A week of meals in NYC

Plenty of new spots have popped up while we were gone. I love walking the streets and seeing what’s new.

Barbuto is closing after 15 years in one of the best physical spots in the city for a restaurant. On the corner of 12th and Washington sits an old garage with huge paned windows that open up and dissolve into the ceiling on a nice day. It is prime. The hospitality there has always been absolutely abysmal except for the bartenders who do recognize us but we have checked in there over 100 times and are still not treated like a regular. It is in our neighborhood and will be sadly missed regardless of the treatment. Hospitality stems from the top, enough said. Get in there quick to have the chicken and kale salad before the doors close.

We had dinner at Estiatorio Milos in the awful Hudson Yards before seeing the opening show at the Shed. Milos uptown has always been a fave pre-Manhattan Theater Club. The space in the mall is really beautifully done and feels connected to the one uptown, like a brand new sibling born in a different decade. There are as much waitstaff as there are seats yet for some reason they are still working out the kinks getting food out of the kitchen and training the staff to be proactive.

Just like successful tech companies find people leaving after vesting to sometimes start their own companies, the same is true of the restaurant world. Sam Yoo spent time at Momofuku and Torrisi and grew up in a family restaurant. I love that he decided to open a diner, a sadly dying breed of restaurants around NYC. The Golden Diner is located under the Manhattan bridge. Didn’t love the food but loved the place. The matcha coffeecake could have been a little moister but being in that area of town makes me happy.

The Standard Grill has a new chef well actually an old chef with a new look, Rocco DiSpirito. There has been a lot of hoopla around this and am happy to see the change. The key thing here is the raw bar. The scallops with uni are delicious. I’d go back and sit at the bar and indulge again on the tuna and caviar dish too.

More to check out in the weeks to come!