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Chelsea Bistro
The Top List of Delicious Hideaways - New York, NY
Discover your own special New York
by Eleonora Boreyko & Curtis Hagedorn
Since one person's "delicious hideaway" is another person's "hole in the wall," get ready for an extremely personal list of favorites -- for which the reasons may not be superficially apparent. Part of the joy of visiting or living in New York is discovering the places that, for whatever reason -- food, décor, service, atmosphere -- touch something within you. Your time of life, whom you're with, what you're dreaming about -- all of it merges together like a properly mixed cocktail, creating a fizzy, memorable glow around that particular experience of The City. Every historic restaurant and nightspot -- from the Rainbow Room to the Cotton Club to Ray's Famous Pizza and the Gray's Papaya on the corner of 72nd and Broadway -- has had its "opening night," the "first patrons" who spread the word about the latest, the newest and the best. And restaurants open and close in New York like lightning -- in the course of preparing this article I was surprised to find that even I had somehow missed the demise of a few old-time favorites that seemed just perfect for this category (goodbye, Kiev.) Fortunately, anyone can discover their own special New York. All it takes is a restaurant guide (hmm, much like this one), cab fare, and a wallet that provides a reasonable cushion. And finally, a sense of adventure, which is why most of us came here to begin with, and why so many of us stay.
CHELSEA BISTRO AND BAR
358 West 23rd Street (Between 8th and 9th Avenue)
(212) 727-2026
Hours: Mon-Thu: 5:30 pm - 11 pm; Fri: 5:30 pm - 12 am; Sat: 5 pm - 12 am; Sun: 5 pm - 10:30 pm
Whenever you get a New Yorker to divulge one of his special, favorite places to dine, chances are the word "bistro" is going to come up. Though that appellation can cover a lot of ground, the simple but elegant atmosphere and classic French bill of fare it usually denotes, seems to be as attractive to excellent chefs as it is to eager diners. Chelsea Bistro is no exception, but perhaps a cut above the rest in the "romance" department, thanks to a dancing fire, flower-filled garden and enough space between the tables. It's a great place to go on, say, your third date, when you've got that "something really may be happening here" feeling. Even if it turns out not to be -- the "dark side" of third dates -- you can always take comfort in the food. For dinner, have a classic salad -- arugula, baby spinach, goat cheese, pine nuts in a lemon herb vinaigrette -- and follow it up with a rare Black Angus steak frites. Or order a heartwarming country soup and the roasted free range chicken. Try a goat cheese tart and Roast Duck prepared two ways -- with caramelized peaches and a redcurrant Beaujolais sauce. No matter which way the date is going, have dessert (if it's going well, share.) Traditional crème brulee, profiteroles, peach melba, sorbets, dark and white chocolate mousse -- you can't go wrong here. The wine list is also excellent and with this kind of "peasant" food, you needn't feel like you have to spend a fortune. In fact, you might want to avoid the whole dating scenario altogether and treat yourself to a very nice dinner, en seul, and more than once in a blue moon.
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $45-50
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Open, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open
KATZ'S DELICATESSEN
205 East Houston Street (at Ludlow Street)
212-254-2246
Hours: Sun-Tue: 8 am - 10 pm; Wed, Thu: 8 am - 11 pm; Fri, Sat: 8 am - 3 am
The pastrami experience to end all pastrami experiences. Katz's Delicatessen has been a New York staple since the beginning of time -- the neon sign shows up quite clearly in paintings daubed as far back as the Revolutionary War. A huge room, cafeteria style service and, in addition to the pastrami, some of the best brisket, roast beef and foot long hot dogs you've ever had in your life. Also on the menu -- fries, of course, to cleanse the palate, as well as excellent knishes, and specialties like tongue and salami. The décor -- formica, the plates -- paper, the beverage of choice -- Dr. Brown's Celery Tonic. Service is of the kindly yet insistent "whadya want?" variety. And what to eat from all this bounty? According to legend, former President Clinton -- no mean connoisseur of down-home eats -- ordered Pastrami on Rye with mustard, two hot dogs, fries and a coke. Go thou and do likewise for an unforgettable meal in just about every way you can imagine.
