You’re reading the inaugural installment of Best of New York, a monthly recap of the city’s very best restaurants, bars, arts, culture, shopping, etc. etc. It’s not necessarily the latest, greatest, newest, hottest (but those spots find their way in, too); it’s simply the places that made the city sing for us every month that we think you might like, too.
Night & day in Chelsea
I love the newly revamped Hotel Chelsea as a go-to neighborhood cocktail den. Between El Quijote, the dimly lit Spanish bar and restaurant, dripping with Don Quixote ephemera, that once played host to the likes of Andy Warhol and Patti Smith, and the Lobby Bar, a buzzy and opulent destination for expertly prepared cocktails and luxurious bar snacks, it makes for a great one-two punch—which is exactly what I did on a recent Friday night with girlfriends.
At El Quijote, I was torn between the Sherry Martinez and Sherry Martini. What’s the difference when the drinks’ names only differ by a single syllable, you may ask? Well, the Martinez is prepared with Old Tom gin, Amontillado sherry, almond and lobster oil, while the Martini is a blend of Spanish and American gins, fino sherry and cider quinquina. I decided to play it safe and opted for the latter, but I’ll surely be back to sample the former. They also make a respectable Spanish G&T and, if you’re hungry, the food menu is solid.
At the Lobby Bar, martinis were also in order, specifically Duke’s martini, a riff on a London classic made with just a whiff of vermouth and very cold gin poured into a chilled glass for a perfectly crisp and bracing effect.
Afterwards, we tried our luck at Shukette as walk-ins for dinner. And although the hostess tricked us into sitting in a dining shed (I explicitly asked if the table we were waiting for was indoors), the food is so good I got over it the moment the Moroccan frena (griddled, yet fluffy pita-like bread daubed with olive oil and garlic) hit the table, alongside next-level labneh and hummus. We also indulged in lamb and beef merguez kofta and the Joojeh chicken marinated in saffron yogurt. Everything at Shukette is so good (it’s made NYTimes food critic Pete Wells’s best 100 restaurant list two years in a row, where it currently resides as #71), I will happily return over and over again to sample the entire menu.
I found myself back in Chelsea one afternoon and decided to stop at Sogno Toscano for a casual lunch, followed by a little laptop time. The cafe and wine bar, with products imported from small producers in Italy, is tucked beneath the High Line on 28th Street (where Zaha Hadid’s futuristic residential building is perched, pictured at top). It serves a simple, yet sumptuous menu, including hearty schiacciatte sandwiches (I opted for the mortadella with pesto, arugula and mozzarella), served with a little dish of Castelvetrano olives, as well as espresso, spritzes and wine in a relaxed, yet chic atmosphere.
Greenpoint field trip
When I moved back to NYC in 2018, Greenpoint is the neighborhood where I landed. And while I’ve since returned to the isle of Manhattan, I enjoy getting back to the old stomping grounds from time to time. I recently met a girlfriend who lives in the neighborhood and we indulged in a moveable feast without ever leaving the easternmost block of Greenpoint Avenue.
We started at Banks Tavern, a cocktail bar revived by longtime next door neighbor 21 Greenpoint in March after the former bar exited. It was always a favorite spot for solid cocktails, low-key vibes and its proximity to Transmitter Park and the East River (it’s also the ideal place to wait for a table at Paulie Gee’s). On this visit, they made a mean mezcal margarita.
We drifted two doors down to El Pingüino, a Basque-inflected Spanish seafood bar, specializing in tinned fish, where we snacked on steamed clams, juicy little chorizo sausages and an extravagant dish of Spanish olives, accompanied by a ramp martini and effervescent Txakoli wine (so Greenpoint).
Still hungry, we popped into 21, which is famously owned by Bill Murray’s son Homer who happened to be in and around the building that evening. It was pizza night, which we were craving, but by the time we arrived they were out of dough, so we opted for their nacho plate, which was just okay. But, generally speaking, you can’t go wrong with a visit here.
