The Gramercy Tavern

On Saturday night, we continued Craig’s birthday celebration with our pals Mark and Diana at The Gramercy Tavern, Craig’s favorite NY restaurant.

It really is the perfect NY restaurant. Grand in a way that most restaurants in most cities couldn’t emulate; but also rustic and casual. There’s a chef cooking in front of a fire as you walk in. It feels like a cabin in the woods designed for a Rockefeller.

The food was amazing, as always. My favorite course was what you see above: squid ink lumache with seafood. I loved the texture of those curly black noodles.

This course was the most interesting: caraflex cabbage in the style of a Japanese pancake. It turned a humble ingredient into something extraordinary.

You may notice a lot of wine glasses on the table. That’s because — and I feel bad for this — I urged everyone to do the wine pairing. I figured, why not! We’re already splurging. It’s Craig’s birthday. Let’s live a little.

I loved the whole experience of the wine pairing — the sommelier telling the story of each bottle, the specificity of the pairings with each dish (depending on what you ordered, you got your own individual wine to go with it) — except for one very important thing…

WE FELT LIKE SUCH CRAP THE NEXT DAY.

Ugh.

I wouldn’t wish a wine pairing on my worst enemy.

Don’t get me wrong! It was thoughtful and lovely and we were extremely privileged to get to enjoy it.

Only the next morning we said: “NEVER AGAIN.”

The Gramercy Tavern / 42 E 20th St, New York, NY 10003 / (212) 477-0777