BARNACLE BOY

This is a real summer day sandwich at Better Being Underground: soft-shell crab, caper (That one caper sort of looks like the crabs eye) mayo, arugula. With salt and vinegar potato chips and mint strawberry lemonade. Nobody really likes summer in NY though. This just reminds me how much I like to get out of town when it's hot.

NORTHERN SPY FOOD CO.

Phil and I met for an early dinner at Northern Spy Food Co. in the East Village. I wish we had a place like this in the neighborhood, they make the kind of food you want to eat every night. When eating with another guy, you have to be careful about how you order... two hamburgers is no problem... a couple salads and matching orders of scallops and white wine is right on the edge.

FORD

Ford helped me get my plants ready for spring... which mainly meant him yelling at me for letting my plants die and replacing them with new ones. Then we went to Joseph Leonard for lunch. We both got hamburgers, they put ricotta on it, which I'd never tried anywhere, I liked the creamy whiteness with the meaty blackness. It was so good that I forgot to take a picture before I ate it.

Afterwards I went to Il Cantuccio, which is a new Italian bakery that specializes in $35 bags of biscotti.

I'm going to serve these to the person I'm making dinner for tomorrow night.

Co.

I know it's cool to like your pizza with the edges charred, but this is burnt to a crisp! It's too much. There are tons of great new pizza places that have opened up recently, I still think Co. is the best of the bunch (despite the overly done crust). It's run by the guy that was the main guy at Sullivan Street bakery (I'm not going to link to it, because it's moved uptown and I've never been so I don't know anything about it) We had plain and one that was a special with ramps (I don't really get what the big deal about ramps is, to be honest, but I figured I'd try it since it was a special)

ROBERTA'S

Roberta's is way out in Brooklyn (2o minutes on the L). Sometimes when one (me) lives in Manhattan, it's hard to remember that there are a million great places just a short ride away. This place grows it's own vegetables and herbs in it's garden out back, has bee hives that produce honey they serve, they bake bread in their own oven and they have a RADIO STATION! I felt old.

I shared a perfect meal with Jules, who is French and an artist (I like him anyways)

Bibb lettuce salad

meat and cheese plate

Skirt steak

Pizza with sausage and basil

BETTER BEING UNDERGROUND

After a long, hard morning of fabric swatching, a working-guy needs a lunch break. Charlie from Epoch told me about Better Being Underground so I stopped by yesterday for lunch. They were out of food! That's a great way to get me to come back, so I went back today.

Monte Cristo

Terra Blues (Todd Solondz's favorite snack chip)

Vita Coco

pickle

chocolate/cranberry/oatmeal cookie

DANCIN' WITH THE STARS

Watch out Marlow! This is really easy. Put some thyme under the skin of a piece of chicken. Put it in a really hot pan with a little olive oil. Put another pan on top of it as a weight. Let it sit and pop and sizzle until you can't stand it anymore. Then put the chicken into the pan that was on top and stick it in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so. Pour a little water or wine into the chicken pan and scrape it, cook the greens in the liquid while the chicken finishes cooking.

BABBO

We got lucky, walked in and got a table at Babbo. I was on a date. I like sharing food (depending on the situation… I could talk a lot about that, and I will someday) but she was fun to share food with. We got the beet tartar. It was good, but in a very un-Babbo-y way they tried to make it too much like steak tartar with all the sides (salt, mustard, onion, etc.) It seemed like something they might serve at VP2.

The pastas were great of course.

Bavette with ramps

Home made orechetti, broccoli rabe, and sausage. The texture of their pasta is perfect.

Braised beef

And these peas with superchunks of bacon

This dessert, which was described as “out of control”

LL BEAN

I was really into the Preppy Handbook when I was twelve. L.L. Bean was one of my favorite companies ( I also liked Adidas and Lacoste) But over the years, it's gone down hill. It's become too baggy and cheaply made. It's place in the world was overtaken by J. Crew. But things have changed, they hired some new guy to bring back what was good and they've introduced a new Signature Collection. I bought two shirts that I'm happy about.

