I checked out Buenos Aires Grill (see “Grill of My Dreams,” September 21) again on Wednesday — this time for lunch, which I’d somehow missed during my first whirlwind tour through owner Francis Carrera’s beautifully appointed Argentine fine- dining restaurant. And while almost everything I loved at dinner (bacalao and…
For a long time, restaurants have played a cruel game with diners, vacillating wildly between opposing schools of menu-writing theory. On one side are menus that seem compelled to describe in loving, verdant detail not only the basic ingredients in every dish, but the provenance of each ingredient — where…
Talk about a blast from the past, eh?” I’ve got Mel Master on the phone, and he’s talking about his own October surprise: the sudden signing of a contract for the space at 1120 East Sixth Avenue, which currently houses Piscos and originally was the home of Dudley’s, the restaurant…
My mother thinks I waste too much time hanging out in bars, but she doesn’t realize how much knowledge I gain by chatting up bartenders and resident barflies. At Cap City Tavern, for instance, I learned that if you put salt on your cocktail napkin, it will prevent the napkin…
There’s nothing like drinking when you’re already at a disadvantage. We recently hit Lime XS (730 East Sixth Avenue), the new, smaller iteration of Lime in Larimer Square, and after her first margarita, the saintly wife of the Redneck Liaison to the Institute of Drinking Studies remembered that she’d donated…
The guys behind the counter got my order wrong three times — but from past experience eating at the Taste of Philly on Colorado Boulevard in recent months, I knew that three attempts was about average for getting the correct order in the correct bag. The wait gave me plenty…
The kitchen had done an okay job cooking the fried chicken — but it had also slipped in some ginger, which I didn’t appreciate. Yes, the ginger had been mentioned on the menu, but not emphasized. At least, not enough. There should’ve been more warning. The menu description should have…
With my review of Steuben’s now off the stands (read the October 5 “American Idyll” here) and all questions of owner Josh Wolkon’s American obsessions and searches for provenance and origin answered, we can get down to the truly important matter raised by his menu: namely, where is the best…
Location, location, location, my ass. For decades, Szechuan Chinese Restaurant has been doing business in one of the worst imaginable locations in all of restaurantdom, holding down a chunky, L-shaped space folded into the elbow of a nearly inaccessible strip mall off a one-way frontage road running beneath and beside…
Everyone’s favorite punk-rock, vegetarian, earth-friendly tempeh joint, WaterCourse Foods, is leaving its longtime home at 206 East 13th Avenue for greener pastures. But don’t get your dreadlocks in a twist. This is a good thing. Not only is WaterCourse moving into a bigger space — the former New York on…
The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. Even that quote from Shakespeare wasn’t enough to drown out the long-winded lawyers (is that redundant?) sitting near me at the bar at Wyman’s No. 5, rehashing the case they had tried and won that day. After much self-congratulation, one…
We’ve all had those days when we just really want — and borderline physically need — a beer. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s been a bad day — although the beer-wanting feeling is very common after a day when your co-workers and/or boss make you want to stick a…
Four years ago, I had one of the greatest, strangest, most affecting meals of my life at Ocean City. It was during the Chinese lunar festival, and the party went on for hours with more courses than I can remember. I ate cold pig’s-ear salad, whole abalone in oyster gravy,…
Two weeks ago in Bite Me, I wrote about Kyoto, the new-old restaurant being reopened by Duy Pham and partner James Lee at 7301 South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton. Now it’s official: The place will close on Sunday, October 15, and then, after a five-day whirlwind of cleaning, repair…
As an achievement in design, Steuben’s is unparalleled. No hackneyed, cliched or sardonic architectural detail was spared in the construction of this physical love letter to a time not too long gone when wood-veneer paneling and vinyl-covered steel-tube chairs were the height of de mode fashion. Every angle in the…
What are your first three food and drink related visits when you head to your childhood hometown? What do you order? Fried Clams from Kelly’s? Supreme Sauce from Raynor’s? A slice from Joe’s? A take out order of a green-chili cheeseburger from The Owl Cafe? Maybe it’s that hot dog…
As I drove up, I was blown away by the recent changes along 32nd Avenue east of Zuni Street. While I’d been aware of all the gentrification further west, I couldn’t believe that this stretch — which a politically correct person would have described as “urban” three years ago –…
Waiting in line for tickets was one of the most worthwhile pastimes of my underage drinking years. But great seats (and drunks) weren’t the only objective: Camping out overnight was a social event. The culmination of this activity came in 1987, when we joined a couple hundred people outside of…
While Steuben’s (see review) has that whole American regional thing going, scores of other restaurants focus on foods of even more precise regional specificity. Corn Belt picnic cuisine? Done. Japanese mountain peasant food and North Vietnamese party grub? Done and done. And when Frasca first opened, it swore by the…
As we pull into the parking lot, I see the sign for live entertainment, Saturdays from nine until one in the morning. I find live music in a restaurant distracting, and say so as if after the years we’ve spent together — nearly all of them described by the arcs…
As I left Vietnam House (see review), I was briefly sexually assaulted in the parking lot by a small pockmarked fellow who — overcome by the beat pounding out into the cool night air — grabbed me and rubbed up against my junk. Stunned and a little drunk, still wired…
Bring out the Irish Spring! As my date and I sat down at the bar at the Irish Snug, a guy next to me gave me a dirty look. “I’m sorry, was this seat taken?” I asked, and he mumbled something inaudible and walked to the door. That’s when his…
