Scarpetta is a legit excellent Italian restaurant. Scott Conant, of “Chopped” judging fame, is the owner. My wife and I went here to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Here’s a quick photo dump with some info about each item. Eat here. Fucking do it.
First is the table bread. Its a really amazing selection of warm & crispies that comes with olive oil, mascarpone butter, eggplant tomato sauce and a pair of stromboli: broccoli rabe and salami. So much for not eating meat on Good Friday!
Next is the creamy polenta topped with truffled mushrooms. Really decadent and delicious.
And the sfornato: duck leg atop a savory custard with pickled sunchoke. Amazing.
Now the pasta. First was the saffron cavatelli with oxtail. Delicious, though a touch too salty for my preference.
My wife had the agnolotti with marrow and braised short rib inside. These were great, and unexpectedly light.
At this point we were fucking stuffed, but there’s always room for meat. Goat meat in fact. This capretto was in the style of ossobuco or braised shank, though made up of many parts of the animal. Served with chopped broccoli rabe. Scrum-diddly-umptious.
We were too full for dessert unfortunately, but we did have a fake sighting of Alex Guarnaschelli on the way out. Both my wife and I could swear it was her, but I asked her on twitter and she said that it wasn’t her. Pretty cool that she even responded.
UPDATE 4/16/14: This place just skyrocketed into the top of my list. On a whim a small gang of us misfits decided to grab a steak.
The place was so crowded that we ended up having to sit at the charcuterie and cheese bar (formerly the ice cream and cake serving area), but it was an incredible meal. We started with some steak and tuna tartares, and an order of bone marrow. This place has, hands down, the best steak tartare I’ve ever eaten.
I seriously could have eaten JUST THAT for my entire meal, like 6 orders of it. The marrow is pretty incredible too, and the tuna tartare was nice, cool, fresh, and peppery.
The meal kept getting progressively better. The steaks came out. three of us got rib eyes, and one of us got a filet. Let me start with the filet: I retract all comments previously made about filets being for pussies and broads. When my buddy was ordering his filet, I heard him throwing around words like “bloody” and phrases like “black and blue” and “cold inside.” I think he even suggested they just torch the outside to get a crust, and bring the thing over still pulsing in the final clutches of life. So when it came over I was interested to see how it looked.
Looks marvelous! I had a bite. Best filet to date, and I am not exaggerating just because I had three martinis. From now on I am ordering my filets this way. Awesome. Juicy, flavorful, soft, well seasoned.
So now for the rib eye. Check out the slab of dinosaur meat on this puppy:
As I predicted (below, in earlier review), the single cut rib steak at 24oz is MUCH better than the large format 64oz cut. It cooks more evenly, and it has a better ratio of crust to soft inside. The super thick steaks often get over-cooked on the outside and under-cooked on the inside. This one was perfect in every way. Do you see anything left? Yes – I even picked up the bone and chewed off the gristle.
On the side we had some cheese gnocchi (below), creamed spinach, and baby potatoes (on plate above). All were delicious. The creamed spinach was just right; not overwhelmed with salt and just the right amount of creaminess.
I guess that pretty much wraps it up. OH WAIT! The guy working the cheese and cuts counter was named Danny. Really awesome guy and he gave us a plate of four assorted cheeses. All were really fantastic but the blue cheese was my favorite.
This place is one of my new top steak joints. Please do yourself a favor and get the fuck over there ASAP.
My wife and I dined at Quality Meats once before I started reviewing steakhouses. I remember thinking it was a pretty good spot, and liking the massive bone that came attached to my ribeye. At the time I remember liking Smith & Wollensky better. By the way this place is owned by the same people as Smith & Wollensky, as well as Maloney & Porcelli; so right off the bat you know you are stepping into a place that knows what’s up. This time around we went with a friend of ours to give it the full Johnny Prime rundown.
