Midday desserts and coffee at Brasserie Athenee

Last weekend, PR and I met up for coffee in Midtown. We tried to grab a table at Pigalle, the hit-or-miss French brasserie at 48th and 10th, and got so much attitude from the host that we decided to go elsewhere. Lo and behold, Brasserie Athenee, just a few blocks down from Pigalle, was happy to welcome us.

We gratefully escaped the rain in the mostly empty, very French-style dining room. PR ordered a cappuccino, and I ordered a sparkling water. We sipped.

Cappu

And then the piece de resistance arrived: PR's cheesecake. This was a big hunk 'o' cake, halfheartedly decorated with strawberries for color more than flavor. One bit revealed an intensely rich, creamy texture, sweet but almost in a subtle way. I wished the graham cracker crust had been a bit less soggy, but other than that this was some pretty good cheesecake.

Gets the job done!

And so, with our cheesecake and our beverages, we were happy. Thank you, Brasserie Athenee, for taking us in when Pigalle was Too Cool for School. Rest assured your hospitality was much appreciated.

Brasserie Athenee
300 W. 46th Street, at 8th Avenue
212-399-1100

Coffee and salad at Bouchon Bakery

I've been to Bouchon Bakery a couple of times, for tea, for dessert... but never for savory food. I've always wanted to try their savory food. And last week, I finally got the opportunity!

MB and I met up at Bouchon in the early evening for a long-overdue catch-up. She ordered a coffee, soymilk on the side, which earned raves.

Action photo!

And I finally got my long-awaited salad! The winner was an endive and apple salad with peppercress, goat cheese, toasted walnuts, and walnut vinaigrette. Come to think of it, the menu promised walnuts, but in fact there weren't any. Perhaps that was for the best, because this concoction came as a vertically arranged plate of towering vegetation heaped onto a narrow plate-- it was clear that one forkful would dislodge the whole mess, sending tendrils of pepper cross tumbling towards the table. And it did. Imagine the extra mess walnut bits would have made! No matter-- the salad was actually quite good, if a little bitter, what with both the pepper cress and the endive. But the goat cheese was delicious, and there was lots of it. It was a satisfying salad.

Tried to capture the vertical reach on this puppy...

Oh, and it came with some intensely crusty and chewy French bread. Ahh, those French know how to make their bread.

Bread + butter with salt crystals on top = perfection

Mission accomplished! Confirmed: Bouchon does make good salads. The next time I'm in the area and feel like shelling out a pretty penny for some pretty produce, I'm there.

Bouchon Bakery
10 Columbus Circle
212-823-9364

A little this, a little that at Ceci Cela

Last weekend, AC and I got together at Ceci Cela in Soho to catch up. I'd actually had one of their fruit tarts (courtesy of the very same AC.... :-) ) a while back, but I'd never been to the cafe to sit and eat. Turns out there's a very cute, very French, and very small little cafe in the back of the space, behind the pastry cases in front. Music plays, ceiling fans whir, and it actually feels as though you're on the streets of Paris.

While I sipped a small Perrier (only $1.50-- not bad for dine-in prices!), AC got an iced latte (delicious) and a croque-monsieur. This came with a big handful of mesclun and some vinaigrette. There was some ham sandwiched between two slices of thick, soft, golden bread, and the whole thing was smothered in a blanked of melted cheese. AC truly enjoyed it. And I'll admit, I was a little jealous.

Refreshing!

...and Cheesy!

It was hard to pass up the tempting treats at the front counter on the way out, but with a thunderstorm bearing down on us, we dashed out to get to our next destinations before the deluge. If you're ever in Soho and are searching for a peaceful place to rest your legs, give Ceci Cela a thought-- there's some reasonably-priced savory food, a whole lot of tempting sweets, and a cute little area that lets you feel-- momentarily, at least-- very far away.

Ceci Cela
55 Spring Street
212-274-9179

Catching up at Cafe Lalo

Last weekend, I met an old friend I hadn't seen in years for coffee. She had just moved to the UWS, so I picked Cafe Lalo as our mutual meeting place.

If you've ever seen You've Got Mail, you'll know the place-- the cute cafe where Tom Hanks finds out Meg Ryan is the love of his life. The real Cafe Lalo is a bit louder and a bit less romantic but a bit more packed with delicious sweet treats. The restaurant is dominated by a huge case packed full of cakes, pies, and other delectables, all displayed alluringly and ready to tempt the taste buds. The music was on pretty loudly and the tables are packed together. But ignore all that and you can have something good to eat.

The menu is actually pretty extensive, and since we were there mid-afternoon on the weekend, we were able to choose from the brunch offerings. NS went for a frozen coffee, which came out as thick and delicious as a milkshake.

