at the sign of The Pink Pig

Delaware & Hudson: Sophisticated Homestyle

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  June 30, 2014]

It's like a little farmstead dining room just showed up around the corner from the midnight circus chaos of the Bedford Avenue L train. You know, the restaurant inside the farm-house, supplied from the fields outside, offering a no-choice--table d'hôte, we used to say--dinner, at a fair price.

I remember one charming dining room like that in south west France, picking its own vegetables and assassinating its own geese. Of course, you can't quite do that here.

Denver: Colt & Gray

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  June 30, 2014]

So here's the last item from my Denver file, dinner at Colt & Gray in the Highlands neighborhood, about five minutes walk from My Brother's Bar--yet nothing could be more unlike the divey atmosphere of that place, or the old west vibe of Buckhorn Exchange.

If anything, the ambience of Colt & Gray is what one increasingly expects to find in American cities today.   A stripped down modern aesthetic, an avowedly nose-to-tail menu, local ingredients, and of course cocktails.

Atelier Again: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  June 30, 2014]

Back from Spain, with my newly acquired red vermouth over ice habit, I took it easy in the last week or so of June, ten years ago. But not so easy that I didn't enjoy a few memorable restaurant meals.

Hard on the heels of my dinner at La Broche in Madrid, chef Gabriel Kreuther at Atelier still managed to impress.

The Mediterranean Comes To Midtown: Da Marcella

[Free Stuff by Wilfrid:  June 23, 2014]

This, surely, is not promising.  An almost unmarked doorway on 51st Street, stairs leading down to a basement restaurant; somebody offering menus at the top of the stairs. A step from Rockefeller Plaza and Radio City Musical Hall, a few doors from Johnny Utah's.

I mean, could this really be good? This is a place which would likely never have been on my list to visit.  And I'd have missed out.

Denver: The Ol' Buckhorn Exchange

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  June 23, 2014]

I have always been--always will be--a sucker for old restaurants and bars. Rules, Sobrino de Botín, McSorley's, Antoine's, Café Procope; I can't help myself.

 

So I was bound to head for the Buckhorn Exchange at some point, established 1893 by Henry H. "Shorty Scout" Zietz--one of Buffalo Cody's sidekicks--and holder of the State of Colorado's first liquor license.

La Broche: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  June 23, 2014]

The long haul back to Madrid, from Granada, by train, gave me time to finish Tom Jones, and to get ready for the trophy dinner of the trip at Serge Arola's La Broche, a Michelin two star at the time.

I spent the day warming up by trekking around the Centro D'Arte Reina Sofia (simply, Madrid's modern art museum), skirting the crowds gawking at "Guernica" in favor of the terrific pictures--or wall sculptures, really--by Antoni Tàpies and Lucio Muñoz ("Sequeros").

Denver: Green Chili & Burgers

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  June 17, 2014]

I had to ask around to find out what the local fast food or casual dining specialty was for Denver. Most places have something--and it turned out to be green chili. As befits a cattle cross-roads, Denver prides itself on its burgers too.

Now, I may have eaten green chili--possibly as an ingredient or sauce--but if I have I don't remember it; so I looked up some recommended vendors.

In Granada: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  June 18, 2014]

Granada is a long way from Barcelona, not just geographically, but culturally--in look and feel. And unlike Barcelona, it really does shut down in the afternoons. But it's a glorious place to visit.

I filled the train ride with Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's Buenos Aires Quintet-- short stories featuring the private eye and gastronome, Pepe Carvalho; and filled my stomach with a thick slice of hare pie I'd picked up from Lhardy, the 175 year old restaurant and--well, whatever the Spanish for traiteur is.

Get Into Denver, Baby

[A Pig at Large by Wilfrid: June 17, 2014]

What was I doing in Denver? Well, any city I haven't visited before is potentially interesting, unless and until it demonstrates otherwise--but specifically, I was there to visit the Clyfford Still Museum.

 

I'd been promising myself that treat since the museum was completed in 2011.  I have been under Still's spell since visiting a staggering retrospective at the Hirschhorn in 2001. I'd long been aware that the Hirschhorn show had barely scratched the surface of his achievement.

Quick Bites: GRK Without Vowels

[Pigging by Wilfrid: June 17, 2014]

Never mind dirty water hot dogs. Some of us have shabby memories of gyros too--sold from street carts to lines of over-refreshed youngsters, or slung on paper plates--if you're lucky--at a joint like Bereket on East Houston. Re-fueling food.

Of course, it doesn't have to be that way, and GRK Fresh Greek--set to be a small chain--is at least turning the food out in an appealing environment.