Flavor: 10
On my first go at QM, I had the bone-in ribeye. I remember being impressed with the size of it, and the huge frenched bone – it was like an axe. My wife had a trio of filets that time. I wasn’t blown away by that, but I do remember liking the ribeye. This time me and the other ass-kicking manimal at the table split a 64oz ribeye for two, and my wife had a seafood tower. The meat was delicious. While it is difficult to ensure even cooking throughout such a huge hunk of meat, Quality Meats did a pretty damn good job. There was only one spot where the meat was a little too under, and not seasoned enough (in the center), and portions of the fat cap were a bit too salty and overcooked. However, if you combined a bite of each, it was a perfect medium. In hindsight it might have been better to go with two 24oz ribeyes (one each), but I was certainly impressed with the flavor. There was a distinct char on the meat, crispy edges, and an abundance of rosemary flavor, which after a while I thought was too much. In fact rosemary seemed to be pretty much the theme of the meal. It was also baked into the table breads. See below – there is a massive sprig of rosemary sticking out of the meat. You will also notice it is chopped up on the bread as well. This isn’t necessarily BAD; I like the aroma and flavor of rosemary, but I DO NOT like the actual needles themselves. They bother me. They also served the steak with a really vinegary mushroom and onion mix. They were black and just way too overpowering; we avoided that shit like the plague.
Strip & Porterhouse were both great. 9/10.
Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 10
There is a lot to choose from here, and I like that. A porterhouse for two was on special, as was a bone-in filet, so that makes up for what isn’t on the standard menu. Otherwise there’s a great selection: a regular filet, a trio of filets, a “sirloin” (Why am I starting to get used to steakhouses cheaping out and putting aged sirloin on the menu instead of a real strip?), a hanger, a ribeye, and a ribeye for two. I was going to take a point off for having sirloin instead of strip, but given the fact that they have a double ribeye AND a hanger, I am graciously awarding the full score here. They also have several nice alternative meats if beef isn’t your thing (you know, if you’re an asshole).
Portion Size & Plating: 10
The sizes are as follows: 12oz filet; 18oz bone-in sirloin; 24oz bone-in ribeye; 64oz double ribeye. These are on the upper end of the spectrum. Well played.
Price: 9
Our total bill came to just over $300; not bad at all. To top it off we had a $100 gift card from spending so much money with our AMEX card. POINTS = MEAT! Otherwise the steaks are average priced, with the double ribeye being a bit more per person than a normal cut of meat. We ended up paying about $255 for everything, with the tip included and the $100 deducted. Check out the breakdown of the original bill below:
Bar: 8
The bar was a lot more “hopping” than I thought it would be. A solid crowd despite it not being a big bar. The bar itself has a white marble top, and it feels like you are at a butcher’s counter. They made a good martini with three pit-in Castelvetrano olives skewered as garnish; my favorite. They also had a great selection of whiskeys and bourbons. The bartender was very friendly, and he even tried his best to make a Pimm’s Cup for my wife despite not having all the required liquors to make it. Quality Meats also has a bunch of great beers. They offer some good old fashioned cans of PBR, as well as some higher end beers; a good mix. I tried a “Quality Beer,” which was a nice, round, non-bitter, amber colored beer specially brewed by the Magic Hat company. They also keep a truncated drinks and desserts menu by the bar for ordering booze, desserts or charcuterie (a nice selection of four different cured meats and four different cheeses), which is the same menu they give you for dessert. Despite all of this awesomeness, I just can’t see myself hanging out too often at the bar here.
Specials and Other Meats: 10
On special for beef they had a porterhouse for two, and a bone-in “filet.” They also had a soft shell crab appetizer, which was delicious. Light, golden, and crispy. They also had a Brazilian lobster tail (a lobster tail with no vagina hair) and an “Olympia” west coast oyster. As far as other meats go, they have a veal chop, roasted chicken, baby back ribs, and roasted veal shank for two. Perhaps a pork chop or a lamb dish would round this out better. Maybe make it a lamb shank or lamb chops instead of a second veal dish? In any case – a great showing on the beef specials here helped to bump the score up for choice of cuts available.
