[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: February 14, 2014]
How things have changed. The East Village--and increasingly the LES around Orchard Street--is now a hot bed of hgih profile and increasingly swanky restaurant openings. The Momofuku empire, Contra, Alex Stupak's modern Mexican projects, and any number of hipsterly focused single product joins (biscuits, nuggets, beef sandwiches, pigs-in-blankets); and the distinctly mid-townish feel of restaurants around the upper Bowery like DBGB and L'Apicio.
It wasn't always this way. A decade ago, we were on the cusp of the explosion.
Marco Canora had just shocked people--he really had, I remember it well--by bringing his skills from Craft to a corner joint on First Avenue. David Chang was working on opening a noodle bar. I started my week, in February 2004, with a brunch at one of the little restaurants clustered at the top of Clinton Street, Chibu. Serving an ambitious fusion tasting menu in the evening, Chibu's brunch/lunch was all about bento boxes. I ate sushi rolls, some tofu with spicy sauce, tempura vegetables, sweet potato hash, and orzo with turmeric.
After drinks at DBA, an evening or two later, dinner with food forum experts at Hearth. Everyone had liked Craft under Marco Canora's direction, and this dinner featured one of the great charcuterie dishes he'd created there, the rabbit ballotine. I went on to beef two ways--roast sirloin and braised short ribs, served with a sort of prune mash. Cheeses to finish. Hearth celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2013: a deserved success, and a fertile source or the pack of sibling Terroirs delighting various neighborhoods.
Heartier fare later that week at Pylos, another doughty survivor. This modern take on a traditional Greek taverna seems to have been solidly full since it opened in 2003. I'd have eaten there more often, if I'd been able to get through the door. On this occasion, the meal featured dolmades; meatballs; huge, smoothly textured beans with honey and dill; a squid,shrimp, and scallop salad; pastourma with cheese, clay-baked lamb, roast lamb, roast eggplant, a whole grilled snapper, and Greek fried potatoes. I infer from the menu that I was eating with a bunch of food-fanciers again.
Finally, Kasadela, the charming little sake and snack bar off Avenue C, so tragically lost to Hurricane Sandy. With wooden boxes of the rice liquor: burdock salad; grilled spinach; shiitake tempura garnished with salt and dried seaweed powder; skewered chicken skins; broiled eggplant; and savory, salty smelts stuffed with their own roe.
A good week of eating: before the scene went crazy.
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