Category Archives: American

American, Burgers, East Village, Union Square/Flatiron

5 Napkin Burger

September 22, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I came here to the Union Square location for the first time with a few buddies before watching one of the US World Cup games.

I had a breakfast burger of some sort, which came with ham and egg on top of that bitch. It was really good, perfectly cooked too, as you can tell from the cut shot.

This was exactly what we needed before stuffing our bellies full of beer before the game, and hours of screaming and yelling for our team.

On a second visit I had the classic cheeseburger. The breakfast burger was better, in my opinion, and the bun is still in need of improvements. Switch to potato!

My wife had an asiago turkey burger, which was good but a little rubbery. I guess that shit happens when you eat turkey.

We did try some wings and an app that was essentially a fried pickle and pastrami fritter. Pretty good showing.

The down side is that they wouldn’t honor the wings or happy hour specials at the tables, despite the bar being filled.

Last item was the smokes shake, which was very nice. The roasted marshmallow on top really brought those flavors home.

5 NAPKIN BURGER
150 E 14th St
New York, NY 10003

American, Burgers, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Melt Shop

September 21, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I saw posters for a new joint opening up in my hood. A GRILLED CHEESE JOINT!!! Not knowing when the doors would open, and being anxious to try out the grub, my wife and I took a slightly longer walk over to a location already in operation on 50th & 7th.

Since I have been on a massive burger kick lately, naturally, I ordered the Melt Shop Burger. It comes with pepper jack cheese, cheese sauce, burger sauce, caramelized onions, and sweet pickles (wish it was half sour), all on sour dough toast that’s grilled to perfection. It was full of cheesy, oozy meltiness.

My wife had the original grilled cheese (American on white) with some added fried chicken and bacon inside. This was great too – absolutely perfect mix of ingredients.

On the side, we had an order of loaded tots: bacon, cheese sauce, grated parmesan cheese, and sliced jalapeños. These could have been a bit more crispy, but they were good even though they turned to much under the “load.”

Best item of the day, however, goes to the fucking nutella fluff milkshake. Holy shit… If you don’t know what fluff is, it is spreadable marshmallow. When I was a kid, my mom used to make me peanut butter and fluff sandwiches. The elevation of fluff with nutella and a bit of chocolate in a shake format was fucking brilliant.

It was also nice to see that they had several bottles of sri racha sauce there like any other normal condiment. YES!

You guys should definitely check this place out some day. I see big things happening for this little franchise. The deals they offer make it even more worth your while, like $3 Abita beers and 50% off your first delivery order (Go to www.meltshop.com and use promo code SAYCHEESE).

MELT SHOP
135 W. 50th St.
New York, NY 10019

American, Burgers, Downtown, Pizza, Restaurant Reviews

Charly’s

September 18, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CURRENTLY CLOSED

This little joint is fantastic for lunch if you work in the area, or for super late night eats if you live or party nearby. I used to both work and live around the corner from this place, and I can suggest the right stuff to get. In fact, this place was such a staple in my life that coming here used to be part of what my roommate and I called the “Trifecta” of nightlife. I won’t mention the other two parts of that, but it did involve copious amounts of tits and ass, as well as pizza… Let your imagination run wild with that.

First, they make an amazing chicken burrito. It’s jam packed with nicely grilled chicken breast and all the works (which you can see and even select from behind the glass counter). It comes with a side of tortilla chips and a little plastic tub of salsa. Best part of the way they make these: they slap a few slices of cheddar on the tortilla as it is warming up on the flat top, and then they add shredded cheese along with the toppings as they fill it. Also – I’ve never had a rip in my tortilla when they make it. These guys are fucking pros.

Bite my tongue! I just went back for a visit and the guy ripped my burrito a little and didn’t bother to fix it. They also didn’t do the “slap on the sliced cheese and toast it on the flat top” method either this time. It was still jerk worthy though:

Next item to get: the Charly burger. These things are fucking awesome. No bullshit – 6oz patties grilled to perfection on a nice flavor-filled flat top griddle, and topped with whatever goodness you want; they have everything from a variety of cheeses to onions to mushrooms, etc. They offer single, double, and “grand slam” burger sizes (grand slam = four 6oz patties). On one of our early dates, my wife put down a grand slam burger and fries all by her lonesome. I knew then she was magical. The fries are legit too – they used to be a little greasy, but they did stay crisp and flavorful. NOW they use a battered fry (it used to be a natural type cut), which is a million times better. Crisp, flavorful, and they hold up even when enclosed in a clamshell for a 30 minute subway ride.