Apps, Sides & Desserts: 10
We ordered the special soft shell crab, a dozen oysters (two of each kind they had, including the one on special), bone marrow, and steak tartare to start. As I said above the crab was delicious. I was absolutely blown away by the steak tartare, though. The meat was served in a little bowl with an egg yolk sitting on top, just waiting to be busted open and mushed around the meat. The plate came with a wooden spatula of salt, herbs, and a nice mustard that get dumped in and also slathered around the meat. It was unbelievable. The oysters were all very unique in flavor. I tend to like the less fishy tasting ones (usually I prefer east coast in general or Bluepoint specifically). My friend and I each had three east and three west a piece (total of 12 at the table). The marrow was delicious too; nice to spread on some of the toasted bread. On the side we had creamed spinach, which was served in what looked like a bread bowl popover. It was average in comparison to other places, but still good enough to keep shoveling down my throat. For dessert I had a jalapeno and cucumber sparkling lemonade. It was awesome. We also shared a “cookie monster” ice cream (oreo, cookie cough, and chocolate chip cookies mixed into a light, soft chocolate ice cream), and tropical fruit sorbet (a mix of a bunch of flavors sitting on top of fresh fruit and topped with a dried, crispy pineapple chip). The sorbet was the winner there. As a matter of fact they have a little bar set up, which at first I thought was a sushi bar, right near the front entrance, where you can score “Quality Cakes” and all their special ice creams for take-out. Pretty sweet.
Seafood Selection: 8
For fish they have tuna, Scottish salmon and black sea bass; a little basic in terms of entrees, but there was a lobster tail on special to fill it out a little. If you don’t like the preparations they have on the menu for the entree fish items, you can also opt for simply roasted. They have a nice selection of oysters on the app menu ($3 a piece), two sizes of shellfish bouquets, and cocktails (crab, lobster, U7 shrimp). The soft shell crab was also a special, which I mentioned above was great. The shellfish bouquet was really great. The small one was two-tiered, and it came with lobster, lump crab meat, ceviche, four massive shrimp, four oysters, four clams and tuna tartare. it rivaled the platter at Strip House, which is a feat. Worth mentioning here is that the oysters come with a great array of sauces; a traditional cocktail sauce, a cilantro cream (awesome), a mustard horseradish type, and a bowl of crispy herbs for mixing in with vinegar or sprinkling on top of the oysters. I only took points here because there was no whole lobster item and only a few basic cuts of fish for entrees. Not like it matters – you don’t come to a place called Quality Meats for a fucking slab of salmon.
Service: 10
Our waiter was awesome. In fact we sort of had two waiters throughout the night, which I thought was really attentive. The table bread was a delicious pan of bread lumps that were buttery and hot, sprinkled with fresh salt and chopped rosemary. It was baked fresh while we waited. They even sent us home with some. The most interesting part of the meal was when the waiter came over and made us the steak sauce from scratch at the table. We watched him mix everything into a mortar and pestle and start mashing away (of course he cut some rosemary right into the bowl too hahaha!). It was a great sauce – really awesome with the gigantic shrimp from the shellfish plateau. I’d put it right up there with the sauce at Frankie & Johnnie’s and Strip House, but with extra points for the display and interactive dining experience. Also of note was the little freebie of traditional and white watermelon cubes, served with a really interesting flavored salt for dipping.
sauce making and bread/fruit freebies
Ambiance: 9
The decor in here is modern slaughterhouse chic: something that Patrick Bateman would like. Upscale horror. They have dim filament bulbs hanging overhead, butcher’s knives and meat hooks hanging on the wall, and an overall cool look to the place. Where we sat, there was horizontal wood slatted walls. The wood almost looks like flooring. Other spots have meat hook lights dangling overhead (custom fixtures) and exposed brick walls with grooves or nooks in them for candles or decorations. It has more of a lounge feel than most places, more trendy. The bathroom, for example, has dim lighting and flickering candles. It’s got to be one of the most romantic places for someone to take a shit. The walls in there are lined with cloth towels – really awesome. The front doors are great, heavy, old wooden gates. When you walk in, you almost feel like you are walking into a butcher’s shop with the tiled walls and glass. It’s even like heading down into a really clean, yummy smelling subway station. Cool place. Not traditional, but well played.
