weinoo

for that amount of money, I want to be touched in the right places; I want to be made to squeal.  this boy loves to squeal.

I can advise you where to go for that. But...you'll probably still want a pizza afterwards.

Or, you could move it to NY  .

Old or not, it's still news, and really points out how the whole practice of tipping sucks - workers in restaurants should be paid a living wage as well as be paid for all the hours they work.

B & B's restaurants and other ventures bring in 100's of millions every year.

This is a pretty old story, no?

It's very good for that style of dining, if a tad overpriced.

For instance -- $14 cocktails, $22 for a mille-feuille made with candy-coated popcorn and $15 for approx. 2-3 tablespoons of intensely flavored steak tartare.  If you're going to have the audacity to charge that amount of money, you may want to create value perceived for money spent particularly if your customers are discerning or knowledgeable.

What's interesting about this post is that all of the knowledgable food people I know perceive it (or perceived it) as a great value for the money spent.

I used to live on E. 76th St., basically a 2 minute walk from Melon's.  Home to mayors and other assorted politicos, actors, singers, artists, comics and anyone else who wants a really great burger at a reasonable (these days) price.  We still head uptown occasionally for the burger or on our way back from the Met.

It's one of my top 5 burgers in Manhattan. The cottage fries ain't bad, either.

But don't forget the real first one, Papaya King.

Ciders all the rage and we've loved it for years.

Joe - if you get a chance, there're some great ciders being produced in the Hudson River Valley as well.

Bad Seed Ciders are my fave...great variety.

They also have a nice cider selection.

To buy something and open it in the store is an extra $2.

When you're hungry afterwards, walk a block south to Cafe Katja.  Great German/Austrian beers on tap, each seved properly in its glass. Also, a fine, reasonably priced selection of Austrian/German/Hungarian wines by the glass. And great sausages, etc.

One of my favorite bartenders, Xavier Herit (who spent 7 years behind the stick at Daniel and many shifts at ECC)  will be opening a new, neighborhood-y place this fall in the West Village - aka Greenwich Village.  To be called Wallflower, and there'll be some French food as well.  Really looking forward to this.

The Elm has been open a few months, and the reviews have been mostly ecstatic.  Brilliant, modern French food, at incomparable prices.

Liebrandt, NYC's enfant terrible, certainly knows his way around a kitchen.  He owns Michelin and NY Times' stars, and was the chef at Corton for 5 years and prior to that was at Gilt, also earning accolades.

I liked my first visit, where I was sharing and passing plates with 3 other diners.  But I really like my second visit, with just my wife; I got to eat more of the things I really wanted to.

Go - ASAP - who knows how long he'll be in the kitchen here?

Yep =- only NYC location is closed.  Lease expired.

Katz's just celebrated its 125th bday.  Someone else please do the math.

Painkiller on the Lower East Side is an excellent, excellent, tiki dive bar.

Now closed.

Man, I really slow down in the summer...

August - It's Global Cooling

Damn.   That family business,which started with immigrants including my grandfather and some of his relatives was located on Grand Street.  It lasted for decades.   I was there a lot in my teens and 20's and got to dine in Little Italy and Chinatown a lot, along with the neighborhood delis.

But that was decades ago.

How sad.   Now a tourist trap.   Too bad.  Of course if you can get a knock off roll-exe that looks great and works for a long time....hey that is damn good!!!!!

If there are still good bakeries or delis there, though that is a plus!!!!

There are indeed.

I'm sure it was quite a quiet, romantic dinner at Lafayette.

And yeah, don't make 3 reservations. That sucks.

It is possible, however, to buy good product; for instance, I find it hard to top the Italian cheeses and other stuff they sell at DiPalo's.  There's also Alleva Dairy, right down the block. And sometimes I'll sneak around to Parisi Bakery (on Mott, in what used to also be Little Italy), and buy a loaf or two of real old-time NYC Italian bread for $2.50 - not too crusty and nice and soft in the middle.  Perfect for the reasonably priced sandwiches they also sell.

The downside, for now and the next few years at least, is that Grand St. is torn up like nobody's business, as the water and sewer lines are being replaced.  It's a mess.

And for $10, those Roll-exes can't be beat.

I really don't know how many times it's been said, but don't eat in Little Italy. Anywhere.

Has anyone tried the tasting menu yet?

Wednesday night - looking forward to it.

