Category

Manhattan

  • Golden Hof

    Golden Hof

    A few weeks ago Deb Perelman, aka Smitten Kitchen, reached out to me and asked if I had any interest in seeing a staged reading of Moonstruck starring Patti Lupone. That’s like asking me, “Would you like to spend several hours in actual heaven?” I immediately said “yes” and then we got to the important…

  • Raoul’s

    Raoul’s

    There’s forced cool and there’s real cool. Raoul’s in SoHo, which has been around for fifty years, is the real deal. I grabbed a five PM reservation yesterday before seeing a show at The SoHo Playhouse, not really knowing much about what to expect except that Raoul’s always shows up on lists of SoHo’s best…

  • Balthazar

    Balthazar

    Not to toot my own horn, but Balthazar — one of the most beloved, important restaurants in New York City — features a quote from me on their Press Page: “At its best, I think it’s New York’s most authentic French bistro, and if you catch it at the right moment you can find yourself…

  • The Burger Joint 2.0

    The Burger Joint 2.0

    One of our favorite New York secrets, back when we lived here in the early aughts, was nestled behind a red velvet curtain in the lobby of The Parker Meridian hotel. If you were going to see a show or a concert at Carnegie Hall, you’d walk through the ornate marble lobby and, against all…

  • Thai Diner

    Thai Diner

    Since I moved back to New York two years ago, there’s one restaurant that comes up again and again as one of the most beloved restaurants in the city and that’s Thai Diner. Located on a highly-trafficked block in the Lower East Side (especially on a Friday night), Thai Diner looks a bit like a…

  • TsuruTonTan

    TsuruTonTan

    Sometimes you need a fast, reasonably priced place to eat in Union Square; sometimes that place serves Udon. On Friday, I met up with my pal Diana at TsuruTonTan on 16th Street at 11:30 AM and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Spoiler alert: the portions are huge! We each ordered the Sukiyaki…

  • Union Square Café

    Union Square Café

    When it comes to New York City restaurant institutions, there are just a few that remain as bright and shiny as they did the day that they opened and Union Square Café is one of them. It’s pretty remarkable that a restaurant that opened in 1985 can still be firing on all cylinders; can be…

  • Carbone

    Carbone

    There’s only one situation in which you’ll want to find yourself at Carbone in Greenwich Village and that’s a situation where someone else is paying. It’s one of the most preposterously expensive menus in New York. $34 for a small Caesar salad. $47 linguine with clams. Shrimp scampi that’s $42 a shrimp. But if you’re…

  • Le Bernardin

    Le Bernardin

    [From the 9/11/23 newsletter] Last night I went with my parents to Le Bernardin, not only one of the city’s great restaurants, but one of the world’s. It’s funny that my parents, who prize value and lack of pretentiousness, like Le Bernardin so much (it’s not only expensive, but very formal) but we all contain…

  • La Mercerie

    La Mercerie

    [From the 9/18/23 newsletter] I met my friend Diana for lunch on Friday at La Mercerie in SoHo, a chic/store restaurant where Ina Garten is said to eat lunch. We sat outside on a perfect fall day and ate daintily and exquisitely, like the ladies that we are. Diana had the quiche (would you believe…