After the overwhelming popularity of Untapped's preview about the new restaurant at Lincoln Center, we were pretty excited to check out the restaurant for my birthday. The review in one word (or three): hit-or-miss. But the place is beautiful.
This past weekend was the 4th annual Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival. The festival is run by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, the same organization that runs Jazz Fest (officially known as the Jazz and Heritage Festival).
On a recent Sunday afternoon, we grabbed grub at Lassen & Hennings, a great delicatessen in Brooklyn Heights and headed to Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1 where we would spend the next seven hours. I remember this area of the Brooklyn waterfront from old movies. It was always used for a sketchy exchange, involving a mobster or cop who needed a location where nobody else would be. Not anymore!
After a hot summer almost entirely dominated by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, signs of Autumn are in sight: The mornings are cool and dry (at least until 9am), and oyster season has begun.
Lincoln Restaurant does not open officially until September 24th, but things are happening. On September 10th, Heart Magazine had an event there. Tonight, while most were crowded around the star-studded red carpet for Tommy Hilfiger's 25th Anniversary Show, I eschewed the masses and checked out the restaurant.
Fashion week might be happening a block away, but the Lincoln Center Greenmarket was bustling as usual today. The only difference was the addition of some fashionable ladies looking for how to get to Canal Street. Wrong neighborhood ladies! Today's highlight was the vintage apple cider press churning out for immediate tasting.
The New York Times once described the Pussycat Lounge as "set on a block where one might feel comfortable urinating against a building." People love this place precisely because it's grungy and hasn't changed since the 1970s. It's also one of the last neighborhood bars in the area.
The farmers market on Broadway between 114th and 116th streets carries organic milk, eggs, baked goods, poultry, turkey, duck and many other organic vegetables.
Untapped went on a Père Lachaise adventure, beginning at the Philippe Starck-designed hotel and bar, Mama Shelter in the 20th arrondisement, situated across from music venue La Fleche D'or. It has some of the best cocktails in town and with rooms running at around 110 euros per night, it's my top recommendation for hotels in Paris.
When my mother came to visit Paris, I booked a hotel for her near the row of Japanese restaurants on Rue Saint-Anne and within a week, she and I had sampled nearly every restaurant. This is our "Best of Rue-Saint Anne" list.