Another good item: the ice cream shakes. I always stuck with vanilla but you used to be able to have one made from any flavor tub they had in the bin: they have a small freezer unit like Baskin Robbins, with several interesting flavors.

What NOT to get: the pizza – “Steve’s Pizza” is part of the same building – connected – but they are NOT the same restaurant. The pizza there is not that great, so skip it. It’s soggy, floppy, and generally just not that good.

Also the tacos at Charly’s are way too greasy, so skip those too. And I never did the cold cut sandwiches either. Stick with a chicken burrito or a burger and you are good to go.

Also – don’t get your hopes up for a nice looking place when you get there. This is essentially just a counter where you order food, and one or two stools facing the street/windows. But this little spot survived 9/11, and served food up to all the great firemen and construction workers who worked that mess, and who built the new freedom tower. Eating here is patriotic.

They even added an upstairs dining area, unless it was always there and I was too drunk to realize?

CHARLY’S
110 Trinity Pl.
New York, NY 10006

STEVE’S PIZZA
110 Cedar St.
New York, NY 10006

American, Midtown West, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Bacon

August 18, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My first day out shooting with my new camera brought my wife and I over to 9th Avenue, where we stopped in for lunch here at Bar Bacon. We had walked by a few times and were excited by the menu, so we finally gave it a shot.

We started with a flight of four 5oz beers and four types of bacon.

The beer & the bacon:
Left Hand milk stout paired with jalapeno bacon
Blue Moon paired with applewood smoked bacon
Empire amber ale paired with apple cider bacon
Six Point Sweet Action paired with pepper bacon

My wife had a bloody Mary that was pretty solid, garnished with a piece of thick cut bacon.

Next came the bacon banh mi sandwich. More like steamed pork buns as opposed to a Vietnamese sandwich. The two bites were tasty, but it was extremely small in portion size, and there was not much bacon in it. The BBQ flavored chips and coleslaw were great though.

Then we had the ever-increasing-in-popularity “pig wings” item that was covered with sri-racha BBQ sauce. These were good, but also small in portion size for the price. I like the pig wings over at Iron Bar a little better so far, but these held up nice.

Some atmosphere pics:

In sum: very yummy, but a bit over-priced and very small portions.

BARBACON
836 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

American, Filet Mignon, Midtown West, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews

David Burke Fabrick

August 4, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS JOINT IS NOW CLOSED

Okay so listen up. I saw this awesome photo on Chef David Burke’s Instagram feed. I showed my wife and we immediately decided that we needed to go.

We made a reservation for an hour or two later, psyched as all hell to dig into that incredible looking hunk of beef.

When we sat, the waiter brought out a little shot of strained cold gazpacho; tomato with melon. Very refreshing.

I had the “rabbit hunter” cocktail: bourbon, lime, ginger beer and mint. It was good; like a bourbon mojito.

My wife had the “antica Manhattan,” which was made with buffalo trace bourbon, antica carpano, maple syrup, bitters and brandied cherry. It was excellent, except for the fact that later on during the meal we found a gnat floating belly up in it. Doh!

We started with a pair of apps. First was the “skin and bones,” which was essentially chicken liver pate sandwiched between two pieces of crispy chicken skin, and served with chicken dumplings drizzled with vindaloo sauce. The cool thing about these dumplings was that they were “bone-in.” The chicken bones were little handles to grab the dumplings. Observe:

Next was octopus tacos (can we call them tactos?) with guacamole, chipotle sauce and salsa. These were excellent. The octopus was nice and charred but tender inside, and the sauces were great. Maybe a few jalapeno slices or some lettuce would have made this dish perfect.

We ordered a side of chic pea fries to go with our steak too. These were interesting. Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The dipping sauce was more of the chipotle cream from the tacos.

