Rome in Manhattan

Dinner at Bocca on a humid Rome-like night. This was parked outside...


If only this were going on inside.

The Best Restaurant In Za Vorld

42 East 20th Steet - Just down the street from TR's birthplace

Empty table but not for long

It'll make you giddy

Update: Check out this NY Times Sunday Metro piece (25 April) on Danny Meyer's sharing his hospitality secrets through his new consulting business, Hospitality Quotient. Nice is Lesson 1.

I remember reading the NY Time's restaurant review of Gramercy Tavern when it first opened 15 years ago. I was on the commuter train to work in Chicago and it was a Wednesday morning. Had to have been. That's when the restaurant review ran. I don't remember who wrote it. Possibly Ruth Reichel but not sure.

What I am sure of was a B&W picture of two women sitting at a table framed by the simple letters of the restaurant on the front window. One woman elegantly tilted back a glass of white wine as if she was taking the very last sip. It was the sexiest newspaper photo I have ever seen. When I got to my office I called the Times and asked how I could buy it. The Times didn't really care about what I wanted - - but Gramercy Tavern does.

I haven't been in a better restaurant. It's rare I don't find something to bitch about but never here. Flawless and intelligent service by people who know the menu and are passionate about food - - not pretentious. Fantastic local and seasonal menus that change but always a pasta that melts in your mouth. Hell, even the nuts at the bar beat out what was once the premier nut dish of New York - The King Cole.

A wine list where I've been steered to what became magnificent obsessions of mine - - Sagrantino di Montelfalco and Domaine Serene Evenstad to name two. A room that is simple and elegant and not a stick out of place. I look up from my plate and see a famous actress and I don't give a shit. Any of the anxiety I brought in off the street melts out my feet. I am calm and at peace and I am happy. It's expensive but it's cheaper than therapy.

A Classy Lady on 57th - Teodora Restaurant

Teodora Restaurant - 57th between Lexington and 3rd Avenue

My favorite sardines

The specials

The Grappa

Teodora Restaurant stands as elegant and simple Italian on 57th Street between Lex and 3rd. It's a favorite of two of my favorite people. The Golf Foxtrot and Gail Greene. The lasagna deserves the raves but never discount the specials. These little sardines were a perfect bite of briny sea without being over powering at all. Placed on bruschetta with a squeeze of lemon -they were "bang the table" fantastic.

It's the perfect place for splitting a starter and a pasta entree. There's always a $30-ish bottle of Montepulciano and it flies under the Manhattan radar so a table is rarely hard to get. I always think of this restaurant as a woman. Bright, smiling, fresh scrubbed and wearing a simple linen dress and clear nail polish. My idea of a long term relationship.

Friday Belts I Can't Own or Make: The Blue Blazer & Alan Flusser

Gary can't get The Blue Blazer going until 7:37 in but it's worth the wait

Alan Flusser's Custom Shop sits off 5th Avenue on 48th Street next to the old Scribner's book store and it is a very dangerous place. When Thomas Wolfe was paid for 'Look Homeward, Angel' he stepped out of Scribner's with the check in hand and walked north in a daze. He wasn't aware of where he was until 125th Street. Had Flusser been in business then I suspect he would have only had to walk around the block into 3 E. 48th and take the elevator to four.

I adore this place. The richness of just about everything here is overwhelming. It's like a museum and ADG at Maxminimus got me in with a warm introduction before he knew I was Joe Shit the Ragman. Everywhere you look there's perfection. The socks are perfect. The shoes are perfect. Even the belts are perfect.

Alligator tab surcingles in three patterns of perfect Spring and Summer haberdashery. But the warning bells were ringing. I didn't want to know how much they were. I was that scared. I've learned in NYC to take a guess at what something costs and then multiply it by four. These are too rich for my blood and my self preservation kicked in and got me out of there alive. Although I never wanted to leave.

Michael Batterberry is someone who belongs in Flusser's shop. This erudite editor of Food Arts Magazine was last seen on The Trad dining at Le Veau d'Or with Anthony Bourdain. Batterberry and his wife Ariane co-authored this book on NYC restaurant history going back to the American Revolution. If you love history and restaurants this book will blow you outta the water - - bottled or tap.

The book really starts to move around the late 19th century but I found the slower 18th and early 19th centuries to be most enjoyable. Amazing characters, rich food and bizarre appetites for alcohol. Above is an 18th century recipe for a cocktail called the Blue Blazer. Sounds simple enough. Whiskey and hot water. Light it and pour it back and forth between two cups. I don't mind a little risk but I'll be honest...I'm a klutz. I was told in the army I could fuck up an anvil with a rotten banana. And as much as I wanted to give this a try...I know myself too well. But that doesn't mean you can't give it a go. Fire is good. And fire can kill. I feel the same way about Flusser.