Another great picture of me and Steve from Andrea Hanks. She’s good, no doubt.

our Seattle trip was awesome! We had several meals. Most of them were pretty danged good.

So I was New York a couple a weeks ago and had just ate some NY pizza, which you have to have a slice a pizza when you’re there but I was there to eat some all kinds of different food after all, so even though the overpriced slice of pizza pie was decent, it wasn’t exactly where I was really trying to go. I was looking for a hamburger. So, I got myself on the subway and made it down to Chelsea/West Village where I got off, happened to walk right by a café like kind of jazz music place called Cafe Loup that someone had recommended, completely by accident, and I was like of all the restaurants in this city what are the chances. I wonder if I should go in…no, next time…it would have been nice to hear some jazz, etc. but the situation was that I was on a mission already. Eventually, I made it down to 299 Bowery and picked up a burger at  DBGB, Daniel Boulud’s newest restaurant/bar over in this like hip part of town. I ordered one of their infamous hamburgers, it was called:
The Frenchie: a 6 oz beef patty with confit pork belly, arugula, tomato-onion compote & morbier cheese on a peppered brioche bun with cornichon, mustard & fries. (Though the house-made bun was delicious, it wasn’t peppered, BTW)
The fries were good but not perfect. The plate cost $17. It was a little silly paying that much for a burger, I didn’t think it would be worth it. After a few bites, however, once I stopped critiquing it and started just chilling out, enjoying my burger…it was actually pretty stellar. Sometimes, you just have to slow down a bit, let the juice run down to your elbow and stare at the people all busy trying to look cool…because it was a really good hamburger.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Lunch at Jean Georges was a blast and if you happen to be in NYC I strongly suggest it. Their accolades are many…with 3 Michelin stars, 5 Mobil diamonds, 5 AAA stars And 4 NY Times stars, Jean George has a lot of awards going on. The thing is, you have to wear a jacket, which goes against my philosophy of food…against my philosophy of life, but I really wanted to go, so I asked my uncle Roger whether he had a jacket or not. He did, of course, and hooked me up with a whole outfit. The shirt belonged to my uncle Gene. The only shoes I’d had were white new balance runners, so I looked pretty ridiculous, but he said just stick your feet under the table and no one will care, the rest of you looks great…Gene was on lunch from his office up the street. He met us outside in his perfect suit and with his old friend Jeffrey who neither had seen in a while but has his own catering biz in the city. Hugs and handshakes and then we were ready to tear it up. Huge props to Gene and Roger, these guys have been like my rock for decades. Well, somehow I made it in the place and was served several elaborate plates of food. All of which were very nicely composed. Service was perfect. The server was very knowledgeable, very good looking, and had just the right amount of personality.

We started with Fluke Tartar, and Carrot Miso soup in tiny little crystal eggshell shotglasses.
I ordered Tuna ribbons, avocado, spicy radish, ginger marinade.
Gene and Jeffrey had the Foie Gras Brulee. Roger had Peekytoe crab salad.
Everything we put in our mouths was excellent.

We sat in this modern dining room at 1 Central Park West with this amazing food and my silly white running shoes under the table. I sipped my Arnold Palmer,( half lemonade/half iced tea) and couldn’t get over the intensity of this amazing meal. Iwas waiting to be noticed  by someone, someone who I imagined would stroll out of the kitchen and have someone else throw me out onto the street.

