For my 3rd Dine About Town experience - I really wanted to go to Bottle Cap. My favorite source for blog ideas - 7x7 - had recently recommended it as a great date spot. So, I decided it would be a great place to go on a girl date with my friend Sheena.
As soon as we got the menus, we knew we had made a good choice. After long work days, we were both quick to order a fun cocktail. We both got the Bondly named Dr. No which the waiter referred to as a fancy mai tai. It was delicious.
For appetizers, Sheena got a beef stew that was hearty and delicious. I got a smoked rainbow trout salad. Unfortunately, my dish wasn't quite what I imagined but still interesting and I managed to finish my plate. I had been torn between the trout and some some fried chicken thighs, and I sadly chose poorly.
We both chose the Wagyu steak for on entrees. Wagyu steak is a marbly type of beef that tends to be higher in flavor. It is similar to Kobe in a lot of ways. I've seen it appear on many a cooking show so I was excited to be able to order it at a reasonable price. The portions did not disappoint either - the restaurant gave us hefty portions as well as tasty sides of broccoli rabe, mushrooms, potato/squash gratin. A couple had just sat down next to us when we got our plates, and their eyes nearly popped out of their heads. "What is that??" "Is it good??" Yes, yes it is.
When our dessert courses came, our neighbors again asked what we'd gotten. Sheena got a chocolate brioche cake topped with torched whipped cream. I, only the other hand, have slowly been becoming less and less interested in super sweet desserts and was very happy that they had a fried goat cheese option.
As we enjoyed our dessert, we began striking up a conversation with our neighbors. They asked how many Dine About Town restaurants we had gone to. Then, they mentioned that they were only in town visiting from Chicago. For those of you who don't know, Chicago is very high on my list of cities to visit. It is an ultimate foodie town meriting both unique styles of food (ask any Chicagoan about hot dogs or pizza) and a variety of renowned chefs. I began asking them about all of the Chicago restaurants that I've wanted to go to, and they gave me their reviews. We talked about Restaurant Week (Chicago and NY's version of Dine About Town) and I shared my stories of the freebies I got on my trip to the Big Apple. The couple then said "Oh yes, we have a similar story.." and proceeded to tell us about how Wolfgang Puck sat down and had dessert with them when they were at Spago in Los Angeles. My jaw dropped - what an amazing story!
My favorite part of the night was when, mid-conversation, the wife stopped her sentence and said "Is the band playing Paparazzi?" Sure enough, the classic instrumental band was playing the hit Lady Gaga song.
I don't imagine that everyone will make such entertaining friends at Bottle Cap but the restaurant still had amazing food and a great atmosphere. The quaint decorating options give the feel of a French bistro while the classical ensemble playing pop music, gave a quirky, fun vibe to the meal. Bottle Cap is definitely going on my list of places to go to often.
Showing posts with label dine about town. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dine about town. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Week of July 18th 2011: Les Halles
I'm not going to lie - I basically came into New York with a list of restaurants I had to go to. While I didn't make all of them, I'm very glad I got to try Les Halles.
After reading, Anthony Bourdain's first book, Kitchen Confidential, I felt like I knew Les Halles intimately. It felt odd that I was so familiar with the inner workings of this New York restaurant without having ever tried it's food. So, after my trip to the Met, Elissa and I got all dressed up for our French bistro style dinner.
Although Les Halles also had a restaurant week special, we decided to order off the regular menu. I got the waiter's suggestion of the pepper steak frites while Elissa got a lovely salmon dish. It was so great. I'm not the biggest fan of a ton of pepper so I probably should have gotten the regular steak but it was still incredibly tasty. I definitely have a French food crush on steak frites after reading a travel book before my first visit to Paris so it was nice to have some again.
I forget how it happened, but somehow the two of us fell into conversation with our waiter and, of course, I dropped the "this is my first time in New York line." So he asked me about San Francisco and insisted that I make him a list of restaurants that he should eat at next time he travels here. He also gave me a business card that told me which episodes of No Reservations he was on. He was also helpful with wine pairings... so helpful that he gave us a full glass "taste" of something he had recommended.
As we were finishing our dinner, he surprised us with a bowl of different sorbets. I swear to you - if it is your first time in a new city tell people!!! I think if you're a nice person who is generally interested in the place you are visiting, the worst thing is that people will be nice back to you and the best is that they may leave you a few treats with your dinner.
I loved the food at Les Halles and even though Mr. Bourdain doesn't work there anymore, the food is still fantastic. I highly recommend it to everyone.
After reading, Anthony Bourdain's first book, Kitchen Confidential, I felt like I knew Les Halles intimately. It felt odd that I was so familiar with the inner workings of this New York restaurant without having ever tried it's food. So, after my trip to the Met, Elissa and I got all dressed up for our French bistro style dinner.
Although Les Halles also had a restaurant week special, we decided to order off the regular menu. I got the waiter's suggestion of the pepper steak frites while Elissa got a lovely salmon dish. It was so great. I'm not the biggest fan of a ton of pepper so I probably should have gotten the regular steak but it was still incredibly tasty. I definitely have a French food crush on steak frites after reading a travel book before my first visit to Paris so it was nice to have some again. I forget how it happened, but somehow the two of us fell into conversation with our waiter and, of course, I dropped the "this is my first time in New York line." So he asked me about San Francisco and insisted that I make him a list of restaurants that he should eat at next time he travels here. He also gave me a business card that told me which episodes of No Reservations he was on. He was also helpful with wine pairings... so helpful that he gave us a full glass "taste" of something he had recommended.