West Village to Noho nights
The red neon Budweiser sign glowing in the window at the semi-subterranean Emmett’s on Grove in the West Village had long entranced me whenever dining across the street at Buvette. Overshadowing the sign for the actual restaurant and illuminating the silhouettes of a seemingly packed house, it always looked like a divey, yet cool clandestine bar that I wanted to get involved with. When I finally walked inside with a girlfriend on a recent Friday night, I was (happily) surprised to discover that it’s actually a chic little cocktail bar and restaurant dishing up Chicago-inspired thin crust pizza (who knew?). We managed to snag a spot at the bar between young couples sharing pies, and while we stuck to cocktails (martinis made with a frozen olive), the pizza looked so bubbly and beautiful, I will definitely be back.
We’d made a midnight post-dinner reservation at Jean’s in Noho to see what all the fuss was about. The street level restaurant and bar with a subterranean nightclub opened last fall by Max Chodorow and had apparently become an instant hotspot. Seated at our banquette, over a giant chocolate chip cookie with bourbon milk and martinis, it dawned on me that it’s exactly the kind of place I would have been at every weekend back in my early 20s during my first go-round in the city. (Our hostess pointed out that the little white dots on the leather banquettes were holes from guests dancing in heels, immediately transporting me back in time.) The spacious, high-ceilinged dining room was crackling with palpable energy and good music. It was raucous, yet chic and full of beautiful people, all seemingly having a great time without a care in the world. And since I feel eternally 26, I absolutely loved it.
Afterwards, we managed to sweet talk our way into the club (a small coup that never gets old). It was super fun: good room, good DJ, pretty nice boys, lots of tequila sodas and dancing. And then, idk, we ended up at Little Sister.
I love nights like this.
Rock Center regulars
As an uptown girl, I like to turn the common Manhattan sentiment that “there’s nothing above 14th Street” on its head by saying obnoxious things, like, “I never go below 57th Street.” Whatever. Well, Lodi is on 49th directly on Rockefeller Plaza, one of those newish restaurants that’s apparently making Rockefeller Center cool again. An elegant Italian bistro by the team behind Estela and Altro Paradiso, it’s become a go-to for me and some of my fellow uptown girlfriends.
The menu is always changing, but our standard order often includes: housemade ricotta, smoked mozzarella arancini, tuna tartare toast, whatever seasonal salad the (handsome) waiter recommends and the pici all’areabiatta pasta. They’ve also got a digestif menu with headings that include “esoteric and eccentric.” Yes to that! And, would it shock you if I told you they make an excellent martini? Well, they do, and it’s served on a silver tray with all the accoutrement. Grazie, Lodi!
A little culture
While the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play Topdog/Underdog is an undeniable work of genius, it was Suzan-Lori Parks’s Plays for the Plague Year, which she both wrote and performed in, at Joe’s Pub, that’s made her an artist I will forever follow. The way she captured both the heaviness and lightness, the personal and the political, the quotidian and the catastrophic by writing a short play for every day of the pandemic, and her open-hearted performance, which included her music (she also fronts the band Sula & the Joyful Noise as vocalist and guitarist) was deeply moving and cathartic.
So when I heard about Sally & Tom (ended June 2) premiering at The Public Theater where Parks is playwright-in-residence, I knew I had to see it. A play-within-a-play, a Black female playwright also takes center stage here in the character of Luce who is playing Sally in the play she has written about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, while Mike, her boyfriend, is directing the play and playing Tom. Got it? This framing has a provocative kaleidoscopic effect on the legacy of race and power in America, all while pulling the curtain back on what it takes to put on a play and achieve commercial success in the theater. I found the monologue that closes the first act, a sort of mea culpa and also apologia, by Mike/Tom (Gabriel Ebert, who can play chilling to terrifying effect) to be the play’s most profound moment.
A little shopping
Even though I live in a tiny NYC apartment, I love visiting abc carpet & home and daydreaming about how I might decorate a larger space one day. For now, though, my couch is adorned with their luxurious throw pillows and I recently stopped by to buy a few dishes that Jean-Georges uses in his restaurants (although, has one already cracked?) and a pretty necklace by California designer Danielle Welmond with an aquamarine stone, my birth stone, which is also supposed to give sailors good luck—I’ll take it!