So now for the big fucker. The Bronx filet for two, with bone marrow. The presentation is gorgeous, isn’t it?

Even that first slice up front. Looks delectable, no? Hmm… Maybe just a little too much grey on the edges?

Oh FUCK. After that first, nice looking piece, it looks like whoever sliced this puppy was trying to hide the incredibly overcooked portions!

I kid about the hiding. But, yeah… It turns out that the rest of the steak was really well done. We ordered it medium rare. I guess with these big hunks, lots of chefs have trouble getting an even cook across the meat. The bone still had blood on it. It certainly was an awkward size and shape. What a shame. When it’s done properly it is probably an incredible meal.

When the waiter came around to ask how everything was, I mentioned that it tasted good but that it was severely overcooked. He grabbed a manager and she agreed, though she relayed what the chef said, which was that the edges are over but the middle is okay. Unfortunately that just wasn’t the case. There were about 3 or 4 bites of medium rare combined from all slices, and the rest was hockey puck. The manager generously offered to have the chef fire up another for us, which would be ready in 25 minutes, but we declined because we had to get back home to field some interview calls for a New York Times story that is being written up about the two of us. The steak normally takes 40 minutes to cook, and we were already pushing it on time. So we put on our big-boy pants and ate the dry, grey meat as best as we could. It was still yummy, but really dry and over done. I imagine it to be a great item when properly cooked. 5/10.

The manager was kind enough to send out some free desserts for us, and we were not charged for the overcooked steak. For dessert we had the “Burke-n-bag.” This one is great for photo ops. It is essentially a really amazing candy bar dolled up to look like a purse, and served with a little scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

We also had the frozen yogurt banana split. This was pretty good. The fro-yo was actually delicious, and the pink stuff you see is the sauce that was poured over and then hardened into a shell. Magic Shell!?! Total blast from the past. The banana was just so-so; maybe a little under-ripe. The brownies weren’t really needed, I don’t think.

Last are the cheese cake pops with bubble gum whipped cream. I wasn’t a big fan of these, but I can see how someone could love them. When it comes to all-things cheesecake, nothing can compare to my sister’s cheesecake. MY sister’s cheesecake is so good that it’ll make you want to murder YOUR sister.

So anyway – moral of the story is this: beautiful pics of food can be deceiving. Also the table next door had a wrong item taken to them. Red snapper instead of tuna. So maybe this place was just having a bad night. Our steak was ruined, there was a gnat in my wife’s drink and the table next door had the wrong item delivered to them that apparently no one at any other table had ordered. Ehh, whatever. We all know David Burke is an amazing chef. It’s just too bad he wasn’t actually there cooking for us this evening.

FABRICK
Archer Hotel New York
47 W. 38th St.
New York, NY 10018

American, Midtown West, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Restaurant Week, Rib Eye

Butter

July 28, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My buddy celebrated his 40th birthday out back in the garden here at Butter, and when we got good and hungry, my wife and I went inside to eat some grub at the bar.

My wife had the restaurant week menu, which came with veal bacon, hake (fish), and chocolate cake.

The veal bacon was the real star here, drizzled with a nice mustard seed sauce, and accompanied with a side of sesame oil cabbage slaw.

The fish was better than alright. Nice and clean, good flavor, and pretty tasty overall. Maybe I was just too hungry for my rib eye to pay any real attention to the fish bullshit.

Here’s the “butter cut” rib eye, served with crispy purple potato wedges and a hay stack of onion straws. Really juicy, good fat content, and cooked correctly to medium rare. This would hang with the big boys in the steak house world for sure.

Fuck the chocolate cake. I didn’t take pics of it. it was really good though. Dark chocolate, very rich but not too sweet.

A shot of our drinks from earlier at the birthday party. I had the Alagash, and my wife had the pink lemonade thingy.

BUTTER
70 W. 45th St.
New York, NY 10036

American, Burgers, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

PJ Clarkes

July 28, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Check this shit out: this isn’t the original flagship location or anything, but the restaurant is big and beautiful inside, and the burger was pretty much fantastic, with the exception of a bottom bun being too thin. My wife and I took my parents here for lunch when they came in to see the new apartment.

