at the sign of The Pink Pig

Terroir And The East Village Wine Bar Boom

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 31, 2008] That's some nice acorn-fed pig right there. We'll be coming back to that.

First, however, let me direct your attention once again to the set text for this season: In Vino Denaro, or loosely "in wine bars, spondulicks."

EV Special: Quick Bites At Seymour B., Belcourt and Back Forty

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 24, 2008]

Seriously Seymour is still packing 'em in.  Who can resist a tangle like this.

Aioli, ketchup, some spreadable oily white bean stuff off to the side, a burger lurking in the background.  It's relentless cheerful.  And East Village residents should be cheerful too: what with Terroir, Belcourt, Back Forty, Seymour Burton, one hardly needs to leave the neighborhood for dinner.

Scroll down for re-runs of Back Forty and Belcourt.

An Ordinary Sunday: Sondheim's Seurat At Studio 54

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid: March 31, 2008]

I am not only an enthusiast for Seurat's art, as already disclosed; I am also a avid scholar of Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, at once perhaps his greatest and most problematic work.  So rather than just say, nice show, go and see it which you should - it's Sunday, after all, on Broadway - you will have to bear with me while I scratch my head over aspects of this interpretation.

The Minnesota Bit (Again): Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: March 31, 2008]

Take the rough with the smooth.  A diary of what I did and ate ten years ago must follow a pre-ordained path.  If it's back to St Paul, Minnesota, and god knows how many dinners at the St Paul Grill, so be it.

Eating Eighty One

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 24, 2008]

As the weeks go by, consequences of Frank Bruni's three star review of the Upper West Side's Dovetail continue to become apparent.

As I mentioned in my recent review of that restaurant, the Times star rating threw something of a shadow over some interesting, cheerful dishes...

French Dining At The Met

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 24, 2008]

To mark the twin Poussin and Courbet shows, the Trustees Dining Room at the Met boasted the opportunity to eat a tasting menu of traditional French cuisine.

I was nosy anyway about the room and its park view, so I thought it would make a break from reviewing new openings - places people might actually choose to visit.

Poussin And Courbet: French Blockbusters At The Met

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid: March 24, 2008]

Poet's House: Continuing Programs

First, just a reminder that the estimable institution known as Poet's House, homeless pending the opening of its new premises in Battery Park City later this year, continues to stage its programs at various venues around the city: details.

Last week I found them squatting in the basement of the Jersey Street branch of the NYPL in SoHo. 

Scroll down for the Met shows...

Obama, The Press, And The Bohemians (Two Different Stories)

[The Cunning Tower by Wilfrid: March 24, 2008]

This damn election isn't close to over yet, is it?

Scroll down for the supposed original Bohemians (NYRB)...

Luscious Lespinasse: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: March 24, 2008]

I suppose the best way to understand this week's entry is that ten years ago I was single, and I had a very welcome visitor staying with me.  She deserved nothing less than Lespinasse, then probably the most expensive restaurant in Manhattan.

Did It Stone Me? Blue Hills SB At Last

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 17, 2008]

Henri Soulé, famed proprietor of Le Pavillon, thought that "all the fancy international crowd would follow him if he moved to the Hamptons, and he was right."

Thus Craig Claibourne on Soulé's "very fancy, very elegant" L.I. outpost, The Hedges.

(Why thirteen nails in the block of wood?  In case they need to serve carrots for a table of thirteen?)