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $5-10
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Open, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open (CLOSED SOME JEWISH HOLIDAYS, CALL AHEAD)
RAOULS
180 Prince Street (between Thompson and Sullivan)
(212) 966-3518
Hours: Mon-Sun: 5:30 pm - 2 am
Almost 30 and still hipper than thou. Raoul's was an out of the way hotspot in the mid seventies and early 80's when "South of Houston" became Soho in a big way. Yet another bistro, this time with a New American twist, Raoul's still manages to make the scene for up and coming generations of artists, artistes and collectors, gigolos and dentists, as well as the growing number of shoppers laden with bags from Rizzoli and Agnes B. Go early to avoid a very competitive, very attractive, and surprisingly friendly bar crowd and expect to squeeze into a very small booth or around a tiny table -- which you should not relinquish until you are completely satisfied with selections from the wonderful, eclectic menu. Start with a steamed artichoke dipped in the house vinaigrette, or a terrine of foie gras, or defy tradition with crab cakes and black bean salsa. Dinner can be as simple as risotto with sugar snap peas and mushrooms or baked halibut with horseradish crust and dill pesto, or go for the old standbys -- grilled buffalo hanger steak frites, roasted rack of lamb, or pan seared venison medallions. There's also a lovely roasted organic Cornish hen. Desserts, again, are de riguer. Choose from hazelnut crème brulee, warm apple tart with pistachio ice cream, or pretty chocolate sauced profiteroles. The wine list here is extensive and can be expensive -- we suggest champagne by the glass before, during and after dinner. Somehow, an evening at Raoul's always seems like a bit of a celebration -- a great place to renew an old acquaintance.
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $50-55
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Closed, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open
MEZCAL'S
396 Fifth Avenue (between 6th & 7th Streets)
Brooklyn
(718) 965-6050
Hours: Mon-Thu: 12 pm - 11 pm; Fri-Sat: 12 pm - 12 am; Sun: 12 pm - 11 pm
Okay, this is a very personal choice. The other night, I had the best guacamole at Mezcal's that I've ever had in my life. Perfect guacamole. Like homemade guacamole (in fact, very much how I make guacamole at home.) Guacamole to write home about. So, come for the guacamole (have one order to gauge your appetite, then order as much as you crave -- and you will.) Fortunately, the rest of the food is excellent as well -- no "microwave Mexican" here like so many popular chains with sombreros hanging all over the place. The décor here is strictly business and the menu is huge. Have a perfect frozen margarita with your guac, then move on to any one of the traditional combinations -- excellent tamales, enchiladas, tacos, fajitas -- or order more adventurously, from a variety of seafood and meat specialties that changes daily from shrimp marinated in mesquite garlic and white wine in a baby corn, tomato and cilantro sauce to chunks of pork cooked in casserole with adobo sauce. There are even desserts -- recommended are the "Bola del Fuego" -- balls of fried ice cream topped with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Oh, and don't forget to order some guacamole to take home. Another tremendous advantage to Mezcal? It's across the street from The Chip Shop -- so you can whet your appetite in Mexico, then stroll over to England for more regional fare -- far cheaper than booking passage on the QE2.
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $15-20
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Closed, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open
CHINO
173 3rd Avenue
NY, NY 10003
212-598-1200
Hours: Lunch (Mon – Fri) 12pm – 4pm. Dinner (Mon – Sat) 5 – 11pm, (Sun) 5 – 10pm.
Once you eat at Chino, your taste buds will continuously demand more. Conveniently located a few blocks from Union Square, this eatery has a roster of its faithful clientele. In the tight setting crowd gathers over delicious “Asian Tapas” and exotic cocktails. Lunches are a bargain. For $10 you can choose two dishes served with white or brown rice and soda or ice tea. It seems that chef Peter Klein has perfected his culinary skills, excelling at making sauces. They are like lustrous smooth wine lingering in the mouth. Start with a delicate crackling calamari salad lightly showered with miso lime vinaigrette. The bamboo steamed vegetables accompanied by miso dipping sauce is a health spa in a bowl. Skip the familiar rice and noodles dishes and try the crowd’s favorite: Chino’s chow fun with fresh rice noodles, crispy vegetables, red chili, cilantro, peanut and truffle oil. An extensive collection of teas imported directly from the Fujian province of China is available for sale. Fine food in an informal setting!
