Posted by Ed Levine, May 14, 2008 at 4:45 PM
Having been to Eighty-One a few times, I basically concur with Frank Bruni's take. Ed Brown is a superb cook, and I have eaten very well at his restaurant. But his food is sometimes overwrought (what Bruni referred to as the "numerous trios"), and the room, with its vivid red-velvet curtains, feels oddly dated and lacks energy. I will say it's a very civilized place to dine. The tables are well-spaced, and the noise level is low. Must-haves on the menu include the lamb three ways (overwrought but delicious) and the exceptional New Bedford sea scallop and foie gras ravioli with straw wine sauce and chervil (Bruni and I disagree on this dish, but scallops and foie gras turn out to be a most felicitous combination as a ravioli filling). Eighty-One is a perfect restaurant to take your in-laws to, especially if they're paying (it ain't cheap). 45 West 81st Street, New York NY 10024 (map)
Posted by Ed Levine, May 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Or, 'Pig Out to Feed Hungry People'
Hunger relief organization Share Our Strength's annual Taste of the Nation New York City benefit is this Wednesday, May 14, at the Roseland Ballroom.
SOS is a terrific organization that supports hunger-relief efforts all over the country. Plus, it's an organization that knows how to throw a helluva party. This year, more than 50 restaurants will be cooking at and for the event, including Gramercy Tavern, Blue Hill, Esca, and Hill Country. So if you pony up the money ($375 for a ticket that, among other things, gets you in an hour early to avoid long lines, or $275 for general admission), you end up eating great food and drinking to your heart's content for a really good cause.
Tickets available at newyorktaste.org or by calling 1-877-268-2783.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 29, 2008 at 11:45 AM
From left: Sausage, egg, and cheese on a burger bun, from Gray's Papaya; grilled asparagus, frittata, and asiago cheese on a ciabatta roll, from Grandaisy Bakery. Both next door to each other, near the corner of West 72nd and Broadway.
Is there anything better than a breakfast sandwich in the morning? Combine smoked or cured pork (in the form of bacon, ham, or sausage) with eggs and cheese, and place it all on bread of some sort. I defy anyone to resist. While most serious eaters know that Gray's Papaya is the home of very fine hot dogs, many don't know that Gray's also makes a worthy breakfast sandwich: a sausage patty or a thick slice of ham, a scrambled egg made to order on the grill, and a slice of American cheese on a heated hamburger bun. All for a hard-to-beat $1.75.
Next door to Gray's is a recently opened branch of the Grandaisy Bakery. It serves a wonderful, more upscale breakfast sandwich of a completely different stripe: grilled asparagus, frittata, and asiago cheese on a ciabatta roll. It's totally delicious in its own right, though at $5, this sandwich requires a more substantial financial commitment.
Which is the superior breakfast sandwich? I can't decide. It depends on my mood. I urge all of you to try both and make up your own minds. You'll be participating in the highest form of food democracy.
Gray's Papaya
Address: 2090 Broadway, New York NY 10023 (at 72nd Street)
Notes: Breakfast sandwich available daily until noon
Grandaisy Bakery
Address: 176 West 72nd Street (bet. Broadway and Columbus), New York, NY 10023
Phone: 646-274-1607
Notes: Breakfast sandwich available Friday–Sunday, some weekdays
Posted by Ed Levine, February 25, 2008 at 11:30 AM
New York magazine food critic Adam Platt all but called Bar Boulud strikingly ordinary. Time Out New York's Randall Lane and the New York Daily News' Restaurant Girl concurred. They all seemed to come to the same conclusion: The food at Bar Boulud, other than the charcuterie, isn't special enough. Is all this criticism justified? Is it fair? Where's the beef? Let me try to answer all of the above questions.
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 14, 2008 at 11:27 AM
I was passing E.A.T. yesterday, and the siren call of Eli Zabar's overpriced but usually delicious food got the best of me.
I ordered four items, all sweets; a quarter-pound of the fruit coffee cake ($3), a mini chocolate cupcake ($2), a black and white cookie, and a cup of Eboni and Ivory Pudding (chocolate and vanilla) ($4).
The coffee cake was reasonably moist and had thick veins of dried fruit, but it had too much orange rind in it for my taste. The mini chocolate cupcake was very chocolatey if a little dry. The black and white cookie tasted less than fresh.
