Rambling

Random musings on Life in the Big Apple

Pete’s Tavern, Gramercy, NYC + Bryant Park Ice Skating

One chilly day this winter, we walked around the shops at Bryant Park before bravely donning ice skates for a few spins around the rink. We then walked downtown to the oldest continuously operating restaurant and bar in NYC. It opened in 1864. At that time, Pete's was a “grocery and grog store,” the first drinking establishment on the main floor of the Portman Hotel. Today, it's a popular tavern that goes overboard with festive holiday decorations. We thankfully were in the back room to enjoy our food while being able to hear each other. Instead of ordering a full meal, we picked some apps as they had nibbled at [...]

By |2024-12-15T14:50:47-05:00January 11th, 2025|Big Apple Life, NYC Best Bites, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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**Happy Hour at Haven Rooftop, Theatre District, NYC + Left on Tenth

I had a crazy day, with a funeral uptown to picking up a friend after their medical procedure on First Avenue, so instead of heading downtown to my home, I stopped in Haven Rooftop for a glass of wine before meeting my friend at "Left on Tenth."  Julianna Margulies is on stage in Delia Ephron’s memoir about reconnection and love. I recommend. Lucky me, it was happy hour from 4 to 6 pm. I sipped a glass of their cabernet ($9) and enjoyed the slider ($6) and the cauliflower bites ($12) both of which   I would recommend. Skip the bready spring rolls ($12) Happy Hour details as of 11.26.2024 Hours:  [...]

By |2024-11-30T13:29:10-05:00January 5th, 2025|Big Apple Life, Happy Hours, NYC Best Bites, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Kimberly Akimbo + A Return to Saar, Midtown West, NYC

If you see only one thing on Broadway, see Kimberly Akimbo, the musical about a 15-year-old with a fictionalized rare disease that ages her four times the normal. The show is Tony-worthy, especially two of the performances. Victoria Clark makes you believe Kimberly is 15 instead of ready for Medicare. Aunt Debra (Bonnie Milligan) stops the show each time she belts her songs. After the show, we walked north a few blocks to Saar Indian Bistro.  The last I'd been was when we welcomed Les Dames d'Escoffier Legacy winner Chef Helen Vass almost five years ago. [Nominations for this year's 2023 LDEI Legacy Awards are open until March 17, 2023. [...]

By |2023-02-24T17:17:31-05:00February 18th, 2023|NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling, Theatre|0 Comments
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Dame Bonnie Tandy Leblang Collection at The Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library

(With excerpts from the speech given at the library's opening.) My interest in everything culinary started as soon as I could hold a wooden spoon.   I began collecting food-related stuff early and continued most of my life. That extensive collection included cookbooks, menus, pamphlets, booklets, other food/nutrition-related books – and memorabilia, like the My*T*Fine pudding package sporting an image of Howdy Doody!   I even went the food route with my education, studying and getting degrees in food science and nutrition and becoming a Registered Dietitian. When I was getting ready to sell my cookbook-lined Connecticut home and move to Manhattan, I tried to find a home for my extensive library. Most [...]

By |2023-01-02T14:00:48-05:00December 31st, 2022|Big Apple Life, Bites from the Road, NYC Best Bites, Rambling, USA, USA Restaurants, USA Travel|2 Comments
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Noodlove, Chinatown, NYC + The Orchard Tailor Services

My friend Barbara had been raving about Fabian, her inexpensive fabulous tailor in Chinatown. His hems, she explained, were about $10 and done in an hour! The pandemic got in the way, and I never got to the tailor until now. I walked down to meet Fabian and gave him one long dress to be hemmed and a tunic in need of tightening a buttonhole and adding a snap, something I could have quickly done, yet decided to see what it cost. Twenty-five minutes and $12 later, I walked out with my tailored clothing. Impressive. Since it was lunchtime, I decided to grab something at Noodlelove, a nearby restaurant. I [...]

By |2022-08-20T15:23:16-04:00August 20th, 2022|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|2 Comments
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Bryant Park Grill, Midtown, NYC + Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures

Eighteen of our ex.expat group stopped at Bryant Park Grill for lunch before our two private docent-led tours at the New York Public library. They set up a large table near the rear of the restaurant with the park as our backdrop. To ease the often chaos at the payment of the bill for a large group, we requested one bill for every four diners. They happily accommodated. They also delivered all of our food at the same time. Impressive. Some of the tasty meals included their Tuscan tomato & white bean with shaved parmesan cheese, toasted croutons, dill & truffle oil ($11.50); wild mushroom ravioli with a grilled artichoke, [...]

