A little bit of everything at Bar Stuzzichini

On Saturday night, I scooped up my battered post-office-party body and headed down to the Flatiron district. My destination was Bar Stuzzichini, an Italian small-plates/tapas restaurant that I've been meaning to try for a while. I met my dining companions, AV and P, in the awkward entryway, and we were told our table was five minutes away from being ready, so we grabbed seats at the bar and ordered drinks (for me, a prosecco served in a generous two-glass portion; for AV and P, a Birra Moretti apiece). The five minute wait stretched to ten or fifteen, but finally we were fetched from the busy bar and brought, along with our drinks, to a semi-secluded booth, where we settled in for the night.

Stylish glass, with beaker of extra prosecco

A branded glass, so it HAS to be good.

We were given an amusing verbal "tour" through of the menu by our waiter, who was friendly but seemed a little uncomfortable in his position as waiter (case in point: his response to an inquiry of whether there was calamari on the menu was "not so much." Right.). We puzzled over the several hundred possible permutations that could be created from the menu options, finally made a decision, and placed our order.

In the meantime, there was bread. A runner brought over a strawberry-style wooden basket lined with an awkward piece of butcher paper. It was filled with pretty standard white bread with a crisp crust, and it went well with the olive oil poured from the bottle sitting on our table. Nothing superlative, but a good start nonetheless.

Bread, in brown paper and strawberry basket

And then our first courses arrived. We had selected the Stuzzichini Misti, a selection of five of their Italian tapas offerings meant to feed 2-3 people. As I was informed by an anonymous member of our dining trio that I "don't count as a person" in terms of the amount of food I typically consume, the 2-3 person designation seemed about right. Our vegetarian selections arrived first: we had chosen the melazane, or marinated eggplant; the zucchini alla scapece; and the carciofi, or fried artichokes. Of this bunch, the artichokes were the standout, crisp and salty and addictive. The eggplant and zucchini were both tasty, tender with a liberal application of olive oil and garlic.

Marinated eggplant, with explicit grill marks

Zucchini, beautifully presented

Spiky and delicious fried artichokes

Then the non-veg stuzzichini appeared. AV and P had chosen the meatballs and the steamed clams; the meatballs came in a tasty tomato sauce (which I sampled with the extra bread that was cheerfully delivered upon request), and the tiny clams rested in a bowl of broth. Apparently both dishes were pretty good, although I guess they weren't very interesting to me because upon examining my pictures from the evening I realize I completely forgot to photograph them. Cue mental image of me single-mindedly sucking down vegetables while contemplating my status as non-person and ignoring everything else.

Annnnnd on to the entree course. As a widely acknowledged expert in Italian cuisine, P chose the gnocchi all'Amatriciana as a test of the kitchen's skill (bad restaurant = bad, bad gnocchi). But apparently Bar Stuzzichini, or BS as I like to think of it, passed-- the gnocchi were approved with a (literal) thumbs-up.

Tiny gnocchi under a parmesan flurry

AV selected the night's pasta special, some sort of composed pasta involving eggplant, cheese, some sort of meat, tomato sauce, and ziti stacked Lincoln-log style into a brick. Though I did not taste the special, it was also met with a positive review, and the intricate cross-hatch ziti stacking lent the dish an amusing air. Or maybe that's just me.

"Lasagna-style" pasta in a spreading pool of sauce

My own entree was the arugula and ricotta salata salad. This ended up being surprisingly, almost startlingly delicious. I do love both arugula and ricotta salata, but both ingredients were excellent in this salad, and the vinagrette was light and tasty. Plus, unlike most of the other dishes (the stuzzichini especially), the portion here was generous. I'd highly recommend this salad and would certainly order it again on a repeat visit.

Tasty shreds of salty cheese and peppery arugula, a perfect match

Of course, given that BS is a small-plates restaurant, we had room for dessert. While the group had a collective hankering for tiramisu, the brief dessert menu included no tiramisu (bad! bad BS!). So we settled for two orders of orange olive oil cake and one chocolate mousse.

