restaurants

week 22: nougatine at jean-georges

it was like playing a game of 
pretty pretty princess...

you know, the one where you move around the game board
and win plastic beads
until you've collected them all
and you earn a plastic crown 
fit for the most queenly of seven year olds?

sure the jewels are fake,
and sure even the most oblivious little girls know it,

and sure it was just the lunch prix fixe
and yeah i only spent the amount i earn in one hour of workstudy

but it was still jean-georges!
and it was delicious!!!!!!
known for it's wildly intense bougeyness
and outrageously (in a good way) priced three-course lunch,
friend maria and i chose jean-georges vongerichten's trump tower café 
for our post-jury, post-final celebratory gorge. 
{you must understand that with maria, you do not eat. you gorge.}
it began with asparagus for maria
and this soup for me.

however, every time i look at this picture of the soup
a little part of my soul dies
because 
underneath the soup there lies a beautiful little design of 
sauce and croutons and brie cheese
-something you'd find in a doll house-
and before i could whip out my trusty point and shoot,
bombs away!!!!!!
...came the flood of pea purée, courtesy of monsieur waiter!

devastation.

regardless,
eating my feelings about a missed opportunity never tasted this good!

now for the main course,
the burger on the menu tempted maria and me an embarrassing amount...
but since we are certainly more posh than that,
{HAH}
maria got the red snapper with green things and sauce things {above}
and i got the steak with a spinach and gruyère crêpe {below}


both fought for the show,
as they were both prepared pretty much to perfection,
but in the end
the gooey crepe won my heart.
the dessert kept the steak and fish in the spotlight,
yet they were still legitimately outrageous.
maria seemed to find more amusement with her puff pastry stick than the caramel-y flan it garnished
and i just got lost trying to keep track of the different kinds of chocolate in my molten cake.

almost more impressive than the food
was the quality of the service. 

i recently read bruce buschel's 100 things staffers should never do
{and just about died}
 i am fully convinced that this is on the required reading list for what is rumored to be a long and intricate training process for all jean-georges wait staff.

the service 
+ 
the food 
the high you get after you've officially completed a school year 
an extremely enjoyable dining experience.

one that i'd most like to repeat...

but i've got 30 more restaurants to go!!

xoxo


yeh



nougatine at jean-georges is located at 1 central park west, at columbus circle

week 21: roberta's



it's true what they say about 
brooklyn.
the men have wicked beards,
everyone rides bikes,
and the best places are easy to miss.
some don't even have a sign...
{pretentious? or awesome? pretawesome, methinks}

anyways, 
i do this thing where if someone offers me a gig 
in a part of new york that i've yet to explore,
even if it's the triangle part to bruckner 7 with the youth community volunteer orchestra of bedford-stuyvesant incorporated,
i'ma take it.
just so i can discover places like
in bushwick.

and when bushwick residences and friends
mika & frankie
lead me to this place, and almost walked right by,
i wasn't so sure...

until, upon entering,
i saw this beautiful thing!
the oven
not the dude bending over.
{you wouldn't believe how much sass i got for taking this picture though...}

also beautiful were the pizzas coming out of the oven.
so much so that when given the choice to wait an hour and a half
or to freeze our bums off in the garden seating,
the choice was obvious...

and utterly worth it.

vegan frank got the 
rosso
tomato, oregano & garlic

mika
margherita
that rolls off the tongue, don't it?

and i, with my newly formed love of pineapple pizza, 
devoured the
dakine
tomato, mozzarella, ricotta, cotto, jalapenos & pineapple

{whoever thought of that combination is genius, by the way... 
sweet, spicy, and cheese? yes, please}




with dough slightly crispier
than kesté's,
and local fresh toppings,
this may just be another reason to venture out to brooklyn again...

and p.s. is anybody else obsessed with this neapolitan pizza obsession?


31 more restaurants, people!


xoxo


yeh


roberta's is located at 261 moore st in brooklayyn

mon-fri 12pm-12am
sat-sun 11am-12am
billz & coins only







birthday dinner, volume two...


...was the traditional bash in honor of both my birthday and the pops' birthday
{which was today- happy birthday, pops!}
at the extremely sold-out
which we've been going to every year since i can remember.

in recent years,
it has become increasingly more commercial--
{adding cheesy pictures to the menus,
offering smaller portions,
 the abolishment of the sassy garlic lecture from the waiters....}

this year,
what really did it in was the ads on the place mats for the hollywood film
letters to juliet
or whatever,
you know,
a la mcdonalds. 
way to keep things classy, buca. 


at any rate,
the cake
{which used to be all red, now a showcase of italy pride}
was as artificial and delicious as ever!


hooray!


xoxo


yeh




week 20: piccolo angolo


if i could be anything else, i'd be italian.

i mean,
i realize i'm pretty lucky-
getting matzoh ball soup from one side
and some pretty pimp dumplings from the other-
but, boy, if i could have a third half
i'd want it to be italian so that i could eat like i did at


every day.


i found myself dining once again with the kings of unbougey
who convinced me that 
before babbo,
and before sd26,
i would be eating at this adorable family-run west village restaurant
for a meal that my imaginary italian grandmother would have cooked.


we began with:
some of the freshest caprese salad i've ever had the pleasure of meeting
stuffed mushrooms that made me reconsider my prejudice against 'shrooms
melon topped with piles of fierce prosciutto
and...
mussels.
...the voice in the back of my mind says, "molly, you are a mostly-food blogger, you must try the mussels!"
{oh wait, that voice is real and it's jeff's}

before i recount my broken virginity to shell fish,
i'd like you all to notice the background of this picture.
{molly gets introduced to the act of "photo-bombing"}

the mussel
was fine.
weirdest of all was how it looked.
but the taste was great,
the texture like a fresh gummy bear,
and the juices at the bottom of the plate-- delicious!
...

all of our main courses ended up being a giant hunk of meat- in one form or another:

chicken rollatini
stuffed with ricotta and prosciutto
topped with 'shrooms.

pork bracciola
veal ossobucco 

...and some other forms of meaty outrageousness {some fried, some in sauce form}
it was seriously the most amount of meat i've ever seen on one table.

if we would have combined our powers,
we might have been able to construct a baby giraffe. 

a round of musical forks commenced,
and i was a happy camper.
though, i really wanted to hog all of my ossobucco to myself,
as it was amazing.
it came with a baby fork in the middle of the bone to dig out the marrow,
and in chris' words, it was:
a castle of deliciousness
with marrow that was like
gamey butter.

dessert seemed like a terrible idea.


but with nutella cheesecake on the menu,
we really didn't have a choice.

jared got this cute little ball of ice cream,
luke and chris got amaretto tiramisu,
i got the original tiramisu,

and jeff got this ricotta cheesecake that i still daydream about.
it didn't have that tangy cheesecake taste that i once overdosed on,
rather,
it was more light and cakey.


i felt like violet beauregarde after the whole ordeal.
just roll me through the village, why don't you.

it was entirely worth it though.

and i am willing to do it again...

but, mi amore, i've got 32 more restaurants to go!


xoxo


yeh


piccolo angolo is located on hudson and jane street in the west village