My wife and I took a stroll through Reading Terminal Market today in Philadelphia when we were nearby for a cousin’s 5th birthday party. This place is awesome. I was a little overwhelmed actually. It’s basically like a flea market filled with awesome places to eat, with cuisines varying across dozens of cultures. There are even some fresh meat, cheese, seafood and produce purveyors too. Unfortunately I was full, having just eaten some great pho and banh mi at a Vietnamese place just outside of Philly. But I wasn’t too full to snap some photos for you fuckbags. Here they are. Enjoy.
I whipped this bitch up after a surprise trip to the Mosner family meat processing plant for a tour and butchery class. Check out my write-up of that shit HERE.
Once we got home, I was itching to try some of what we just worked on, so I took the stew meat scraps and threw them into the slow cooker with some apple shit and some spice shit.
I set it on low and slow. Four hours later the result was amazing. My wife and I threw it onto a sandwich with some pickled cabbage and a spicy mayo. Check out the recipe below assholes:
What you need:
about a pound, or pound and a half, of pork stew meat
apple moonshine or brandy (3/4 cup)
can of apple sparkling water (12oz) or apple juice
one serving of apple sauce (unsweetened – 4oz)
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 cloves of garlic (cut each into thirds or quarters)
1 small to medium sized onion (halved)
kosher salt to taste
crushed red pepper to taste
cloves (about 10)
1 small cinnamon stick
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
handful of baby carrots, sliced thin
shredded cabbage
white vinegar
mayo
habanero hot sauce or sri racha sauce
sliced jalapeno
sub/hero bread
THE MEAT
1) Mix the apple sauce, apple brandy, and apple sparkling water to use as a braising liquid base. Add to the slow cooker.
2) Drop your stew meat into the slow cooker.
stew meat swimming in the slow cooker
3) Add salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, and onion into the slow cooker.
Me, magic-wanding in a mix of kosher salt and crushed red pepper
4) Set slow cooker to 4 hours on LOW. Mix that shit around every so often while it’s going.
5) When finished, pull out of the liquid and cut the meat into manageable chunks for a sandwich.
NOTE: This meat is going to come out sweet if you go light on the spice, so what I did below was create some extras to balance the sweet with a little kick of spice. Be a man – do it.
THE TOPPING
1) Get some tupperware and put the carrots, cabbage and white vinegar into it.
2) Add some spices as you see fit.
3) Let that shit sit and soak until it’s party time.
THE DRESSING
1) Add habanero sauce or sri racha sauce to mayo as you see fit.
2) Mix.
NOTE: if you have the ability, like my wife did, then you should make your own mayo from fucking scratch. How? Whisk together 1 egg yolk, a little blob of dijon mustard, a little white vinegar, a pinch of salt, a little olive oil, and a squirt of lemon juice until it becomes like a nice aioli. That shit will have a little zing of acid to cut the sweetness and spice of the other sandwich elements.
homemade mayo/aioli
PUT ALL THAT FUCKING SHIT TOGETHER
1) Toast your bread to your liking.
2) Assemble the sandwich by first dressing each side of the bread with the mayo/aioli.
3) Add your meat and some of the pickled veggie topping. Here’s where you throw on some of those sliced jalapenos.
For our fifth wedding anniversary, my awesome wife surprised the shit out of me with a butchery class and tour at the Mosner family meat processing plant in Hunt’s Point in the Bronx.
The business has been around for nearly six decades, starting with meat deliveries from the back of a station wagon until the brand slowly built up to become a well known, high-end meat distributor for some of the area’s finest steakhouses and meat purveyors.
Three grandchildren of the original Mosner start-up (Seth, Jessica, and Ben) run the incredibly informative tour and butchery class on Saturdays. The first thing you’ll do is suit up in a butcher’s coat and some gloves. Just a word of advice – bundle up if you do this. Inside it is just about freezing.
