Sister and I took a (somewhat) impromptu long weekend trip to NYC (we’d found decently priced hotel (Wyndham Chinatown)/airfare, and most importantly, and the reason for even going - tix to a matinee of Glengarry Glen Ross at the Palace Theater!)
Since it really hadn’t been in our vacay budget for the year (since we’re leaving for Japan in 3 weeks), we tried to keep food low-key, mostly on-the-fly, while also hitting places we’d never been before. Our first night was an 11:30 pm foray to the Grand Street skewer cart where we each ordered a lamb skewer, a pork skewer for her, and a shrimp for me (spicy on all for me).
We both liked the lamb - nice gamey char - but the pork was overdone. Shrimp was good too, but overall, I don’t think we’d necessarily go back (it was right around the corner from our hotel). Perhaps if we’d shown up AFTER hitting a couple of bars we’d have appreciated it more.
We went to Otto’s Shrunken Head - we’re suckers for dive bars with live music - but found out too late that NYC doesn’t allow live music after midnight! So after a couple of boozy tiki drinks, we headed over to The Library (divey punky bar) for a couple more cocktails while chatting with the very friendly locals and listening to the spectacular jukebox). Then it was on to Katz’s Deli (my sister had never been), where we only had to wait maybe 10 minutes in line at 2:00 a.m. We split a fatty pastrami on rye and a cup of matzoh ball soup, she had a chocolate egg cream and i had a stout.
Pastrami was killer, of course. The ratio of savory fat to silky meat to those lovely charred edges was just perfect. I found the broth in the soup a little bland but my sister liked it. Great way to end our first night.
Next morning we slept in a bit and headed to the nearest Empanada Mama. I got the El Jefe (birria beef, corn/peppers, Oaxacan cheese, cilantro lime rice) and my sister got the Viagra(!) (seafood stew with shrimp and crab.)
Both were excellent. Fried crispy/flaky shells, as they should be, none of this baked nonsense, and the filling in both was really tasty. Loved the hot sauces that came with them too. Made for a very good/filling/cheap breakfast. I’d absolutely go back and try them all.
Bopped around and went to our show (after a HUGE snafu with a happy ending after we threw $$$ at it) (and show was absolutely FAB. If you can, GO.) Then it was on to meet a lovely ex-Chowhounder and her godson for dinner at The Shell Seafood Kitchen & Bar in the UWS. We’d originally had reservations at the Lincoln Center Ristorante but they’d cancelled our rez as they booked a private event. We all got to the restaurant in time for puh-lenty of happy hour oysters and countless bottles of cava, followed by apps and great fish entrees all around.
Calamari ala plancha and Valenciana clams (no pic) were both wonderful. The four of us had: the branzino, the halibut, the swordfish, and the Chilean seabass. All well-prepared, really tasty.
This was obviously a splurgy meal. While this may not necessarily be a destination place, it fit the bill and we enjoyed both the food and the company immensely (only sad we missed out seeing another CHer who couldn’t make it last minute.)
Afterward we went to Shalel, a Medi restaurant with little grottos and waterfalls (!!) for nightcaps, and ended up getting plied with shots of some amazing, unnamed liqueur (or brandy?) infused with eggplant and saffron!
Stumbling back to our hotel, we hit our bodega and split an absolutely necessary chopped cheese sandwich - heaven! where has this been all my life??
Seriously, I’d hit this again.
The next morning found us once again at the same bodega to have my very first… drumroll, please…
BEC! what a delight! We split one with mayo only (no ketchup), and ate it standing in the Hester Street Playground. Another perfect little bfast.
We’d vowed to get a slice on this trip and, headed to The Cloisters, I googled best pizza in the area which turned up Pizza Palace on Dyckman.
It may not be L’Industrie, or Joe’s or John’s, and it may not look like much, but it was deceptively delicious. Great sauce, juicy, crust was perfectly done, with a little bit of bend. I don’t prefer the sliced sausages to the chunks but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. We each had a slice but couldn’t finish them.
After The Cloisters (amazing) we headed to the Morgan Library & Museum (awesome) and afterwards, zoomed over to Le French Diner - a tiny hole-in-the-wall which gets raves for its simple, very good French food that industry types like to chow down on when their own shifts have ended. We got there 15 minutes before they opened, waited in a short line, and snagged seats at the bar.
Magic happens here. We split les oeufs mayonnaise, charred cabbage with a walnut vinaigrette, escargot, hangar steak and potatoes dauphinoise, and a sour cherry “panna cotta”.
les oeufs were dreamy, as was the cabbage. the escargot were a tad garlicky/bitter but still very good, the steak was perfectly cooked, flavorful, chewy, but the dauphinoise was the absolute Goddess of the show. I shit you not, hands down the best I’ve ever had, here or in France. Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, just wonderful. The dessert was also very good - a silky custard (our server/bartender said “don’t call it panna cotta, it’s not panna cotta”) with sour cherries and flaky sea salt. A great meal start to finish. Beer and wine only, and sadly no bubbles by the glass. We managed, with some good glasses of white, orange, and red.
In answer to our query of “a bar nearby with really good cocktails, please?”, our hostess steered us to Attaboy - a speakeasy-type place where you wait outside a sign-less door until someone peeping at you from the inside lets you in.
We only waited about 3 minutes and were treated to some amazing craft cocktails, of which we had waaaay too many, PLUS a glass (or two??) of bubbly to finish.
Whiskey sour made with some type of amaro - very subtle and refreshing!
We’d been chatting to two sweet young women, and when we asked them for a good place for a late night snack, hours later, they sent us to the Eel Bar, which serves tapas-like dishes.
Never trust cute young things who’ve had too much to drink when it comes to good food. Everything was fine, and we ate it all, just not great. We had the fried black bass with a giant blob of mayo, the fried mussels on the half-shell, and a Gilda, the famous Northern Spain pintxo. The Gilda kinda actually offended - a pickled cucumber instead of a guindilla pepper? How dare you, sir.
The next morning, our last, we should have gone back to austerity measures, but I’d discovered that Balthazar, which I’d wanted to try for EONS, serves bfast.
Oysters for Monday brunch? Why the hell not? We split the salmon eggs bennie too. The salmon was silken perfection, but the muffins were tough. But hell, that gorgeous space is enough to draw me back next time, if only for a cocktail and a snack.
We spent the morning at the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (great!) and had a very late lunch at Bar Primi.
FANTASTIC beet salad with horseradish yogurt, pistachios, orange segments, chives. Need to try to recreate this. The chitarra & clams, a house specialty, were also perfect, and we soaked up the sauce with some good, spongy bread. For me the winner, though, was the ragu bolognese with pappardelle. The pasta was so perfectly al dente, the ragu rich, meaty and heady. A great last meal in NYC. 
While we didn’t exactly succeed in sticking to a budget, we did better than usual, and had great eats at all price points. We had a fabulous time as usual and, as usual, can’t wait to go back.
(Sorry this was so long - i really thought it would be much less wordy since we were there for so short a time! 
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it’s gotta depend on the nabe, one would think.