Different than WD-50. Initially, I think that scared people away. I've sat next to many people who were surprised at how much they've liked the food.

And there's a shave ice machine at the bar - fun times in this oppressive summer.

The bar can put out some good cocktails, too.

The Yelpers have, well...yelped. The "pro" reviews (are there any of those left?) will no doubt be in shortly. No one waits for a restaurant to get its sea legs any more, do they? Especially when a good chef opens what will undoubtedly be a hot spot - you gotta go. And go we did, Significant Eater and me, to Kapnos, chef/owner Mike Isabella's new ode to Greece on 14th St. NW.

Of course, Mike didn't open Kapnos by himself; George Pagonis is the chef de cuisine; Nicholas Pagonis is the GM; Taha Ismail is the beverage director of both Kapnos and Graffiato, another Isabella restaurant in the District. Maybe these guys are even partners - who knows? Another little point of interest before I get to the important stuff: everyone mentioned above falls not far from the Andrés' family tree. They all get to wet their beak a little bit, if you know what I mean.

The first time I tasted Mike's food was at Zaytinya, soon after Significant Eater got her job in DC - and we liked everything about the place. Well, guess what? On our first visit, we liked Kapnos even more.

For starters, the restaurant had only been open for 12 days, but everyone from the hostess to the bartenders to the waitstaff was on their game. That's nice to see. And I did start at the bar, arriving early and grabbing one of the few empty seats...cocktails are fairly priced (for now) at $12, with extremely cutesy names like my Keebler Elf, a Plymouth gin/cointreau/Cocchi American concoction in an ouzo rinsed glass, that hit the spot on an extremely warm day.

Once at table, what's better to start with than taramasolata, along with fresh from the oven flatbread?

The tarama was nice and creamy, topped with a healthy dollop of caviar...

That didn't last long, as we were eager to dig into these earthy and tender stewed gigandes beans...

There's a daily "classic," and we couldn't pass it up. Keftedes, fried zucchini fritters, showed off the kitchen's fine frying technique, plain and simple...

At one point, I think the table next to us was wondering how the two of us were eating all this food. But we'd only just begun, and even though we're not huge octopus fans (too many blah octopus dishes over the years, I guess), we had to try Kapnos' version. We weren't disappointed, as this was probably the best we'd had in years, all smoky from the grill and served with "green harissa" and eggplant...

No stopping us now, especially once I saw Royal Red Shrimp (a sweet, tender, deepwater shrimp) on the menu. And expertly poached lobster, served over hilopites (an egg/milk pasta, cut into small squares) with mizithra (a fresh sheep's cheese). Both of these disappeared (or at least had a bite taken out of them) before I could snap a picture.

Wanting and needing (really?) some meat, we finished our savories with the marinated spring lamb, spit-roasted and served over "ancient grains." At first bite I thought the dish needed salt, but when all mixed up, it tasted just fine...

The Chocolate Mousse cake with mastic ice cream, was a nice finish to this meal, the chocolate's bitterness cut by the not too sweet ice cream...

Yes, we ate too much. After all, it's a brand new restaurant. Sig Eater and I don't get to go out that often together in DC (she even waved to Isabella in the kitchen, which kinda made her night). And I have a feeling that the next time I'm down in the district, we're going to be heading right back to Kapnos - there's a lot more on this menu that we want to try. And if Mike's not cooking the most exciting food in DC right now, I want to know - who is?

Next time we plan on bringing two hungry friends and demolishing that whole lamb shoulder the fellows a few stools over had ordered. It looked amazing.

I seem to remember a whole lamb shoulder being demolished by two hungry friends, Sig Eater and me quite a few years back at Zaytinya - Isabella was manning the grill.

I'm looking forward to dinner here this week.

If you haven't tried the burger at Dino, you should. I've only had it once, but I thought it was fantastic. I didn't want to bias the hamburger contest, but I'll say it here: what I had was Top 5 material.

As I mentioned in the Hamburger thread:

I like Dino's the most.

A couple of additional visits - the food and cocktails continue to impress. I'll stick with my initial assessment that it's the best opening of the year.

And it also, for a fine cocktail place that serves food, serves the best food you might eat in a bar (I mean, there's 11 Mad Park and the Nomad and a few others, but this is almost bar food). For instance, a new item on the menu is fish and chips. Perfectly fried fish with a ramp and sweet pea tartar sauce and malt vinegar powder. Simple bar food, right?