Zetetical Society Meeting Notes

It’s been a while since I reviewed any restaurants, so it’s time for a little catch up.

Normally, when I hear “comfort food,” I’m just not in the mood to be comforted. I envision dull meatloaf and potatos, just like mom never made. But, Shorty’s .32 is sort of a high-end comfort food place and the food was fantastic. I tried the Grilled shrimp with celery root and bacon jus and I’ll be damned if I can remember the entree I had. I’m pretty sure it was the Cod. It was really good, but I was envying my friend’s short ribs. They were the best short ribs I’ve ever had. I wish I had ordered the short ribs. They come with a side of mac and cheese. Everything was fantastic. I remember almost nothing about the evening. It’s not my fault!

Bar Blanc is a scene. It has a great bar, I mean physically great. Dave said it reminded him of the marble altar at Our Lady of Good Council and he’s spot on. The menu has some scary stuff: Milk Fed Porcelet roast baby pig, belly, terrine of pig head, chanterelles, brussel sprouts natural jus with cinnamon, star anise, and orange. Yikes. That makes me feel bad for the little baby pig whose head wound up in the terrine. Talk about eating something with a face. I had the Cod again. Really good greens. A friend had the lamb shoulder lasagna which was the high point. The only thing that really missed was one of the desserts. Salt on carmel is nice. Salt on carmel ice cream that’s melting makes a brine. It tastes of the sea. You don’t want to eat ice cream in the sea. But again, it’s a scene: sleek older people speaking Italian, a kid in a cravat, girls who look like Marc Jacobs before he cut his hair, lounge furniture and lamps.

Disclaimers apply since I’m friends with some folks at Insieme, but the Vittorio Nasti at their bar is a great cocktail. It’s basically a Negroni with Punt e mes standing in for a more generic sweet vermouth and is named for a bartender at the Michelangelo Hotel who created the recepie. Gin and campari are the other ingredients for anyone trying to remember what else is in a Negroni. It’s finished with a bit of orange peel. Two of them and you can’t feel your legs and don’t care to anyway.

Dave, Alex and I went for a night of drinking in the East Village. Months of infant care and sobriety made me want a night out.

Dave had already been to Death and Co., but I wanted to try it out. It’s the catchy name. If it were called anything else, we probably wouldn’t have gone. Collectively, we ended up trying the Modern Mojito, Hot Buttered Rum, Rum Old Fashioned and Fancy Free. Modern Mojito: a cachaca Mojito with basil in to balance it out from being to sweet. Very good, but like all mojitos it just doesn’t pack much of a kick. Hot Buttered Rum: Alex is British enough to drink that. The rest of us were scared off. However, the only other Hot Buttered Rums that I’ve ever seen look like some idiot put butter in hot rum. This looked tasty and inviting like instant cappuchino. The Rum Old Fashioned was well done. Certainly had a kick to it. Dave pronounced it balanced. The Fancy Free is basically what you’d get if you tried making something like a Rye Old Fashioned with liquor standing in for the fruit.

We also tried some food. Alex had the crab cake bites with bouillabaisse. Basically four crab tatertots with a shotglass of fish stew behind each. I had the St. Jacques, the first legit seafood and cheese thing that I’ve ever tried.

All in all, I was impressed by the cocktails. They speak to the quality of the bartenders. The house drinks all sound like they’re going to be hideous, sweet monstrosities, but they’re not. I just feel bad for the woman next to us who ordered the vodka tonic. Something like that might get you tossed out.

We followed up with a trip to Grape and Grain for real dinner, which is funny since they don’t have entrees and funny since I had started out the night by saying “Grape or Grain but ne’er the twain. ” That sure went out the window. Appetizers, pizza, sandwiches and salads only. The food is still good. Good olive oil and good salt on stuff. We tried two wines, despite the fact I never wanted to touch booze again at that point. A good Reisling and a Spanish Rioja that I found totally unremarkable. I didn’t have much. At that point, I was able to just get a taxi to drag me home through the slush.

I walked over to my ritzy Park Avenue dentist’s office after work today and that gave me a chance to stop at the Carlyle Hotel for a drink at Bemelmans Bar before the dentist. Let me first recommend the drink before the dentist. I used to get a 8 AM appointment to make work on time, but I couldn’t do that with the recent office move, so I took one in the late afternoon. The morning drink made for a lot of sad, knowing looks from the dental staff. The afternoon version really relaxes you though.

It was actually a coincidence, I just wanted to try Bemelmans Bar. It’s great. It’s an old, ritzy hotel bar with murals (rabbits, fountains, the Park) by Ludwig Bemelman, who apparently drew the Madeline books. It’s beautiful, dark, and elegant. They let kids in on weekends, so it’s family-friendly, ritzy old New York bar. That’s the Upper East Side for you. I had a Gin-Gin Mule: gin, lime juice, mint and ginger ale.

In contrast, I got dinner from El Mariachi Restaurant on Roosevelt boulevard in Woodside. Not full of that old New York ambiance. If you’re looking for a very loud Mexican juke box and a lot of flourescent lighting, it’s your place. Very, very nice staff though.

Me: Carnitas

Counter Woman: Fajitas?

Me: Carnitas

Counter Woman: What kind of Fajitas? Chicken?

It all worked out. It’s my fault anyway, I can’t pronounce anything. I wouldn’t make a trip to Woodside for the food, but it was certainly good. It was missing the half-pound of salt that you get in non-Mexican Mexican food. There’s nothing really different about the food per se, no ingredients really change, but you don’t feel like a deer down at the salt lick at midnight after eating it. I am not dying of thirst.

Bemelmans to a Mexican place in Woodside you ask? Yes, it involves kidnapping and espionage, so we can’t really talk about it.