Filed under: Eat | Tags: comfort food, grilled cheese, LES, sandwiches, soup
A grilled cheese sandwich is perhaps the ultimate comfort food. If you grew up in America, your mom probably lovingly prepared you an after-school snack of a melty Kraft Single (or two, if you were a good boy/girl) between two slices of pillowy-soft buttered Wonder Bread at some point. Now that I’m old enough to make my own grilled cheese sandwiches and have stopped buying processed cheese and white bread, I still find myself craving that grilled cheese goodness and a cup of creamy tomato soup. With the temperatures dropping, I’ll be making frequent trips to Little Muenster in my beloved Lower East Side for their grown-up grilled cheese sammies.
Pictured: gruyère, chèvre, leek confit, and pancetta on French sourdough. Photo courtesy of Grub Street.
Little Muenster (LES) 100 Stanton between Orchard and Ludlow; 212-203-7197.
Filed under: Drink, Eat | Tags: AYCE, bayou, beer, boil, crawfish, dive bars, East Village, hurricanes, LES, New Orleans, Parkside Lounge
Mark your calendars, folks. We’re gettin’ down and dirty, N’Awlins style with an all-you-can-eat crawfish boil at Parkside Lounge on Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 2 pm. For $35 per person, stuff your face with as much crawfish as your little hands can peel and your little mouths can chew. Cheap beer and hurricanes, bayou beats.
Tickets are on sale now – e-mail parksidefun@gmail.com, see your friendly Parkside barkeep for details, or call them at (212) 673-6270.
Eat/drink: Parkside Lounge (LES) 317 East Houston Street at Attorney. New York, NY 10002. (212) 673-6270.
Filed under: Drink, Go, Listen | Tags: ANR, cheap, free, happy hour, LES, Lightwaves, live music, Savoir Adore, Tammany Hall, Thursday, Walk the Moon
On the first Thursday of every month, LES nightlife newcomer Tammany Hall hosts three floors of rotating musical guests, dancing, and general debauchery with its monthly Popshop party. Next Thursday, April 7th, Walk the Moon, Savoir Adore, and ANR will be playing live with Lightwaves rocking the DJ booth all night. Free after midnight.
THURSDAY, APRIL 7TH
Entire Venue
Popshop is back at Tammany Hall. This month, SXSW darlings Walk the Moon headline with help from Brooklyn indie poppers Savoir Adore and Miami psych kids ANR playing live. Lightwaves is back and will be spinning all night long. Like every past Popshop, this event is expected to sell out, so get your tickets NOW!
Doors are at 8pm. Advance Tickets are available here
If you show up early, you might even catch happy hour. $3 beers, $4 cocktails, $5 wines.
Drink-Dance-Listen: Tammany Hall (LES) 152 Orchard Street between Stanton and Rivington. (212) 982-7767. Follow Tammany Hall and Popshop on Twitter.
Filed under: Listen | Tags: LES, Local 269, Miami, music, Sirens and Sealions
Obsessing over Miami folk pop band Sirens and Sealions after stumbling across their show last night at Local 269 in LES. Listen here: http://ow.ly/4n45S. My fave is Tumbleweed – available for download on iTunes.
Seen on Norfolk Street between Stanton and Rivington.
Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
You probably already know that Baohaus makes some mother-flipping delicious baos. What you might not know is that Baohaus started making a $10 TV dinner and lunch special avaiable a few weeks back. They’re now in Week 7, and it’s going strong. Eddie‘s in the kitchen and he’s cooking up some dericious ish. Available Monday through Thursday from 11am to 11pm, in-store, takeout, or delivery.
This week’s special is Eddie’s version of the Railway Box served on Taiwanese trains: fried pork chop and bok choy with minced pork gravy over rice.
Also, it’s the infamous PopChef’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EDDIE! Here’s to getting better every year.
Eat: Baohaus (LES) 137 Rivington Street, NY, NY 10002. 646.684.3835. Sun-Thurs: 11:30am-11pm; Fri&Sat: 11:30am-2am.
Filed under: Eat | Tags: brunch, burrata, cafe, charcuterie, free wi-fi, Houston, Italian, LES, lunch, panini, risotto, salad, sandwiches
I’ve been out of town for a month, so I can’t be held responsible for being a little late to the Gaia party. A friend of mine who is a small business owner in the neighborhood was raving about Gaia, saying she had started going there 4 or 5 times a week because of it’s good food, and it’s super cheap. This little walk-down Italian cafe opened up on Houston Street between Norfolk and Suffolk to little fanfare about a month ago, and it should be much more popular than it is given the great value.
The atmosphere is fairly generic, but I literally did a double take when I saw the prices on the menu. $5 for paninis on housemade flatbread? $7 salads? $7 risotto and gnocchi? $2.50 for freshly pressed pear or orange or apple juice? Good coffee for $1.75? And everything is made to order, not sitting around and reheated. In the neighborhood, most of the coffeeshops and cafes serving paninis are charging $7 and up.
