1648 2nd Avenue

As you’ll soon read on this week’s website pick, Bier Hall Crawl, my dear friend Mike has taken on the challenge of eating in every German beer hall in the five boroughs. This little endeavor means all sorts of schnitzel and pretzels for me! We began with a reservation at the seventy four year old Yorkville stalwart, Heidelberg, where the beer flows freely (and sometimes in giant glass boots) and the staff dons traditional costumes.

The menu is full of traditional dishes including Schnitzel a la Holstein – which my favorite way to take a schnitzel: with a fried egg, anchovies, and capers. It was the most impressive looking dish of the night (as you can see from the photo) and it was delicious despite the egg being far too set for my taste.

I got try a less familiar German favorite (and one that my friend Astrid enjoyed as a kid with her Oompah in Austria), Liver Dumpling Soup, a belly warming treat that I doubt can be found in many restaurants today. The dumplings are essentially like a matzo ball, but with veal.

Friends enjoyed bratwurst, meatballs in mustard sauce, and fluffy giant potato pancakes. How we managed dessert is almost beyond me, but I really wouldn’t pass on the refreshing Rote Gruetze, a raspberry, cherry, strawberry compote with vanilla sauce.

If you are extra lucky, Werner will play you a tune or two on his polka-ready accordion. Great place for a group.

Click here for the rest of Heidelberg

See more: Restaurants German Upper East Side

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Posted on January 31, 2010

9 Doyers Street

Like any good new wave speakeasy, Apotheke is hidden behind a nondescript old Chinatown storefront, down a small windy road (Doyers, one of my favorite streets in the city) and you’d never know it was there unless you were in the know.

Apotheke means pharmacy or drugstore, or a place for the art, practice or profession of preparing, preserving, compounding, and dispensing medical herbs, elixirs or potions. The team and theme here is appropriately medical and the staff plays along with lab coats and a menu that reads like old-timey makeshift healing elixirs.

The space is dark and snugly, but a bit on the contemporary side of its roots as an opium den. The walls are beautifully scruffy brick, the couches look plucked from a Victorian parlor and the bathroom has some quirky copper Fraggle Rock style pipes that are worth taking a look at. But that’s all surface, and none of it matters if the drinks are no good, but whatever it was I ordered (something frothy infused with tea, if I recall) was delicious. Might not be the best place with crowds on a Saturday night but I’d come back for an early drink with ambiance.

See more: Drinks Bars Chinatown Cocktails

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Posted on January 31, 2010

329 Lafayette St.

Eye Candy on Lafayette is a peaceful little treasure trove of accessories and, if you know me, you know how I feel about accessories (I love, I adore, I get chills). I particularly loved, adored and got chills from a fantastic, giant swan/crystal claw ring that I spotted a few months back designed by Brooklynite Bora Yasar. I was out to buy gifts for others at the time, so with all the strength I could muster, left it in its place. But now that my birthday draws near(ish), I went back and the ring was still there – so I simply had to have it.

Now it adorns my finger daily. I also grabbed a pair of wonderfully flat, dangly modernist earrings that I get a lot of use out of – but the shop is full of scores of other little beauties I wouldn’t say no to (like a giant pair of tribal hoop earrings)… but restraint is a virtue, right? A calm Tim Gunnesque man runs the place and can offer you gift certificates for the accessory lovers in your life.

Click here for the rest of Eye Candy

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Posted on January 31, 2010

Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher Sketch Comedy

Rich Fulcher is probably best known as moronic American zoo manager Bob Fossil and Matt Berry can be found starring in a substantial number of my favorite things (Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place and AD/BC as well as the Boosh… he recently appeared in an episode of the Sarah Silverman program which really upset me because I don’t want her sleeping with him!) so you can imagine how excited I was when Mike and Shaun returned from LA with a copy of Snuff Box, a musical comedy series written by and starring Berry and Fulcher.

The two of them are so charming that the combination of Fulcher’s weirdly naive, awkwardly earnest physicality combined with Berry’s haughty impatience and perhaps the best voice in contemporary comedy would be funny even if it were just a string of swear words and farting… which is exactly what Snuff Box happens to kind of be… plus some really dark weirdness.

They play friends – well, maybe not friends exactly… comrades, I suppose – who are members of a gentleman’s club exclusively for hangmen. Episodes of their adventures in the hanging business are interspersed with sketches that are often very funny, but just as often downright odd. The six existing episodes (plus a disc of Berry’s music from the series – which will become lodged in your head for days) are available in a handsome boxed set you’ll want to pick up at Amoeba, if you happen to have an all-region DVD player.

Much to the dismay of the cult show’s devoted fans (myself now included), a second season was never commissioned by BBC. I’ve included some clips and a number of stills after the jump.

Click here for the rest of Snuff Box

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Posted on January 31, 2010

from The Kitchn and Cooking Light

Want to throw a brunch party right? Start with one or both of these crowd pleasing egg and bread dishes. My friend Lindsay served this delicious Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole at a recent birthday brunch while I served this Brie and Egg Strata (successfully substituting french bread for ciabatta). Late morning perfection, both.

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Posted on January 31, 2010