Not a restaurant, but an excellent wine shop. Bit out of the way and tucked into the luxury development of Waterline Square, so it stays quiet.

Went for an extensive Madeira tasting of Cossart Gordon Madeira with SL+GL, so much fun.

Guy I watch on YouTube (James Andrews) overhyped the fried chicken sandwich. All good enough food but otherwise undistinguished for the money.

My favorite place to eat breakfast in SoHo. Great staff, I love American diners.

Indian/Nepalese food out of a deli. Biked around Bushwick and Ridgewood with a friend and finished here, ate on a park bench.

Walked in for lunch in the lounge. Good food and wine, but the service was the remarkable element. Staff worked incredibly well together, anticipated diner needs well, like a performance. Inspiring to watch and fun to observe as a solo lunch diner.

Would go back for the full dinner experience.

Company event. Stunning view and a warm, cloudless day. But, mediocre-to-bad food, Dubai-esque setting. Still fun.

I think there are other spots in Brooklyn that have a good view I should try.

Went here for a first date because she lived in Manhattan Heights. I like wine, so I chose this spot.

Good value. Food and wine middling. Close to the 72nd Street 2/3. You’ll see I went back.

Walked in at 6 PM on a Tuesday or so, 15 minutes before my date, which was nice. Sauced was the backup (see below). Very intimate and vibey, great indoor and outdoor spaces.

A winner if you can get in.

Went here after Elvis. Fun concept where you just tell the barista (I don’t think I’d call them sommeliers) what you want to drink and they pour you two healthy samples and you choose. Good prices for both food and drink. Very vibey, more of a LES/Williamsburg crowd than a NoHo crowd (this is their second location).

Natural wine.

American Southwest-themed cocktail bar on the second floor of the Freehand hotel. I have no special affinity for the American Southwest, but it’s very vibey, very intimate, and great staff make this a favorite date spot for me. Small bites, including a burger, but not really enough for a full dinner if you’re hungry.

Has a drinks happy hour on FRIDAY after 10 PM, which is an incredible value. $16 cocktails? However, seems to be struggling for business which takes away from the vibe.

Weekend lunch first date, semi-suggested by my date (amazing move on her part). New restaurant, good food, good staff, good prices.

We got the soft shell crab and didn’t realize you could eat the shell, so we both sat there removing the meat like chumps. Pretty funny.

Company event that I planned. Really wonderful restaurant. Great food, fun atmosphere, luxurious setting. It’s one of the few very nice restaurants I know of that has an upbeat, exciting vibe, which is what we were going for (if you know of any, please share).

Great staff, I had a pretty opinionated schedule for the food that they followed very strictly and checked in on throughout the night.

Would host here again but probably wouldn’t go personally unless someone really wanted to eat in SoHo. New American is crowded, and Manuela is expensive + I don’t really like SoHo as a neighborhood, even Nice SoHo.

Work event I attended. Great wine program curated by KJ even though I usually don’t like Italian wine.

No A/C made the restaurant too authentic, gross.

See above review from May 22. Another date. This time, the bar was EMPTY at 9 PM, which led us to an early exit (maybe not a bad thing for a date?). I hope it was because the Knicks were playing.. but I haven’t been back since.

Both bartenders were flirting with other patrons so our service was pretty slow this time. Got Cheap Oysters this time, not great.

Great food. Limited vibe. With SW, swapping sabbatical stories.

Dinner and catch up with JY. I like the chef/operator couple who run this place, attended a talk they gave at Union Square Café (see below).

We did get the Chartreuse Oysters and the Fish and Chips. Both good, but nothing insane. Quite expensive.

I really like small restaurants, and this is about 20 seats. In the heart of Greenwich Village/i which is so fun.

Singaporean-themed bar near Union Square. Has a related downstairs, but Singlish itself is upstairs.

Creative and tasty drinks, small space. I’d recommend sitting at the bar if you’re on a date. Would be tight if you’re a party of four.

Tasty food, innovative Chinese although not as Chinese-y flavored as I expected. This area of E Williamsburg seems fun, and we walked past a few other spots I ended up saving, but the area is in fking Narnia so hard to see when I’ll ever go back there (we were there because my date lived in the area). I like the Warsaw concert venue so maybe before something there.

LOTS of food! Bright, modern space. Brooklyn prices! A winner.

I guess this is Upscale Indian. Catching up with XW before attending the ballet (Sylvia, Skylar Brandt and Jake Roxander).

Tasty food, attentive and numerous service. Expensive and has that kind of decor and layout that signals you’re on the UWS. Do you know what I mean?

Went after the ballet to hang with MW and get her something to eat. Hit the spot! Reliable UWS/Lincoln Square spot to which you can walk in.

Food and wines aren’t that great, so I’m looking for another reliable pre- or post-ballet spot. Have been interested in Shalel on 70th street, which looks like it’s in a cave?? Or, the soon-to-be-opening Brasserie Bouloud.

