Tag Archives: gin and tonic

Monterey

Taking over the old Maloney & Porcelli space is Monterey, a gorgeous mid-century modern decor and cuisine inspired restaurant.

The cocktails are fun here, especially the martini cart, where you choose between three gins or three vodkas, then you choose your vermouth as well as bitters and garnish. While a bit small and not so strong for the high price point ($26), it was a great presentation and idea.

They have a nice big gin and tonic.

For starters we tried the special pork trotter with sweetbreads and coddled egg.

This was richly delicious.

To balance that, we cut it with some crisp fried artichoke that came with a bright citrus aioli.

On a second visit, we tried the steak tartare, the sweetbreads and the foie gras. Of these, the foie was the best.

For my main, I ordered the prime rib, which comes to you on a classic table side cart.

While mine was a bit diagonally mis-cut, it was a perfect chuck side beauty. Check out the pronounced spinalis and complexus.

Very nice medium rare temp and with a great crispy seasoned coating on the edges. 9/10.

The prime rib comes with a generous sized cup of buttery, whipped mashed potatoes. We added the red pepper broccolini to go with it.

On a second visit I had the porterhouse. 8/10.

My wife had the crab and uni spaghetti with lime butter sauce. Really nice! The sauce tasted almost like a roux.

On our second visit, she had this really awesome Iberico pork chop that came on a bed of corn and with garnishes of mushrooms and bacon. This was the winner that night.

On the side we had Cy Eats’ Romano Beans with her chili oil.

For dessert, we had the dark chocolate tart and the ricotta beignets. Both good, but we preferred the donuts!

On a second visit, the cloud cake dessert really hit the spot. Light and airy like a strawberry shortcake almost.

We were both very happy with this meal, and I definitely want to come back to try more of their offerings – especially the pork chop! Here’s the damage – not sure why the header says “Book and Fox.”

MONTEREY
37 E 50th St
New York, NY 10022

Queensyard

From the makers of Bluebird London NYC (which now has a new chef, so I need to go back) comes Queensyard. This Hudson Yards joint serves up comfort food in a fancy setting with awesome views of the “Vessel” structure.

They have an impressive gin and tonic list, along with some other nice cocktails.

On this quick visit, I tried four items:

1) Fried Chicken Sandwich

This beauty was really tasty. It had a great crunch and the meat was juicy and flavorful. Nice pickles on top as well. I liked it a lot. But I would love it even more with a spicier sauce.

2) Dry Aged Burger

Make sure you add the cheese and crispy bacon when you order. This baby is delicious, and almost tastes like an elevated but refined Big Mac.

3) Mac & Cheese

This definitely eats more like a nice pasta dish than what comes to mind when someone says “mac & cheese.” The addition of shaved aged cheese and mushrooms really makes this an earthy dish worth ordering again.

4) Sticky Toffee Pudding

This spiced and sauced bread pudding came with a spiced ginger ice cream and “Rocky Road” crumble. It is definitely interesting and different, and at some points leans on the savory side.

I’ll definitely be back here for another, larger meal. I’d like to try some steaks!

QUEENSYARD
20 Hudson Yards
4th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Gin Lane

Gin Lane 1751 sent me a bottle of their London Dry Royal Strength Gin, as well as a pre-mixed negroni, to test out and make some tasty cocktails.

As some of you may know, I’m a huge gin martini fan. I pretty much always have one with steak. I especially like London dry gins, so I was excited to try this brand out.

Naturally, the first thing I went for was a classic dry martini, a little dirty. I barely fill the twist cap with vermouth, and pour that over the ice that’s already been chilling my martini glass as I prep.

By the way, I’ve had that bottle of Martini & Rossi vermouth for about 10 years now. That’s how dry I like my martinis…

Next I pour in some olive juice, and finally, the gin. Shake the fuck out of it and strain into a chilled glass for absolutely crisp, salty perfection. Olives as garnish, of course.

The pre-made negroni instructions are simple: Pour over ice and garnish with an orange peel.

As you can see, I had a lemon on hand, so I mixed it up a bit with that. I also threw in a splash of seltzer to give it some mouth-pop. Nice! Not too bitter, and just the right amount of sweet.

The third cocktail I made was my own. I squeezed out the juice of that one large lemon, added some raw sugar simple syrup, then stirred that together with gin and seltzer in a tall glass with ice. I garnished with a burnt lemon peel and a lemon wedge, and let the ash from the burnt peel fall into the drink to provide some natural bitters. Very refreshing and delicious.

If you’re a fan of gin like me, then I think you’ll dig this stuff. There’s elements of juniper, both sweet and sour citrus, barks, roots, coriander and other spices. But it’s not overpowering, and it stays true to the London dry style without becoming floral. With a strength of 47% alcohol, this packs plenty of wallop for a good cocktail, too, if you aren’t into drinking gin straight up.

Now that I’m cooking more steaks at home these days, I’ll be making lots of martinis and cocktails with this stuff. Go grab a bottle.