Anything that comes with a long spoon is just fine in my book

I went for a large tropical fruit salad. This concoction had some strawberries, grapes, papaya, mango, melon, and pineapple, all a little bit over-ripe but still tasty. My one gripe-- and apparently this is common around town, given my experience at Cookshop as well-- is that they serve this fruit salad piled precariously in a rounded cup with the fruit teetering out of the top. WHY? How is it possible to eat this without spilling fruit everywhere? You have to put pressure on the pile of fruit to spear anything with your fork, which inevitably dislodges the key piece of fruit holding everything together and sends the top layer tumbling to the table. Given that this fruit salad was about $7, that's at least a dollar's worth gone off the bat. Okay, rant over, but please, restaurants, serve your fruit salad in a reasonable vessel, mmkay?

Jengaaaaaaa

That's all. All in all, I liked Cafe Lalo as a place to catch up, and I'd like to return for some desserts. If you're in the neighborhood, give it a try for brunch or another quick bite. Just ask for an extra plate with your fruit salad.

Cafe Lalo
201 W. 83rd Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam
212-496-6031

Chillin' out max at Village Tart

Last weekend, AC and I met at Village Tart to catch up. Village Tart is a cute little desserterie/coffee shop/cafe run by Pichet Ong, the dessert genius behind such delights as Spot Dessert Bar. AC and I took a booth in the cafe and sat to chat.

For her, an iced latte with extra milk and a walnut cookie. The cookie was incredible-- oblong and free-form, dotted with walnuts, redolent of brown sugar, simply delightful.

Sweating iced latte

Walnut cookie-- homely, yet powerful

My choice was the beet salad, listed as "beets, grapefruit, candied pistachios, Greek yogurt." It turned out to be so much more, both in terms of taste and quantity. There was a hefty pile of red and golden beets, cooked slightly al dente and resting on a thin slick of mild Greek yogurt. Three grapefruit supremes triangulated the plate-- much sweeter than I expected the grapefruit to be, which was a pleasant surprise. There were little clusters of candied pistachios to provide crunch. And the whole thing was covered with some sort of spice dust, mysterious and tasty all at once. While the portion looks small in the picture, I almost couldn't finish the salad. For $9, not bad.

Plateful o' beets

And that was that. We caught up, ate, and relaxed. The laid-back server let us linger as long as we wanted, and we did. If you're looking for a chill place to, well, chill in Nolita, Village Tart will fit the bill. I'll be back to try some more of the sweets, for sure.

Village Tart
86 Kenmare Street at Mulberry Street
212-226-4980

More chocolate--and tea--than you can handle at Burdick's

Saturday afternoon was sunny and almost warm, a perfect cafe day. I had a 5PM coffee rendez-vous planned with my former boss, AA. We met up at Burdick's, the chocolate cafe I posted about when it first opened. This time around, the place was in full swing.

We ordered drinks: for AA, a double cappuccino, for me, a Japanese sencha tea. AA also ordered their signature Harvard Square to nibble on. We grabbed a table near the door and settled in to chat.

Our drinks arrived shortly. Nothing too outlandish to report here, other than the fact that my teabag held about three teapots' worth of tea. When I removed it from the rather small cup, the water level sank by about 1/3. There's nothing really to explain this; there was just no need for so much tea in such a little cup. I mean, I appreciate the generosity, but... curious.

There's about a quarter pound of tea in there

We hypothesized perhaps the latte art was a bean?

As for the Harvard Square, AA liked it, but he didn't love it. It had layers of all different kinds of chocolate-- brownie, ganache, etc.-- and lots of walnuts interspersed within. He noted that while it was chocolatey, he really just wanted straight-up chocolate and found the walnuts almost distracting. Maybe he should just have gotten a chocolate bar?

Looks bigger than it was, but this puppy was powerful

No matter. Burdick's is a nice place to hang out, and it's great for a mid-afternoon or after-dinner indulgence. If you're looking for something sweet to take to Madison Square Park, you can't go wrong swinging by the shop on your way.

L.A. Burdick
5 E. 20th Street, between Broadway and 5th Avenue
212-796-0143

Tea & Tarts at Marseille

On Monday I met the lovely AC at Marseille in Hell's Kitchen for after-work tea and treats. While I rarely go to Marseille for food, since I find it a little overpriced and not too special, I've been a number of times for drinks or tea or other specialties. I know that's not ideal for the restaurant in terms of revenue generation, but as I pretty much never go when they're full (i.e., I'm not taking up a table that would otherwise have customers eating a full meal), I don't feel too bad-- at least they're getting some revenue, right?

Anyway, I walked in that night apparently right into the stragglers at the the end of the pre-theater crowd. Also apparently they were doing some sort of stinky-cheese promotion, because by god the place STANK to high heaven (spotted: a chef-manned cheese cart, the source of the, ahem, "odeur"). And it was hot and frenzied. I spent the rest of the evening sweating through my clothes and trying not to breathe the stinky, overheated air.

We ordered drinks. Green tea for me, coffee for AC. I asked for milk on the side and they brought me honey. Ooohkay. Fortunately AC let me swipe some of her milk, so all was well.

