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a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.View my photography website.
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Tag Archives: lunch
Lunch: Ai Fiori
A restaurant on the second floor of a Midtown hotel may not sound promising, but Ai Fiori has couple things going for it. Not only is it the latest project by chef Michael White, it’s such a zen, air-conditioned oasis that you will forget you’re on the second floor of a hotel in Midtown.
This is particularly good if you work in Midtown and can take advantage of the discounted Restaurant Week lunch happening there now. Step out of the steamy city, up to the second floor of the Setai and into an elegant, minimalist, flower-bedecked space that recalls the old days of hotel dining, when many of the best restaurants were in hotels. It’s like walking out of the urban jungle and into civilization. (more…)
Posted in food
Tagged crab, French food, Italian food, lunch, Michael White, Midtown, New York, restaurants
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Open on University: Sausage Inc.
On the heels of the news that no hot dog is free of nitrates, even the organic, all-natural kind, new take out shop Sausage Inc. has opened on University Place, replacing the short lived and ill named “Wok to Walk.” According to the window signage, Sausage Inc. “grinds, seasons, and links all sausages every day on the premises,” using “no chemicals, no MSG.” Freshly made sausage is usually not cured, naturally or otherwise, so head here instead of Sabrett’s if you’re feeling remorseful about your own personal Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.
Sausage Inc.
106 University Place between 12th and 13th Streets
Rockaway Taco
There’s been a lot of press about the Rockaways lately – the surfing, the scene and the new food kiosks opening up on the boardwalk. But before you get distracted by the latest additions, don’t forget to hit up the original shack that made the Rockaways a food destination, because it’s still the best out there.
Started by David Selig in 2008 and chefed by Andrew Field, Rockaway Taco is a beachy, Montauk-esque takeaway joint across from abandoned houses and around the corner from a row of boarded up shops. There may be more Williamsburg weekenders in the Rockaways now, but this area still has a long way to go until total gentrification. Colorful little Rockaway Taco is a beacon of good food and good vibes, unskippable if you’ve already made it all the way out to the end of the A line. (more…)
Montauk Dining & Drinking
If you ever want to convince someone to like the Hamptons, take them to Montauk. Of course, they might claim that this fishing and surfing village is not actually a Hampton, since there are very few manicured lawns, polo players or designer boutiques in sight. But this naturally beautiful, windswept tip of Long Island could charm even the staunchest Hampton hater.
Once just the site of fish shacks and red sauce joints, Montauk has been luring serious diners out here ever since Sam Talbot took over at the Surf Lodge several years back, right after winning Top Chef. He has since moved on to Imperial No. 9, but Montauk’s culinary caché lingers on. For one thing, it would be hard for a seafood chef to be much closer to the source, since lobsters, clams, oyster and fish are hauled in to the docks here every day. Unlike tourist attractions like Mystic, this is still very much a working fishing village.
Posted in food, travel
Tagged bars, Bloody Marys, guides, lobster rolls, lunch, New York, restaurants, the Hamptons
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Asiadog
Corn dogs are best avoided if you can’t help wondering when the actual hot dog last saw the light of day before it was encrypted in a wall of starchy, mysteriously cylindrical corn breading. Last month? Or several millennia ago?
So it was with some trepidation that I ordered the kimchi pancake corndog ($6) at the new eight-seat restaurant and takeout joint Asiadog on Kenmare street. Theirs was no machine-made corn dog, however, but a reassuringly asymmetrical dog, pictured right, much like an actual kimchi pancake would look when recently wrapped around a beef hot dog and deep fried until golden brown. The results were astoundingly delicious, drizzled with a sweet and spicy homemade sauce a lot like the addictive sauce in a good bulgogi. (more…)
Lunch: Peels
Let’s face it: this neighborhood really doesn’t need another trendy restaurant. The Bowery between Houston and Astor Place is already home to restaurants by Daniel Boulud, Scott Conant and Keith McNally. Nevertheless, the partners behind trendy Freeman’s, Taavo Somer and William Tigertt, picked the Bowery for their new restaurant Peels, and what it became is something of a surprise: a neighborhood restaurant, the only thing the neighborhood lacked.
Perhaps because New Yorkers are constantly subjected to an onslaught of modernity – HD video advertising in Times Square, PDA menus – we’re suckers for old timey things like tin ceilings and Amish beards on hipsters. Step into Peels and you feel as if you’re stepping into a diner-like place that existed out on a rural route 50 years ago. There’s a wooden counter perfect for lunching alone and a communal table in the center. The walls and yes, tin ceilings are whitewashed and inlaid with mirrors, and a whole roomy third of the downstairs is allocated to a coffee bar, so you don’t have to battle your neighbors for the urns of half and half and retro aluminum sugar bowls. (more…)
Vapiano
This first branch of this rapidly-expanding Italian “fast casual” chain in New York, Vapiano fills a void left by Dean & DeLuca when that panini and coffee shop closed just a couple blocks down on University Place, and it will probably become to the neighborhood what Dean & DeLuca was: a go-to place for a simple lunch or dinner. What will keep it from closing like Dean & DeLuca did? Vapiano has a liquor license, a spacious bar and a knack for marketing.
The light-filled interior, with soaring ceilings and sleek Italian design throughout, sets the stage for what’s actually a very back-to-basics dining experience, though at first glance it seems high tech. After picking up a key card at the door, you take a tray and collect your meal yourself, selecting panini, salads, pizza and pasta from various food stations, where they prepare each dish in front of you and scan the card. If your college dining hall went gourmet, this is what it would be like. (more…)
Mother’s Restaurant, New Orleans
Certain hometown restaurants inspire a kind of mania among their fans. In New Orleans, that restaurant would be Mother’s, whose po’ boy gets raves from longtime patrons of the creole lunch counter. Go here and locals will give you one important instruction about that sandwich: “Make sure you get the debris.”
As with many recent additions to New Orleans patois, this one has a traceable history. When a customer asked for the shreds of roast beef from the pan on his po’ boy, original Mother’s owner Simon Landry responded, “You mean the debris?” A sandwich was born. (more…)
Lunch: Bark Hot Dogs
Hot dogs may be one of the most basic New York foods: a tube of beef or pork, a squishy bun, and some mustard, ketchup and relish. Simple, right? Wrong. Hot dogs just got a whole lot more gourmet at Bark Hot Dogs in Park Slope.
There are 10 different kinds of hot dog on the menu at this airy, industrial space with communal tables and high school science lab stools. But Bark’s are a different kind of mystery meat from your traditional dirty water dog. Commissioned from Hartmann’s Old World Sausage in Rochester, the recipe is a private label affair, with the exact mix of ingredients kept secret. But the mix of pork and beef with garlic and spices served as an excellent canvas for the creations that followed. (more…)
Lunch: Corrado Bread and Pastry
Errands are much less tedious when you can combine them with good food. So when you find yourself on the Upper East Side, soften the blow by heading to Corrado Bread and Pastry on Lexington and 70th for lunch. This is Italian bread done right, with the dark, crunchy crust that Anthony Mangieri described at Una Pizza Napoletano, and soft, spongy interior. It’s always worthwhile to buy a loaf of their ciabatta to go.
There are so many varieties of Italian panini-style sandwich at Corrado that it’s hard to choose, but a good bet is the prosciutto sandwich with mozzarella, arugula, tomato and pesto. (more…)
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