The chocolate mousse, AV's choice, was a rich, coffee-inflected mousse packed into a cold ice cream dish, which itself was perched on another square of that bizarre brown butcher paper (why??), and topped with chocolate crumbles. The mousse was tasty and extremely chocolatey. It was good on its own but best when paired with bites of the olive oil cake.

Intense, cold, fluffy chocolate

....and more brown paper.

The cake dessert a huge hunk of olive-oil cake accompanied by a scoop of fresh, lightly sweetened whipped cream. The cake had a large, smooth crumb and a faint orange aftertaste; the confectioners-sugar-dusted crust was by far the best part of the slice. A forkful of cake along with a bit of chocolate mousse and a dollop of whipped cream composed the perfect dessert bite.

Tasty cake with the two best accompaniments, sugar and cream

Overall, I really liked BS. The food was solid (the arugula salad being a surprise winner), the service was friendly, and our booth was nicely secluded. The restaurant itself had good energy, from the lively bar back to the packed dining room. And there are rumors that the bathrooms sport black toilets, although my own visit to the ladies' revealed nothing more than a disappointing run-of-the-mill white toilet. Other reviewers have remarked that BS's food is a bit small and a bit expensive, even for New York standards, and I agree for the most part-- although my salad and certainly the olive oil cake were both very large. But the bottom line is if you visit BS, you'll likely have a very good meal and a lot of fun. And for that, it deserves four Offset Spatulas.

Bar Stuzzichini
928 Broadway, between 21st and 22nd Streets
212-780-5100

Sweet, sweet sugar at Dousoeur Patisserie

A week or so ago, I discovered that a brand-new French patisserie had opened just a couple of blocks from my apartment (thanks, Serious Eats). I was determined to check it out, and after a few false starts, last Sunday I finally made it over there.

I opened the door to Dousoeur Patisserie and immediately noticed how small it was. This place was seriously, seriously tiny: there was a pastry display case on one end of the room, three small tables, an end-board with some pastry-wrapping materials, and that's pretty much it. When I entered, two of the tables were occupied with patrons, but there didn't seem to be anybody working there. I poked around obnoxiously for a few moments, alternately standing awkwardly in the middle of the room and inserting my head through the swinging kitchen doors. There seemed to be two people in the kitchen producing food of some sort, so I figured if I waited long enough one of them would emerge. Sure enough, after about five minutes, a smiling (thoroughly French) woman entered the tiny dining room to help me with my order.

I asked several questions about the pastries on offer, and while she answered them patiently, I basically had no idea what she said. So I picked out three that looked yummy. You can't really go wrong with French pastry, so I figured I'd take a gamble.

With my pastries in hand, the woman led me around the corner towards the kitchen to process my credit card (at $5-$6 apiece, these pastries aren't cheap... it will be interesting to see how this place does in a recession). Mired in the paying process, I didn't notice another woman who had scooped up the pastries and was furiously wrapping them in the most elaborate food-encasement system I've ever seen. It reminded me a lot of this scene from Love Actually. Since I was just taking the pastries home for, ahem, personal consumption, I didn't need such complex wrapping, but she was too far gone to stop. So I emerged from the shop toting a bizarre pyramidal contraption with (ostensibly) three pastries inside.

How do you carry this thing? Seriously!

Once home, after dinner with AV, we furiously unwrapped the paper and dove into the pastries inside. They looked a little something like this:

A trio of delights

Turned out they were all, in one way or another, meringue based. The fruit-and-cream thing was delicious, with two light meringue wafers, a swirl of heavy whipped cream inside, and blackberries dotting the interior.

Side view-- glimpse the blackberry

The other two pastries were layered with crisp meringue and sweet mousse. The coconut pastry had light coconut throughout layered all over the sticky surface. The chocolate pastry had chocolate mousse and snappy chocolate jimmies (a.k.a. sprinkles) all over. While I tend to eschew chocolate in my pastries (oftentimes they're just too rich), this chocolate mousse bomb was the surprise winner of the bunch. The mousse was light and airy, and the jimmies were sugary and spectacular.

