The party don’t start till I walk in…ok, maybe it’s already started.
Its “feels like” 8 degrees outside, I’m dressed up (sexy, cause I'm always sexy, but not too sexy – hey I’m married now, no one to impress but the other ladies), coat, hat, scarf, purse, gloves in tow. We get to the restaurant and there is a line outside. It’s not just a -someone is holding the door for a group of people- line. It’s a – this is a club/restaurant and we want to look like even more people are here than really are- line. Or so I wish… Luckily, one of my party members had already been standing in line and was arguing with the bouncer to let her in when we walked up. They let us in, only to realize that there is nowhere to go. The place is thronged with pretty people. This seems to be a turnoff for some Yelpers, but for me… I just blend right in. We get our beeper and shimmy up to the bar. I actually did not ever go upstairs, which I’m told is just as clubby as the bottom floor, maybe even more so.
Let me talk about what happened to me at the bar. We walk up, discuss the order and I start to dive in. There are 8 of us, so I designate myself the one to push through and get a bottle of proscecco. When I’m about to dive in, two girls get up from their bar stools. WHOOPIE! So, my friend and I sit down, talk to the bar tender a bit and order our bottle. About 3 minutes later, which I’m half standing up from the bar stool to check on the bottle, I feel a shove on my back and the barstool is taken out from under me! One of the girls had returned and literally shoved me off the seat. I may not always be the nicest bar-position girl, but I would definitely never go as far as to shove someone off a seat. But hey, this is NYC. There are some bitches out there. Luckily for that girl (man I sound hard core), the beeper rings and we cancel the bottle and go to the front. Once there, we find out that they actually ring the beeper as a warning for you to close out your bar tab and your table will be ready close to eventually soon.
I probably sound like I hate Beauty and Essex, but it’s not true. Would I rush to go back? Probably not. Would I go back if I had 12 friends in town from out of state and they wanted a “taste of NY”? You betcha! This is like a step up from Buddakhan, which is my usual big-party-from-out-of-town choice because the food is good and the place is huge. At Beauty and Essex, not only did I feel cool just being there, but I felt like I was in Vegas baby! Loud music, huge space, surrounded by bachelorette parties. Sorry for partying. Or am I?
Let’s talk food. The menu was staggering and a bit overwhelming. It made me happy that there were 8 people. If I went just me and my husband, granted we would order more than normal people who care about their health and weight, we would be so upset that we didn’t get to try the 15 items we wanted.
I am so fortunate to have such wonderful girlfriends who have such insatiable appetites for life (and booze). We had the tomato tartar, yellowtail crudo, a kale and apple salad, two Jewels on toast, whipped ricotta and avocado and lemon, lobster bisque dumplings, chicken meatballs, seared tuna and some pasta that was excellent but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was made of… crispy hominy, brussel sprouts, broccolini and onion rings were our sides.
Things I would recommend out of those? ALL of the sides (ok, I didn’t have the onion rings but they looked good). Whatever hominy is – too lazy to look it up at the moment – I like it! The Kale and Apple salad was one of my favorites. I like a bitter lettuce. The dressing was tangy and acidic which made the kale even easier to eat.
The tomato tartar was probably the most interesting item we ate; it tasted just like steak tartar. They use all the same seasoning/spices. My only complaint is that I thought it was going to come out just like a meat tartar. But instead, we got little bite size tartars with a small quail egg on top. I like to crack my quail eggs over my tartar, to use the yolks as a dressing. The egg yolks were too cooked. But hey, maybe it was meant that way. It still tasted amazing. My least favorite was the lobster bisque dumplings. Hard to believe since I’m obsessed with lobster and anything fried (again with the health). I think there was just too much lemongrass. I tasted no lobster. I’m semi-scared of lobster bisque because one time at this place, I now cringe when I walk by, called Red eye Grill, on 56th and 7th, I had a terrible allergic reaction to lobster bisque. I think I was poisoned. FYI this was 2004 so don’t get all up in arms. Calm down. The post is over.