ANGLERS AND WRITERS
420 Hudson Street (at St. Luke's Place)
(212) 675-0810
Hours: Mon-Sat: 9 am - 11:30 pm; Sun: 9 am - 10 pm
Though it's all about the brunch here, that's when it's the most crowded -- better to think of Anglers and Writers as your personal weekday breakfast haven, or come on a winter afternoon when the sun is beginning to sink and settle in for an hour or two. Warm, cozy, comforting describes both the atmosphere and the food -- you might even call it "bookish," there are a few lying around for you to pick up and browse at your leisure. Order a nice cup of good old American regular coffee or good old English Earl Grey and peruse the menu. If you do happen to come at brunch, you'll find all your old favorites: Egg's Benny, Eggs Florentine and a Fisherman's Egg platter with smoked salmon, spinach, cream cheese, bacon and tomato that's to die for. Some hearty omelets and, heartier still, a big bowl of McCann's Irish Oatmeal with fresh fruit. If you're more in a lunch mood, have the chicken pot pie, the turkey and chicken club, or a roast half chicken with spinach, avocado and tomato. Lunch adds some excellent soups and salads to much of the above and "Family Style Dinners" include Lamb Stew, Turkey Casserole, Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary Sauce -- even Gnocchi Bolognese. For a special treat, Anglers and Writers also serves a traditional "High Tea" from 3 pm to 7 pm daily -- think scones with clotted cream and tea sandwiches with cucumber and sweet butter. The menu for tea, as does the dessert menu, varies but both are uniformly "just what you've been craving but couldn't put into words." One of those places in New York where you can really get comfortable, even all by yourself.
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $30-35
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Open, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Closed, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open
SHAKE SHACK
Madison Square Park, South East Corner (Madison Ave. & 23rd St.)
212-889-6600
Hours: 11am -11pm daily
I cannot remember when I last queued to get a hamburger, milk shake, and ice cream. Certainly not for thirty minutes. In reality, I did not mind the line for two reasons: the beauty of Madison Square Park where this bistro nestles, and having extra time to choose from a long menu. Shake Shack is a recent addition to the family, a younger sister of its several renowned siblings: Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern, and Terrace 5 (to name a few). All burgers are ground daily from the high-quality meat, sirloin and brisket. Bite in to unseal the juices dripping through your fingers. Instead of the ordinary soda, rediscover an old-fashioned milk shake. Their coffee milk shake was so intense; the coffee must have been individually brewed from freshly ground beans. If you never had a penchant for custard, their frozen custard might create one. The infinite roster of homemade toppings and mix-ins is most impressive; one being Valrhona chocolate chunks. In season, pieces of fresh dark cherry are another mix-in option. Frozen custard is a soft serve mixed with premium ice cream. Shake Shack is a value meal blended with the first-class service. (Ask about the frozen custard of the day.)
Estimated cost per person: $11-$15
Holiday schedule: call for info.
CUPCAKE CAFÉ
522 9th Avenue (at 39th Street)
(212) 465-1530
Hours: Mon-Fri: 7 am - 7 pm; Sat: 8 am 7 pm; Sun: 9 am - 7 pm
With a name like this, you'd expect this charming spot to be located on a country lane, maybe peering out from beneath a colorful toadstool and run by a couple of octogenarian old maids. Think again -- Cupcake Café is located just a short drunkard's loaf away from the belly of the Port Authority in the area still aptly known as Hell's Kitchen. In fact, the bakery/restaurant was one of the pioneers of all sorts of interesting things happening, foodwise, near and around its 9th Avenue location. First, it's true that Cupcake Café does serve sandwiches, soups and even delectable gourmet pizzas, should you be so inclined. The sandwiches are satisfying, the soups are hearty and the pizzas might put Wolfgang Puck to shame in all their pizza-like simplicity and flavor. However, the story here is sweets: scones, sticky buns, muffins, pies, doughnuts, cakes and yes, cupcakes, all indescribably delicious and all even more indescribably beautiful. Cupcake Café's signature is buttercream frosting fashioned into leaves, flowers, trellises, birds, butterflies -- if you can think of it, they can make a work of buttercream art out of it. Therefore, you must eat at least one of these baked marvels and take home at least half a dozen to display in front of greedy and jealous friends, and serve only to your nearest and dearest. There is, in fact, a devil's food cupcake filled with cream that is as much like the cello-packed version you grew up with as a plastic rose is to the real thing -- a guilty pleasure multiplied by 100. You can also buy, or order, spectacular cakes for birthdays and special occasions from anniversaries to law school graduation. Oh, and one more thing, they also serve waffles which are absolutely light, crisp and begging for butter and maple syrup. And now there's a Cupcake Café Cookbook, by owners Ann and Michael Warren and Joan Lilly, just in time for the holidays, $17.50 at Amazon.com
