on NY1 8:00While I know I can’t be alone in the universe but I am often among my friends when I declare my absolute love of local news.
With Pat Kiernan on our side we have some of the best on NY1 so of course I’ll be spending tonight, watching their coverage of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. PS Roger Clark just tweeted that his pants are tight !
19 Commerce StThe aptly named West Village bakery Milk and Cookies offers a variety of the home made goodies to sample. Jim brought home half a dozen for a dinner night with friends.
Of the bunch I was partial to the snickerdoodle – which was wonderfully thick and soft – just the way I like sugar cookies to be (but they are so often hard and thin!).
Also of note was the salty oatmeal. The chocolate chip and peanut butter were good too, but rank somewhere in the middle city wide (City Bakery and Momofuku are tough competition).
Jim praises their helpful and friendly staff. I’d love to try their dry cookie mixes some day soon.
Various LocationsJim and his co-wokers lucked out when they discovered the Korilla mobile Korean BBQ truck outside their office one afternoon.
The line moved rapidly and everyone opted for bowls (there are also tacos and burritos on the menu), but I guess when you’re used to eating at least one Chipotle burrito bowl per week, tacos and burritos just don’t do it any more…
Jim got the spicy pork with the bacon fried kimchi rice (his workers unilaterally went for beef), kimchi slaw salsa, cheese, vegetables and the smoky/mayonnaise Korilla sauce. It must have been pretty good, because he ate all of it (which is surprising, considering it included a healthy dose of vegetables) in about 10 minutes.
278 Bleecker StDon’t get me wrong, I am a fervent lover of the high end pizza craze that’s given us the likes of Fornino, L’asso and Paulie Gee’s but lately – let’s just blame pregnancy hormones like I do for everything else – I’ve been craving the classic, greasy, thin crust type that one can count on finding in nearly any NYC neighborhood.
John’s Pizzeria of Bleecker Street fit the bill perfectly. One of many that claim to be famous and considered the ultimate in classic New York Style pizza, it’s probably the only one that has Louie Anderson on its wall (when I saw that in our booth, I knew things were going to be great) and has its praises sung by pizza connoisseur, Vanilla Ice (“Keep makin the ‘dope’ pizza”).
The ambiance is wood paneled family style perfection and the serve one really, really satisfying pie – just greasy enough, with the perfect balance of sauce to cheese and a slightly charred but never crunchy crust. There are no slices here, just full pies, so bring your appetite like we did when we split a medium – half sausage for Jim, half anchovy for me. Such an excellent way to indulge on a budget when you are ravenous. Plus, you don’t have to compromise on toppings.
424 W 43rd St and 295 Greenwich St.Our weekly Dungeons and Dragons games allow for lots of sharing of treats and recently our friend Joey brought along a wonderfully gooey Mississippi Mud Pie creation from the Little Pie Company, which has two locations in Manhattan. Made from scratch with fresh ingredients the pie makers have been in business since 1985, no small feat for any business, let alone a specialty store in the city but with pies this good, it’s little wonder they’ve become a new classic. I’ve also heard that end of the day, they offer discounts on their unsold goodies.
I will not resist the urge to spout a local newsworthy quip that the Little Pie Company is big on taste.
My brother-in-law was unable to find my sister’s favorite cake for her birthday (black forest), so he did the next best thing: he bought his own favorite cake. Fortunately, my family all agreed that he’s got pretty good taste: this fluffy coconut vanilla from Magnolia is pretty amazing. The frosting has that wondrous meringue, marshmallowy consistency and looks like a sugar cloud dream. It’s even worth braving the Sex and the City tours to pick one up.
Click here for the rest of Magnolia Coconut Cake
Can you fault a place for its douchey clientele? Not when it's The Rusty Knot, which serves such a delightful menu. There are few places that offer so many of my favorite things: spicy beer (cerveza Cubana, their refreshing and flavorful take on the michelada) and sides of pickles and oysters; even in a sea of pleated khakis, halter tops and going-out-pants, we had a great time.
The interior is tight with only a few coveted tables (one of which we hogged for hours) and a stupidly large pool table taking up most of the largest room. The theme is big-time nautical with a Polynesian twist, expect Tiki cups and lots of wood paneling; the drinks are cheap (regular beers start at 99 cents) and the general mood is low key, but any sense of divey-ness is carefully fabricated – the gentlemen behind the popular hangout come from Freeman's, Milk and Honey, The Spotted Pig, and Momofuku; a group well versed in what's hip and how to convey it without seeming to try too hard.
It's a skill that's made them very rich I'm sure, and I don't mind adding to their coffers when they're serving such yummy snacks and drinks – but next time I'll make a wiser decision than to go so close to the meatpacking district on a Saturday evening.
The Adore deserves it's name because:
a. the space – with natural wood and giant airy windows is adorable, and
b. as it was packed even after peak lunch hours, it seems to be universally adored by those who know about it. And it's little wonder with their large selection of fresh sandwiches, salads and soups at comparatively reasonable prices.
I was taken with the inclusion of a warm anchovy sandwich – simple and yummy like everything we tried, that I paired with a potato leek soup. Unlike most creamy, heavy versions, this one is with a clear broth that's salty but not too much and chock full of chopped up fresh veggies. Fresh and home made really were the words for the day. Shaun's mustard dressing was also not heavy, but clearly made from scratch with ground up mustard seeds.
We sat upstairs where views of green trees outside add to the strikingly pleasant atmosphere. Even though it's fairly square in the middle of NYU and Union Square bustle, once you're inside you feel transported. Where exactly to is up in the air. The place is Japanese owned and run, (and therefore has rules that drive some Americans crazy if you read all the yelp and menu pages complaints) but they serve solid French sandwiches in a farm house/ loft setting. Truly a gem to anyone that discovers it and if you're in a rush, they have pastries and coffee to go downstairs but you'd miss out on the peace the inside offers.
While you will not get your drink especially quickly, Think just might make the area's best tasting lattes and, more importantly, the company is both socially and environmentally conscious.
From New York Magazine:
Think brews only Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown java; the hormone-free milk comes from small farms in the Hudson Valley; and twenty-five percent of profits are donated to local charities.
With Spring being a wet, gray joke of a season thus far, we New Yorkers tend to go ape any day the weather even remotely resembles the traditional Springtime sunshine and blooming flowers of our collective fantasies. On a recent bizarro 60 degree afternoon, nestled between days with lows in the 20s, I decided to pretend that Spring had finally arrived in earnest and headed over to Red Mango for some frozen yogurt.
To be honest, I can't tell much of a difference between their green tea flavor and that of their competitors, and a scoop is always costs more than I expect, but I was thrilled with the option of adding a little scoop of that great sugary cereal, Cap'n Crunch (though no crunch berries, sadly) to the mix. The combo was surprisingly delicious and I couldn't have felt any happier as I walked down the street with the yogurt slowly melting in my hands.