Eleven Madison Park: Cloud Nine

Even the coffee is extraordinary here.

Lobster

Even at the finest New York City restaurants, coffee service is a relative after-thought that is hardly given the kind of attention granted to its entrees, desserts or cocktails.  Not so at the highly decorated Eleven Madison Park. This elegant restaurant, on the edge of verdant Madison Square Park, was recently minted with three Michelin stars. Moreover, it has won every James Beard award that it is eligible for, along with maximum starred-ratings from the New York Times and Forbes. Its coffee program, featuring the highest-end beans and siphon brewing, was started by James Betz, a bartender at the restaurant who enjoys brewing coffee at home.  (His uncle is Ken Nye of the New York coffee institution that is Ninth Street Espresso, but that’s strictly an aside.)

Siphon in the day.  Even more gorgeous at night.

It hardly takes a meal at this restaurant to see how attentive the staff is to details.  As soon as you walk in, you are cordially greeted, and taken in by the towering ceiling, cream colored roses, and linen covered tables.  This is a restaurant where every one of your servers—and there are several—are able to answer any questions you may have about where, exactly, the food is coming from and how it is prepared. If you show a particular interest in say the cakes of butter served with your bread, you will be presented with information about the farm it came from on a hand-written note on cardstock stationary.  If you step away from the table, you will find it in even nicer condition than you left it, with your napkin neatly folded, crumbs swept away.  The staff manages to accomplish all this without being a trace overbearing. And the food?  Almost too beautiful to eat, it is exceptionally delicious.

Jim explained his motivations to pitch the idea of a coffee program to the restaurant’s management.  “The pinnacle of coffee could only be found at coffee shops,” he said.  “I wanted to bring that kind of quality here. I thought it was possible, at a place like this, to do even more than what is done at a specialty coffee shop.”  On the first night of Eleven Madison Park’s coffee program, there were so many orders for siphon and Chemex (their other brewing offering) that Jim was on the phone to his supplier asking for all the specialized equipment he could possibly send over—pronto!

While Jim continues to manage the program, Eleven Madison Park has a barista on staff who, like Jim, the restaurant captains and sommeliers, has completed 14-16 hours of training in siphon brewing at the Intelligentsia lab across town.

So now an exquisite gastronomical experience at one of the most coveted restaurants in Manhattan can be finished off with some of the best java on the planet.

By the way, if I ever have the privilege of eating here again, I will never, ever take stealth photos  again.  It was like sacrilege.

Momofuku Noodlebar

Momofuku Noodlebar
163 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10003

(212) 500-0831

If I lived in Manhattan, I would be a regular at this place.

I was so jealous when the twenty-something guy next to us told us that he comes several times a week to eat here. We were inquiring about his bowl of stocky rice noodles, which we couldn't find on the menu.  (Note: the food is ten times better looking and far less yellow than these photos suggest.)

Tamale

What I love about Momofuku Ssam Bar, where I went last year and this place--Momofuku Noodlebar, is how understated they are. Both are situated in Lower East Side neighborhoods that don't often make tourists' lists.  Maybe it's because there is too much graffiti around or not enough glitter.  In any case, both restaurants are quite easy to walk past without noticing. Yet, the food is out of this world. 

Sitting at the bar at Momofuku Noodlebar, I felt very much at home, even though I had never been there before. It was so casual in a swanky New Yorker kind of way.  The pierced servers were in t-shirts and jeans--the most casually dressed people in the restaurant.  Yet they knew everything about the food they were serving as evidenced by their ability to make specific recommendations and have personal favorites for every section on the menu.   There was one server with glasses who looked more like a computer geek than a singer in garage band, but he knew his menu too, and was very pleasant.

Eggplant

During the trip, I also checked out the Momofuku Milk Bar, in Midtown.  Having flipped for Momofuku Ssam bar last year, I was embracing everything David Chang and was so taken by these milk bars.  But I am done with them now. The sweets are made from corn syrup and PHOs which I avoid, if I know they are in there.  The sweets are also cloyingly sweet for me. But, I do have to go back once more at least to try Crack Pie.

