at the sign of The Pink Pig

Tuome (What Shang Should've Been)

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 25, 2014]

The east East Village has been having a dining moment this summer. Okay, let me translate. The "east East Village" is what used to be called Alphabet City--and who calls it that any more?

And the whole neighborhood used to be called the Lower East Side, of course. But these days, demographic shifts and real estate interests have extended the "East Village" moniker all the way out to Avenue D.

Lazy August Days: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  August 25, 2014]

One thing I can pretty much guarantee about August 2004 is that it was warmer than August 2014.

My main occupations were cultural, and I can hardly believe these things happened ten years ago.  A bit of eating along the way.

Quick Bites: The Burger Joint

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 20, 2014]

Yes, there was intelligent life B.S.S.  There were some very plausible burgers too, even if the mound of fatty meat scraped from the eye-level griddle at Corner Bistro now seems...well, so primitive.

B.S.S.?  Oh, Before Shake Shack.  The Shack celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, but the Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridian sprang into life behind its heavy, secluding curtain back in 2002.  Eater has a very good video about the first ten years here.

Lunch At Le Bernardin: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  August 20, 2014]

The truth is, writing about my first dinner at Per Se, and another meal at WD-50, last week, I forgot to mention lunch at Le Bernardin.

It's one of those midtown restaurants which is better in day-time--beautifully lit, sleek, peaceful.  And less expensive at lunch than dinner.

Sea To Table At Mystic's Oyster Club

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 11, 2014]

A short trip to Mystic, Connecticut, recently, the see the re-created old whaling port, and the whimsical Olde Mystick Village--where you can buy everything from year-round Christmas ornaments to Swedish cod roe pâté in a tube (I did), and really to get out of town for a spell.

There are plenty of clam shacks, and Mexican-Italian-sports bar joints, but Oyster Club jumped out of me as a dinner destination. The website says all the right things about local, seasonal produce, and the setting was a charming old clapboard house on downtown Water Street.

Quick Bites: The Steak Loft, Mystic

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 11, 2014]

Hearty lunch after examining the gift shops in Olde Mystick Village. 

Sliced steak sandwich, cheddar. Seemed a reasonable lunch order in a place called the Steak Loft.

The Cheese: Quadrello, Nebbiolo

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 11, 2014]

If you think some ripe Quadrello di Bufala would go well with a predominantly Nebbiolo blend from Lessona in northern Piedmont...well, what did you expect to win?

Massimo Clerico's Costa della Sesia Rosso “Ca’ du Leria”--imported by Rosenthal; you can find it for $18.99.

Per Se And The Finn Brothers: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  August 11, 2014]

That was a week I could happily re-live. Which was the highlight? My first visit to Per Se, opened in February that year, or my first chance to see Tim and Neil Finn live in concert?

Well, I'm a music lover.  Not that Per Se wasn't memorable too.

TONY And The Burger Squeeze (+ Dram Shop)

[Pigging by Wilfrid: August 4, 2014]

It's that time again. Time Out New York--TONY to its friends--has announced the finalists in the 2014 Battle of the Burger. I don't know how long TONY has been running its annual best burger contest, but the nature of the contest has certainly changed over the years.

 

There was a time--ten to fifteen years ago?--when honors were disputed among the few independent makers of credible, bar-style burgers: Corner Bistro, Molly's Shebeen, J.G. Melon. No longer: in fact, the excitement is generated by two opposed and contrary categories which are steadily putting the squeeze on an old-fashioned thick beef patty, with melted cheese in a bun.

Quick Bites: McNally's Cherche Midi

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 4, 2014]

Cherchez le sel?  But it's here, it's there, it's everywhere.  Or at least it was on my first--and so far, last--visit to Keith McNally's new bistro, Cherche Midi, in what was previously his trattoria Pulino's on the busy corner of Bowery and East Houston.

It wasn't supposed to be my last visit. I booked a table easily enough in the early days of Cherche Midi opening, but it quickly reverted to the default reservation pattern familiar from Minetta Tavern (and I guess from Balthazar--although I haven't been there for dinner in many years).