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Bohemian
Secret restaurants are a thing. You hear about them in Europe, in Buenos Aires, in New York. Some are pop ups, some are tucked away in dark alleys or at the back of other establishments. It is the aesthetic of the speakeasy, the private club, the clandestine party, the convocation of spies and secret agents.…
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Crudo Night at Ballarò
Ballarò is a little Italian bistro on 2nd Avenue that is one of my favorite places for a coffee or modest lunch. They have excellent panini, including some breakfast specialties, good well-selected wines, and real Italians behind the counter. So when manager Stefano Sasselli announced that he was hosting a special dinner of crudo –…
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William Barnacle Tavern
You are looking at absinthe just louched at the William Barnacle Tavern in the East Village, an eccentric establishment if ever there was one, owned and run by a descendant of Restoration playwright Thomas Otway and attached to Theatre 80 on St. Mark’s Place. The place was a Prohibition era speakeasy that was actually wired…
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Amor y Amargo
Amor y Amargo popped up a few months ago, just steps from Tompkins Square Park, to become one of the more interesting little bars in New York, specializing in homemade vermouth on tap, bitters and other herbal liqueurs, and a few Spanish tapas. I tried the vermouth (perfect, not too sweet), the francophile flight (it…
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Vandaag
Dutch and Scandinavian are perhaps the two most underrepresented European cuisines in NYC restaurants, and also two of my favorites. So needless to say I have been a few times to Vandaag, a cleanly designed “Northern European” restaurant that has recently arrived in the East Village. The dishes are minimalist but somehow satisfying, equal parts…
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East Village Brunches
In these times, Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the East Village are about the consumption of offbeat re-considerations of traditional brunches. I call your attention to the music paper thin breakfast lasagna at Belcourt, the breakfast pizzas at Grape and Grain, the European twists and turns at The E.U. , the urbanized regional dishes at…
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Bär-bõ-né
The eccentrically punctuated Bär-bõ-né (vaguely evoking its Avenue B location) is ostensibly Italian, and the menu bears out the claim – antipasti, primi, secondi – but there is something unmistakably different about the place. The pasta is a little denser than one is used to, the flavors a little earthier, the presentation paradoxically more stylish.…
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26 Seats
When I first moved to the East Village in New York City, 26 Seats was an okay bistro around the corner with decent but not terribly memorable food or ambiance. I tried it once, was indifferently satisfied, and moved on to other spots. Then I started to hear great things about it, noticed that its…