By |2022-04-23T11:00:33-04:00April 23rd, 2022|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Tri Dim Shanghai, Upper East Side, NYC + Private Met Tour

Lucky us. We were able to arrange a private tour of the Asia Art Galleries at the Met with Joe Scheier-Dolberg associate curator of Chinese paintings and Pengliang Lu associate curator of Chinese Decorative Arts on a day the museum was closed. In keeping with the Asian theme, we decided to lunch at Tri Dim Shanghai, an Upper East Side Chinese restaurant. My table ordered several dim sum to share including their crispy shrimp balls ($12 for 6) and Peking duck roll ($12), the steamed chicken dumplings ($12 for 5) and their classic crab and pork soup dumplings ($12 for 6). The latter were served with a warning not to [...]

By |2022-04-09T18:11:21-04:00April 3rd, 2022|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Faces and Names, Midtown West, NYC + Prayer For the French Republic 

We stopped at Faces and Names, a contemporary pub serving sandwiches & bar food, for a bite before heading to City Center around the corner to see a Prayer For the French Republic, a play that friends raved about. We were seated in the cozy back room, replete with couches in front of a fireplace and TVs.  My friend went retro with a Tito's Cosmo, I  had an Old Fashioned. We then shared their Buffalo chicken salad ($16) with chopped romaine, sliced cucumbers, crisp apple slices, grape tomatoes and walnuts topped with warm, moist, well-seasoned chicken breast cut into strips. I highly recommend. Also good is their Cubano sandwich ($16) with [...]

By |2022-03-26T10:28:35-04:00March 19th, 2022|NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling, Theatre|0 Comments
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A Messy but Fun Meal at the Boil, NoHo, NYC

Arriving during their happy hour, we first requested a few items from that menu. My dining partner began with their plump happy hour oysters ($7.50 for 6). We shared the fried calamari ($8) and added their Cajun fries ($7). Silly us. We could — and should — have stopped there, but had already ordered the main event. The Boil's menu reminded me of a fun, messy visit to Hell's Kitchen's Aqua Boil. First we selected our catch, then picked a sauce and heat level. My friend picked the head-on shrimp Boil special with a garlic-butter Cajun blend at a medium spice level; I chose the headless shrimp with the same [...]

By |2022-03-12T08:45:56-05:00February 26th, 2022|NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Brunch at Jane, Soho, NYC

The last time I was at Jane's, was a decade ago when Urbanspoon still existed. That restaurant information and recommendation service lasted a decade before being gobbled up by the India-based Zomato, now-defunct in the US. So much in our world has changed other than I still recommend a visit to this casual American bistro located on the edge of Greenwich Village and Soho. This time, I returned for a delightful brunch with attentive service. We started with what they call their "The Best Bloody Mary" ($14 regular, $5 virgin) made with their secret recipe. To me, it was a decent cocktail but certainly not the best! My friend ordered [...]

By |2022-01-11T13:36:56-05:00February 18th, 2022|NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Peter McManus Cafe, Chelsea, NYC

I had time to think about the charcoal-grilled burger and fries I was craving. Time, as I was isolating after a bout with omicron. When I was finally allowed out, I headed to Peter McManus Cafe, open since 1936. It's an Irish pub with old-city charm that includes torn plastic seats on their cozy corner round booths. I was the only person in the dining room as I went at an off time. That was even better than I had hoped for my first post-COVID outing. I ordered my medium-rare cheddar cheese bacon-topped burger with crispy fries then sat back dreaming about that first bite. It was perfection.  Juicy. Smoky.  Satisfying. [...]

By |2022-01-11T10:08:43-05:00February 15th, 2022|NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Fellow Dame Surbhi’s Restaurant Opening: Tagmo, South Street Seaport, NYC

My friend and fellow Dame, a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, Surbhi Sahni recently opened her first solo restaurant Tagmo in South Street Seaport. At Tagmo, she serves a variety of her favorite homestyle dishes from India. By the time this posts, the small shop in the front of the restaurant will be selling her sweets, South Asian cookbooks, chai and spices. Surbhi's no stranger to NY Indian fine dining; she worked at Michelin-starred Devi and Tulsi. She also was the Creative Director of Saar Indian Bistro. One friend started with their Roohafza Spritz ($8), a blend of Campari, prosecco, Indian botanical syrup and lime. The others shared a bottle [...]

By |2021-11-12T11:30:52-05:00November 4th, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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VisaVersa, Hell’s Kitchen, NYC + Letters of Surresh

Before heading to our matinee at the Tony Kiser theatre, we stopped at VisaVersa on 51st for brunch. We loved that we could order one of three cocktails — a mimosa, bellini or bloody Mary — and get refills for 2 hours for $20. I had a bloody Mary, my friend the mimosa. Our attentive waiter also placed their housemade focaccia and sliced Italian bread with softened butter on the table after serving our drinks. I ordered their poached eggs atop a crab cake ($22) with the hollandaise on the side. That platter came with lemony dressed fresh arugula. Those same greens were the base for my friend's grilled chicken [...]