It starts out with introductions and some information from Jessica about the company, what they do, the history, etc. Then comes an awesome, testosterone building meat chant in call-and-response format. MEAT MEAT MEAT! This is a shot of Ben pulling us in for the huddle just before the chanting began.
Once inside, the learning begins. Seth and Ben informed us about the lamb and veal they deal in, including how it is treated at the farm (they enjoy a stress free and healthy life, which makes for better flavors), how it is slaughtered (with the utmost standards of humaneness), and how it is processed (skilled artists and craftsmen butchers).
Hooks & PulleysLamb MobileLambLambLambYumHooksLamb all wrapped up in plasticA peek underneath the skirt of some hanging lamb
Next up, Jessica runs through some of the important (and often times confusing to those not in the know) labels that the meat industry applies to various products.
Jessica educates the class
“Antibiotic Free” vs “No Antibiotics,” for example (“No Antibiotics” means NO ANTIBIOTICS have ever been in the animal. “Antibiotic Free” means that there were no traces of antibiotics in the animal at the time of slaughter, but that doesn’t mean the animal never had any antibiotics in its lifetime). Here’s a nice little print-out that they gave the class: not everything we learned is on here, but this is a great start.
After this, we watched Chris, AKA “Da Butcher,” perform a lightning fast demo of his amazing butchery skills as he broke down the roast and rib ends of a pig in what had to be under 3 minutes WITH pauses in place to show us and explain what he was doing.
Da Butcher’s Tools“Da Butcher” in actionDa Butcher’s Artwork
Then we had an opportunity to buy some high end meat at super wholesale prices. I’m talking PRIME beef for $9.99/lb. They even had an entire trailer full of game meats, with lots of harder to find stuff like elk, duck, venison, kangaroo, gator, snake, ostrich, pheasant, squab and others. Are you FUCKING serious?!?? I was in heaven! We decided to get some rarities like duck sausage and confit duck legs, but I could have easily blown the mortgage on this delicious shit.
high-end meats for saleduck leg confitsausage variety
Now for the hands-on stuff. I had to put my camera down, so there are no “action” photos, but we all got to do what “Da Butcher” did in his demo: namely, slice up the roast and rib of the pig.
PiggyPiggyThe ClassroomThe ClassroomThe Classroom
We were instructed on everything from the best way to hold the knife, to how to properly get the meat off the bone without nicking or slicing up the good bits. Afterwards, we took all our cuts over to the vaccum sealer and put them into boxes that were pre-labeled with our names on them. That’s right – you get to bring home all that delicious piggy meat that you just butchered!!!
my share of the butcheryone of our boxes
I watched as the staff expertly portioned and wrapped the prime stuff that other classmates had purchased.
Ben saws some porterhouses down to sizeBen & “Da Butcher”Some prime T-bones
“Da Butcher” trims some of the fat off before it heads to the sealer
Porterhouses coming off the vacuum sealer
Then Ben took me around to show me some of the offal that they sell as well. I’m talking everything – liver, heart, bones, sweetbreads – you name it, they sling it.
Veal HeartLiver
As you may have guessed, I’ve reviewed some of their steakhouse customers, and I have to tell you: there is a stark and obvious correlation. The places that use Mosner to source their meat all have excellent ratings on my leaderboard.
What an amazing gift! If you guys get a chance, you should definitely go as well. Not only do you learn a lot about the meat proteins you are eating, but you will come away with a great appreciation for the hard work and effort that goes into bringing these products to your dinner table. My wife knows that I secretly wish I were a butcher, so this was a real treat for me. Look – I even got a participation award.
Once we got home, I was itching to try some of what we just worked on, so I took the stew meat scraps and threw them into the slow cooker with apple moonshine, apple sauce, apple flavored water, and a bunch of mulling type spices like cinnamon and cloves.
Me, magic-wanding in a mix of kosher salt and crushed red pepperstew meat swimming in the slow cooker
I set it on low and slow. Four hours later the result was amazing. My wife and I threw it onto a sandwich with some pickled cabbage and a spicy mayo. Check out the recipe HERE.
