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Every neighborhood needs a Rucola. We’re very lucky here in Boerum Hill because our Rucola is Rucola.

Would you believe me if I told you that one of my favorite restaurants in New York is a pizzeria? In the city that brought us Franny’s (RIP) and Roberta’s (still going), it shouldn’t be such a revelation. But for outsiders visiting the Big Apple, it may be hard to comprehend that a place that…

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…

[From the 8/28/23 newsletter] On Saturday night, we went to a hot new restaurant, Cafe Mars, in Gowanus with our pals Mark and Diana. I first heard about Café Mars when Helen Rosner wrote about it in The New Yorker. The dish that got me hooked was this starter of Negroni jello shots with a…

[From the 4/11/24 newsletter] Let me tell you about our 18th anniversary dinner at Roman’s. Yes, it’s true, on April 8th, 2006, Craig and I went on first date to Lucien in the East Village. Now it’s 18 years later and we’re still going strong. We decided to celebrate that fact with lots of meat…

[From the 4/29/24 newsletter] On Friday, we joined Jenny Rosenstrach, who you all know and love from Dinner: A Love Story, her husband Andy, and Cup of Jo’s Jo for dinner at Popina. That’s Jenny and Jo at the table. Dinner at Popina was so good. We all shared olives and bread and strachiatella. I…

[From the 2/21/25 Amateur Gourmet Newsletter] On Wednesday night, we met up with my L.A. pals Ryan and Jonathan at another favorite NY restaurant, Ci Siamo. The food at Ci Siamo is so, so, good — it’s the Italian answer to Le V’eau d’Or. Loved having these two restaurants fight over me on my birthday.…

Sometimes sharing a recipe is like playing a game of telephone. Take, for example, this recipe for Bucatini with Swiss Chard, Raisins, and Parmesan. It’s based on a recipe that I saw on Nigella Lawson’s website; but it turns out that she got the recipe from Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons. I’m sure Nigella changed the…

Moses saw a burning bush and I saw a roasted fennel. Yes, a vision came to me last night when I came home from Union Market with the ingredients to make Spaghetti con Le Sarde, a Southern Italian pasta dish with sardines, fennel, fennel seeds, raisins soaked in wine, and toasted breadcrumbs. Only: when I…