 The other men each had different varietals of white wine…these guys knew their way around a menu.  The dishes required the server to interact with the diners by pouring the sauce on my tuna, and walking around the table putting the dressing on Roger’s salad. She even lit Gene’s 2nd course on fire…intentionally…every little plate had some element of service you just didn’t expect. And the waitress was quite good…She smiled dutifully and yet was perfectly aloof. It didn’t hurt that she was gorgeous. There was a terrified little bread boy over my left shoulder. and he scurried around the table giving us homemade bread hot from the oven. Second course was salmon for me, beef tenderloin for Gene, Jeffrey had sweetbreads and Roger had the snapper with nuts and seeds. Tiny cuts of fish and steak, bizarre unconventional combinations that succeeded and impressed.
Dessert…they have a guy with marshmallow cart. Seriously. A marshmallow guy pushing a serious wooden cart through the dining room, and on the cart is a large glass cylinder filled with house-made marshmallow that he extracts with a large tweezers. Then, he holds exaggerated silver scissors and snips the marshmallow off, snip, snip and snip. Rose cookies. Thai chili and star anise crème caramel and several very nice chocolates made in-house all appear on the table…dessert was quite good…when it was all over, we got in a cab back uptown and then I got out on about 72nd to go hit Jacques Torres chocolatier on Amsterdam…

On a recent trip to Brooklyn, I ate at a nice little neighborhood bar/restaurant called No. 7. The hype on No. 7 is that chef Tyler Kord, who used to work at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Perry Street, has created what Bon Appetit magazine rated as one of the Top Ten Best New Restaurants in America for 2009.
I was excited to try their fried broccoli appetizer ($8). It was an entire broccoli crown, still in the shape of a tree, just off the produce section shelf, tempura battered and deep-fried. Served atop a smear of black bean puree with arugula-shallot-orange salad on the side of the plate. It was weird, it was cute, but I wondered, is this dish inspired? or is it lazy? Is this what you get at one of the Top Ten new restaurants in the country?

 Maybe it was simply because it was late Sunday evening and the chef was off, because things were just not hitting on all cylinders. For instance, the Hamachi Sashimi on Korean pear ($13), while it was full of explosive flavor, the Mackerel still had its skin on. After I tried to chew on this raw fish skin for a minute, I relented. The friends I was eating at the table with came to same conclusion. It was almost a really good appetizer.

One of us ordered the Chicken with Rye Gnocchi and Lemonade ($18). The ‘lemonade’ was basically homemade jello, made with lemon juice and agar-agar, according to our server, and diced in tiny cubes placed on top of the chicken. That’s cool, very creative. I had sea bass and cockles in broth served in a funky iron pot ($19). I liked it a lot but it wasn’t exactly a homerun. This was not living up to our expectations. Another in our party had the swordfish ($20), which was outrageously delicious. The meal was starting to perk up a bit. Unfortunately, another of us ordered the Grilled Wagyu Bavette Steak ($24); a tiny cut of beef seared rare and sliced across the grain…perfectly prepared. However the streak of silver tendon through the center of the steak was unforgivable. I couldn’t understand why the chef served it. Possibly the lights were out in the kitchen at the time…he should have set it aside and eaten it himself, grabbed us another thin slice of the overpriced flap meat and tried again. This place was not living up to its hype.
Overall, I’d chalk it up to the kitchen having a particularly bad dinner service. It happens. I’m not saying don’t go there, in fact, my Brooklyn friends are going to give it another shot, they’re just not going on a Sunday.

The Fifth of May or Mexico’s Independence Day?

Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday in Mexico and the United States, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla. The holiday commemorates the Mexican army, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin, victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

The Battle of Puebla was a result of President of Mexico Benito Juarez decision to stop making payments to countries in which Mexico owned money too. In response, France attacked Mexico in order to receive payment and later decided they would try to take over Mexico. The Mexican Army, numbering close to 4,000, held off a much more experienced and equipped force of about 8,000 French troops. However, this victory only delayed the French occupation of Mexico for about a year.

Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually September 16, and is not widely celebrated throughout the country.

Regardless, come on down to Sonora Grill and celebrate with us. Incredible food and great drink specials. Wild Wednesday and Cinco de Mayo, you can’t go wrong. $4.00 Fresca Margaritas, $3.00 draft beers… Rooster’s Bee’s Knees Honey Wheat, Unita Cutthroat Pale Ale, Michelob Shock Top, Bud Light, and Michelob Amber Bock. We will also be offering $2.50 Coronas and Dox Equis and $5.00 shots of Patron Silver. Don’t forget to ask the bartender about the Cinco de Mayo Shots!

Fuego!