The clear winner of the quartet was the pudding combo. It was almost obscenely rich and creamy with loads of real vanilla and high quality milk chocolate flavor. It might be the best pudding to be had anywhere in New York outside the butterscotch pudding at Sweet Melissa's in Brooklyn.
Note to all Ed Levine Diet Helpers: I adhered to my one-bite rule for all four items mentioned above, except for the pudding. I had two spoonfuls. It was just too good.
E.A.T.
Address: 1064 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10128 (b/n 80th and 81st streets)
Phone: 212-772-0022
Posted by Ed Levine, November 12, 2007 at 8:28 AM
The Sullivan Street Bakery situation has been difficult to follow, even for someone like me who's known all the parties involved for years.
Jim Lahey and Monica Von Thun Calderon were the original partners of the Sullivan Street Bakery on Sullivan Street. Last year Jim and Monica dissolved their partnership. Monica kept the original location and renamed it the Grandaisy Bakery, where she continues to use Jim's recipes. Jim kept the West 47th Street location.
So far, so good, right? Monica has now opened another branch of Grandaisy on West 72nd Street, right next to Gray's Papaya. Jim is shortly going to open a pizzeria-cafe on Ninth Avenue and 24th Street. Just to further complicate things for Upper West Siders in need of Sullivan Street Bakery bread, Fairway stopped selling Sullivan Street bread within the last year and replaced it with a Bronx bakery started by a former Sullivan Street employee. These breads look like Jim Lahey's breads, but they're not quite as good.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, how are the goods at the new Grandaisy?
To use a Larry David expression, pretty, pretty good.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 23, 2007 at 11:20 AM
I finally made it to Thai Market, and I was mightily impressed. First of all, I loved the look of the place. There were blown-up photos of markets in Thailand, umbrellas on the ceiling, and Thai cups cleverly placed in and on gold-leaf walls. Its owners have managed to make the place look great without spending a lot of money, much like Land Thai Kitchen did 25 blocks south.
Steamed Thai dumplings with delicate wrappers were filled with minced chicken, preserved radish, and peanuts. Grilled sliced skirt steak was accompanied by al dente string beans and delicious preserved chili purée. A minced pork salad was enlivened by ginger, bird’s-eye chili, and crunchy Napa cabbage. A dish called Amber Shrimp mixed Chinese celery, onion, egg, and chili and was sautéed with yellow curry.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 9, 2007 at 8:30 AM
Like many New Yorkers, I am constantly on the lookout for good brunch spots. On Sunday I discovered a great New York brunch at Telepan.
It's $28 for two courses plus an insanely good house-made bread basket that includes scones, coffee cake, and killer banana bread.
The sheep's milk ricotta blintzes are lighter than my grandmother's, who of course didn't use sheep's milk ricotta as her filling, anyway. The smoked brook trout was a leaning tower of house-smoked fish atop a blini smeared with sweet-onion sour cream. The Fallen Pancakes Soufflé were silos of featherlight pancake batter studded with brown-sugar bacon and huckleberry syrup.
Even the biscuits and gravy, served with house-made breakfast sausage and poached eggs, were simultaneously homey and sophisticated, a tough culinary balancing act that Telepan achieved with virtually every dish we sampled.
Of course, being the beef and bacon addict I am, I ordered chef-owner Bill Telepan's burger, which is as good a fancy-pants burger as there is to be found in the city. It's served with Nueske's bacon, cheddar cheese, a hillock of housemade pickles, terrific french fries, sourdough onion rings, and pickles. You won't have room for the unnecessary desserts, which cost extra anyway.
I discovered Ouest's great brunch a few months ago, and now that I have discovered Telepan's, I now have two Upper West Side brunch spots to frequent and recommend.
TELEPAN
Address: 72 West 69th Street, New York NY 10023 (b/n Central Park West and Columbus Avenue)
Phone: 212-580-4300
Website: telepan-ny.com
Posted by Ed Levine, October 4, 2006 at 8:25 AM
For years we Upper West Siders 
have lamented that there's no place to eat around in their neighborhood. So when I sat down to list my favorite places on the UWS to grab a reasonably priced meal (main courses less than $20) without a reservation and advance planning, I was surprised at how many good places there are. Before I embark on this series of neighborhood guides I need to spell out our rating system:
1 star: Pretty Awful
2 stars: Doesn't really suck
3 stars: Pretty Good Eats
4 stars: Good Eats
5 stars: Serious Eats
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