Spasso: Bring your winter coat. And hat. And gloves.

Last weekend, with AC in town, she and I and KS and SL met up for a girls' dinner at Spasso in the West Village. They were graciously accommodating to our lateness and the fact that our party trickled in, having no problem with us being seated and ordering before our full party had arrived. It's a sad state of the restaurant industry that that kind of simple unfussiness is truly refreshing.

In any case, we were seated at a window table near an exterior door, and even though the door remained closed throughout the night, I'd estimate that the temperature at this particular table was approximately 58 degrees. Granted, it was 20 degrees outside, but the combination of the glass walls and the air seeping around the door meant that the four of us remained with coats and scarves, and in some cases hats, on for the entire evening. It's not necessarily Spasso's fault that it was so miserably cold in there, but it truly did make the experience somewhat unpleasant.

On to the food. Spasso's menu is typical of the times-- divided up into a half-dozen or more little sections, it's designed to encourage over-ordering and food sharing. Indeed, the first thing the waiter does when he introduces himself and beings to describe the menu is direct you to the housemade stracciatella, which is ideal "for the table." Now, I may be unusually curmudgeonly, but I really hate both a) having to endure an "explanation" of the menu while we're a;; clearly very, very capable of reading and deciphering the menu in front of us, and b) being upsold before we've even been at the table for five minutes. I bet you the stracciatella upsell is incredibly effective, and while I have no doubt it's delicious, it's also listed on the menu and we can order it if we want.

Anyway, rant over. How was the food? There was the traditional rustic bread in a paper bag accompanied by a pool of olive oil to start.

Par for the course

And then AC and KS shared two of the smaller plates, the puntarelle salad and the polenta. The puntarelle, which the waiter described as warm, was actually a cold vegetable salad in bagna cauda with a few anchovies lying on top (in fairness, after the plate arrived the waiter returned to apologize for misinforming us and offered to replace the dish if desired). According to KS, it was tasty but incredibly small.

Shimmery fish

AC was disappointed with the polenta. Apparently she was expecting firm polenta cakes (the rest of us were expecting the softer preparation that arrived), so she wasn't a huge fan. But KS and SL enjoyed it the rich, cheesy, and creamy dish.

So rich

SL ordered the fluke, another small but beautifully prepared dish. She devoured the fish and accompanying vegetables enthusiastically.

Fish obscured

Desserts, in contrast, were hearty portions. Their version of an apple tart involved flaky crust and layered apples, all set in a pool of caramel and topped with a dollop of cream.

American as apple... tart?

When the chocolate-caramel tart arrived, I had a moment of deja vu. Hadn't I seen that before? Indeed, I had, in the online pages of Saveur-- it was a dessert I had considered making for my family's Thanksgiving. Seriously, check out the link and then compare to the photo below-- there is absolutely no question that it's the same dessert. And while it was delicious, it struck me as a home cook's interpretation of a fancy restaurant dessert. The crust was just a little too thick and ungainly, the caramel just a little to thin and oozy...nonetheless, I'm splitting hairs. You like caramel and chocolate? You'll like this.

Seriously, exactly the same

So now for the awarding of spatulas. I hesitate at this point. Spasso is new, and any new restaurant deserves a few months to truly get things down pat. The food was clearly high quality and well-prepared, but the portions are tiny for the dear prices charged. Their dessert program needs to step up its game. It was freakin' freezing in the dining room. But the service, while occasionally uninformed, is friendly and-- perhaps more importantly-- laid back. For all its classic West Village pretensions, once you get inside, Spasso has the feel of a neighborhood joint. And I think the city needs more of those.

Spasso
551 Hudson Street, at Perry Street
212-858-3838

Free olives and lots of wine at Stuzzicheria

One of the greatest aspects of my current job is that I have coworkers! Delightful, wonderful coworkers. And AS, one such coworker, just left the bakery to return to his former consulting position... similar to my own situation a few years ago. Anyway, we met up for celebratory/goodbye/thank-you drinks after work on Friday, ducking out of the frigid cold into Stuzzicheria near the bakery in Tribeca.

Stuzzicheria is the downtown outpost of Bar Stuzzichini in the Flatiron district. Apparently, it was happy hour, so though it meant we couldn't sit at an actual table-- relegated instead to backless stools at the bar-- we did get some benefits out of the deal. First, drinks: AS got an enormous mug of Bitburger, and I had a quartino of Fiano D'Avellino. All the wine here comes in quartinos, which means it's a bit more expensive than a regular glass, but you get more. The classic trade-off.