Dual meringue orbs

The verdict: Dousoeur Patisserie is a little bit weird and a little bit expensive. But the women working there are very nice, and the pastries are incredibly delicious. So if you have an extra $5 to spare, stop by and grab a bite. You'll leave on happy sugar high.

Dousoeur de Paris
652 Tenth Avenue, at 46th Street
646-596-3460

Pork, pork, and more pork at Irving Mill

On Tuesday evening, I met my team from work at Irving Mill for a project-end dinner extravaganza. I had heard good things about Irving Mill, particularly their burger (you know, for other members of the group), so I was excited to test out what the place had to offer.

First off-- it's a very pretty space. It's rustically decorated, has good energy but isn't not too loud, and has several different seating areas to break up the room. The hostess was extraordinarily flexible with our party as we adjusted the numbers and seating time right up until we finally started to trickle into the restaurant one by one. They seated our incomplete party happily (no attitude there, ahem, Kashkaval), and we began ordering appetizers.

In the meantime, a runner brought over a few platters of bread. The bread was really, really good-- tender and chewy on the inside with a good crust, all set off perfectly by the soft salted butter. I could easily have eaten several pieces of this had I a) been hungrier and b) not been anticipating the flood of dishes to come.

Yummy, yummy bread

One by one, the apps started to arrive. First-- the marinated olives. These were tasty, fresh olives, not drowning in olive oil (which is nice), and dangerously poppable. I ate a significant quantity of these.

Covered in little olivey bits

Then came the pork toasts with egg salad and caviar. These were deeply friend and suspiciously square. General agreement was that they were tasty, but I must admit I am wary of anything that looks like a filet-o-fish sandwich at McDonald's, even if it has caviar on top.

They look like coasters

The salt and pepper pork ribs were next. Surprisingly, especially at a restaurant that is so pork-centric as Irving Mill, these weren't all that popular. I'm not sure why-- maybe it was something about gnawing on a bone at a work function, but whatever the reason, there were ribs remaining at the end of the night.

The last kid picked in dodgeball

The group also ordered the crudo of fluke, which came with beet tartare, pecans, and grapes. The fish lovers among us had quite positive things to say about this dish. Props to Irving Mill for diversifying its portfolio with this fish offering.

This pretty crudo wasn't just a fluke. Or WAS IT? Yuk yuk yuk.

Annnnd... back to pork. Perhaps not surprisingly, the spicy pulled pork sandwiches on potato buns were wildly popular. I mean, who doesn't like pulled pork? Except for me, I mean. But that doesn't count.

Porky innards on fluffy buns

As another concession to haters (i.e., vegetarians) like me, we ordered the eggplant and ricotta bruschetta. Sadly, this was disappointing. The bread was thick and had clearly been toasted but was now slightly soggy. The ricotta had absolutely no flavor, and the eggplant was also oddly flavorless and a bit chewy. Perhaps some sort of spice would have livened this up-- or some sort of change in texture (some sauce?) or temperature (the slices were tepid when they arrived).

So sad, as I love eggplant, ricotta, AND bread

So much for the appetizer course, and on to the entrees. For mine, I had selected the spinach, baby shittake, and artichoke salad with tomatoes and pecorino (dressing on the side). Sadly, there were several problems with this salad. First of all, there were no artichokes, something I just realized right now when looking back over the menu descriptions. Second, the mushrooms were gross-- huge chunks of basically raw mushroom, not seasoned, not cooked, not sliced, nothing. The tomatoes were standard, and the pecorino was good but paltry. So mainly this salad tasted like raw spinach. The dressing was mostly oil and didn't add much. Definitely wouldn't recommend this menu item.

Where, oh where, are the artichokes?

Other people were more successful in their entree selections. SG had selected the sunchoke and hazelnut soup to start, and I sniped several tastes of this delicious, incredibly creamy, hearty, and filling soup. I wish I had ordered this, frankly.