I started with an amazing bloody Mary called “Sister Mary Walks Funny” – it involves sri racha sauce. Spicy and perfectly mixed, with blue cheese olives to boot.

My burger was called “the Cadillac” – mostly I ordered it because it had American cheese and bacon on it. Look at the perfect cook job done on this bitch:

The fries were nice and crispy too.

My wife had some mussels with olive oil, garlic and tomato. An interesting change up from the typical white wine preparation. We dug it.

On the side we put down some bacon mac & cheese. Yup. Good shit. That’s wide fusilli, muthafucka!

I’m thoroughly impressed. I saw that on Saturday’s they offer a rib eye. I might have to stop back in for one of those.

On a second visit, I quickly noticed that they stock my favorite gin when I was reading over the cocktail menu: Fifth Pounds Gin. AWESOME! I ordered up a nice martini with that shit.

My wife ordered a “Tall English Redhead,” which was a very refreshing, summery type drink with mango iced tea.

Since it was Sunday, and the rib eye is only offered on Saturday, I went with the skirt steak frites. It was okay. I’ve had better, but it got the job done at a relatively cost-friendly price.

My wife got a breakfast plate of baked eggs and cheddar cheese with fingerling potatoes and sausage. Pretty good substitute since they were out of their bubble & squeak, but it was a bit greasy.

We also shared an order of creamed spinach, which was pretty good for a non-steakhouse. We finished the whole crock of it. Not too salty, not overly creamed, and you could still make out the distinct spinach flavor so you FEEL like you’re eating healthy, even though you aren’t.

PJ CLARKE’S
44 W. 63rd St.
New York, NY 10023

American, Other, Restaurant Reviews, Westchester

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

June 10, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Hmm… what can I say about this place… The food is off the charts good, fresh (obviously), well plated, well executed, clever, fun and inventive. The only negatives I can possibly conceive of are (1); it’s heavy on the vegetables, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but for (2); it is very expensive. When you pay $200 per person before drinks, tax and tip, you sort of expect some serious substance in addition to the superb veggies. The meats consisted of: pig heart pastrami (1 bite), lamb (one small, thin rib chop), a bite of ham (in the tortilla), a slice of speck (ham and cheese sandwich), and a few slices of pork. That’s pretty much it. One of the asparagus dishes (there were several, yet oddly my pee didn’t smell afterward) had shredded chicken wing as garnish, but that doesn’t count. And neither do the few items that contained fish product. The last negative criticism is (3) extreme pretense. You’ll see what I am talking about below. I get that these people are passionate about the farm to table concept, about sustainability, etc. And they are remarkable culinary artists. But fucking come on… Some of this stuff is like candid camera fodder. To sum up: this was a great once-in-a-lifetime experience. I absolutely 100% know that I will never go back, but I’m definitely glad I fought tooth and nail to get a rez here to celebrate our anniversary, even if just to experience this bizarre place.

Service? Some of the best I’ve ever experienced. Our waiter Christian was amazing and very informative. Waiters and table hawks swooped in and cleaned up after each of our roughly 24 courses. Use a spoon once, put it down for a minute, look at the ceiling, look back down and POOF: it’s gone, with a replacement on the way. Actually when we first sat down, they saw my wife scratch her wine glass to get a spot off and they immediately replaced the glass with a fresh one. Crazy! Too much? Perhaps. At some points we sort of felt awkward.

The ambiance of this place is really amazing. The farm is a beautiful and picturesque location. Nice grounds, with old but modern touches; rustic yet elegant. I could easily see it being some kind of rustic wedding venue. The dining area and centerpiece table is beautiful, and the kitchen is immaculately clean. The food is plated and presented in some of the most artful and beautiful ways I have ever seen.

To start we ordered some drinks. Mine was essentially a gin martini with pickled ramps instead of onion or olive. Ramps are so farm to table and local – way more hipster than onions or olives. My wife’s was a chamomile, gin, honey, and slightly sparkling lemon drink. Delicious. But lemon?!?? That shit doesn’t grow here in NY, as far as I know. So much for the whole LOCAL thing! I want my olive now…

Then the food started coming out. Hold onto your asses because this was a 4 hour meal…

1) Veggies on sticks. Some pickled, some raw, some lightly seasoned or spiced. Nice and refreshing. But, really? I started to wonder whether I’d fallen victim to some social experiment where you put diners into a fancy environment and serve them cat food and they absolutely love it.