Wow, how could I leave this out… if this place wasn’t opulent enough for you, make sure you make a trip to the bathroom. I’m not sure if people hang out in the bathroom because its less crowded then the bar or they are just there for the free champagne and good sounds and good smells… good times.
Although I could barely hear any of you over the loud, thumping club music, thank you to Rehana, Heidi, Erica, Caren, Liz, Jenny and Kate for letting me choose the restaurant once again. Just call me the Queen of scoring reservations one month in advance. Do it. I dare you.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Kin Shop
I’m baaaaaaaaaacccckkk. After a year (almost to the day) hiatus, I am going to start updating my blog again! Try to muffle your excitement; you can’t can you?
Our journey begins on a blustery winter night… my husband (yup!) and I have been hearing a lot about Kin Shop. We love Perilla, which is probably our most often visited restaurant in NYC. So, we had to try out the new restaurant by Harold Dieterle. Don’t be fooled. These two restaurants have only one thing, other than the owner/chef in common, they are both excellent.
Perilla is the perfect place to go on a random Friday night when you don’t know where you want to go but you know you want something good. I have never made a reservation there and try to go early and sit at the bar. Kin Shop, its Thai relative, has a very different atmosphere. Where Perilla is homey and welcoming, Kin Shop is hip and alluring.
Ok, let’s get onto the good stuff. Oddly, I just had my leftovers for lunch today and I can tell you that hot or cold they are still amazing. (I can’t help it if I like my Asian leftovers cold). My husband and I have an issue when going to a new restaurant. We want everything on the menu and tend to eat like a bunch of savage beasts. I can eat more around him then I would any other person….and, much to my stomach’s dismay I do! When we first walked into the small restaurant, which lies inconspicuously between a bodega and a pizza shop, I was surprised my its lack of bar and coat check. Here we were, 20 degrees outside, perfectly on time for our reservation with nowhere to go… There is a bar, but it’s in the back of the restaurant and not welcoming to a pre-dinner drink. Luckily, we only had to stand around for about 5 minutes before someone paid their check at the bar and we were sat there to wait. Another 5 minutes pass and we are ushered to our seats. The music was great, keeping with the restaurants upbeat aura.
We quickly spotted one of our favorite restaurant wines, the Nikolaihof Gruner Veltliner. If you haven’t tried it, I suggest you do. It was especially fitting for a meal of spicy Thai! Not-so-to-the-side-note, on the dessert menu there was a Merry Edwards 2008 dessert wine. Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc is by far my favorite wine. I was rather surprised to see it, and although we didn’t try it (because dessert wine is bordering on gross), I’m sure it’s fantastic if you like that sort of thing… But I digress…
We began with the warm sliced snap peas with Diver Sea scallops, which we were told by the bartender was one of the favorites of the house. Granted, I tend to always order a scallop anything. The scallops were perfectly seared, with just the right amount of crisp outside to compliment the scallop’s tenderness. The snap peas added the right amount of crunch and greens to give you the chance to pretend you chose a healthy starter. We also chose the Fried pork and crispy oyster salad. The chili lime vinaigrette is the same that is used on the excellent calamari at Perilla. Its sweet and spicy and very much complimented the fishy taste of the oyster and the hearty fried pork. I am not one to compliment pork belly. But, this was a very well done piece of meat. I could barely tell that I was eating lard.
For our main courses, a bottle of wine later, we got the steamed snapper with green curry, baby bok choy and kabocha squash and the stir fried rice flakes with rock shrimp. If you talked to me a year ago, you would have a hard time imagining me saying this, but I really like Thai food. Its flavorful, doesn’t have to be too filling and you can even go healthy. Steamed snapper? If I knew how to use my bamboo steamer, I could attempt this at home! For my husband, making good green curry is an art form. On the back of the menu, it describes how many ingredients go into curry paste. It was scary. Don’t even bother. But you should bother ordering the green curry at Kin Shop. It was the second best green curry we have ever had (debatable between us, but I win because I’m the writer and he’s the editor). Bringing you full circle to my lunch today, the stir friend rice noodles were/are amazing. I loved the cauliflower addition as well. None of the spices were too hot, which says a lot coming from me, and the shrimp was not overly chewy or too tender.