Stunningly beautiful AND delicious

SG followed up the soup with the herb and parmesan chicken with artichoke barigoule and black olives, which he shared with ES in exchange for some of her Loup de Mer (which came with quinoa, preserved lime, walnuts, and soybean). Both dishes were declared delicious.

Chicken, with some artichoke action going on underneath

Gorgeous loup de mer on a smear of green

DC had selected the all-important burger, which he thoroughly enjoyed. My only (vicarious) gripe with the burger is that the portion of fries was tiny, and they were the kind I don't like as much (skin-on wedges as opposed to crispy shoestrings). But DC approved, and since he was eating it, that's what matters.

Burger hiding behind fries

The Niman Ranch Bavette Steak also made an appearance at our table. Didn't get much of a review on this one, but at least it looked pretty.

Well carved

The surprise star of the meal, at least from my perspective, was the side of mac & cheese PB ordered. He offered me a taste, and I ended up sniping a good portion of this (sorry PB!). Yes, there were pork rinds in here (natch), but I picked them out and focused on the pasta and cheese. I haven't eaten much mac & cheese in the past few years, but good lord, this stuff was heavenly. The pasta was fully cooked-- none of this "al dente" BS that always ruins good mac & cheese-- and the sauce was mild and thick and rib-sticking. This is certainly the best mac & cheese I've had in a very, very long time, possibly ever, and I might venture to nominate this humble side as the best mac & cheese in the city. Take issue with that designation? Prove me wrong, people. Prove me wrong.

Oh, sweet and lovely mac & cheese, how I miss thee

I wasn't able to stay for the entire dinner, so I missed the dessert course. But during the time I was there, we certainly had a good time at Irving Mill. Aside from minor service mishaps (involving the mis-pouring of red wine all over the table and onto members of our party), the experience was delightful, and for lovers of pork, the food was spectacularly porky. If the vegetarian food (the bruschetta, the salad) had been as good as the meat courses, Irving Mill could be a four Offset Spatula restaurant, but from my perspective I think it will have to settle for three. If you love pork, go to Irving Mill and go (ahem) hog-wild. If you like mac & cheese, go try that beautiful dish. But if neither of those appeals, there are probably better options for you.

Irving Mill
116 E. 16th Street, near Union Square East
212-254-1600

A brush with greatness at Tabla's 10th Anniversary party

Late last week, I received a surprise phone call from my friend AR at Union Square Hospitality Group (the illustrious owners of such awesome NYC food establishments as Union Square Cafe, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla, Shake Shack, etc.). He wanted to know if I wanted to join him at Tabla's 10th anniversary party Monday evening. Hmmmm, did I? I thought for a while, weighing the pros and the long, long list of cons, and finally gave up and agreed. I figured I'd take one for the team. And by "the team" I mean myself. And by "take one" I mean "do something immensely enjoyable and thoroughly awesome."

So on a chilly Monday evening, I met AR at the bar at Almond, a newish restaurant in the old Borough Food and Drink space on 22nd Street. We caught up at the bar while munching on a few appetizers. The arugula, beets, and roquefort salad was quite tasty, with the candied walnuts playing a starring role. I liked the multi-colored beets-- a nice touch-- but thought they could have been cooked a little bit more (as I quote one of the Foo Fighters on Top Chef two weeks ago: they were a bit "al dente-- meaning not cooked all the way through").

Looks like orange supremes, but actually golden beets

Next we tried the cauliflower gratin. This ended up being sort of like macaroni and cheese, except with cauliflower in place of the macaroni and a thin cheesy sauce. The bread crumb crust on top was tasty, and the little stone pedestel the bartender set up on which to perch the gratin was very cool.

Faux mac 'n' cheese

Finally, we went for the cheese plate. I'm not sure which cheeses were included here-- there was definitely a chevre, some sort of brie-like soft cheese, perhaps a hunk of parmesan and a bit of blue cheese, but I don't know any more specifics than that. The accompaniments were delightful as well, adding dried fruit, nuts, and figs stewed in red wine to the mix as well as buttered toasts. A good cheese plate overall, although it would be nice if they specified the types of cheese at some point in the cheese-plate-ordering cycle.

