Stella_Blue's Profile
Arthur Ave Butcher
I have actually never been up to Arthur Ave, but I thought it would be a good place to pick up some rabbits and lamb for our Easter dinner. Anyone care to recommend their favourite butcher? I'll probably also need a place to stop off and have a little lunch (and a little prosecco)! Thanks!
Recommendation wanted: UWS, "not too edgy," not too expensive
Celeste? Very cozy little Italian place, consistently great food, but quite popular and it doesn't take reservations. I usually go early-ish (pre-7pm) and don't have a problem being seated.
THE San Francisco Restaurant: One Night Only!
It's a Friday....but just me, so reservations shouldn't be a big issue. Hopefully.
THE San Francisco Restaurant: One Night Only!
Hello San Franciscans,
I've got exactly one free night in my upcoming trip to your fair city. If there was ONE place you would NOT miss for dinner, where would it be? I live in NYC, so I'd love something local, that I can't get here (read: celebrity chefs are a dime a dozen).
Budget is modest; I don't need dirt cheap, but I can't spend El Bulli bucks.
Thanks!
NYC hound with 2 days
Hello all,
I'm going to be in town for a couple days at the end of the month and am looking for some lunch/dinner recs.
For lunch: I'm attending a conference, so I'll need some places close to the center (it's at the Intercontinental, at Howard & 4th) that I can get to, get fed and get back in
For dinner: I have reservations at Flour & Water, and I only have one more night so I'm looking for the can't-miss moderately-priced SF locale. This doesn't have to be close to the conference center, but I'd like to be able to get there via public transit if possible.
A little about what I like: um, everything! Allergic to or afraid of: nothing!
Thanks!! I'm hungry already!!
Mini-trip - critique my itinerary?
Hi all,
I'll be in town in October from NYC for just a few days and don't have nearly enough time to experience the best of Chicago. Here's what I've got so far:
Sunday dinner - Cafe des Architectes
Monday lunch - Purple Pig
Monday dinner - Browntrout
Tuesday lunch - Avec? Their website says they're closed but reopening at September's end...I'll be there the first week of October so this may need amending.
Tuesday dinner - Chop House
Wednesday lunch - Frontera Grill? I'm here for a conference so I may not have time to wait in line. Anyone familiar with wait times on a weekday afternoon? I checked...no reservations available.
Wednesday dinner - None...stuck doing a business thing :(
Thursday lunch - Webster? The Tasting Room? Huge wine fan, and my flight is at 5pm so I don't mind getting sloppy in the middle of the day.
There's a thousand other restaurants I'd love to add to this list...David Burke, Publican, Nacional 27, I haven't even thought about pizza but I should really do that as well...
Thanks for your thoughts!!
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Tasting Room
1415 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60607
Avec Restaurant
615 W Randolph St Ste A, Chicago, IL 60661
Frontera Grill
445 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60654
Nacional 27
325 W. Huron, Chicago, IL 60610
Cafe des Architectes
20 East Chestnut Street, Chicago, IL 60611
Browntrout
4111 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60618
Steaming Bivalves
Thanks all. I guess I'm anti-belly, then...that's a texture of which I'm not terribly appreciative. Also haven't ever seen that when ordering in a restaurant, making it all the more puzzling.
Steaming Bivalves
Hello Hounds,
I have a problem with bivalves, and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've worked once with mussels and once with steamer clams, and it's the same story: I clean them, steam them, according to established protocol, and I end up with meat that's chewy and tough around the edges and full of gross black mush in the middle. So on the outside they're overcooked and in the middle they're raw?! I'm perplexed.
I thought maybe the temperature is wrong? I'm bringing the wine to a full boil, then reducing the heat to about medium, adding the bivalves and covering the pot. Takes
Brunch in the D - Downtown?
Thanks everyone....Jan, you must check out Club Bart. I'm a former Detroiter, and my friends in the Ferndale area that always took me there. Unique menu items...I seem to remember a mac & cheese omelet and cinnamon roll French Toast.