All said and done, it was a nice way to get myself back into my self important, over indulgent way of spending my time… eating hordes of food and telling my adoring fan (thanks mom!) all about it.
Our journey begins on a blustery winter night… my husband (yup!) and I have been hearing a lot about Kin Shop. We love Perilla, which is probably our most often visited restaurant in NYC. So, we had to try out the new restaurant by Harold Dieterle. Don’t be fooled. These two restaurants have only one thing, other than the owner/chef in common, they are both excellent.
Perilla is the perfect place to go on a random Friday night when you don’t know where you want to go but you know you want something good. I have never made a reservation there and try to go early and sit at the bar. Kin Shop, its Thai relative, has a very different atmosphere. Where Perilla is homey and welcoming, Kin Shop is hip and alluring.
Ok, let’s get onto the good stuff. Oddly, I just had my leftovers for lunch today and I can tell you that hot or cold they are still amazing. (I can’t help it if I like my Asian leftovers cold). My husband and I have an issue when going to a new restaurant. We want everything on the menu and tend to eat like a bunch of savage beasts. I can eat more around him then I would any other person….and, much to my stomach’s dismay I do! When we first walked into the small restaurant, which lies inconspicuously between a bodega and a pizza shop, I was surprised my its lack of bar and coat check. Here we were, 20 degrees outside, perfectly on time for our reservation with nowhere to go… There is a bar, but it’s in the back of the restaurant and not welcoming to a pre-dinner drink. Luckily, we only had to stand around for about 5 minutes before someone paid their check at the bar and we were sat there to wait. Another 5 minutes pass and we are ushered to our seats. The music was great, keeping with the restaurants upbeat aura.
We quickly spotted one of our favorite restaurant wines, the Nikolaihof Gruner Veltliner. If you haven’t tried it, I suggest you do. It was especially fitting for a meal of spicy Thai! Not-so-to-the-side-note, on the dessert menu there was a Merry Edwards 2008 dessert wine. Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc is by far my favorite wine. I was rather surprised to see it, and although we didn’t try it (because dessert wine is bordering on gross), I’m sure it’s fantastic if you like that sort of thing… But I digress…
We began with the warm sliced snap peas with Diver Sea scallops, which we were told by the bartender was one of the favorites of the house. Granted, I tend to always order a scallop anything. The scallops were perfectly seared, with just the right amount of crisp outside to compliment the scallop’s tenderness. The snap peas added the right amount of crunch and greens to give you the chance to pretend you chose a healthy starter. We also chose the Fried pork and crispy oyster salad. The chili lime vinaigrette is the same that is used on the excellent calamari at Perilla. Its sweet and spicy and very much complimented the fishy taste of the oyster and the hearty fried pork. I am not one to compliment pork belly. But, this was a very well done piece of meat. I could barely tell that I was eating lard.
For our main courses, a bottle of wine later, we got the steamed snapper with green curry, baby bok choy and kabocha squash and the stir fried rice flakes with rock shrimp. If you talked to me a year ago, you would have a hard time imagining me saying this, but I really like Thai food. Its flavorful, doesn’t have to be too filling and you can even go healthy. Steamed snapper? If I knew how to use my bamboo steamer, I could attempt this at home! For my husband, making good green curry is an art form. On the back of the menu, it describes how many ingredients go into curry paste. It was scary. Don’t even bother. But you should bother ordering the green curry at Kin Shop. It was the second best green curry we have ever had (debatable between us, but I win because I’m the writer and he’s the editor). Bringing you full circle to my lunch today, the stir friend rice noodles were/are amazing. I loved the cauliflower addition as well. None of the spices were too hot, which says a lot coming from me, and the shrimp was not overly chewy or too tender.
All said and done, it was a nice way to get myself back into my self important, over indulgent way of spending my time… eating hordes of food and telling my adoring fan (thanks mom!) all about it.
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