2) Asparagus soup. This was really great. Hearty, savory. I could easily drain a bowl of this shit. Pay attention to how much fucking asparagus is served here. It is astounding.

3) Pig heart pastrami. This was good! Tasted just like pastrami, wasn’t too chewy. Just right. But give me more. Look at how much you’re charging me and ask if this is enough!

4) First of the Rhubarb. This was essentially just a pickled slice of rhubarb. Simple. “First of the rhubarb” registers at about 11 on a Pretentiousness Scale that goes from 1 to 10. I think it means the first time they were able to pick the rhubarb this season. You know… because rhubarb is WILDLY different in flavor that second time you pick it. Whatever.

5) Pea shoots, baby leeks, weeds, and tarragon pesto. At this point we were looking around for the hidden cameras that were placed to record our reaction to some weird practical joke. Even this was beyond “social experiment” weirdness. I’m a man with testicles. I have a dick, and it still gets hard. Now, this stuff was good (the sauce, anyway), but almost too odd for us. We were literally wiping the leaves of weeds across the sauce. Fun, I guess? But it took us a bit by surprise. We both laughed at this dish.

6) Egg yolk & potato tartlet, spring onion vichysoisse with toasted quinoa, and a fiddle head fern cracker. These were all lovely. Perfect little bites of flavor. I wish we had a whole tray of them.

7) Asparagus burgers. DING! Your asparagus score is now two. These were cute. Tasty too, and Christian came by with an asparagus stalk that had gone wild and grown too large. They are harvested at just the right time, before they start sprouting branches. BHASB <3 Asparagus 4-EVA!

8) Asparagus & pancetta. DING! Your asparagus score is now three! A nice asparagus spear on a stick, coated with sesame seeds. Good bacony flavor involved without any actual bacon on the skewer.

9) Ham and cheese sandwiches. These were made with speck and crisped cheese type crackers. Beautiful presentation, and one of the better bites of the meal. Again: give a man with hair on his chest a bit more that a single bite. I understand it is a multi-course feast, but feature the substantive dishes and downplay the “sides.” YEs – a veggie can be a side. But there were like 400 of them here to the handful of meat items. I get it. Veggies are awesome.

10) Pork liver pate & chocolate. This was a great bite as well. The chocolate surprisingly went well the liver.

11) Celtuce in a small soup with pine nuts. Christian gave us a crash course on what celtuce is. Basically similar to romaine but with a heart or root that you can cook up like the stem of broccoli. Delicious in every preparation they served.

12) Greenhouse greens and smoked creamy gouda cheese. A nice salad. Whoa, whoa, WHOA… GREENHOUSE greens?!?? Do you mean to tell me that these items would not otherwise grow in the local climate? Like the lemon above… but not the olive? Pfft…

13) Celtuse heart and spears, caviar and herring cream. This was one of the best courses. The caviar provided a natural salt element to this. Excellent use of vegetables… again.

14) Asparagus with almond saffron sauce, stinging nettle sauce, olive tapenade, rhubarb yogurt, grilled asparagus sauce and crispy chicken wings. DING! Your asparagus score is now four! It was served with asparagus tea, and the sauces were plated tableside. The best sauce here was the asparagus sauce. Asparagus. Asparagus, asparagus, asparagus.

15) Whole wheat brioche, escarole and spinach marmalade with fresh ricotta cheese that was strained tableside. This was a nice piece of toast. They had some cracked black pepper on the plate too, and that really made all the flavors pop.

16) Ham, robin fish, mint & peas, creme fraiche and fresh cut herbs on a buckwheat tortilla. We were excited for this one because we were taken back to the chefs table in the kitchen to have it. Awesome!

Umm.. can I please have some of this sausage in my meal? If not.. maybe some more asparagus?

17) Stone barns egg, and everything a chicken eats. This was a really fucking great egg dish. I tasted currants, herbs and seeds, and it was presented while cooking in a cast iron pan. Perfect.