Best of the Upper West Side
I live on the Upper West Side, so as much as I enjoy exploring the city, I’m always scouring my own neighborhood for the very best. Here are a few highlights from May.
Right before the New Year, Michael Imperioli (you know, everyone’s favorite White Lotus actor whose character could almost handle two prostitutes in Sicily) opened Scarlet, a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge, practically across the street from my apartment. Sometimes he’s there. Sometime’s when I’m there, Richard Kind, everyone’s favorite UWS neighbor (and the announcer of John Mulaney’s delightfully zany Everybody’s in LA on Netflix), pokes his head in to check the vibe and Off Broadway stars drop in for cocktails near the window. They do live music, usually jazz, on Mondays. Ever the Renaissance man, he’s followed up Scarlet with a second lounge, Dahlia, which opened on Columbus Avenue in May. This can only mean one thing: Imperioli is a bona fide UWS character.
Wine and dine…
When a man attempts chivalry by offering to meet in my neighborhood for a first date, but leaves it to me to pick a spot, I’ll take him to Vin Sur Vingt, a pleasant French wine bar with sidewalk seating on a tree-lined street near Central Park. Better yet, when I’m not on a date, the servers often treat ladies to a complimentary baby coupe of Cremant with the check. Merci!
Crave Fishbar – My go-to for impromptu mezcal cocktails, “Nashville-style” crispy fish tacos and creative sushi rolls at the bar. They also make a beautiful little gem salad and have a full dinner and raw bar menu, touting 100 percent sustainable seafood.
Pizza party…
I have two neighborhood go-tos for pizza: Marinara by the slice (the ingredients are higher quality than your average slice shop and the guys behind the counter are so nice, they sometimes surprise me with an extra slice in my takeout box; it feels like such an act of love that I almost want to cry) and Song’e Napuli for sumptuous, wood-fired, Neapolitan-style pies made with imported Italian ingredients.
Healthy-ish lunch…
Sandwell is a friendly neighborhood sandwich shop with the proposition of “healthy-ish sandwiches” opened by an UWS local earlier this year. I keep coming back for the turkey meatball sub (even though it’s a little gamey) whenever the craving strikes.
A West Village staple for over 50 years, there’s a Mamoun’s outpost on the Upper West Side where I go for falafel sandwiches, shawarma, stuffed grape leaves and pistachio baklava. It’s fast, fresh and shockingly affordable.
Cafe culture…
Chalait – Great little corner cafe for matcha lattes and healthy breakfast and lunch items. Fun fact: the scene where Carrie confronts Natasha in the bathroom of a coffee shop in Season 1 of AJLT was filmed here. Fun fact 2: Chalait does not have public bathrooms.
Irving Farm – As good a place as any on the UWS to open your laptop and sip a cappuccino, which is not exactly my favorite activity, but, ya know, sometimes you gotta mix it up. They’ve got a solid food menu to sate whatever appetite you might have.
Bakery & bagel discourse…
If Levain is baking up a limited edition white chocolate lemon cookie for spring, I will be stopping by. And while these bakeries are now all over the city, it all started on the UWS.
As far as I’m concerned, the best bagel in NYC is the one closest to my apartment. While Absolute Bagels gets all the hype on the UWS, something I won’t be doing anytime soon is trekking 20 blocks north to wait in a line that wraps around the block for a bagel. While I wish I could tell you that Zabar’s, Barney Greengrass or H&H was my UWS bagel go-to (they’re all within a two block radius of my apartment), Lenwich, with locations all over the city, reigns supreme in my book. Why? The everything bagels are perfectly crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside, the scallion cream cheese ratio is correct, there’s never a line and the ladies behind the counter are competent and nice. However, supposedly trendy PopUp Bagels, has popped up in the neighborhood and it’s not too far a schlep, so maybe I’ll see how they stack up one of these days… maybe.