Pre-ballet beers with RT (his suggestion) was a fantastic idea. Highly recommend, don’t look down on it. We attended Swan Lake (SunMi Park, Thomas Forster) the night SunMi Park was promoted onstage! Other highlight was Jake Roxander and Takumi Miyake dancing the Neapolitan together.

P.J. Clarke’s is everything you expect and want: walk-in to the bar with standing room permitted, reasonable steakhouse/American-food prices, fast service, efficient bartenders. It was the Tony Awards at the Koch Theater which caused quite the exclamation from a Ballet Boomer faced with minor inconvenience.

Catching up with SV. Walk-in only, which I love. I got there around 5:25 and sat immediately. Full by ~6? We were going to go to Stars, which is typically open air, but SV had allergies and it was during the summer smoke we had.

Very Natural wine. Surprisingly good prices because the bar comes off as very LES/natural wine/hip-y.

SV asked for a dry white and got a not-remotely-dry white, so that was disappointing. Very vibe-y. Like a more intimate and cheaper Sauced maybe?

Sauced, Jack’s Wife Freda, horse with no name.. I don’t know how to describe these restaurants? But they are all the same vibe and same problem to me, most notably: mediocre service-with-a-certain-attitude.

I really, really hate Jack’s Wife Freda in SoHo. The staff act like it’s an inconvenience for you to be there when it’s literally a restaurant.

Anyways, the Chelsea staff were much nicer although food still mediocre. No outdoor space or special location, which is the primary brag of JWF SoHo.

I left my umbrella in the bin, and they still had it the next day which was nice 🤠

Also not a restaurant or bar, but I did drink! I attended their Galician wines class which was a lot of fun. Albariño focus, but they also had a Galician gin as an aperitivo, which was super tasty (Nordés, very herbal, floral, fruity).

Big fan of CWS, they have a large, 20-wine tasting on the first Saturday of every month.

What a great restaurant! NL, RT, and I walked in around 8:30 PM (10 min wait?) after kicking around the EV for some drinks.

Have been here twice, just great food. IMO much better than Mountain House, which wasn’t even spicy last time I went, and inundated by DoorDash orders.

Good food, great fresh bread. Has a fake tree in the middle which is very distinctive.

Nice service and good patio, but I just don’t like Georgian wine that much.

Had an orange cake that was very tasty. Very sweet.

Walk-in only, which I love. AB and I went at 8:30-ish on a Thursday and sat down right away.

Tasty, nice atmosphere, but very expensive for what it is. Try Market Table across the street.

The snobs on Reddit say good decor but mediocre food. I actually thought the food was good here! Probably slightly better than Phoenix Palace, its sister restaurant, with more innovative food.

They give you a TON of food! Went with my sister, who was in town, and we took a lot home.

I gotta get away from these natural wine bars, man. Anyways, I had two martinis with a twist which were as expected.

My companion claimed the food was excellent, but I thought he overbilled it. We had the chicken sandwich with fries and something else. It was good, but not outstanding. Good-for-Gowanus, maybe.

Good atmosphere that filled up as things progressed (we got there at 4:30 PM).

What a magnificent dining room!

Went to the Restaurant Week lunch with DT which was a good enough value. Basically the same as their normal menu.

Food was tasty but nothing spectacular. Such a great setting though! I would come back.

The wonder of Not Working — went to a talk with Dame operating couple Ed Szymanski and Patricia Howard with FH. They were interviewed by Union Square Café Executive Chef Lena Ciardullo about cooking with local ingredients from the Union Square Greenmarket.

Outstanding pastries (including the first cardamom bun I’ve enjoyed), fresh blueberries and apricots, a slab of bacon with peaches, and a 9:30 AM glass of rosé.

We went to Union Square Café to shop the greenmarket with Ed, Patricia, and Lena where I randomly ran into an old friend!

My second time walking in to Penny. This time I went alone for a cheeky 5 PM Eat, Drink, and Write. No wait. Also ate a hearty tuna-and-tomatoes dish and two glasses.

Penny feels weird because they bill it as a seafood-focused, small plates wine bar, but it felt much more like a dinner restaurant that only has bar seating than a wine bar.

But, as always for this group, great service, great wine, great instruments, and delicious food.

Went for their Restaurant Week on a Tuesday with SL and GL. We basically ordered everything and shared everything. Tasty but felt like there must have been smaller portions than normal.

SL/GL tested me on my WSET Level 2 wine pairing guidance, which yielded a Gewürstraminer recommendation.

If you can’t tell, I’ve been very into Union Square Hospitality Group this summer, so I went to their Restaurant Week lunch with XW. Manhatta is on the 60th floor with a panoramic view looking North over Manhattan (and Jersey and Brooklyn) from FiDi.

Great restaurant! The view is the highlight, but the food is also good, too. Large bar and lounge area, so I imagine walking in for drinks if you’re in FiDi would be quite nice and doable!

Surprisingly good value. Given what must be an insane rent (not just the 60th floor, but they also have their own private lobby and elevator bank), the number of staff, etc., I was so surprised they could offer a full-size RW menu.