Terakawa Ramen is the kind of tiny joint that you pop into for a quick fix if you’re in the area. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here, but they DO do a great job with the basics. At $9 the Terakawa Ramen is a steal. The bowl is huge, and it is really tasty. Stick with the basics though. My wife tried the Mayu black garlic oil ramen, which was essentially the Terakawa ramen but with a heavy layer of burnt tasting black garlic oil that was a bit ashy in texture and look. The Terakawa was much better. The noodles are square in shape, straight, and a nice texture. The scallions are cut properly, and the pork is soft and thinly sliced. Definitely worth a try, and I would certainly go back for seconds, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it like I would for Bassanova or Totto.
Terakawa RamenMayu Ramen
We also tried an order of the Kuro Buta sausage. I was hoping for something a bit different, but it was still tasty. Ultimately not a necessary item. Go for extra pork in the ramen instead.
I grew up eating some classic Italian peasant food; recipes that were handed down from the old country to the new country. One such dish was escarole and beans. My mom used to make it so that it was like a porridge or thick soup. I thought: maybe I could make it less watery and throw it onto a sandwich with some braised pork. Below is what I came up with. I call it the Italian peasant sandwich.
What you need:
1 lb Boneless fatty pork meat (I used country style ribs here, but pork butt works too)
1 head of thoroughly rinsed escarole
1 can of cannellini beans (white kidney beans)
Crusty style sandwich bread – I would go with two 10-inch rolls
5 Cloves of garlic (2 for the braise and 3 for the sautee)
Olive oil
Crispy fried onions or shallots
Unsalted butter
Slow cooker or crock pot
A few sprigs of rosemary
Cheap white wine
Onion flakes
Onion powder
Crushed red pepper
3 Thai chili peppers
Salt
Black pepper
Step 1: Sear the pork quickly in olive oil after coating all sides with salt & pepper. This will lock in the pork’s juices when it braises. LEAVE THE PAN DIRTY – you will utilize that porky brown goodness in a later step.
Step 2: Place pork into slow cooker with 2 cloves crushed garlic and wine, just enough to cover the meat. Maybe half to 3/4 of a bottle. Add salt, pepper, fresh chilis (cut into halves or thirds), onion powder, onion flakes, crushed red pepper, and rosemary. Set to cook 3 hours on high.
Step 3: Rinse your escarole to get all the fucking sand off. This green leaf is more “Sandy” than a chick with no arms and legs on a beach. Dry the leaves after rinsing.
Step 4: Sautee the escarole with olive oil and 3 crushed garlic cloves on medium heat, putting it right back into the pan you just used to sear the pork. Start with half the escarole, let it wilt a little, and then add the rest. Trust me it will all end up fitting into a normal large sized pan.
Step 5: Once the escarole is half wilted add the can of beans, plus the liquid in the can, and turn the stove to high. You want to boil off all the excess liquid while still retaining the flavor, infusing it into the leaves. Cook the liquid out, and add salt and pepper to taste as it finishes.
NOTE: As an alternative to adding the beans to the escarole in the traditional way, you could puree the beans into a spread, which you can then smear onto the bread.
Step 6: Pull the pork meat out of the slow cooker and pour the excess braising liquid into a wide sauce pan or a wide based pot.
Step 7: Add a tablespoon or two of unsalted butter to the sauce pan and reduce the braising liquid into a thickened sauce. While you wait, pull the pork meat apart with a pair of forks.
Step 8: Toast the sandwich bread and slice it open. Fill it with escarole and pork, and top it with crispy onions and the sauce made from the braising liquid.
Since we had to pay Uncle Sam a fat wad of dough for tax season, I figured I’d save a little money and do a steak from home. Since I was in the spirit of giving, I also figured I may as well share the process with you meat-heads.
