Junoon

With Tabla now closed, the torch of fine dining Indian in the Flatiron District has now been passed along to Junoon, which surprisingly is located just two blocks away from where Tabla resided. 

A few months ago I had the pleasure of walking into Junoon for the first time and meeting the Executive Chef Vikas Khanna.  If you’re a fan of the television show “Kitchen Nightmares”, you may remember Chef Vikas from the episode featuring “Dillon’s” Indian restaurant in midtown, in which he was brought in as a consulting chef to help get the restaurant back on track.  The show did a great job showcasing Chef Vikas’ signature style and flavors, and now his cooking is on display at Junoon.  Today I returned to the restaurant and tried his cooking for the first time. 

At first notice of walking into Junoon you realize no expense was spared, anywhere.  Junoon means “passion”, and this restaurant is the lifelong dream of Rajesh Bhardwaj, the man behind “Café Spice”.  This restaurant is beautiful, and there is a touch of elegance everywhere.  Upon entering you walk into a small room with a small reflecting pool, of which the sleek black hostess stand can be seen through two more glass doors.  The hostess stand is directly in front of a 50-foot passageway which also contains a long reflecting pool filled with stones, white sculptures covering flood lamps, and beige sandstone sculptures depicting vines (the same design on their website).  I couldn’t help but feel reminiscent of Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan.  The main dining room is to the left of the pool, in which an open kitchen stands in the middle. 

Boqueria

Boqueria is a small Spanish tapas-style restaurant with two locations in NY.  I’ve eaten only at the Flatiron location, and having worked in the area for the past few years, I can tell you this restaurant is always packed.  If you are going to go, go early, as reservations aren’t accepted and the line is out the door as the night progresses.

The proprietor is Chef Seamus Mullen, who is not Spanish himself, but has worked his way around Spain and fell in love with Spanish cooking.  You may have heard of him as a contestant on the first season of “The Next Iron Chef”, on the Food Network.  Chef Mullen doesn’t spend too much time with the restaurants anymore, and now leaves it in the hands of Chef Marc Vidal, who is of Spanish background, and has been running Boqueria for the past year.   

After wanting to come here for years, I finally made my way in last week for lunch.  From the outside the restaurant was seemingly quiet, to the point I thought they were not even open that day, but that thought quickly changed as I walked in and saw every table was full.  Let me also mention, I walked in just 15 minutes after they opened.  The décor is very simple, with beige and dark brown colors running through the room, from the floors to the tables & chairs, and even the waitstaff uniforms.  Serrano hams hang by their legs in the window, and the bar area up front displays a variety of Spanish cured olives and cheeses.  

ABC Kitchen

First and foremost, I want to congratulate ABC Kitchen for winning the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant on Monday night.  For anyone that has eaten here (and there are many) you already know this award is more than well-deserved. 

ABC is the brainchild of Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Phil Suarez, the same team which brought you the four-star Jean-Georges, Spice Market, Jojo, Mercer Kitchen, and about twenty other restaurants across the world.  To lead the kitchen here, they tapped on the talent of Executive Chef Dan Kluger, formerly of Tabla and The Core Club, and who also was just recently honored as Chef of the Year by Time Out New York.  With years of experience under his belt, Dan uses a very simplistic approach to his food, by masterfully combining flavor profiles of the freshest ingredients possible. 

Tonight was my second time dining at ABC Kitchen, and like so many other diners, can’t stop raving about the experiences.  The restaurant is beautiful.  It has one of the sleekest looking bars in Manhattan, and a dining room which is blanketed in white.  Everything looks so modern, so elegant, so clean.  From the black & white artwork on the walls, recycled white tables and chairs, wooden beams which run through the dining room, and the handmade porcelain dinnerware.  The FOH staff, all dressed in plaid shirts and jeans, are on point, welcoming everyone with warm smiles and attentive service.  Even with a packed dining room your water glass will never remain empty for more than 30 seconds. 

The restaurant commits itself to buying local, seasonal, organic, sustainable products, and every ounce of this passion comes through in the menu.  I love to admit this to anyone, ABC Kitchen has made me fall in love with vegetables again.  Now if I, a self-professed lover of pork and offal can say that, then it’s not hard to see why people love this restaurant so much.  Not to say that the meat and fish dishes are not up to par, but I will happily go vegetarian for this restaurant any day of the week. 

Casual Habana

I want to start off this post by apologizing.  I’m sorry.  I don’t want to come off as a food snob or think I’m better than some other chefs/cooks out there.  But in this case, I can’t help it.  Every industry out there has people that are great at what they do, and then there are the majority that are good at what they do, then the few that just can’t quite cut it, and then the last group, the group of people that just don’t give a shit whatsoever.  I know not every restaurant out there can live up to NYC standards.  I truly believe you should support your local businesses.  Last night I ate at a Cuban restaurant called Casual Habana located in Hackensack, NJ.  By golly, everything inside of me told me not to write this post, but I will let every reader out there know that with every last ounce of passion and respect that I have for this field, that I can’t wait to rip this place apart. 

Let’s start with the dining scene in NJ.  I am sure every person out there has seen an episode of “No Reservations”, featuring Anthony Bourdain.  A few years ago Bourdain, who actually grew up in NJ, did an episode of No Reservations based on his home state.  He was quick to say that the state that was located so close to the epicenter of dining in the world (NYC) could be such a culinary wasteland.  New Jersey, the “armpit of America”, and the most densely populated state in the nation.  The first half of the episode is so depressing.  Bourdain makes a point to revisit some of the cheap eateries he spent most of his stoner teenage years at.  First stop, a fried hot dog in Leonia, followed by an Italian sub at a strip club called “The Bada-Bing Club”, then ending with none other than a grilled cheese sandwich at a desolate beach in Asbury Park. 