Famous pork bellydumplings

Very possibly I would run from the restaurants if I knew what the ingredients of those sauces and dressings were.  But Momofuku doesn't list ingredients, and I will happily suspend my puritan ways for experiences like the kind it offers.

Heirloom tomato salad

Well, as long as David Chang's empire in Manhattan continues to grow, there will be more trips I will have to make to the Big Apple. 

Mo' Mo' Milkbar

Gaga for Momofuku, we sampled some treats from its Midtown and East Village milkbars.

East Village Milkbar


"Corn Cookie"

Imagine corn bread in cookie form. That's the Momofuku Corn Cookie.

The East Village location, at 207 2nd Avenue, is a bit bigger than the one in Midtown at 15 W. 56th.

Inside the East Village Milkbar

Inside the Midtown Milkbar

Kimchi & Blue Cheese Croissant

The Kimchi & Blue Cheese Croissant has a salty sharpness to it, the way lox and cream cheese does. This puppy must have a half stick of butter in it--it is heavy as a brick and flaky. Divine.

Milk that tastes literally like cornflakes in milk. But made with high fructose corn syrup. What's up with that? My impression from dinner was that Momofuku takes exceptional care to get the finest ingredients. So this kind of thing puzzles me. Whatever. This stuff is terribly yummy. Also tried the "Cereal Milk" soft serve, which is like the milk in different form. So simple and so good. Okay, next...

"Cornflake-Marshmallow-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie"

The cornflake cookie had been off the menu but is back recently, by popular demand. Very sweet, soft and gooey.

"Compost Cookie"

My sweet-n-salty favorite, with "pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch and chocolate chips."

Ssam Bar is right next door at the East Village location.

"Momo" means peach in Japanese. This place certainly is a peach.

Momo-mo-mo-mo-fuku

Momofuku Ssam Bar
207 2nd Ave
New York City

"Greek Sardine - arugula, strawberry and toasted rice"

We went to dinner here at 9PM on a Monday night, and the place was full. But we had better luck here than at The Daily Show, and, as soon as we arrived, a table in the corner--adjacent to the kitchen with a long view of the restaurant--opened up.

View from the corner table by the kitchen.

Originally we had gone to Balthazar in SoHo, but were turned off by the touristy atmosphere. And it looked a bit like a deluxe version of TGI Fridays. In contrast to the website photos, there seemed to be no feeling of intimacy there. So we pulled our name from the reservation list and headed to Momofuku, another of Vicki’s favorite restaurants.

"Warm Silken Tofu - heirloom tomatoes, myoga, watermelon"

The service was knowledgeable, unpretentious and endearingly disheveled-looking. Our waitress had a nose-ring, tunic and sparkly eyeshadow; and our two other servers were dudes in baggy cargo shorts and sneakers. They knew how to present a steamed bun to the woman at the table--open faced towards her.

"Blackened Bluefish Sandwich - iceberg lettuce, potato chips" -- A to-die-for fish sandwich.

The restaurant is connected to a milk bar (more in the next blog), which features items like "Hawaiian BBQ" shakes, "Banana Green Curry Bread," and "Crack Pie" (“toasted oat crust and gooey butter filling”). There, a clerk was wearing a huge blue bow around her head earlier on in the day.

"Steamed Buns - pork belly, hoisin, cucumbers, scallions"

Open plea to David Chang: please open up a restaurant in San Francisco.

Pork Steamed Bun - A special of the day

In Short

Food: Small plates of creative fusion (not just Asian-fusion); they call it American food
Bathrooms: Clean but small
Ambiance: Local, sophisticated, creative crowd
Quirks: They serve no hot water!
Other: Lots of meat (pork) on the menu. Vegetarian plates are limited.

Tips on Seeing The Daily Show

...because we didn't!

We did not get in, despite having tickets. But we didn't try hard enough.

Main tip is: If it is summertime, go especially early--like consider getting in line at 3pm or earlier.

Some days before the taping, we received an email from The Daily Show with the following instructions in it:

Important Information:
We recommend you get on line no later than 4:00pm. Tickets will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis. All shows are overbooked to ensure capacity and no one is guaranteed entry. You must bring your ticket letter/confirmation with you to the taping. It will serve as your proof of reservation and allow you to stand in our line.If you would like to cancel your tickets, please do so immediately.

