script type="text/javascript">

Followers

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

606 R&D @606 Vanderbilt Ave nr St. Marks Ave

donuts fresh from the conveyer
606 R & D on Urbanspoon

606


Find 7 other people and make a reservation here(718-230-0125) or go and wait or go early or scout it out ...R&D ..and sit at the counter and watch Ileen sprinkle pixie dust on the heirloom tomatoes from a farm cooperative in Lancaster Pa. have the mussels in a parsley broth and sit there imagining with Roxanne all the permutations of menu items you will spend the rest of your life having in the garden or properly seated and how often on warm/rainy days you will trot across to Ample Ice Cream and get take out because even though it is ice cream like no other surely you would have the fresh blueberry thing or warm donuts at 606. Call me promiscuous and impulsive but this certainly could be my new favorite.




A family parade in honor of great ice cream and sorbet

And they made mussels that tasted  green brothy flavorful
Ample Ice Cream Across the Street

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Inatteso Battery Park



28 west street north of the Ritz Hotel...when did this crop up...never mind ; be happy. Excellent pizza...shown here there are mushrooms and ham and olive and artichoke divides...and great stuffed fig salad and nice puree for the bread and comfortable setting...attentive efficient wait staff. Thanks Debbah.
Fig salad

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Locanda Vini and Olii...update with joy


Chick pea pasta and seafood

Tomato bread soup

This has been a favorite for some time....on a beautiful block in Fort Greene Bklyn...Gates and Cambridge....in a restored drug store...genuine Marche/Tuscany/Belgian cuisine. After the new Woody(in honor of the 7/7/07 wedding and WOOD anniversary of Kim and Patrick) Allen film set in Rome(highly recommend)..we decided it had been too long since we visited Locanda. We sat at the copper bar and watched a full house well served by the charming owners and staff. Francois has returned to Belgium (NB Gladys) , but he has left this gem in good hands. The peach salad with spinach was a refreshing starter as was the fig and Gorgonzola salad. The seafood pesto pasta was made with fresh chick pea pasta and shelled mussels and clams.  The tomato bread soup is lush and satisfying. Better than ever.

Locanda Vini & Olii on Urbanspoon

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Pellegrinos Pizza Bar Noyac rd Southampton

A good garlic knot...my one nice thing I can say

Brother and Granddaughter riding in 4th parade

Two dishes at once
Rarely do I pan a restaurant. Usually I skip it. But every now and then a restaurant causes such misery that I feel I owe it and my readers(the choice few) a duty to warn. Here is such a case. The week- end and the 4th itself were great. Great family meals at home....but Tuesday we were headed to Paul's (previously reviewed in December). But Paul's was closed Tues..so to Pellegrinos and they are usually closed Tues  but not the 3rd...so we thought my 5 year old granddaughter would like the pizza. We reserved for 7 PM. We arrived at 7...Caroline ordered an appetizer and another as a main...both came together.after an hour and a half wait. We ordered wood fired pizza..."oh didn't we tell you only regular pizza"..fine..but it too came after Sophie was asleep on a lap. "The food will be right out" was followed by a fifteen minute wait...9 pm last pizza came and was offered free but not taken. The host owner seemed nice and the waitress also, but swamped. As in "It's not an excuse but everybody came at once"...and then when Patrick got up to ask about a kind of beer the server said "not now I'm busy"..we were so anxious to love this place...oh and the pasta fagiole had little pasta in it and the pizza was so so....and thanks but No thanks for the offer of free desserts...and when they showed me the time the order went in we were crazed since we waited 45 minutes just to place the order...sad when a restaurant is so unready that it can take a family full of laughs and turn them to frowns. Make me wait but not my granddaughter!   Thank goodness it didn't rain on the 4 Th parade and Sophie got to ride in her grand uncles convertible with two WWII vets and that just helped to erase the memory of Peligrusomes.


Pellegrinos on Urbanspoon

Sunday, June 24, 2012

BROOKLYN CRAB @ 24 reed st,Red Hook :worth the wait?