Although he finished the episode on some high notes dining at a Korean bbq restaurant located in an empty parking lot, showcasing fresh seafood down the shore, and even bringing Mario Batali into the mix to visit an Italian bakery, anyone that is new to New Jersey can’t help but think the state is nothing more than endless parking lots, industrial wasteland, strip malls, jug-handles, and round-a-bouts.  Having lived and worked in NJ for a few years I can tell you there are plenty of great restaurants and dining destinations if you look hard enough.  But Casual Habana is not one of them. 

Lyon: Bouchon Moderne

It’s not very often that I disagree with a NY Times review, but so is the case when it comes to dining at Lyon. 

Lyon is located in the heart of the West Village, seen easily anywhere on the street by the bright yellow and white light-up sign hanging over the sidewalk.  Walking into Lyon you’re immediately transported into a classic French bistro.  The room is bright, especially during the day as the large windows allow natural sunlight to shine on the dark woodwork running through the room, offset slightly by a hue of red.   The color scheme then carries over to the red-and-white picnic blanket style napkins, also displayed proudly by the service staff uniforms. 

My only complaint about the décor is that the tables for two are packed so tightly together.   So tight that the entire table has to be removed for the patron that is seated against the wall to get in or out.  Make sure they make a bathroom trip before the meal starts, because it’s damn near impossible for them to be removed once the table is full of food and drink.  In fact, everyone should make a trip to the restrooms, which are located in the basement.  Every wall displays colorful classic French cartoons.  Your friend taking too long?  No problem, amuse yourself with the “Adventures of Asterix”.  Your friend is most likely doing the same inside the stall. 

The Executive Chef here is Chris Leahy, who opened Lyon with business partners Francoise Latapie and Penny Bradley.  Of Irish background, Chris has a very impressive cooking background training under some of the best chefs across the country, and his heart lies in classical French cooking. 

A note on street festivals

Street festivals are awesome.  On nice days in NYC they tend to pop up everywhere.  While a lot of them serve the same food and products, they’re still great to walk through with your fellow New Yorkers. 

There are many throughout the year that tend to be geared towards holidays, such as the one tomorrow celebrating Cinco de Mayo (on may…6^th??). There are also many well-known ones such as the San Gennaro festival which hits Little Italy in September, or the Indian Day Parade which hits Madison Avenue in August.  You can find a list of them here: 

 http://www.nycstreetfairs.com/sched.html

However, there are plenty of smaller ones that tend to pop up every now and then also.  Walking through a street festival you can hardly contain the kid inside of you.  Where else can you find cotton candy, funnel cake, corn on the cob, kettle corn, sausages, chicken parmesan, gyros, and shish kabobs in NYC on one block?  Well, I am sure you can if you look hard enough, since this city is so diverse.  But you understand what I am getting at. 

The Spotted Pig

Can you believe I have never been to this restaurant?  Can you believe that I, a self-professed pork lover, took close to 30 years before dining at a restaurant called The Spotted Pig in my hometown?  Can you believe I have gone as far as Canada to enjoy pork and offal dishes and I never did it in one of the most famous NYC restaurants on the scene right now?  If you couldn’t tell, I hate myself.  In fact, I hate myself a lot for not coming to The Spotted Pig sooner.  It wasn’t always my fault, though.  As anyone who has ever been to this restaurant can tell you, it’s always packed.  There have been two times before where I have tried to get a table late in the night, but then turned away after hearing I would have to wait upwards to an hour.  Luckily, on this beautiful, sunny Saturday evening, I was able to score a table right when they opened at 5:30…err…5:45pm. 

I had to wait 15 minutes before they could seat me because “the kitchen wasn’t ready”.  Strangely enough, there were tons of patrons already seated around the establishment.  Although I waited for a few minutes the hostess then got my attention and brought me over to my table on the second floor.  She was very nice, never without a smile, and made small talk with me up while heading up the stairs.  This move immediately made me feel more welcome, because there’s nothing like being greeted with a warm smile when you start your experience. 

I sat down next to an older couple, and the female was pretty much bent over in pain.  It’s never a good sign when you sit down and the patron right next to you is holding her stomach.  “Ohhh my gaaawwd, I am sooo full!”  Now I love going to restaurants and getting your money’s worth, you want to leave feeling full.  But when you stuff yourself to the point of being incapacitated, especially when it’s only close to 6pm on a Saturday night, well your night is pretty much over.  That being said, be careful about how much you order here, because the portion sizes are fairly large, and very filling. 

The Breslin Bar & Dining Room

The Breslin is a British-style gastropub at its finest.  I love restaurants like this.  A place you can go grab great food, in a casual setting, yet still maintains a type of elegant touch. 

The Breslin is located inside the Ace Hotel, with the main entrance adjacent to it.  I emphasize that because my first time going to the restaurant I missed the entrance completely.  I walked into the lobby of the Ace Hotel and thought “this is the strangest looking gastropub I have ever seen”. 

Walking into the Breslin you immediately walk into their bar area.  Lots of dark wood colors, lively atmosphere, and large windows which allow for a lot of natural light to come through.  They offer a wide selection of beers, and it’s a great place for friends to come in and hang out.

This then carries over to the restaurant.  Comfortable booths, wood chairs, tan paper-cloths covering black wood-finished tables, and a lot of random food and animal memorabilia which covers every piece of empty space in the restaurant.  Still-life paintings of fruit, red paper lobsters, a small bull’s head with a giant ring coming out of its nose, and so forth.  Even though the décor is all over the place, it just screams at you “I want you to be comfortable”, and that I was.