Sweet Lorraine's is a sorry loss. I have been to the Whitney, and it is as great as Jim says it is. Guess I was really hoping there'd be some new exciting places in the area by now...it's been over ten years since I left.
Does anyone know anything about this place: detroitbreakfasthouse.net
It seems to have a bar, and the menu looks pretty good. Vivio's looks like fun, but in Eastern Market...is it open on Saturdays?
Thanks for all your help!!
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Club Bart
22726 Woodward Ave, Ferndale, MI 48220
Brunch in the D - Downtown?
Hello, Detroit foodies:
Going to be in town from NYC and would like to brunch downtown on a Saturday. Any recommendations? Upscale, downscale...we don't really care, we just want some great food and possibly a great bloody mary! Thanks!
Delicious Sunday Seafood?
Thanks for the recs, folks....I'll try a couple of those the next time I'm in town. We actually ended up doing nothing remotely close to what I had in mind...went to The Linkery, haha. Quite enjoyable, actually. I think the chef was ready to go home b/c the dishes were not quite up to their potential (which I thought was high indeed! Very interesting dishes). Also: the cask wines were supreme; we tasted them all and I would go back just for their Bordeaux blend. Yum :)
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Linkery
3794 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104
Delicious Sunday Seafood?
Hola, San Diegoans!!
A couple of New Yorkers in town for one night only....need a rec for fantastic seafood for tonight. Preferably a cozy/intimate atmosphere near-ish to gaslamp district. Hoping for a little local flair, too. Thanks in advance!!
Dinner + Hookah?
It's true, of course...but try dragging ten fussy Manhattanites off the island on a Saturday night :(
I'm thinking of abandoning the hookah idea and going with JungMann's idea of belly dancers instead...although Casa la Femme is perhaps a bit pricey for us.
Dinner + Hookah?
Hmmmm...this is an interesting idea. I think belly dancing would be not only non-intrusive, but a bonus!
Dinner + Hookah?
Hello hounds,
Today's scenario is a birthday dinner for ~10, someplace that translates with relative ease to an after-dinner drinks place. Not night-clubby; rather, someplace chill where a bunch of friends can hang out, have drinks, and still be able to hear each other speak.
So I was thinking a hookah bar perhaps (birthday girl in question loves her hookah), but one that has decent fare has eluded me thus far in the city. Also open to other ideas...thanks in advance!
Last minute! Dinner for 9 - Saturday.
I got stuck with the task of making a reservation for a birthday dinner this Saturday for nine people. Daunting.
The guest of honor is a big sangria fan and I'm a big food fan. He isn't afraid to travel to Brooklyn (though the rest of the party is a little fussy). Also, we're on a grad student budget. So, good food and good sangria (preferably available by the pitcher), reasonably priced, space to accommodate us, and a relatively easy trip from the UES? Is it possible?
Whirlwind Culinary Tour of Lisbon
Hello all,
I'll be in Lisbon for six days in mid-October and would like to get as much out of it as possible. I am staying at the Real Palacio, but that's not really important - I'll go anywhere, especially if it is for the best of a local specialty. LOVE local/regional cuisine, so suggestions there are well appreciated. I'm not fussy, either...I'll eat anything. Bring on the offel! Of course, I'll probably also want to experience one or two classier dining experiences, although I am on a budget so I guess no Michelin-starred restos for me.
Also a couple of more general questions: I'm traveling alone, so are restaurants in Lisbon generally friendly to single diners? I'll be coming in from Paris, where single diners are sneered at unmercifully. Also, what is the house wine scene like? Is it like France, where you can tell the quality of the wine list by the quality of the house wine? Or is it more like the US, where the house wine is more like the staff poured all the wine left on the tables by customers into one giant bucket, added water and called it good? And are there any good local wines I should be looking out for? Finally, I speak about zero Portugese...can I get by on my mix of mediocre Spanish and French?
Thanks in advance for all your good advice! I am SO excited for this trip!
Guava Paste in Manhattan?
You're kidding. So I have just been seriously outed as a supreme lazy a$$...I didn't even bother checking normal places :) Thanks, all. Boy, do I feel dumb!!