18) Potato onion bread, grass fed butter, lard from their pigs, and carrot salt. Here we’re being prepped for meat courses, so I was getting psyched. FINALLY…

19) Stone barns Berkshire pork with “this mornings peas,” pistachios and chrysanthemum. I had no idea one could eat chrysanthemum. The leaves were very fresh and airy; a perfumed and clean flavor. It went very well with the smokey pig flavor. And this morning’s peas? I’ll never have yesterday’s peas ever again. I wonder though… are tomorrow’s peas any good? Good fucking lord with the pretense.

20) Grass fed lamb, shitake, and bok choy. This was a nice plate. I just wish the lamb was thicker. Perfectly cooked. It was like having a bite of prime rib on a stick.

21) Cheeses … sheep’s milk and cheddar, served with rye pretzels, chutney and cumin spiced pumpkin seeds. The cheese was explained, cut, plated and served tableside, by the amazing Christian, asparagus stalk warrior.

22) Next was a special anniversary cake plate. Pea and carrot cake. Very clever and tasty too! Get it? Have your peas and carrots… but for dessert.

23) Milk ice cream, strawberry sorbet, and clotted cream with dried strawberries, fresh green and red strawberries and hazelnuts. The plating was pretty cool here. These little hexagonal glass plates were all stack-able.

24) Bugs, Dirt, and Twigs. This one is for the kids! Very fun.

Caterpillar = marshmallow

Honey Bee = honey mousse on a graham cracker

Brown dirt clump = chocolate truffle

Green dirt clump = pistachio nut cake ball with a cream type filling

Bird’s egg = herbed cream in a candy shell

Sticks/Twigs = light airy cookie crisps

Even the espresso was nicely plated and presented.

After we paid the bill, we walked out the back to see our car waiting for us at the end of the walkway.

I only felt half-raped. Like some HUGE Blood or Crip bent me over the weight lighting bench in the prison yard but got interrupted after his dick tip penetrated my anal sphincter, thus depriving him of full penetration and allowing me to walk away with my dignity still somewhat intact. Overall a really good meal, though. I’ll never go back unless someone else is paying for it. Glad we went. Nice to see veggies in the forefront. Good attitude about food. Incredible use of asparagus. Maybe it was all one big episode of Chopped and that was the secret ingredient for every course?

Final asparagus score: four, not including multiple uses in the same course. Accordingly, I hereby call this restaurant by a new name: Blue Asparagus at Stone Barns.

BLUE HILL AT STONE BARNS
630 Bedford Rd.
Tarrytown, NY 10591

American, Commentary, Food Halls, Italian, Midtown West, Ramen, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

Gotham West Market

March 15, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Hell’s Kitchen NYC is really starting to put meaning into the KITCHEN aspect of the neighborhood’s name. Not only have many great restaurants popped up recently, but now there are half a dozen ramen shops, several awesome burger joints, and even a smattering of small niche joints serving things like like Korean fried chicken or Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. The most recent thing on my radar is Gotham West Market. It’s basically an upscale food court featuring a bunch of really nice pop-up restaurants, a gourmet food market, and even a store selling kitchen items, cooking gear, and baking supplies.

I first came here to try the Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop.

My wife and I tried the Shio and Shoyu styles. They were both good, but they contained green onion cut in such a way that it became overbearing and difficult to pluck off of the noodles. I like a standard cross cut to my scallions. This “long ways” cut sucks. The soup base was good, on the other hand, and the rye noodles were delicious.

My wife went back two times without me and tried most of the other spots in there, like The Cannibal, El Colmado, Little Chef, The Brooklyn Kitchen, Genuine Roadside, and Court Street Grocers Sandwich Shop. Poke around her Instagram feed to see some of her escapades. Or simply hit up the #gwmarket tag on there. Here are a couple of collages of her pics:

So today we went in for lunch, which was my wife’s 4th time going in 3 weeks, since I have been dying to try some of the stuff I’ve seen on Instagram from El Colmado and The Cannibal. I’ll take these fuckers down one at a time for you below.

THE CANNIBAL
We sat down to a nice beer and a Bloody Mary to start. The Bloody came with some pickled items on top – a beet, a cucumber, and a pepper.