The little pitcher in the back is honey

AC also decided to order a nibble, so she put in a request for the goat cheese tart. That precipitated the appearance of the bread basket, with multi-grain bread and a dish of Marseille's signature butter-and-oil combo. I suppose the butter-and-oil sums up Marseille's food philosophy overall: part French (butter), part Mediterranean (olive oil).

Bread offerings

Spread and dip, with herbs

AC also enjoyed the tart, which had a flaky crust, a crown of hair-like frisee, and a surrounding ring of peppery gremolata-like-stuff.

Pretty presentation

We stayed until I felt on the verge of passing out from the heat and then escaped to the mercifully cool, breezy air outside. So maybe this visit wasn't as successful as some of my others; maybe avoiding the dinner hours altogether is the way to go. Or perhaps the strategy is to wait until the fine weather produces the outdoor tables, prime people-watching territory on noisy but entertaining Ninth Avenue? It will happen sooner than we think...

Marseille
630 Ninth Avenue at 44th Street
212-333-2323

A night out with Danny Meyer (figuratively), part I

On Saturday night, it was frigid. Very, very frigid. But due to my insane early morning Opentabling on New Year's Day, we had managed to snag a much-coveted reservation at Maialino, Danny Meyer's newest gem, and so we left the comfort of the indoors, ventured out into the world, and rushed toward the subway to head downtown.

As we sprinted down 21st street towards Lex, we passed a wall of brightly lit, inviting windows on our left. "Is that it?" AV asked. "I think so," I replied. "Those people look so warm and happy," he added. We agreed: We wanted to be one of them.

Fortunately, as we turned the corner onto Lexington Ave, we confirmed that we WOULD be one of them! We entered the bright, friendly, airy dining room, decorated in a rustic trattoria style, and were afforded the standard gracious Union Square Hospitality Group welcome. A hostess led us through the bar area, past the bread station on the left, past the antipasto station on the right, into the main dining room in the back. We were seated at a large, comfortable two-top, and I sank into the banquette with the intention of never leaving.

The first thing keeping us there: the bread basket. With four kinds of carbolicious bounty for the two of us, we both went straight for the focaccia at first grab. It had a pliant crust that merged seamlessly into the flaky innards, with a hint of shatter at the furthest edges. Dredged in the pool of herbal olive oil, I actually said out loud: "That was a good piece of bread." There were also tiny cheese breadsticks that tasted just like Cheez-its (or, according to AV, Goldfish), two slices of sesame seed studded white bread, and two rustic peasant slices. It was all good.

A bread basket for the ages

There was a bit of a wait for our main courses, but fortunately the couple sitting next to us provided us with all the dinner entertainment we could have wanted. Finally, the food arrived, and it looked and smelled spectacular. AV had chosen the Bucatini all'Amatriciana, billed as adorned with "spicy tomato and guanciale." Immediately, he noted that the pasta was very al dente-- so much so that it wouldn't even hold a curl around his fork. But fortunately he likes his pasta that way, and he was impressed by the overall dish.

A tangled web

My choice was one of the contorni, the cavolini e pecorino. When presented with the menu, a bit of judicious blackberry googling revealed that cavolini are brussels sprouts; I was sold. These sprouts were in what I consider to beir the most delicious format, their leaves separated so they're almost like a leafy green. Add a bit of oil, the nutty crunch of chestnuts, and the salty bite of pecorino, and I swear these little pops of delight tasted just like potato chips. I didn't want the dish to end.

Tasted just like Lay's, I swear!

But end it did, and we were presented with the dessert menu, at which point I had a minor breakdown. I was still hungry and wanted dessert, but WHICH? Which, indeed. AV gamely ran interference with the servers as his mildly mentally unstable girlfriend had an existential crisis. Finally, I chose, and what I chose was the tartufo: chocolate ice cream surrounding brandied cherries, rolled in chocolate shavings and accompanied by a puddle of whipped cream. I'm not the hugest fan of chocolate ice cream, but as AV put it, "if you're going to try chocolate ice cream, you do it at a Danny Meyer establishment," and he was right. Dear readers, it was good: densely, richly chocolatey, almost like eating a frozen brownie. The chocolate shavings provided welcome textural contrast, and when I hacked into the center, I found a treasure trove of cherries that provided a nose-clearing hit of brandy with each bite. Oh, and the whipped cream was heavenly.

Actually quite beautiful, in its own way

As AV finished his coffee (note: superlative), we contemplated whether if we asked nicely the staff would let us just never leave. We could put sleeping bags in the corner and be really inconspicuous. Instead of putting our plan in action, however, we paid the bill and moved on to A Night Out with Danny Meyer (Figuratively), Part II. I'm so, so glad we made it out to Maialino-- the food, service, and overall experience were just so thoroughly enjoyable. While it still hasn't unseated Eleven Madison Park as #1 in my heart, it's about as good a four Offset Spatula restaurant as you'll find in this town.

Maialino
2 Lexington Avenue at 21st Street
212-777-2410