By |2021-11-04T13:13:17-04:00October 30th, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|2 Comments
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A Special App at Rosa Mexicano, Gramercy-Flatiron, NYC

A local friend asked me to join her for dinner at one of her favorite haunts in our hood, Rosa Mexicano on 18th Street. From the dishes we ate at that meal, only the Tacos de Jefe Ceviche tacos are worth discussing. We cherry-picked that dish from their special "Tour de Mexico" monthly menu, one highlighting their chefs' seasonal favorites. The crispy corn tacos ($11 for 3) came filled with whitefish cubes, sweet potato chunks, aji Amarillo peppers, diced bacon and pickled red onions. Not a raw seafood eater yet an official taster I took a small bite: flavor nice, texture not so — at least for me. One small [...]

By |2021-10-29T11:34:06-04:00October 25th, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Pool Bar: The Rockaway Hotel, Rockaway, Queens

A trip to Rockaway Beach via the ferry had been on our radar all summer. We made a res at the Rooftop of the new Rockaway Hotel midafternoon, as we thought we'd have something to eat after a day at the beach. The weather didn't cooperate so we headed to lunch early, ending up at the Pool Bar, as the Rooftop doesn't open until 2. We all were in the mood for a lobster roll. That seafood mixed with mayo and lemon stuffed in a brioche roll hit the spot. New York City is really a small town. Seriously. We ran into my friend and cookbook author Rozanne Gold, who [...]

By |2024-07-21T11:12:55-04:00October 11th, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling, Rooftop|0 Comments
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Lunch with UES Friends at Due, Upper East Side, NYC

I met some friends at Due, a classic Italian trattoria on the Upper East Side for lunch recently. We sat outside at a white-tablecloth-covered table in their spacious structure. I followed the lead of my friend, as this is one of his haunts, figuring he'd know what was good. He was right. The veal in my piccata — (Scaloppine di Vitello Picatta $31) was pounded thinly enough so all it needed was a quick sauté in lemon, white wine and capers. I washed mine down with a glass of their house Montepulciano ($17).  In addition, I enjoyed their broccoli sautéed with lots of whole garlic cloves ($11). My other friend [...]

By |2021-10-31T09:33:47-04:00October 1st, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Angelina’s in NYC: Angelina’s Paris, Bryant Park, NYC

My first visit to Angelina's (226 Rue du Rivoli, Paris) was with my two, then young, sons on their inaugural European trip in 1992. I've been back to the original cafe (opened in 1903) — and so have my sons — many times for their hot chocolate. It's like drinking a melted chocolate bar.  One cup of this can satisfy more than one; it's almost too rich for one person. This hot chocolate — a blend of three kinds of African cocoa from Niger, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire — is not to be missed. I'd been wanting to go to the New York Angelina Paris located adjacent to Bryant Park [...]

By |2021-10-31T09:26:12-04:00September 17th, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|1 Comment
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L’Express, Gramercy-Flatiron, NYC + Madison Square Park Bubble Man

On our way to the playground on the northern end of Madison Square Park, we bumped into the bubble man entertaining kids with his giant bubbles. He did so by both enclosing families in large bubbles and giving kids ropes connected to two sticks for them to dip into his soapy water bucket to produce free-floating ones.   We headed to L'Express, a French bistro on Park Avenue South at the corner of 20th Street after my granddaughter made new friends at the playground. I had my usual warm chèvre salad ($16) missing the traditional tomato confit and black olives. This time they offered the warm goat cheese atop crisp [...]

By |2021-10-31T09:26:19-04:00September 15th, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Don Giovanni Restaurant, Chelsea, NYC + King Nyani

Reservations are not needed on weekdays to stroll along the Highline, a 1.45-mile-long elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail. That park was created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan. It's currently from Gansevoort Street by the Whitney Museum to Hudson Yards. We were strolling north along the park on our way to see King Nyani. Getting hungry somewhere near the 23rd street egress, we left the park and walked toward 10th Avenue. Don Giovanni's restaurant's awning claiming "The Best Brick-Oven Pizza in Town" caught our eye. That and it was the only thing open. We shared their large ($24) Margherita classic [...]

By |2021-10-31T09:26:32-04:00September 11th, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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Mediterranean Cuisine at Leyla, Upper West, Side, NYC + Merry Wives at The Delacorte

Found Leyla, a Mediterranean restaurant, in searching for places less than a mile from The Delacorte as a potential one for The Public's Patron program. We were seated in the tiny garden in the back. The meal started strong with their beetroot carpaccio salad ($14), thinly sliced beets, topped with fresh arugula drizzled with a lemon oil dressing and garnished with four 1-inch balls of goat cheese rolled in herbs. I'd recommend that. My dining partner had eaten pide, the Turkish flatbread cooked in a brick oven, describing it as looking like a small pizza. Our slow-cooked short rib pide ($15) was different; it resembled strudel with the dough wrapped [...]

By |2021-10-31T09:26:47-04:00September 1st, 2021|Big Apple Life, NYC Restaurant Reviews, Rambling|0 Comments
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