Guava Paste in Manhattan?
Anyone know where to buy guava paste in the city? Naturally my lazy butt would like to find it on my home island but I'm guessing the specific nature of my request might require a little expedition....yeah, I'm okay with that. Thanks for your help!!
Buying wine on the UES- Where's the best deal?
No idea of the name of the place, but there's a teeny little wine shop on York & 74th (I think b/w 73rd & 74th but it could be one block north). I always just ask the owner for a recommendation and he has never steered me wrong. There's also 1st & Vine, on 1st & 60th. They give a really good case discount and the staff is helpful. I love Cellar 72, and it's true that they've expanded their
25+ for dinner on UES?
Sorry, I should've specified. We're just taking the speaker out to dinner....the talk is the following day. I guess I was trying to convey that we want a place that's classy enough to take an honored guest :)
I've been to Tony's and you're right about the space and the price, but I don't recall being particularly impressed by the food.
25+ for dinner on UES?
We've got a large group of PhD students + a keynote speaker that need to eat scrumptious food on the university's tab on the UES, or east midtown-ish (we're starting at 67th & York; the closer the better). Naturally, the university is citing budget cuts and wants us to keep it
Looking for Luck on NYE
Any thoughts on a holiday prix-fix? I've never tried one, are they worth it?
16 ppl this sunday
We took a group of ~12 to 'inoteca for a birthday dinner and did the tasting menu; I believe it was around $40 per and was excellent. They will also let you bring your own dessert, so we ordered a cake from nearby Sugar Sweet Sunshine. If you want cozy, ask to be seated downstairs....it's much quieter and you're right next to the wine cellar :)
Looking for Luck on NYE
But doesn't Tribeca Grill do one of those all-night ticketed events on NYE? Those things are always overpriced, oversold, and overrated (in my oh-so-humble opinion).
SR85 Del Frisco's Review
I had almost the exact same menu when I was there, except I let them cook the Kobe a little longer than rare so that the fat could meld. That may have been what you were missing out on that cut of meat, but I agree that even still the price tag was too hefty. That's what you get when you go to a mammoth steakhouse in the Times Square area, though. They've got to pay their rent, right?
The sides, to me, were the best part of the meal. I would eat my weight in that sweet potato casserole. I was, however, disappointed in their "infamous" crab cakes (and you're right - they pushed these like drugs). They just didn't live up to the hype.
I do have to say that the sommelier was fantastic, all the wines were excellent (albeit far too expensive, but I guess that goes without saying at this point), and they even let me take a little guided tour to the cellar, which I plan to duplicate one day :)
Looking for Luck on NYE
Hello, you wonderful foodies, you!! I'm looking for a restaurant for New Year's Eve that isn't going to compromise on quality just because it's a holiday (unfortunately far too many restaurants are wont to do just that). Add to that we're a biggish group, ~15ppl, and that we have budget constraints (hopefully under $100 per including wine), and suddenly this becomes a very daunting task. Neighborhood isn't important, although it would be best to stay in Manhattan. Any suggestions? Thank you all!
Top 10 Bars for Beer Snobs
Hop Devil closed, unfortunately, but Copperfield's at 75th & York is owned by the same folks. Great beer selection, great wings, great salads, but hit-or-miss burgers.
Good Pub food for Brunch UES
Becky's at 63rd & 1st has great pub food. I've never been for brunch but on a regular day they're pretty good. Eli's is on the UES and has good brunch, not exactly a pub though. Ummmm, just in case "brunch" is more important than "pub," Zuccharo e Pomodori (sp?) at 75th & 2nd has an unlimited mimosa brunch that's pretty awesome.
Good Lunch Spots in Sloan-Kettering Area (York and 69th)?
Agree with all reports of Tawa's poor quality....It's inedible. Tayona has good sandwiches, you'll wait a bit but I feel it's worth it.
Ravagh at 67th & 1st is a good choice for these chilly days. They have a fantastic lamb stew, and they're pretty quick for take-out. Also I would recommend Good Health on 1st & 74th for yummy vegetarian fare.
