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.