Had a bit of a work trip this past week that took me to the bright lights of New York City. Being a country mouse I can barely manage you know! It was a pretty fun time though and we did get some pretty solid business done. My highlight was walking into the ladies room at JFK, that was kind of weird. The great thing about NYC is the culinary options that we just do not have in VT. Sure we have great produce and some interesting things going on here but there are just some things you need to travel to the city for. Night one we hit up the Striphouse in midtown. It is a pretty cool steak joint w/ old school (60's) naked ladies on the walls. The service is spot on. Spot on. They are friendly, knowledgeable, and take care of every detail. We had a bunch of appetizers high lighted by the beef jerky which had a ton of flavor and was actually quite tender and the duck fat roasted potatoes which were... well, shit... they were roasted in duck fat! For the main course I went a little pedestrian w/ the 12oz. fillet but I really was not in the mood for meat sweats. As is the wine (which was very good) gave me a pretty serious hang over. 1 3/4 thumbs up. Fun place, and very good food.
I feel a little bad because my hang over kept me from really enjoying Nobu Nextdoor the next day. It was pretty good but I was a little iffy. The black cod was great and the yellowtail tuna with jalapenos was off the hook. There was a beef carpaccio that was also very good. The sushi itself was good, actually not great? I mean, don't get me wrong, it was better than the crap we get in Burlington, but nothing mind blowing. I have an incomplete rating, user error!
Dinner Thursday night was at a hip joint L'Esquina downtown. You go into a tiny dirty diner and give your name to the weird guy at a back door w/ a walkie talkie. If you are on the list, you get to go into the basement! I was not sure what our reservation was under so it took me 3 names to pass muster. The guy held the list closer than Obama's nuclear codes. Once inside you go downstairs and through the kitchen (where you are warmly greeted by the kitchen staff) and into a dark vault looking dining area and bar. It is a really cool space. One concern is that there are "fire" bucket of water hanging from the ceiling. It has "incident" written all over it. We got there and sat at the bar which has about 250 tequilas on hand. Only one way to get rid of my hangover... drink it to death! I had a tequila and coke drink which was a bit odd. One funny thing is that the the bar quickly filled w/ over dressed model wanna-be's and ultra New York cool guys, aka douche-bags. After a little wait we sat down at a pretty cramped table. Our waitress was pretty butch and was definitely in charge. She got us sorted out quickly. Drinks flowed and the food came out in a great progression. It was pretty good, again not great. I thought the ribs were solid and I really liked the chile releno which featured the biggest pepper I have ever seen. It looked like one of those frogs in the amazon smothered in cheese and rice! The different empanadas were also pretty good and the pulled chicken taco was solid. Great vibe, great service, good drinks, good food. It was fun, 1 1/2 thumbs up... 2+ if it were in VT. I grade on a sliding scale, when she is made my wife says that about me too.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!!!
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