Farmers Market Coming to Ave. D
Posted on | June 4, 2010 | No Comments
Gentrification at Work?
Construction of the new home for the Lower Eastside Girls Club on Avenue D begins next week & it seems like we’ll be getting a Farmers Market, Café & more;
We are expanding our successful entrepreneurial social venture businesses, The Sweet Things Baking Company and Community Café, with the construction of a Culinary Education Center and commercial kitchen. These programs offer job training and opportunities for teenage girls and neighborhood women. The kitchen will also serve as a classroom for nutrition education and meet in-house food service needs. A courtyard filled with flowers, an outdoor fountain designed by artist Kiki Smith, and café tables will provide a unique oasis for dining and quiet events.
Our public market space will be a home for our Farmers Market Center, simultaneously supporting New York State farmers and our community’s health.
By the look of the plans, this is a pretty cool addition to the ‘hood & could offer some interesting shopping options, not to mention a great education/vocational opportunity for girls & women in the area.
Full coverage at EVGrieve
Croxley’s
Posted on | June 3, 2010 | 1 Comment
Two words; Messy Fingers. This is what you can expect when you go to Croxley’s. Mondays and Wednesdays are 10 cent wing nights & as the picture demonstrates things can get really messy (20 cent wings til 5 on Saturday & all day Sunday), I don’t know why they bother giving us forks anyhoo!
Rai Rai Ken
Posted on | June 3, 2010 | 2 Comments
If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time then you’ll know that I’m a sucker for good Ramen which is why I love Rai Rai Ken so much. The place is tiny & immediately reminds me of the noodle bar from Blade Runner. It’s basically a long service bar with stools (really low & uncomfortable) running the length of the restaurant.
Paradiso
Posted on | June 3, 2010 | 1 Comment
After spending a lot of time going to 9th Street Espresso for my daily coffee, I’ve decided that Paradiso (105 Avenue B at 7th Street) is a much better option. Open since Feb. 2009 it’s a small space (formerly Bang-On) with a few seats & tables, but it is generally never crowded & offers free Wi-Fi. The husband & wife team there are quite possibly the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
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Virgil’s BBQ
Posted on | June 1, 2010 | No Comments
This is going to be a bit of a brief post as I was on the way to a Thrillist.com party with a buddy & we had some time to kill. We were passing by Virgil’s (152 West 44th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues) & decided to stop in for a bite. I’ve heard of Virgil’s before & it was pretty much all positive, unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to order a full meal & try the BBQ.
As usual, the place was slammed & it took a bit of jockeying to snag a seat at the cramped bar. I ordered the crab cakes which came with a salad & a spicy dipping sauce. First of all, these things were huge (at $15 they outta be!)! They were cooked perfectly with a nice, crisp exterior & a moist center. I ended up having to add a lot of lemon on the crab cakes (I like mine ‘citrusy’). Surprisingly enough, the salad was also really good & the dipping sauce had a welcome kick to it.
My friend ordered the cheeseburger which was pretty much run of the mill, he seemed to enjoy it though. They cooked it medium-rare as he ordered it (like me, he’ll send it back if it’s not right).
Based on our experience, I can only imagine that the full menu here is amazing. I really would like to get a large group together & try out the BBQ & larger platters here. On the flip-side, Virgil’s does seem to be a bit on the expensive side… Not a deal-breaker, but something to consider. However, if public sentiment is correct, Virgil’s ranks right up there (if not above) with the NYC BBQ greats; Blue Smoke, Dinosaur BBQ, etc.
Bacon Bash!
Posted on | June 1, 2010 | 1 Comment
Ok, this post is 2 months late, but on March 31st I and a bunch of bacon enthusiasts took over the ‘Vegas Room’ in the rear of Village Pourhouse (64 3rd Avenue at 11th Street). $30 got you a few hours of delicious bacon heaven. Every dish included bacon in some form, including the drinks! I had heard about the event from The NYC Menu Girl & managed to snag a 15% discount!
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Brunch at Arcane
Posted on | May 31, 2010 | 2 Comments
I’ve been meaning to eat at Arcane for some time, so I jumped at the chance to have brunch there. Arcane is a French-Caribbean restaurant located in the old Bao 111 space. It now sports a larger bar & a simpler seating arrangement. $9.95 gets you coffee, OJ & a choice of a brunch cocktail. It was around noon & luckily not that packed so we were seated immediately.
The brunch menu is a bit confusing as the dishes (all but one dish eggs, served with salad & home potatoes) do not have a description. Some are easier than others, but I ended up asking my friend who had been there before.
I ordered the Arcane Baked Eggs which I was really excited about, but was quickly disappointed. The eggs were cooked all the way through (I like my yolk runny) & the cheese on top was a run of the mill cheddar which hardened really quickly making the dish pretty hard to eat. I didn’t really touch the mixed green salad, but the home potatoes were really good. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting (most likely a dish more like Casimir’s Tunisian Eggs), but this was NOT to my liking.
My friend got the Caribbean Poached Eggs which was eggs, ham & pineapple served with a spicy hollandaise sauce. He seemed to like it.
I wasn’t happy with what I ordered, but I’m not going to write Arcane off. They have an excellent prix fixe & great daily specials. I’m looking forward to trying the Rabbit in mustard sauce on Wednesday nights.
Arcane: 111 Avenue C at 7th St.
Black Iron Burger
Posted on | May 26, 2010 | 3 Comments
I’ll admit that I was very excited when Black Iron Burger (540 East 5th Street at Avenue B) moved into the hood last year, replacing the waste-of-space Bouche Bar. They did a great job on the renovation & now the space has an open feel with seats at the bar, plenty of high tables & a banquet table in the back. Read more
Zum Schneider
Posted on | May 26, 2010 | 4 Comments
Zum Schneider (107 Avenue C @ 7th Street) is a Bavarian beer garden (although indoors) that seems perfectly suited for spring and summer. The open, cavernous interior with smooth tree-like walls & foliage gives a great biergarten feel, but the outdoor seating is really what I love. Whenever the weather heats up, the place gets packed to the brim with beer & hearty food enthusiasts. They have over a dozen beers on tap (& others in seasonal rotation) that come in three sizes; Large, Extra-large (pictured to the right in the foreground) & F*cking insane. Trust me, I ordered the latter once & could barely lift the damn thing let alone finish it! I felt like a little kid with a sippy cup.
Brunch at Sunburnt Cow
Posted on | May 25, 2010 | 5 Comments
I checked out Sunburnt Cow on a recent weekend for their awesome endless brunch. $18 gets you a brunch item & unlimited brunch drinks or Fosters or Greyhounds. The place is normally pretty packed, as this is one of the best brunch deals in the ‘hood. We were able to snag a seat in the front. Read more