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Café China
I'm here because I couldn’t resist the seductive email that arrived from first time restaurateurs Yiming Wang and her husband Xian Zhang…
April 9, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Benoit Comes of Age
I was hungry for French. Not modernist French. I was thinking classic, but not tricked-up classic...
April 2, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Brasserie Pushkin
Small misunderstandings are more amusing then apocalyptic at this Moscow transplant, recently settled with astonishing verve and style, steps from the Russian Tea Room…
March 26, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
It’s Good to Be King
It’s on King Street where the West Village spills into Soho. So call it King, even though royalty is mostly in decline these days. Hang a baronial chandelier and iron gates for country manor airs…
March 19, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
La Quenelle: Beyond Classic
Cyril Renaud whips off the mask of making do, revealing the ambitious chef who won three stars at the late La Caravelle, cheerleading an economic recovery.
March 12, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
A Chef’s Curriculum Vitae
It is too soon to write, I know. But I’m excited to discover Edwin Bellanco, a chef I’ve never noticed who’s been around forever…
March 5, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Empellón Cocina
Maybe it was the remarkable guacamole, studded with bits of pistachio, under a flutter of cilantro leaves. Already I’m wired.
February 27, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Jeanne and Gaston
It looks cute, with mullioned windows, small string lights, sidewalk board advertising the $40 prix fixe, but inside it’s almost empty…
February 21, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Alison Eighteen
At last, a restaurant for grownups, casual but proper, respectful of threatened values, like enough light to read the menu and a noise-muffling ambiance…
February 6, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Caffé Storico Does Cicchetti
It’s a stunner, with a casual, dazzling sunniness that might make you feel you’ve stepped into a time warp…
January 30, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Bowery Diner Ambition
I like the vintage diner airs with retro metal chairs in pastel hues. I like the pretty crowd. I like the waiter’s modish haircut. I’m nuts about this Reuben…
January 23, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
La Mangeoire Redux
Such longevity in this cruelly fickle town might be reason enough to check in…
January 16, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
Prima on First
It's Saturday night live and neighbors with a car have signed on for adventure…
January 9, 2012 | BITE: My Journal
El Cheapo Does Lunch
The economy needs me to lunch, for these three places I'm happy to oblige...