at the sign of The Pink Pig

All'onda: Making Gentle Waves

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 31, 2014]

As it happens, my meals at All'onda straddled Pete Wells' review in the Times. I won't be reading Well's review until I've finished writing this, but I couldn't miss the cute headline.

"A Gondola Bobbing Towards Japan"--a reference to the restaurant's name: "wavy."

But to the extent it leads you to expect Venetian-Japanese fusion, misleading. All'onda has Asian accents here and there, but it's heart lies in neat, restrained, Northern Italian cooking. And rightly or wrongly, I use "Northern" as a tag to indicate that red sauce is not the deal here.

Rosenthal At Alias, Il Buco: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  March 31, 2014]

How things change.  Alias on Clinton Street: now closed. Josh DeChellis running through a series of high profile openings (and closings). Il Buco, the antique-shoppy trattoria on Bond Street overshadowed by its three star sibling, Il Buco V&A.

Back in 2004, it was all different. My week started with a special wine dinner at Alias, then one of the few restaurants of even passing interest on the Lower East Side.

Burgers At Prince St Café, Smokey Burger

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 24, 2014]

Some eating is random.  You're wandering around town, you're hungry, and you see some place you haven't tried before, and haven't actually heard anything bad about.

Which is how come we're talking about two non-famous burgers this week. By which I mean, of course, that I personally haven't noticed them showing up on a Top 10 burger list anywhere.

BLT Steak And Prune: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  March 24, 2014]

Still under the weather, back in March 2004, at least one day was given over to chicken soup (plus a washed rind cheese called Fournols, with some slices of marbled rye).

But I made it to a couple of restaurants somehow: the original BLT, and the tiny Prune.

Quick Bites: Happy Hour At Bar Eolo

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 19, 2014]

Twice recently I've found myself on Seventh Avenue, early evening, on my way somewhere but with time to kill. The bar at Bar Eolo can be a pleasant place to kill it.

Bar Eolo bills itself as a Sicilian kitchen and wine bar, and indeed there are plenty of Sicilian wines on the list--not just Italian varietals either, but sections of Syrah and Cabernet "from Sicily."

Chez Jef Pops Up On The Bowery

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 17, 2014]

Ah, the bloody Bowery, boulevard of ill repute.  Or not so much these days, what with the fancy office buildings and hotels--and, of course, the New Museum, to which the self-consciously retro Bowery Diner was adjacent.

Until owner/chef Mathieu "Motorino" Palombino decided to reinvent the place as "a very different restaurant" some time in the Spring. In the meantime, and with Spring still hiding behind a cold front, up popped Chez Jef.

Fritzl's Amazing Octopus

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 12, 2014]

As I've said before, sometimes I don't eat to write.  Sometimes I just eat, and write about it anyway. After all, I've praised Fritzl's Lunch Box often enough here. But it's on my rotation, and the menu constantly changes. So why not share?

 

That's important for a neighborhood joint, of course.  Keep the mainstays--the burger, the chicken sandwich--but tweak around the edges to keep people coming back.  And so, pork ribs--new to the menu, and an audibled special, octopus. Is this the best octopus I've ever eaten?

Snails, Frog Legs, Vins Supérieurs: Sel Et Poivre

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 10, 2014]

No matter how many of New York's bijou traditional bistrots one eats at, one never seems to exhaust the supply. Lucien, Demarchelier, Chez Jacques, La Mangeoire--the list is still endless, the quality variable.

It's pleasing--especially to someone who never tires of the cuisine bourgeois--to find the genre executed with skill and style, as it is at the 25 year veteran on Lex, Sel et Poivre.

After the jump: there's a game festival starting today.

Le Bernardin, Fleur De Sel: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  March 10, 2014]

It was birthday week ten years ago, which must have been the excuse for lunch at Le Bernardin, followed by dinner at Fleur de Sel, all on the same day. It's also ten years since Mouthfulsfood opened for business, with a review of the former meal.

Well, that saves me rewriting it...

Stomping At The Cecil

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 5, 2014]

Things done changed, as the bard said. Certainly they have around the part of Harlem where Saint Nicholas Avenue crossed Adam Clayton Powell Jr and Frederick Douglass Boulevards.

No more than twelve years ago, the neighborhood was ghostly by day and night; shops had names scrawled on cardboard sheets taped to the windows. These days, it's stomping again. Practically.