So I forgot to take a picture of my wine. Oops?

So back to the happy hour part. Each diner at the bar gets one free stuzzichini-- a type of Italian bar snack or appetizer-- with the order of a drink. Both of us went for the Castelvetrano olives. This was a surprisingly generous dish of plump, green olives, and they turned out to be some of the best olives I've ever encountered. Not greasy, but plump, almost buttery, and supremely delicious, they were incredibly tasty and incredibly, well, free.

They almost look like grapes, no?

Though the service was nonexistent-- the bartender, for the most part, talked on his phone and ignored patrons, making it impossible to get his attention--Stuzzicheria was enough of a good deal that I'd go back for another round of happy hour food and drinks.

Stuzzicheria
305 Church Street at Walker
212-219-4037

The classic chocolate cupcake from Billy's

I'm slowly making my way through the menu at Billy's, once again, and I'm reminded every day how freakin' delicious this stuff is. And I'm not just saying that because I'm employed there. I mean, take the classic chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. Light, fluffy, cocoa-inflected cake, with an appealing darker, almost coffee-like undertone at the exposed lip of the cake. Sugary, pure frosting, dotted liberally with sprinkles for visual and textural contrast. It's baked-good perfection: simple, uncomplicated, and thoroughly, seriously delicious. It may be humble (and bordering on homely, once I squished it beyond recognition in my purse on the way home), but it's a straight-shot throwback to childhood. In the best way possible.

Kinda dented. Oops.

So light and tender!

Billy's Bakery
184 Ninth Avenue and 75 Franklin Street
212-647-9958

Blossom Du Jour truly brings the "shrewd"

Last week, I was in Chelsea on my way to watch the (AWFUL, TRAGIC) Pats game and found myself in need of a take-out salad. I happened across Blossom Du Jour, the takeout branch of Blossom, one of the best-known vegetarian/vegan outposts in New York City. I'd been to Blossom a year or two ago and not really enjoyed it, but for some reason I had higher hopes for Blossom Du Jour. Why does my brain do things like that? I don't know.

The space itself is kind of odd-- mostly empty, not much seating, but not much else, either. There's one very small, sleek fridge built into the wall, which holds the take-out salads and sandwiches. There wasn't a huge variety-- four salads on offer-- and since they were all pre-made, what you got was what you got. I grabbed a "Two-Tone Beet" salad, described as "marinated red and yellow beets, peppers, field greens, citrus dressing." It felt very, very light in my hand, even with the included enclosed container of dressing, which should have tipped me off to something, but it didn't. I paid my $8 and change and left.

When I got a chance to eat the salad a bit later in the evening, it was... well... okay. There were about a dozen pieces of field greens and three little dishes of shredded vegetables. the "marinated" red and yellow beets didn't have much discernible flavor beyond "wet," and it's notable that there weren't any peppers-- they seemed to have been replaced by equally "marinated" (wet) carrots, which honestly was all the better for me because I'm not a huge pepper fan. I realized only mid-consumption that this was a raw salad, so nothing was cooked, meaning the only real flavor came from the mildly tangy dressing. And given that most of the room in the container was taken up by the empty space around the plastic dishes, after finishing off the salad in approximately six bites, I was hungry about three minutes later.

There is really not much in this small, small salad

So, while there wasn't really anything WRONG with the salad per se, overall it was pretty flavorless and unnecessarily small for an outrageous $8+ dollars. I felt, honestly, ripped off. And while I appreciate that it's great for vegans to have another eating outlet in the city, Blossom Du Jour is really not a place I'd recommend or visit again myself. I should have paid more attention to the tagline: "Shrewd Fast Food." When the restaurant advertises itself as tricky and/or cunning, you're bound to leave with a (proverbial) bad taste in your mouth.

Blossom Du Jour
174 Ninth Avenue, between 20th and 21st Streets
212-229-2595

Klee saves the day

Last week, the lovely DA and I made plans to convene at the Little Cheese Pub in Chelsea. I was really excited-- it was a new place, and the menu looked delicious. I got there first and took a seat at one of their ingenious swing-out seats at a communal table. I procured a menu and began to peruse... when I was unpleasantly accosted by a notice screaming "We do not currently serve alcohol." Ummm... really? According to the website, there was an extensive beer and wine list, and perhaps not surprisingly, that's why I'd chosen the LCP for our drinks date. Apparently, they'd gotten their liquor license but didn't have the necessary piece of paper yet-- so BYOB it was. Now, this is all perfectly fine, but don't you think they should have posted that fact... somewhere? Anywhere aside from buried in the middle of the menu? Like, maybe, online? Or at the door? Anyway, when DA arrived, I informed him of the sad situation, and we headed back out into the frigid night in search of, well, booze.