One of the most expensive menu items was the burrata cheese served with mushrooms sauteed with parsley in a white wine sauce, and that was just $11. And it was good. I would slap a baby for some good burrata, and this was it.
Gaia offers a fantastic $12 Italian Brunch deal on the weekends that includes any panini or lasagna of your choice, a fresh fruit juice, a Nutella-stuffed pastry, and a coffee. I strongly recommend the pear juice – it’s delicious!
The speck panini with pickled vegetables and cheese was phenomenal, and the prosciutto brie and chicken pesto paninis were also very tasty. There is no reason these sandwiches should be $5. I think owner Gaia Bagnasacco is undercharging for everything on her menu by at least a couple dollars. I don’t know how long these very low prices will last, so you should definitely check it out now.
Eat: Gaia Italian Cafe (LES) 251 Houston Street at Norfolk. (646) 350-3977.
Filed under: Eat | Tags: breakfast, brunch, cheap, eggs, EV, LES, sandwich, Zaitzeff
Zaitzeff is best known for its juicy Kobe beef burgers, but what you probably didn’t know is that they have a really delicious egg and cheese breakfast sandwich that is $4.75. It’s made with organic eggs and melted cheddar cheese, and you can request tomatoes, avocado, or bacon. I just requested Tabasco.
Behold.
The bacon here is not nearly as delicious as the bacon at Frankie’s/Cafe Pedlar at 17 Clinton St. just on the other side of Houston, but the eggs are cooked much better than at Frankie’s (just cooked, not overcooked), and I like the Portuguese bun better than an English muffin or biscuit any day. On a street where you have several excellent breakfast sandwich options (Clinton St. Baking Co., Frankie’s/Cafe Pedlar), Zaitzeff is definitely one to try.
Eat: Zaitzeff (EV/LES) 18 Ave. B at 2nd St. Sun – Thu, 12 pm to 11:30 pm; Fri & Sat, 12 pm to 1:00 am. There are also locations in Financial District and Midtown.
Filed under: Do | Tags: bar games, bars, beer, darts, dive bars, EV, LES, NoHo
There’s something intensely satisfying about hurling a sharp, pointed object at a wall while intoxicated, especially when said activity is socially sanctioned. Enter: darts. Socially sanctioned throwing of sharp objects while intoxicated!
But where does one find a dartboard? I did a quick search on Yelp, and thought I’d share my downtown finds with you fine folks. Aren’t you lucky you read this blog, you fun seeker, you?
East Village:
- Ace Bar 531 5th between A and B
- Duke’s 129 Ave. C at 8th
- Doc Holliday’s 141 Ave. A at 9th
- The Edge 95 3rd St. at 1st Ave.
- The HorseBox 218 Ave. A at 14th
Lower East Side:
- Stanton Public 17 Stanton St. between Bowery & Chrystie
- Welcome to the Johnson’s 123 Rivington between Essex and Norfolk
- Boss Tweed’s 115 Essex at Rivington
NoHo:
- Bleecker Street Bar 56 Bleecker St at Crosby (near Lafayette)
- Puck Fair 298 Lafayette at Houston
If you want to find bars that have dartboards in other parts of the city, you can do your own, customized search on Yelp.
Don’t hurt anyone!
Filed under: Eat | Tags: botan ebi, LES, low carb, no rice roll, sashimi, shrimp, sushi, Sushi UO, uni
I have a cyclical personality. I tend to go through phases where I crave a single cuisine or even a single food item and I want to have it every day. In November, I found myself at Sushi UO once a week (if I had all the money in the world, I would have been there far more frequently).
The last time I went, I got the botan ebi sashimi appetizer ($9), which is comprised of two sweet shrimp sashimi, one topped with uni (sea urchin roe) and the other topped with ikura (salmon roe).
The uni and the sweet shrimp is a decadent combination: sticky sweet with a rich mouthfeel.
The ikura ebi was more playful, the bubbles of salmon roe pop in your mouth and explode with flavor.
The shrimp are served alongside a centerpiece of deep-fried shrimp heads and tails, which are perfectly crisped and a pleasure to eat, texturally and in terms of flavor – the head has the best flavor!
Again, I highly recommend both of the no rice rolls (#s 1 and 2) to anyone who wants something that feels light, is on a low carb diet, or simply wants to try something new. This is the no rice roll #1 with tuna, shrimp, crab, avocado, radish sprouts, tobiko wrapped in cucumber ($13).
I’ve also blogged before about the no rice roll #2 with yellowtail, tuna, kaiware, and Asian pear, which is a total steal at $8.
Get thee to Sushi UO. Stat.
Eat: Sushi UO (LES) 151 Rivington St. between Clinton and Suffolk, upstairs. 212-677-5470. They take reservations starting at 5 pm, or you can reserve seats on Open Table.