Red Hook has art and music events on the piers and Sunny's bar Sat night blue grass jams that until recently were barely noticed...There is Good Fork and Irish music at Rocky Sullivan's and lobster at Lobster Pound (also on roof of Rocky,s sometimes or trucks here/there).....but if you were waiting for crabs, your wait is over ...or has it just begun?


Well when is a wait a wait?  When at 5 they say table at 7? Not when they agree to call you cell and you have a crisp clear day to have a lemonade at the rear of Fairway and you can read the Times or your kindle at a waterfront park or sit in the downstairs and have a beer (or soon play mini golf or ping pong) and some oysters....not when they call you earlier than promised and whisk you to a waiting Rebecca from Cobble Hill recently returned from college in Tampa...not when you have a glass of wine immediately  and  later a great sunset behind the Statue of Liberty and snow peas baked with parm and a grand view. Then there are the steamed pots with crab,corn,potatoes and corn and lobster
or for the vegi gardener artichokes...the vegi pot could have been more flavorful, but generally all good. Hot sauces everywhere in peg holes or rails...however most of these work better with meat than shell fish, which could benefit from plain Tabasco which they must have...and the cocktail sauce was a little thick for my taste, But generally tuta bene...even deserts looked good.  And it is not a wait when at 9 you shop in Fairway and @9:45 fireworks crack from Ellis Island. If you are not too tired you go to Sunny's for the jam but that doesn't get goin til 11ish and that ,that, that was too long a wait ...this time.



Pea Shoots and tomatoes and garlic and parm


Watching the dog watching us downstairs









And when two cabs stopped in what was once a yellow cab wasteland and a young woman asked if Sunny's was near, we knew this remote refuge was no longer a secret and the waiting crab eaters were filling the streets with shoppers and browsers and Manhattan refugees and economically speaking that's not a bad thing. There have been some naysayers on the internets and they complain about cost and waits. For sure this is pricey: $116 for two..but we could have ordered clam rolls and a beer. and OK it is a splurge. BUT THE WAIT WAS NOT A WASTE.

Brooklyn Crab on Urbanspoon


artichokes needed more steam

Saturday, June 23, 2012

CASA DI CAMPAGNA...RED HOOK AND RED SAUCE AND MORE

THE RED HEAT left behind a need for respite and a hunger for comforting food and the sight of waters running cool. And yet there was a thirst for discovery too.  117 Columbia street in Red Hook/Carroll

Shrimps and ravioli



Tortoni

Gardens has some hot spots for sure including Pok Pok which we haven't tried,but the Shrimp in hot sauce on the menu here was what drew me in. And there were available seats including in the garden(too wet a night). The Shrimps turned out to be likable but not the Vincents' or Umbertos' way. The true delight was in how likable the waiter from Detroit was and the warm decor and the friendly vibe and the wonderful broccoli rabe and ravioli and Caesar salad and and and tortoni(childhood friend in a paper cup with coconut crumb top).
Broccoli and Caesar

Friday, June 15, 2012

Williamsburgh walkabout ll...M Noodle ;the Dictator; and Gwynnett

Franklin, an unusual Bklyn pet,  leads his friend
When we arrived at Metropolitan Ave  an unusual Brooklyn pet appeared. This visionquest was off and running but the first thing ordered at M Noodle had NO PORK but killer sessame pancake sandwiches. The Nitehawk cinema did serve drinks and food at your seat for the 730 showing of the very disgusting,funny and insightful Dictator. And Gwynnett  St (312 Graham av) turned out to be an opportunity to appreciate how a great wait person could make even a table by the kitchen door a pleasant spot. And here the pea shoot salad and tofu and scallop dishes all tasted like fresh experiences.
dumplings and stuffed sessame pancakes


gwynnett

Gwynnett St. on Urbanspoon

smoked grapes and tofu @Gwynnett


scaffolded m noodle

Tofu at G STREET
nitehawk cinema


M Noodle Shop on Urbanspoon