Here’s what you’ll need:
A Rib Eye Steak
A Few Sprigs Of Rosemary
A Few Tablespoons Of Soy Sauce
A Cup Of Olive Oil
Three Cloves Of Garlic
Course Salt
Black Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper
Onion Powder
A Frying Pan
Tongs
A Source Of Heat
A Plate
A Cutting Board
Something Sharp
Balls
You’ll also need at least one eye and one ear, to watch and hear the demonstration I put together below:
And no post is complete without a smattering of food porn photos. Here are some before, during and after shots:
I was recently invited to a press dinner at Pepela, a very elegant but non-stuffy Georgian restaurant on 30th Street just east of Park Avenue. I didn’t know what to expect, really. Not only have I not regularly indulged in eastern European, Scandinavian or Russian/northern Asian cuisine, but I’m also new to the press dinner thing. I must say: after tonight, I’m a fan of both Georgian cuisine AND press dinners.
Pepela is a beautiful restaurant. I thought maybe the name meant butterfly. That’s just a guess though from the decor on the back wall.
However, a quick google translate “language detect” search said that pepela means “ash” in Slovenian.
The entry way feels like you are stepping into a fancy brownstone.
A short hallway walk takes you to an upscale bar/lounge area, which partially overlooks the downstairs dining room area nearest to the small stage that’s set up for live music.
This place is great for something like bridal parties or girly brunches, for sure. But it’s great for date night too. I think I even overheard something about a cover band. A band was setting up while we were on our way out.
White brick walls line the dining room downstairs. Purple toned up-lighting splashes color all around, giving the place a distinct lounge feel, but without the loud music blaring in your ears (loud lounges suck once you hit your 30s).
Upstairs there are elegant light fixtures, shimmering chandeliers, columnal white wainscoting and bold crown molding on the walls. It’s bright and clean. Dare I say… sexy? I hate that word when used relating to food… but I guess I’m talking about atmosphere. Here – just look at some of the artwork that throws back to the sexified 80’s ideal of Victorian-era erotica.
Okay so on to the good shit. The important shit. The fucking food.
The first things that passed into our digestive system were some drinks. A lovely tarragon and citrus flavored soda called Natakhtari was bright green with a delicious and herbaceous taste. Where can I get more of this awesomeness?
Next was a proprietary in-house Georgian vodka-based drink with a pomegranate and orange flavor that transformed with a simple squeeze of lime. Refreshing and fruity. Not too strong, not too light. Really a perfect cocktail: especially for you broads out there. It was called a chacha pom.
Then came a starter plate with some warm, semi-flat quick bread (they look like sharks).
First on the starter plate was eggplant wrapped around a hummus-like walnut paste puree. I liked it a lot. Even my wife, who absolutely hates eggplant, was able to eat it.
Next was a beet spread. This was mixed with onions and herbs. Really nice balance of sweet and savory going on here, and it went nicely with the bread.
Last were peppers stuffed with walnuts, pomegranate, carrots, spices and herbs. This was my favorite of the three. The roasted pepper flavor really added a nice earthy note to drive home the nutty excellence of the stuffing.
By that point in the meal I was already sold on Georgian food. Unique drinks, with tasty and light starters? Sure! The starter plates were surprisingly Mediterranean in flavor. Delicious and totally unexpected, yet somehow familiar. If I had to make one suggestion here: it could use some crunch to mix up the texture. Maybe some thick cut, crispy fried potato slices as an alternative to the bread? But then maybe that would take it out of the realm of traditional Georgian food? What the hell do I know. I really was fine with it as-is.
Next came the cheese bread called khachapuri. To a grease bag EYEtalian-American like me, this was sorta like a white pizza. It was made with very light, mild and melty cheeses though, on crisp yet soft dough.
For my taste it could’ve been a slight bit crispier, but maybe that’s just me subconsciously transforming it into pizza in my boot-shaped-country head.
Last was a plate of veal soup dumplings called khinkali. These were like doughy gift packages of spiced meat, accompanied by a great soup broth inside that packed some really robust, home-style flavors.