Busy, and rustic

After we had sampled all three apps, we packed things up and dashed over to Tabla to join the party. On the way in we bumped into the GM of Gramercy Tavern (swoon, swoon), which was quite awesome in itself. Finally, we made it into the restaurant. I've never been to Tabla, and for most of the party I stood around admiring the incredibly beautiful space. Downstairs is the Bread Bar, an incredible room with colorful, playful details such as the conical light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. Upstairs, the dining room was cleared of all tables, most of which usually center around the circular balcony that peeks down over the Bread Bar. The restaurant is simply stunning, with lots of different levels, a beautiful floor, and decorative touches all around.

And then, of course, there was the food. Runners dashed around offering tiny, beautiful plates of food, which we grabbed, photographed, and gobbled. Below is a sampling of the delights:

Oxtail on tapioca pearls

Shellfish salad

An Indian-spiced onion ring. That's my hand.

Pumpkin soup (delicious) with tiny floating pepitas

Crabcake on some sort of guacamole-like puree

Meatloaf (?), next to an Indian spice installation

Naan! Dripping with ghee and tasting of chewy cornmeal. Accompanied by spicy tomato dipping sauce, which was FANTASTIC

While sampling these culinary delights, we wandered around the room greeting USHG luminaries, from the chefs and GM at Tabla to the GM at Eleven Madison Park (triple swoon!). I couldn't stay long so dashed out just as Danny Meyer himself was arriving, but even the small taste I got was surreal. And I'll add that Tabla is an incredible place-- the food was spectacular, and the space itself is stunning. I can't wait to return, even absent the food celebrity set.

Almond
12 E. 22nd Street, between Broadway and Park Avenue
212-228-7557

Tabla
11 Madison Avenue
212-889-0667

Fondue and attitude at Kashkaval

On Saturday night, BL and I made plans to grab dinner at Kashkaval, a combination wine/cheese/tapas bar and general store on 9th ave. I had heard good things about the place before, but it doesn't take reservations, so I hadn't yet summoned up the reserves to try to eat there. But apparently the time had come, so we made plans to meet there for an early dinner.

I arrived around 6:30 and asked for a table for 2. The host, a somewhat surly older man, told me they didn't have any tables for two available and it might be "eh, a half hour or so." So I turned around to leave and was just about out the door when he called out to the waiting group that he did indeed have a table for two-- who wanted it? I claimed that table like the last Tickle Me Elmo in a Toys R Us in 1996 and was led to the back of the restaurant.

Now, notice that BL is not in the picture yet. To get the table, I had promised the host that he was "five minutes away." Then when I finally sat down, I initiated a flurry of semi-threatening text messages imploring BL to, ahem, hasten his arrival. Unfortunately, he was in a cab trying to negotiate early December Saturday evening crosstown traffic, which meant he was somewhat more than five minutes away. Alternately texting madly and pretending to be deeply engrossed in the menu, I managed to fend off the host's annoyed glares and keep the table until BL finally arrived.

Once he got there, we were ready to go. The menu is a weird mash-up of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food, the odd Mexican dish (guacamole?), and of course that ubiquitous Swiss standby, fondue. We decided to share a sampler platter of six "Cold Mediterranean Tapas"; in addition, BL went for the Kashkaval fondue and a bottle of hard cider listed on our check cryptically as "other beer."

The sampler platter arrived first. After much agonizing (serious paralysis of choice), we decided on hummus, baba ghanoush, eggplant caponata, roasted brussels sprouts, olives, and artichoke dip. The platter came with a large basket stuffed full of warm, thin pita; while yummy at first, the bread somehow hardened into bizarrely crusted while still somewhat pliant pita. For the most part, the tapas selections were quite good: the caponata was full of soft eggplant and tomatoey flavor; the baba ghanoush was flavorful but not overly smoky; the hummus was good (but once you've had the best hummus ever, nothing else really comes close); the brussels sprouts were well caramelized and quite good; the olives were standard (our assortment came with a bizarre red olive, which upon closer inspection--i.e., consumption--turned out to be a cherry tomato); the artichoke dip was mediocre. It was all high quality and quite filling-- tasty but definitely not blow-you-away fare.