DISAPPOINTMENT

It's a rainy day. My plan was to eat a big breakfast and then linger Phil-style reading the Sunday paper at Parilla (the place that the winner of the first season of Top Chef opened a few years ago) I ordered badly. Poached eggs and smoked salmon on a homemade english muffin covered in an onion soubise sauce and a side of homemade pickles? I don't know what I was thinking, not really what you want to eat for breakfast. The food came out almost immediately (before I could even take my iPhone Scrabble turns and get the paper ready to be read) It was gross, but I ate it anyway. Then the check came two minutes later. My whole lingering experience only lasted about 2o minutes, I felt weird and left.

JLOB

Met Sara, Mott and Ford at Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar before heading over to David's touching and star-studded 50th birthday blowout. I hadn't been to JLOB since they moved into this new space. It's still tiny. Last time I went to Jewel Bako, it was a little disappointing so I was afraid that maybe the whole Jack Lamb empire had gone downhill. Luckily, it hasn't. The food we had was inventive and tasty.

Sea Bass
EggPlant
Arctic Char
Scallops
Octopus

SARA AND ANNA AND PETER AND CALEB

At least two of the forty-six visitors (not including me) to this blog were at Saltie today. This is the Captain's Daughter: sardines, pickled egg, salsa verde, parsley, dill.--recommended by Tony and Mott.

Rode bike... yadda, yadda, yadda...

Hazelnut ice cream chocolate sandwich cookie. Some friends let me have their left-overs.

IL BUCO.... AGAIN

Met Chiefy here for second dinner. Katie (who I neglected to mention yesterday--she helped me out with her lovely fingernails and food styling) was an excellent host once again. We put ourselves in her hands (finger-related pun intended) in deciding what to have. She started us with the carpaccio. We followed that with trumpet mushrooms in a ribbon pasta and a very average Bistecca Fiorentina (I was hoping this would be better) Still keeping Strip House at the top of my steak list. If I were you I would hate me.

LONELY GUY

This is a great meal for a lonely guy. It's made from stuff I always have around: fancy Italian spaghetti from Murray's, parmesan, olive oil, butter, black pepper. It's quick and easy to make. Don't feel too sorry for me though, I'm meeting up with a friend from out of town later. finger.

IL BUCO

I think Il Buco is my favorite Italian restaurant in the city... although I have high hopes for Torrisi Italian Specialties, which, if everything works out, I'll go to this weekend (I'll keep you posted)--sorry for the poor picture quality, I need to get some mini lights to bring with me next time.

Kale Caesar salad

Cauliflower and gorgonzola fritters (I want to try and make these someday)

Pork ragu

Porchetta--this was good, but... and I love fat... maybe even a little too fatty. You know how if you made some bacon and then left the pan filled with grease and then came back an hour later it looks like crisco? After a while that's what the plate looked like. It was good though.

TRIPLE PLAY

A mid-week day game, I forgot it was even on... and then I remembered.

First Yankees triple play since 1968.

GEORGE

Kim and George came over for lunch today, I was trying to make something healthy but it never turns out that way. This is pretty cholesterol-y.

We went to Grom for dessert. I think it's the best gelato/ice cream place around. A lot of people are big fans of Cones, also on Bleecker, but depending on what flavor you get I'd take Grom. This is vanilla and stracciatella.

DAVES

Click here to see the video:

MICHAEL IMPERIOLI

He seems like a nice guy.

A) He rides the subway and was reading AM New York

B) We got out at the same stop and he helped an old lady carry her suitcase through the turnstile and all the way up the steps. She said he looked familiar and he said she must have seen him on TV.

DIRTY PROJECTORS

I love this video. My favorite part is how these girls dance.

SALTIE

Here's a great outing for someone who lives in Manhattan. Ride your bike over the Williamsburg Bridge to Saltie and eat a sandwich (you can also take the L to Bedford or Lorimer) It's 3.5 miles from the West Village, so it's easy and satisfying... like Saltie.

This is a good salad: kale, apples, hazelnuts and pecorino cheese.
The Scuttlebutt: Hard-boiled egg, capers, sliced beets, olives, dill, parsley, red pepper aioli.
The Little Chef: Mortadella, pecorino and green olive tapenade.

Most of the sandwiches come on focaccia (I think they make it there).

Last week I had the Clean Slate, which was served open face on Naan, with hummus and most of the stuff that's on the Scuttlebutt, so far that's my favorite, but I plan on trying everything on the menu over the next few weeks.