Grape & Vine

I have to apologize for letting the blogging drop off in the last month.  Things were crazy at work and I moved to a new apartment,  and I feel like both of those things were consuming all of my energy and thoughts, even during my down time.  But I hope to get back into it now, and to start things off, I want to share a trip to Grape & Vine that I took with the other Rebecca a few weeks back.  Located in the lower level of the Jade Hotel in Greenwich Village, this restaurant serves American fare and gives off a swanky, speakeasy vibe.
























As you descend the stairs down from street level, enter the restaurant, and settle into a cozy booth, you feel like you've stumbled upon a really well-kept secret.

Speaking of cozy, I feel like sitting under this skylight, in front of this fireplace would be a great place in which to spend a winter's day, gazing up into the falling snow.

But enough about the ambiance.  I'm sure that you want to hear about the food.

Rebecca and I went for lunch during Restaurant Week, so we were able to indulge in multiple courses.  We started off by sharing Lobster Conch Fritters with mango habanero puree...

and the Tomato Heirloom Salad with Pecorino, watermelon, and basil.

The fritters were good but the salad was by far my favorite of the two.  It tasted like all the best and freshest parts of summer while simultaneously calling to mind amazing meals that I had a few years ago in Italy.

For our mains, R ordered the Pan Seared Fluke with plantain gnocchi, roasted carrots, and black olive crumble....

while I only had eyes for the Braised Pork Belly with curried corn and red pepper relish and celery root puree.

Artfully presented, portioned just right, and the relish was a unique choice and complemented the pork wonderfully.

When it was time for dessert, we chatted over cappuccinos and Crème Brulee Peaches with caramel sauce and fresh thyme.

Don't you just want to dive headfirst into that foam?  

And the peaches were almost too pretty to eat.   Almost.

I'm a big fan of crème brulee to begin with and these were an interesting, summery take on the classic dish that capped off an already rather delicious meal. 

If you're looking for an elegant dining atmosphere that's tucked away from the hustle and bustle of some of Manhatttan's busier streets, give Grape & Vine a go.  They're open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I've also heard that their Happy Hour doesn't disappoint.  You can make a reservation here.

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Beauty & Essex

I'd like to take a moment to nominate the person who first came up with the idea of brunch for sainthood.

No, I don't think that this is overdoing it.  I mean, think of all that we owe this person.

Without him or her, would anyone else have ever said that it was perfectly acceptable to sleep late and then, upon waking, indulge in lots of delicious food, a gossip session with friends, and of course, slightly scandalous quantities of alcohol, all in the middle of the day?

I don't know about you, but to me, the thought of life before brunch seems dismal and bleak.  I'm sure that that's what the Dark Ages were like (in fact, a lack of the possibility of brunch was probably why they were called the Dark Ages).

Thankfully, we don't have to live in such a world and thankfully, my friend S appreciates a good boozy brunch just as much as I do.  When she texted to tell me that she was visiting her brother and would be in the city for the weekend, we knew that we had to make our Sunday into an epic eating event, so we hit up Beauty & Essex.  At first, we were a bit confused, since you enter through a pawn shop, but we were eventually led up a spiral staircase to our table.

The dimly lit interior has a swanky lounge vibe, and reminders of the pawn shop below grace the walls.

There is an a la carte brunch menu, but we decided to go big or go home and get the prix fixe Champagne brunch.  For $55, you get four courses of small plates and two glasses of Champagne, which is a steal in NYC.  The Champers arrived first, much to our delight.

And was followed by a Kale and Apple Salad (apple cider vinaigrette, pancetta, candied pecans and shaved goat cheese) and Grilled Cheese, Smoked Bacon and Tomato soup dumplings.

When it comes to salads, it takes a lot to excite me, but this one was really flavorful and satisfying and a nice mix of sweet and savory.  Even the boy at the table liked it.  And the soup dumplings were a fun grown-up riff on a kid favorite.

Next up was a round of sweets, featuring Dark Chocolate Croissants....

Mini Red Velvet Waffles with cream cheese icing....

and Banana Walnut Bread with Cinnamon Butter.

(This last one was on the a la carte, not the prix fixe, menu, but it sounded too good to pass up).  The winner among the dishes on this course was definitely the waffles.  There have been times in the past when I've gone for the sweet, novelty flavors of pancakes and waffles at other restaurants, only to be disappointed by the unsatisfying, cloying taste of artificial flavors, but this wasn't the case here.