Tasty and reliable Sichuan food in Midtown. For some reason, all of the good food in Midtown South, which isn’t fine dining, seems to be Asian? What gives?

We got a little hoodwinked because we thought it was BYOB and it was not. We ended up buying a $60 bottle of dogwater pinot noir that my two companions choked down at the end of the meal. I claimed I had to sleep.

Food was tasty and good portions.

Not the restaurant’s fault, but the experience was worsened by walking past the Corgi Cafe NYC grand opening on the way.

Have biked past the outdoor seating on the street so much that when there was a great day out I really wanted to go! Unfortunately, many others had the same idea, and the waitress somewhat brusquely informed me there was a wait.

Inside we encountered a pretty average HH. Oh well!

After a full day at US Open qualifying, I went to Flushing for some real Chinese food, which we don’t quite get in Manhattan. Got the crab and pork xiao long bao but kind of missed on the salt and pepper fried pork chops, which were overly breaded and thin.

Finally went back for dinner with SS! Walked in at 6 PM on a Saturday night with zero wait. They save the front ~8 tables and both bars for walk-ins which is amaaaaazing.

Pretty expensive relative to the food quality, but the service of course was absolutely outstanding. So much fun, I really care about service and ambiance. I learned afterwards that this is a pretty consensus experience of Union Square Café: it was groundbreaking when it opened, it’s been similarly good ever since, but at this point the food quality lags behind the frontier. However, service and hospitality are still ahead, and it’s reliable.

I’m going to rate this ‘outstanding’ because I’m sure I will come back. I’m confident I can walk in and they will have notes about my last visit and I can ask for small things (like what specific part of the restaurant in which to sit) without feeling embarrassed. Both times I’ve been to USC it’s been pricey but such a fun time.

As much as I eat, I had never been to a classic New York City steakhouse. Was talking with LH, who had just put in her two weeks, and we rustled up a four-person Monday lunch.

It was a one martini, two hour, three cut affair, and a great time.

We wanted to go to Lei, and I was first in line at 4:45 on a Monday, but turns out they were closed that day for a day-of staff celebration. Unlucky. Guess I will constantly have to be asked “Oh you like wine? Have you been to Lei?” for a few more months.

I thought Joe’s Shanghai was supposed to be good, but it was not.

Well, it’s always about the company, and anyways NG insisted on treating me, which was very kind of him.

My last hurrah on my last day in NYC before starting my new job.

This was an excellent meal that lived up to every expectation. I walked in with no wait (12:15 PM on a Tuesday). My waitress was excellent. The Restaurant Week menu was incredible value — full size, delicious courses. I thought the food quality here was probably the best I’d had all summer. The entire experience was better than Le Bernardin.

The only issue with the Bar Room is the interior. It is very dim and looks like an airport lounge. Maybe sitting at the bar is more aesthetic than looking at the dining room. The actual The Modern dining room looks quite nice, and very bright with a large window facing the inside of the MoMA.

My highlight was the featured dessert wine, a 2018 botrytized Tokaj sold by-the-glass for $25. I love dessert wines and had just been made aware of Tokaj a few weeks prior. I had never seen Tokaj sold by-the-glass, and at $25 for a glass with retail bottles (out of stock) at $46, an incredible value. Lighter than Sauternes, medium acidity, full body+ (very, very creamy! Apparently no malolactic conversion but 30 months on lees) — delicious.

Good story: as I walked in, I held the first of two doors open for a very elegant, middle-aged Korean woman. Blue Mini Kelly, 5-motif Van Cleef bracelet. She thanked me in slightly accented English, stepped into the vestibule, then waited on the side for me to open the second door for her. Total diva, I was enamored.

For Tuesday lunch Tadich was vivacious and felt very local-first. Sat at the bar, which dominates the room, and it was a great experience. The vibe is a bit like a diner, which I like, but with fine dining prices. The seafood stew I had, their signature dish called Ciopino, was $60! Wheeesh!

I felt really good about my interviews, so I came here for oyster HH and a few drinks in the early afternoon. Seemed like a nice place, but the staff were oddly snotty (both at reception and the bar). Maybe I did something wrong.

Anyways, I got 10 oysters for $16, a martini, and a glass of white wine then took a nap on the grass outside.

I thought I might sample the wines of California until I was reminded that California wine is really expensive.

Verjus is a French-themed wine bar. The sommelier, Adam, was the highlight. He had a good recommendation for a bottle and even poured us some samples of the alternate he had considered later in the night (I had bullied my friend into getting Beaujolais; he wanted Burgundy).

I walked in around 6:10 PM on a Wednesday and waited at the bar for ~15 minutes until I was offered a seat at a side table, which worked great. I was surprised to learn that the outside tables — usually the most desirable spots in NYC — were treated like bar seating until I walked outside and realized that August 5th in SF will have your teeth chattering.

Someone at Stars recommended this place to me, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. More of a neighborhood dive with natural wine than a wine bar.

We sat outside, which was frigid, and took a robo taxi home.