We were there by 4pm. I refused to get there earlier given that it was sauna-like outside, and I had fewer than 24-hours left in the city. I could be doing other stuff, like eating chicken and rice from the Halal Cart!

At about 4:30PM, a Daily Show employee emerged and addressed a bunch of sweaty people in our section of the line. He told us he was sorry that we could not be offered seats but that we could check availability over at the Colbert Report, a few blocks down.

So off we went.

We put our names on the list. But about half an hour later, we were told that we would likely not get in.

The good news was: more time to wander around in SoHo!

Street Food

Monday, August 16, 2010, 2:00PM

1,171 Yelp reviews (as of this writing) and 4.5 stars!!!


And right on my block!

Met Carline there for lunch. This is inexpensive and satisfying street food...and they give you generous portions (two meals worth, depending on how much you eat).

There is a line. But it moves fast. There are also Halal carts on every corner, it seems, and they look similar. So look carefully if you want to try this this one, though given the competition in New York, I wouldn't doubt it the other ones are also tasty.

Window Shopping at Chelsea Market

Chelsea Market is windowless and basement-like, but it has a satisfying selection of eateries (or satellites of them). I like focusing on the carbs, chocolate and dairy. But it ain't the Ferry Building for anyone who is wondering.

Ronnybrook Farms' Milk Case

Ronnybrook Farms' Milk Bar

Jacques Torres. Would love a hot chocolate stand like this close to work.

Sarabeth's Kitchen

Inside the kitchen of Sarabeth's Kitchen

9th Avenue Espresso

Next to Jacques Torres

Eleni's

Stone Park Café: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Shabby on the outside, adorable on the inside.

Back on July 26, I saw a picture of the inside of Stone Park Café in the Times and got sad. Why doesn't San Francisco have places like these? I whined.

Well, going there for dinner only exacerbated my feelings.

The service was good, the food was excellent and the place, in all it's bricky glory, is a bit more worn down than the pictures reveal, but nonetheless charming.

The restaurant emphasizes farm-to-table food, but I did not know this until later. Still, it figures. Click here to watch the restaurant's video.

Vicki provided four options for dinner, and when I asked her which among them was in the cutest 'hood, and had more meatless options, she said, probably this one. The other woman joining us at a prime corner table in the second dining room (invariably arranged by Vicki) was Pam, another girlhood friend. We weren't all members of the same posse, but hung out together on occasion. Pam was surely the most popular of us.

As I devoured my beet salad, I wondered if, unlike them, I had changed at all since I was 16...(I mean besides getting wrinkles, having had several jobs, etc.).

Besides my beets (with roasted nuts and tomatoes), I had ginger quinoa, a hunk of cedar plank salmon, and lemon tart with whipped cream for dessert. It was all delicious.

My three attempts at food pictures failed, and I did not want to offend my old friends by seeming more interested in the the food than in them.

If you are in Park Slope, go to this place.

In Short

Food: A- (beet salad had a bit too much vinaigrette; lemon tart good but not extraordinary)

Atmosphere: A (Casual but classy)

Service: A- (Allowed us to linger even when the place was full)

Bathrooms: A- (Clean, private rooms)


Key:
A Among the best I've experienced
B Very good
C So-so
D WTF

"Cheers," on the Upper East Side

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The view from the TVs at Kinsale Tavern

Source: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/our-opening-day-in-pictures

Determined to watch the season-opener Liverpool/Arsenal game on Sunday, I searched sports bars in NYC on Yelp, my source for everything. I entered search terms like "English football," "EPL," "World Cup," and "Soccer." My final analysis:

• Nevada Smith's - fun sounding but smelly
• Atlantic Chip Shop - cool but too far (Brooklyn)
• Clancy's - Perfect; walkable...but upon calling discovered they were no longer Clancy's.
• Kinsale- way up on the East Side, but what the heck. Options were narrowing.
  

Dudes with fohawks making football predictions after the game.

The deal on Kinsale, 1672 3rd Ave:

• Patronized by locals
• Serious about their football
• Excellent service
• Clean
• Cozy
  

Kinsale has a sweet, female, Irish bartender who calls you "love," along with other friendly servers. Patrons are in t-shirts and shorts, and jeans, including the women. When I arrived, a few minutes after kick-off, the bar was packed.