As we were finishing our dinner, he surprised us with a bowl of different sorbets. I swear to you - if it is your first time in a new city tell people!!! I think if you're a nice person who is generally interested in the place you are visiting, the worst thing is that people will be nice back to you and the best is that they may leave you a few treats with your dinner.
I loved the food at Les Halles and even though Mr. Bourdain doesn't work there anymore, the food is still fantastic. I highly recommend it to everyone.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Week of July 18th 2011: New York City and Colicchio & Sons
If you are a constant reader of my blog, you know that I have a consistent New Year's Resolution to travel to a new place. The reason this one is so important to me is that even though I've don'e a good bit of international travel, I've been really terrible about going to places that are more domestic. Up until July of last year, I hadn't even been to New York (aside from changing planes at JFK). This was way at the top of my list of places to go but I knew that if I was going to go I'd want a companion or place to stay. Well, after my friend, Elissa, moved there earlier in the summer, I knew I had both.
Elissa had given me the directions to get to her apartment from the airport. After several transfers, I soon found myself stepping out of a subway and into the sweltering heat of New York in the summer. For someone who grew up in a city that frequently had over 100 degree summers, it's funny how quickly I've adapted to the mild seasons of San Francisco.
After Elissa got off work, she helped me settled into her lovely Upper East Side apartment and then we changed to go out to dinner. I had luckily showed up in New York during Restaurant Week (similar to dine about town with $35 prix fixe menu) so I was excited to try a lot of places that were otherwise out of my price range. As a big Top Chef fan, I was really happy to see that Tom Colicchio (long standing head judge of the show) had a restaurant on the list and I was able to snag a reservation!
We showed up at Colicchio and Sons which was located just by the meat packing district and the elevated park and were instantly impressed by the modern decor. I personally loved the wine bottle tree. I gave my name to the hostess, but she couldn't find my reservation so - I pulled up the Open Table email on my phone... and quickly realized that I had been off by a week. I was so sad about messing up the reservation and told the hostess that it was my first night ever in NYC and had really looked forward to dining there. Luckily, the hostess team was very nice and said they'd find a way to squeeze us in if we wouldn't mind waiting a the bar for a bit. We were so happy that they were accommodating, that we didn't have any problem finding something off of the impressive drink menu.
Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of our dinner so it's a little harder to remember exactly what we got. However, I do remember getting an extra course of rabbit sausage pizza mysteriously delivered to our table. We quickly began to realize that mentioning that it was my first time in New York was a great way to have people give us really good service (aka freebies).
We also got a chance to meet up with my friends Anthony and Ian who were roadtripping across the country and happened to be in New York at the same time as me. We end up at several college-esque bars that felt quite appropriate as a meetup with some of my college friends. Anthony has a blog as well and he wrote about our adventures with only a week lag instead of 11 months. You can read that here.
It was definitely a great start to the first of many adventures that we were going to have that trip.
As an aside - the next few posts will be pretty picture free. I had dropped my camera in a creek while in Southern California and my phone had terrible battery life. I took what I could between my broken camera, phone and tablet (yes, I was that awkward person taking tablet pictures - I was desperate) but there will be a lot of barren posts. I know they are less interesting. I'm sorry.
Elissa had given me the directions to get to her apartment from the airport. After several transfers, I soon found myself stepping out of a subway and into the sweltering heat of New York in the summer. For someone who grew up in a city that frequently had over 100 degree summers, it's funny how quickly I've adapted to the mild seasons of San Francisco.
After Elissa got off work, she helped me settled into her lovely Upper East Side apartment and then we changed to go out to dinner. I had luckily showed up in New York during Restaurant Week (similar to dine about town with $35 prix fixe menu) so I was excited to try a lot of places that were otherwise out of my price range. As a big Top Chef fan, I was really happy to see that Tom Colicchio (long standing head judge of the show) had a restaurant on the list and I was able to snag a reservation!
We showed up at Colicchio and Sons which was located just by the meat packing district and the elevated park and were instantly impressed by the modern decor. I personally loved the wine bottle tree. I gave my name to the hostess, but she couldn't find my reservation so - I pulled up the Open Table email on my phone... and quickly realized that I had been off by a week. I was so sad about messing up the reservation and told the hostess that it was my first night ever in NYC and had really looked forward to dining there. Luckily, the hostess team was very nice and said they'd find a way to squeeze us in if we wouldn't mind waiting a the bar for a bit. We were so happy that they were accommodating, that we didn't have any problem finding something off of the impressive drink menu.
Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of our dinner so it's a little harder to remember exactly what we got. However, I do remember getting an extra course of rabbit sausage pizza mysteriously delivered to our table. We quickly began to realize that mentioning that it was my first time in New York was a great way to have people give us really good service (aka freebies).
We also got a chance to meet up with my friends Anthony and Ian who were roadtripping across the country and happened to be in New York at the same time as me. We end up at several college-esque bars that felt quite appropriate as a meetup with some of my college friends. Anthony has a blog as well and he wrote about our adventures with only a week lag instead of 11 months. You can read that here.
It was definitely a great start to the first of many adventures that we were going to have that trip.
As an aside - the next few posts will be pretty picture free. I had dropped my camera in a creek while in Southern California and my phone had terrible battery life. I took what I could between my broken camera, phone and tablet (yes, I was that awkward person taking tablet pictures - I was desperate) but there will be a lot of barren posts. I know they are less interesting. I'm sorry.
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