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $10-15 (Cakes, etc. from $20 - $200 and special order)
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Closed, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open
CHEZ MA TANTE
189 West 10th Street (between Bleecker & West 4th Streets)
(212) 620-0223
Hours: Tu-Fri: 11:30 am - 3:30 pm (Luncheon); Sat, Sun: 11:30 am - 3 pm (Brunch); Mon-Sun: 5 pm - 10:30 pm (call ahead, closing varies by day) (Dinner)
Literally translated as "My Aunt's House," you'll wish Chez Ma Tante was and, luckily, you can make it so -- never has so much solid comfort been sold for so little. Another classic French Bistro, located in Greenwich Village, a classic French Bistro neighborhood, Chez Ma Tante is everything you might expect and something indefinably more -- it's a place you'll want to visit again and again. On the menu? Appetizers include a smoked duck salad with a roasted pepper and caper vinaigrette, mussels cooked in white wine cream sauce, and for the most adventurous, snails baked in garlic butter and individually wrapped in puff pastry. Entrees include a most welcome and rarely seen Cog au Vin that you'll keep ordering, in order to divine what makes it so much better than yours, Steak Frites (of course), Grilled Atlantic Salmon with creamy polenta, braised greens in a honey fig glaze and, for pasta lovers, "straw and hay" fettuccini with truffled wild mushrooms, asparagus tips and goat cheese. Like just about every restaurant worth its salt in New York, of course, menu items and specials change with the seasons and the availability of fresh produce and other foodstuffs at the City's many greenmarkets. Having had time to digest that information, move on to the dessert menu -- the expected profiteroles, this time with two warm chocolate sauces, white and dark, crème brulee and a mint mousse served in a chocolate cup with raspberry sauce. The wine list is extensive, primarily French and includes, though I hesitate to say it for fear it will change, an extremely reasonably priced (for New York) Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label (non vintage) at $85 the bottle. If you're big on Brunch, Chez Ma Tante offers the usual delicious choices of Eggs Benny, Florentine, Victoria, Challah French Toast, an Omelette of your choosing, Crepes with mallard duck and wild mushrooms, a bounteous Salad Nicoise and much more, with a choice of dessert, all with a glass of champagne, coffee or tea for a sinfully inexpensive $25. The problem, unlike your real aunt's house, is getting in.
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $35-40
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Open, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open
SAVOY
70 Prince Street (at Crosby Street)
(212) 219 8570
Hours: Mon-Sat: 12pm - 3 pm (Luncheon); Mon-Thu: 6 pm - 10:30 pm; Fri, Sat.: 6 pm - 11 pm; Sun: 6 pm - 10 pm (Dinner)
Of all the "New American" that sprang up in New York over the past ten to fifteen years, a handful are still capable of drawing the raves and at-table gastronomic petit mals that they did when they were new. A restaurant like Chanterelle is an example of the top of the line, Savoy rests comfortably on the second rung, price wise, if nothing else. The menu changes seasonally, if not daily, and the simplicity and creativity of the food is matched by the atmosphere -- a few tables, downstairs and up, a generous lounge area for the inevitable wait and, in the winter, a roaring fire over which sous chefs roast meats and caramelize the inevitable crèmes brulee. Though by no means guaranteed, consider for lunch a spring vegetable soup with green wheat and thick yogurt, followed by a "small plate" of avocado with tomatillo sauce and pickled red onions. Appetite whetted, move on to a soft shell crab sandwich with pimento onion spread and a radish fennel salad, or wild salmon with rhubarb verjus sauce and grilled eggplant. For dinner? Try sautéed morels and capers on toast with a wild dandelion salad, or grilled squid with roasted turnips and aioli for starters. Then order the Moroccan roasted chicken with artichokes, preserved lemon and dill, or Pork Loin with a spring pea, spaetzle and lovage stew and Crimini mushroom relish. No matter what is on the menu the day that you are there, rest assured the food will sparkle as much as the descriptions. Savoy offers a number of excellent aperitifs, wines and champagnes by the glass, and you might as well have the excellent crème brulee for dessert, if only to watch it receive its dramatic final touches at the dining room fire. After a day of shopping in Soho and environs, Savoy is the perfect, unhurried place for a late lunch or an early dinner, with the added advantage of a cozy atmosphere for serious discussions and a menu that is always a pleasant surprise -- not always the case outside of Savoy's charming boundaries.
Average Cost Per Person For Dinner: $45-50
Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open Thanksgiving-Open, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open
Runners Up: There are so many, Al di La, Patois, Henry's End, Max & Moritz (Brooklyn), Hourglass Tavern, Danube, Etats-Unis, Petrossian, Gabriel's, Jerry's (Manhattan) and my all time personal favorite "delicious hideaway": a week in an all expense paid luxury suite at the Waldorf Astoria hotel -- hot and cold running everything on demand -- if only for once in a lifetime.
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