You’re supposed to eat these fuckers by hand, which I love, because I’m a man and I have a base-born NEED to eat with my hands. It’s genetic; it’s in a man’s DNA. Shit maybe it’s even evolutionary. (Pay no attention to my girly, pinkish-purple shirt…)
Ridiculous video.
Wow. Pepela… what a great build up from start to finish. The lightness of the starters awakened my taste buds and prepared them for the punch of the entree. I loved everything, and I’ll definitely be back to try some of the other tasty menu items. Georgian food has a great future in the belly of this meat man!
Hell’s Kitchen NYC is really starting to put meaning into the KITCHEN aspect of the neighborhood’s name. Not only have many great restaurants popped up recently, but now there are half a dozen ramen shops, several awesome burger joints, and even a smattering of small niche joints serving things like like Korean fried chicken or Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. The most recent thing on my radar is Gotham West Market. It’s basically an upscale food court featuring a bunch of really nice pop-up restaurants, a gourmet food market, and even a store selling kitchen items, cooking gear, and baking supplies.
I first came here to try the Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop.
My wife and I tried the Shio and Shoyu styles. They were both good, but they contained green onion cut in such a way that it became overbearing and difficult to pluck off of the noodles. I like a standard cross cut to my scallions. This “long ways” cut sucks. The soup base was good, on the other hand, and the rye noodles were delicious.
My wife went back two times without me and tried most of the other spots in there, like The Cannibal, El Colmado, Little Chef, The Brooklyn Kitchen, Genuine Roadside, and Court Street Grocers Sandwich Shop. Poke around her Instagram feed to see some of her escapades. Or simply hit up the #gwmarket tag on there. Here are a couple of collages of her pics:
So today we went in for lunch, which was my wife’s 4th time going in 3 weeks, since I have been dying to try some of the stuff I’ve seen on Instagram from El Colmado and The Cannibal. I’ll take these fuckers down one at a time for you below.
THE CANNIBAL
We sat down to a nice beer and a Bloody Mary to start. The Bloody came with some pickled items on top – a beet, a cucumber, and a pepper.
We ordered three items here. The first was an octopus terrine, garnished with some pickled fennel and dill. This was so amazing, especially after having such a shitty plate of octopus two nights earlier at a local Long Island restaurant that completely fucked the octo up, turning it into rubber. THIS, on the other hand, was a masterpiece. Soft, tender, juicy, and nicely dressed – just like a prom date. One of the best octo preparations I’ve ever tasted.
Next up was the pig head terrine. Essentially a head cheese of sorts. It was really tender and flavorful, and it even had some capers jammed in there too for a nice bite of brine. They served it with some crispy bread, lemon butter, and herbs. Delicious.
Last was the lamb tartare. You can see below that it’s sitting on top of the little mustard smear that mixed well with the flavorful meat. In the back were the little planks of lettuce upon which we spread the tartare before shoving into our mouths.
EL COLMADO
I was excited to have some shaved-by-hand cured piggy, so we started with an order of sliced Serrano ham. Not too salty, very soft and delicious. I expected nothing less in terms of quality when it comes to Chef Seamus Mullen, of The Next Iron Chef fame.
In keeping with the theme from The Cannibal, we doubled down on octopus and lamb items. First is the lamb meatballs. Succulent, juicy, and rich with lamby goodness.
The octopus here was grilled to perfection and served with some vinegary fingerling potatoes. Very nice tasting, and beautifully plated I might add. Needless to say, all memory of terrible octopus from the local Long Island place has been erased. This was superb.
Well – not all memory is erased. We still need to remember that is WAS bad, and that we will never go back there again. Ahh, El Colmado & The Cannibal – you made my day. Two of the finest places I’ve been to in a long time.
So anyway, we finished up at El Colmado with a nice saffron flan for dessert. Perfect texture, and great flavor.
So what’s the moral of this story? GO TO GOTHAM WEST MARKET ASAP!
And if you like burgers, then check out my Genuine Roadside review.
There’s something there for everyone. I snapped a shitload of pics from all over in there – I’ll leave you with that:
GOTHAM WEST MARKET
600 11th Ave.
New York, NY 10036