I found a spot in the back towards the dining room with excellent viewing of the game (along with that of lacrosse games).

Clearly people knew each other at Kinsale, and as I watched them analyze plays and chat with one another, I longed to be one of them. There were men and women there of all ages. For a while I thought I was the only Asian in there but no! There were even a few young Asian dudes! The atmosphere was boisterous with some standard New Yorker cursing and shouting at bad plays.

With Ravenna watching in California, I was able to text with a kindred spirit, making me feel less lonely.

I loved this bar. I have a go-to for the next time I need a football fix while in the Big City.

Oh, yeah--the game: it was a draw at 1-1--very exciting. And both boyfriends played too!

Cheers!

Dinner & Dessert

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Comfort food at Kennedy's

327 W. 57th

I love Thanksgiving dinner. So I ordered it on this evening, before the Lincoln Center concert.

At Irish pubs in New York, the staff have Irish accents--at least some of them. What a perk! What a glorious perk!

We were seated in the clubby dining section in the back where a Musak version of "Penny Lane" played repeatedly for a good twenty minutes. Deep in conversation, Maura and I had tuned it out, but during a pause we noticed it was still playing. But our server quickly did something about it: moments later it was other Musak-type songs, but at least they were different.

Maura says this place is reliable for standard Irish fare. Burgers, Shepherd's Pie, etc. (attention carnivores).

Dessert was Lincoln Center.

The Mostly Mozart Orchestra played an all-Mozart program of his popular works:

• Symphony No. 25 in G minor

• Piano Concerto 20 in D minor (Antti Siirala, Pianist)

• Symphony No. 40 in G minor

The concert was the highpoint of the day. The music had a rapturous quality. (Tinkling piano and melodic reeds will get me on most occasions.)

We had good seats in row T of the orchestra section, at $62 each, purchased about a month before the event. If you get them sooner, you'll have even better seats. Below is a poor picture that will (hopefully) give you a sense of where we were seated...although now that I am looking at it, it looks farther back than it seemed then. Whatever the case, yes I would totally do that again and be delighted with those seats, especially if the man in front of me weren't as tall.

(The staggered section of people way in the back are audience members--not musicians. The stage is between them and people dressed in white who seem to be arranging themselves.)

The scene at the fountain at night.

The Mostly Mozart concerts, like the beach, epitomize summer for me. So I had me my summer moment.

5 Ave

Louis Vuitton

Even though I favor grunge-wear, I enjoy seeing high-fashion. So Maura, who has a designer's eye, and I headed up Madison and Fifth avenues after lunch on Saturday.

But the experience was a let-down. Everyone was dressed as if going to a carnival: in T-shirts, shorts, sneakers and flip-flops...and many were carrying cameras. (Including me! But I was wearing a tank top with sequins!) And the stores were...well, not exactly inviting. Not because they had snooty vibes but because we could not get past the cosmetics' counters without getting accosted!

We entered Bendel's and were promptly ambushed. Seconds later, Maura had creams on her face, and was being told by an ebullient saleswoman that the all-natural products she had on--which were making her wrinkles disappear and her lips get plump--were available for only $300.

When at last we made it upstairs, we discovered that there were no clothes anywhere. Sections of floor were closed off for renovation. What? No clothes at Henri Bendel's?!

We were now deep into the store's accessories' section. But Bendel's has only one set of exit doors, and they are located beyond the dense makeup counters and perfume sprayers we'd managed to escape earlier.

Well, we made it out alive without hurting anyone. The other store we went to (and quickly exited) was Bergdorf's. It was too overwhelming.

That said, Fifth Avenue had a few noteworthy storefronts. Besides Louis Vuitton, there was Christian Dior:

Christian Dior scaffolding says "Closed for renovations. Opening December 2010. Visit our boutique on Madison..."

(Apparently Christian Dior will provide car service to their boutique to its customers. Nice.)

And then, in a completely different class of its own, there was this:

Do they look like they love their jobs or what. Blond bookends at Abercrombie. Where else?

When I told Carline, a New Yorker, about the these guys at Abercrombie, she said, "You mean they had shirts on?"