Clockwise from top: Eggplant caponata; brussels sprouts; artichoke dip; hummus; baba ghanoush; olives

Pita bread, in its better moments

BL's kashakaval fondue (turns out kashkaval is a type of cheese) was also yummy. It came in a cast-iron pot perched atop a sterno, accompanied by a basket of cubed baguettes and two of those fabulous fondue forks. I took a bite, and it was quite cheesy and delicious, and it successfully avoided tasting too strongly of wine, one of the most serious and common pitfalls of fondue.

Turns out fondue doesn't photograph that well

Bread for dippin'

We finished up, and being incredibly stuffed decided to skip dessert and vacate their precious table. Kashkaval is definitely a cute place-- there's a cheese/prepared foods counter at the front with an old-fashioned apothecary feel (with the big glass jars and all that), which gives way to a very atmospheric wine-bar type place in the back (lots of wood, wine bottles lining the walls, etc.). The food is good and relatively reasonably priced but not especially superlative-- most of it is stuff you can find in various other places around town. And Kashkaval definitely has attitude, although once you got past the anal host, the servers were laid-back (read: not especially attentive). While I'm definitely glad I went, I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to go back. If Kashkaval ever decided to take reservations, I'd consider a revist and the addition of one Offset Spatula, but as it stands now it's a pretty standard three Offset Spatula place.

Kashkaval
856 Ninth Avenue, between 55th and 56th Streets
212-581-8282

Aroma does it again

On Friday evening, AV and I headed to one of my favorite places in the city-- Aroma Kitchen & Wine Bar. I've reported on this place before (see here and here), but I always like to come back because it's such a welcoming and enjoyable experience.

We arrived several minutes late for our 8PM reservation, as there was lots of Friday evening traffic (and we were in a cab... Hi Mom!), but the staff at Aroma was unperturbed. We were shown to a tiny table near the door, which was cold but cozy. Once settled in, we looked at the menu (which has been updated since the last time I was there, hooray!) and listened to a lengthy recitation of specials. We also, of course, dove into their wine list, which is by far the silliest and most approachable wine list I've ever encountered. We chose a sparkling red on the basis of its description ("raspberry mist... first kiss"). It was dangerously delicious, sweet and easy to drink, like fizzy Welch's grape juice that makes you happier with every sip.

As we drank our wine, a runner brought over their delicious bread basket along with a dish of olives resting in good olive oil. Their bread is same as ever-- crusty with a chewy interior and thoroughly delicious with the olive oil. Yum.

Bread erupting out of tiny bowl, with olives in background

Our entrees arrived quite promptly. AV had ordered the steak, a special, which came with a bed of wilted greens and roasted potatoes. He pronounced it delicious and particularly well-cooked, arriving just at the requested temperature.

Steak draped in... prosciutto?

My own entree was a new salad offering: arugula with marinated artichokes, sauteed royal trumpet mushrooms, and toasted walnuts, all under a blanket of parmesan cheese. You may remember that my previous reviews of Aroma have bemoaned their lack of a "serious" salad, one that was interesting and creative and filled you up appropriately. Well, here it is. This salad was truly spectacular-- the ingredients were all fresh and cooperated well on the plate, and the portion was ample. I would highly, highly recommend this salad, and I would return to Aroma just to try it again. Success!

Incredibly tasty salad

We were both full from the food (and perhaps the bubbles?), so we skipped dessert and lingered at the table to finish the wine, finally paying and skipping out into the frigid night. Aroma has most certainly kept its four Offset Spatula designation-- the food is great, the atmosphere is welcoming and calming, the service is friendly and attentive, and the wine list is worth a visit in itself. If you're looking for a place to visit with a date, a group of friends, a gaggle of coworkers, or any configuration of people in your life, head over for a meal or just a glass of wine. You will certainly be happy you did.

Aroma
36 E. 4th Street, between Bowery and Lafayette
212-375-0100