Given the ~20-degree temperature, we needed someplace nearby. Quickly. So on a gametime decision, we decided to check out Klee, which is located around the corner from the LCP and is owned by the same chef, Daniel Angerer. We burst into the quiet, serene dining room and gratefully took seats at the small but entirely adequate bar.

A good 15 minutes of wrangling with the menu for the purposes of the Wine Century Club later, we had a couple drinks and had placed a food order. I had ordered a glass of "Rosso, Gerbino, Di Giovanno" (check Nero D'Avola off my WCC list, thank you very much), which I'd say was just ah-kay. The alcohol burn in this wine was hot and almost overwhelming, although after a bit of time in the glass it opened up and mellowed a bit. DA noted that his glass of Primitivo, the special red of the night, was also decent but not memorable.

My wine (check out the cool coaster!)

DA's wine. Looks eerily similar.

But the food! We had ordered a cheese plate, and after once again struggling to decide among the five cheese options, we went with a Pecorino Tartufo, a Green Hill, and a classic Appenzeller. And while it was a bit pricey at $13, this was a damn good cheese plate. First of all, Klee gives you a truly generous portion of each cheese, particularly the Pecorino and Appenzelelr. There was enough cheese that both of us (or maybe just me?) were reaching cheese overload by the end of the plate. And the cheeses themselves were top quality-- we both loved the Pecorino for its soft texture and assertive truffley bite. The Green Hill was super creamy and mild, and the Appenzeller tasted just like diving into a fondue pot. The dark honey accompaniment was interesting, but the stewed figs were pretty average-- in fact, our only gripe was that the accompaniments could have been a bit better or more creative (and there could have been more-- I mean, three half-figs for two people?).

Left to right, Appenzeller, Pecorino, Green Hill

Raisin bread and toasted rye for the smearin'

We spent almost two hours sipping wine, eating cheese, and just talking. It was, in a word, delightful. And Klee was so peaceful and warm, with laid-back but welcoming service-- I'd definitely come back to try a "real" meal down the line.

Klee Brasserie
200 Ninth Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Streets
212-633-8033

Another ode to the Hello Dolly

Recently, I had the first Hello Dolly of my second stint with Billy's Bakery. Last time, I loved them so, but in my first few weeks at the bakery this time around there was a lot of cupcake and brownie tasting, so I hadn't gotten around to bringing one of these fabulous babes home yet... but then I did. And I remembered.

Why hello, Dolly.

Sure, she may be homely. But darn it, this Dolly is delicious. Graham cracker, pecans, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and coconut are all enrobed in a crackly, sticky-sweet layer of condensed milk. It's incredibly sweet and incredibly satisfying-- texturally interesting with a range of flavors, filling but not cloying. I could eat one of these every day, and the only thing standing between me and doing just that is willpower. And the prospect of buying a whole new wardrobe, several sizes bigger.

Billy's Bakery
184 Ninth Avenue and 75 Franklin Street
212-647-9956

Black Hound FAIL

So again, last week I found myself with a cake I ordered online. Again, don't ask. This time, it was from Black Hound, another bakery in NYC that's known for shipping its cakes. I had high hopes for this checkerboard cake, which was appealingly decorated in buttercream and ganache.

Purty

As I cut into it, I found a really visually enticing checkerboard pattern. The cake is really well-crafted, I'll give them that, despite the fact that the chocolate cake crumbs on the sides of the cake spill everywhere when you try to move the confection.

Busy

But I knew almost instantly I wouldn't really like the taste. The cake itself wasn't bad, but it was rimmed on all sides with buttercream, both chocolatey (which had a bit of a mocha tang) and vanilla. And I could tell just by looking that this, sadly, was exactly the type of frosting I don't like-- absurdly buttery and greasy, kind of like shoving a stick of butter right in your face. Blech. It's not even really sweet, and with that unpleasant mouthfeel-- just... no. I took one bite and dumped the slice in the trash.

So, I'll say this: If you're a fan of the Cupcake Cafe's cupcakes, you'll like this cake. If you're not (that is, if you have my frosting preferences), you won't. The end.

Black Hound
Order online