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[From the 7/26/24 newsletter] On Tuesday night, I went with my friend Daniel to dinner at Theodora — the hot new restaurant from the owners of Miss Ada in Fort Greene. The dish above was a gift from the kitchen because my friend Toby’s brother Misha works there — though Misha wasn’t there that night.…

[From the 9/23/24 newsletter] Let’s talk about our road trip to Hudson. On Thursday, our pal Ryan, who’s celebrating his *redacted* birthday, joined us at our apartment where a Kyte surfer showed up with a Hyundai SUV. I’ve used Kyte a few times now (in Seattle, now here) and it’s great: they deliver your car…

[From the 9/6/24 newsletter] Last night Craig and I finally took advantage of the “Violet Hour” deal at Saint Julivert in our neighborhood. We walk Winston past it all the time and always mean to take advantage of their incredible offer of three half courses for $45 between the hours of 5 and 6. This…

On Wednesday night, we met up with our friend Ryan O’Connell at Café Kestrel in Red Hook. Café Kestrel is such a cozy spot. It was our second time there: I snagged this reservation because they just started Wednesday night service. It was the perfect place to go to commiserate after the trauma of Tuesday…

[From the 12/9/24 newsletter] I feel like I’ve discovered gold in finding a dreamy new Chinese restaurant in the theater district: Sky Pavillion. We went there with our pals Mark and Diana before seeing Audra McDonald in GYPSY (an iconic performance: get your tickets now!). Finding a genuinely good place to eat in the theater…

[From the 1/16/25 newsletter] Last night I had dinner at the bar of Café Mado in Brooklyn which Melissa Clark raved about in The New York Times. The Caesar salad was terrific, as was the Negroni I had with it: It was presented like flowers coming out of a vase, with each piece of romaine…

[From the 1/27/25 newsletter] I just had breakfast with my friend Diana at Gjelina NY, which is soft-opening right now in NoHo. We each had the Moroccan baked eggs and I scorched the roof of my mouth by piling the eggs on the bread and the taking a big bite before realizing how hot they…

[From the 1/30/25 Amateur Gourmet Newsletter] Last night we hit up a brand new restaurant in Red Hook from the brilliant mind behind Agi’s Counter, Jeremy Salamon, called Pitt’s BK with our friends Jeremy and Jason. We immediately soaked in the environment which reminded us of a midwestern chain restaurant like Perkins, but like a…

[From the 2/3/25 Amateur Gourmet Newsletter] For Craig’s big birthday restaurant meal, we went out with our pals Diana, Rob, and Kath to the snazziest New York restaurant — perfect for a birthday: Le Rock in Rockefeller Center. You may recall that I went to Le Rock with my parents and they found it “too…

[From the 2/13/25 Amateur Gourmet Newsletter] Craig and I were embarrassed never to have been to Mile End Deli in our neighborhood, even though it’s often on lists of the city’s best. Suffice it to say: we have a new favorite local deli. That there is the smoked meat sandwich — I believe it’s brisket…