• bowery,  good for groups,  great for dates,  jeans-appropriate,  restaurant reviews,  steak

    Bowery Meat Company is Weirdly Worth the Money

    Last year, I spent a week on a yacht touring some of the islands of Greece with my boyfriend and three of his friends. One of those friends was visiting NYC last week from Romania, so I wanted to take her someplace new and well-rated. A co-worker happened to mention Bowery Meat Company to me that very week, and not only had the New York Times given it two stars, but it had meat right in the name.

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  • great for dates,  jeans-appropriate,  meat sweats,  nomad,  restaurant reviews,  steak

    Rocco Steakhouse Has the Big, Fat Bacon and the Schlag

    The only thing better than being invited to try out a complimentary dinner at a new restaurant is being invited to try out a steakhouse. Rocco Steakhouse is the mastermind of owner Rocco Trotta, who put together a staff of big names from old school NYC steakhouses, including the man who served as the general manager at Wolfgang’s for a decade. (And Wolfgang, of course, started his steakhouse after working at Peter Luger, so you just have to love all of the entanglement within the NYC steakhouse strata.) With another well-known steakhouse on the same block, I asked GM Pete Pjetrovic why he partnered with Rocco and beverage director Jeff…

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  • chain restaurant,  food events,  great for dates,  jeans-appropriate,  restaurant reviews,  steak,  times square

    “Musical Pairing” Dinner with Barbara Werner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House

    Recently, I’ve been watching the movie Silver Linings Playbook a lot, both because it’s been on HBO and because I’m a sap. There’s this epic scene where Bradley Cooper’s character is desperately trying to find his wedding video in the middle of the night, and Led Zeppelin’s “What Is and What Should Never Be” plays over his frantic search. I try to imagine the scene without the song, and it’s just nothing by comparison. And I’m sure we all have these movie moments where the music mattered so much to us and really made the scene. Chef and author Barbara Werner has figured out that the same can be said…

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  • american,  bistro,  french,  jeans-appropriate,  meat sweats,  restaurant reviews,  steak,  weekend brunch,  west village

    Minetta Tavern: the Burger, the Bacon, and More

    Stepping into Minetta Tavern, you can’t help but feel reminded that this is New York City you’re in. The bar is packed for Sunday brunch, with fortysomething women turned backward on their barstools to flirt with fiftysomething men. The floor is that classic checkered black-and-white, the ceiling is hammered tin, and the walls are covered in a mural that looks like it’s been there since the 1800s. Only the Minetta Tavern of today opened in 2009. It was opened by Keith McNally of Frenchy favourites Balthazar and Pastis, though, so you can bet it’s the perfect mix of the used up Minetta Tavern of the 1930s and sparkling new, classic…

  • 4,  great for dates,  midtown west,  restaurant reviews,  steak

    Quality Meats – Steak – Midtown West

    After a totally-not-heated debate over on my personal blog, I decided to watermark my photos until enough people complain about them being ugly. Well, as luck would have it, Dr. Boyfriend invited me to Quality Meats for lunch on a whim last week, so I didn’t have my DSLR with me, and I forgot to set my point-and-shoot to take RAW photos, so the first time you’re going to see my watermark is on these less-than-stellar pictures. I recognize the error of my ways! No need to publicly mock me! Anyway. Niko from Dessert Buzz was kind enough to link to one of my posts last week and also mentioned…

  • 3.5,  great for dates,  meat sweats,  midtown east,  restaurant reviews,  steak

    Michael Jordan’s The Steak House N.Y.C. – Steak – Midtown East

    If you can get past the fact that it’s owned by Michael Jordan and is called Michael Jordan’s The Steak House N.Y.C. (what?), this place is actually a decent steakhouse with atmosphere that beats the usual Harvard-crimson carpeting and gold-lacquered everything. My boyfriend and I talked casually about visiting The Steak House every time we spotted it overlooking Grand Central Terminal, but it took seeing Chef Michael Vignola on an episode of The Food Network’s “Chopped” to make us seriously consider a reservation. On the show, the chef was super-creative–quite the opposite of what we expect from someone just cooking steaks and lobster all day–and we were excited to see…

  • chain restaurant,  steak

    Loving Chain Restaurants Does Not Make You a Bad Person

    Last weekend, Dr. Boyfriend and I went to The Modern at MoMA for a tasting menu that included grilled foie gras with champagne-vinegar-preserved strawberries and a harissa tuile: This weekend, we’re going to Outback for a Bloomin’ Onion: The funny thing is that Dr. Boyfriend, I think, is waaaaaay more excited about Outback than he was about The Modern. He’s never been there and is under the impression that it’s just the chain version of Peter Luger. This is going to be awesome.

  • meat sweats,  midtown west,  restaurant reviews,  steak

    Restaurant Review: Keens Steakhouse

    I went into my dinner at Keens Steakhouse with an extremely open mind. I’m a lover of Peter Luger, but I was under the impression that $90 steak is $90 steak wherever you go, and I was excited about the scotch-and-cigars atmosphere of Keens. I hadn’t known to specify in my reservation that my boyfriend and I wanted to sit in the main dining room, so I was worried when all of the people in front of us were sent to different parts of the restaurant, but we were luckily seated downstairs under the ceiling entirely covered in clay tobacco pipes. The atmosphere is much darker and cozier than Luger’s,…

  • gramercy,  meat sweats,  restaurant reviews,  restaurant week,  steak

    Restaurant Review: Primehouse New York (Restaurant Week Summer 2009)

    My boyfriend, Kamran, and I base most of our Restaurant Week dining decisions on the inventiveness of the menu, which is why we chose Primehouse New York over Smith & Wollensky or Delmonico’s on the 31st. Passion fruit and gazpacho? Yes, please. • APPETIZERS • Passion Fruit Gazpacho Lump Crab & Avocado Grilled Double Cut Bacon Roasted Figs, Frisée, Maytag Blue Cheese Heirloom Tomato & Goat Cheese Salad Micro Basil, Sea Salt, Aged Balsamic • ENTREES • Scottish Salmon English Pea & Mushroom Risotto, Preserved Lemon Beurre Blanc Marinated Hanger Steak Grilled Portabella & Arugula Salad, Roasted Pepper Salsa 7oz Dry Aged Petit Sirloin Caramelized Summer Vegetables • DESSERTS •…