At this point, the DJ turned up the music and the waitstaff handed out glowsticks and flashy plastic cocktail rings, so we knew that the party was really getting started.

Some people weren't quite as excited about the jewelry options as S and I were though....

But everyone was excited about the fact that the bubbly seemed to just keep on coming.

As did the food.

The fourth course consisted of  Skillet Roasted Potatoes.....

Braised Short Rib Huevos Rancheros with sunny side up eggs, black beans and cotija....

and Fried Chicken Biscuit Bites with Tabasco honey butter and red cabbage slaw....

This one was a tough call between the Huevos Rancheros and the Biscuit Bites, both of which were full of interesting layers of flavor with perfectly paired ingredients.

Finally, it was time for dessert:  mini red velvet and Baileys and Guinness cupcakes.

These were super cute, but not super tasty.  Really, all of the food was delicious up to this point, so it was a bit of a disappointing note to end on.

But we worked through the dessert despair by dancing next to our table and singing along to Taylor Swift.  Don't worry, we weren't the only ones.  The place had practically transformed into a club at this point.

And one of the dangers of this place is that, with the club-like atmosphere, the dimly lit interior, and the lack of windows, it's very easy to lose all track of time.  Which we did.  We'll blame it on all the Champagne, but we stayed well into the evening and basically shut the place down. I think that the long lost inventor of brunch, whomever she or he was, would have been quite proud.

If you want to give the Champagne brunch a go, you have to either call or email Beauty & Essex to reserve a table.  Don't forget to bring your eating and drinking game face and be prepared to not get anything else done that day.

But really, epic brunching is enough of an accomplishment on a Sunday anyway, don't you think?

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Foodie Friday

A spelt Everything bagel with cucumber dill cream cheese from Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company.  New York really does know how to do bagels.

 

 

Happy Weekend!

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French Friday

One of the things that I love most about summer is that vacation vibe that's always in the air, even if you haven't left town.  Maybe it's because the days are longer or that the sun seems to shine brighter, but I love that feeling of being able to take things a bit more slowly, be more relaxed, and make time to enjoy the little things.  It also helps that my office does summer Fridays, so my work week has been cut down to four days, which feels much more humane.  On one such Friday off, I met the other Rebecca for lunch at the downtown location of French Roast.  We've come to this cute little spot before for after-work drinks but this was the first time that we had decided to make a meal of it.  Speaking of drinks, I couldn't refuse their weekly cocktail special:  a cucumber mojito:

This beauty was crisp, refreshing, and smacked of summer.  Rebecca stayed a bit more virtuous and opted for an iced coffee, which arrived in the largest goblet I've ever seen.

We ordered our food and then, while waiting for it to arrive, we sipped and chatted about helicopter parents and Rebecca's recent European honeymoon (No, there wasn't really a segue between the two, in case you were wondering).  One of the reasons why we had chosen French Roast for lunch that day was because she was going through Paris withdrawal, and we figured that a Parisian-style bistro could only help to ease the pain.

Soon, the food appeared.  Rebecca had gone for the soup (French onion) and baguette sandwich combo (tomato, mozzarella, arugula and roasted red peppers)....

while I went for the lamb burger, topped with goat cheese and served on a pita with hand-cut frites (I mean, you might as well order the French Fries when in a French restaurant, right?)

The burger was massive, but the pita was a nice change from a bun and lightened it up a bit.  And the fries did not disappoint.

The food was very good, and the portions, both of our dishes and of everything else that we saw in passing, were huge.  And I spotted some amazing-looking Croque Madames at the next table over, so I will definitely be back to try those in the near future.

Rebecca and I finished up and then parted ways for the weekend, but it was such a beautiful sunny day that I wasn't ready to go back inside.  Luckily, G had texted to ask if I wanted to meet up in Central Park and I thought that it sounded like the perfect plan.  Continuing the French theme of the day, we grabbed a seat at Le Pain Quotidien near the Sheep Meadow area of the Park and ordered Matcha Vodka cocktails.

It's a little known fact that vodka actually enhances green tea's antioxidant properties. 

If you haven't heard this before, it's because I just made it up, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

G and I filled each other in on what we had been up to all summer as we breathed in the balmy air and the tranquility of the garden-like setting.  We whiled away the afternoon, enjoying the fact that there was really nowhere else that we had to be.

Summer days like these should last forever, in my book.  What's your idea of the perfect summer day?

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