We ordered three items here. The first was an octopus terrine, garnished with some pickled fennel and dill. This was so amazing, especially after having such a shitty plate of octopus two nights earlier at a local Long Island restaurant that completely fucked the octo up, turning it into rubber. THIS, on the other hand, was a masterpiece. Soft, tender, juicy, and nicely dressed – just like a prom date. One of the best octo preparations I’ve ever tasted.

Next up was the pig head terrine. Essentially a head cheese of sorts. It was really tender and flavorful, and it even had some capers jammed in there too for a nice bite of brine. They served it with some crispy bread, lemon butter, and herbs. Delicious.

Last was the lamb tartare. You can see below that it’s sitting on top of the little mustard smear that mixed well with the flavorful meat. In the back were the little planks of lettuce upon which we spread the tartare before shoving into our mouths.

EL COLMADO
I was excited to have some shaved-by-hand cured piggy, so we started with an order of sliced Serrano ham. Not too salty, very soft and delicious. I expected nothing less in terms of quality when it comes to Chef Seamus Mullen, of The Next Iron Chef fame.

In keeping with the theme from The Cannibal, we doubled down on octopus and lamb items. First is the lamb meatballs. Succulent, juicy, and rich with lamby goodness.

The octopus here was grilled to perfection and served with some vinegary fingerling potatoes. Very nice tasting, and beautifully plated I might add. Needless to say, all memory of terrible octopus from the local Long Island place has been erased. This was superb.

Well – not all memory is erased. We still need to remember that is WAS bad, and that we will never go back there again. Ahh, El Colmado & The Cannibal – you made my day. Two of the finest places I’ve been to in a long time.

So anyway, we finished up at El Colmado with a nice saffron flan for dessert. Perfect texture, and great flavor.

So what’s the moral of this story? GO TO GOTHAM WEST MARKET ASAP!

And if you like burgers, then check out my Genuine Roadside review.

There’s something there for everyone. I snapped a shitload of pics from all over in there – I’ll leave you with that:

GOTHAM WEST MARKET
600 11th Ave.
New York, NY 10036

American, Italian, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Union Square/Flatiron

Corkbuzz Wine Studio

January 20, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’m not quite sure how to handle this write-up for the website. Is it a review, or commentary? Corkbuzz isn’t a steakhouse, and this meal is kind of a “limited time offer,” so I am going to go with commentary, and not give it a full steakhouse review.

Corkbuzz is a unique place in the food world. Primarily it is a wine bar and wine-centric restaurant, but it is also a home-base for wine education, according to their website. As you all may know, I am generally a martini kind of guy, despite the fact that me, my father, and my grandfather all make/made wine (I’ve even made flavored meads, or honey-based wines). Seriously – and I’m not saying this just because he’s my dad: the best wine I’ve ever tasted was my dad’s pinot noir, which he made from scratch with fresh grapes.

So anyway – a buddy of mine emailed me asking if I knew anything about this place, and if I thought the “Steakhouse Sundays” deal was good. He showed me this page:

$500 for 6 people, including tip, with 4 bottles of wine, Pat LaFrieda rib eye, and sides/apps?!?? Uhh… YES… no brainer, that is a GREAT fucking deal! So I told my wife about it, and we decided that we had to jump on it as well. Check out the results below:

First we sat at the bar and waited for our party to arrive. Nice view, and the cocktails were awesome.

Once seated, they presented the first wine:

And brought us the wedge salad:

And shrimp cocktail (a little pathetic, but whatever…)

Next came the red wines…

Then the sides arrived… Roasted cauliflower, and creamed spinach…

Then the steak with potatoes and onion rings…

And finally a pumpkin bread pudding dessert with ricotta whipped cream…

Here are the wines again, for those who are all about it…

Everything was great. We were all full, but not ridiculously over-stuffed to the point of vomitude. The steak was great. I noted that it was a little under-salted, but the steak sauce (some kind of wine reduction) was plenty salty to inject that back into the meat. The sides were all great – especially the roasted cauliflower. The creamed spinach was a bit too firm for my liking, but it was nice that it wasn’t so overly creamy. The potato item would have been better if it was crispy (was a little soggy), but overall a really great meal. The wine alone was worth the price we paid.