New York minute/Latish June 2009
The reliable: Mermaid Inn on Amsterdam, where our usual fine food, cheap wine and good service were enhanced by a couple of sides sent over by a friend who spotted us across the crowded room. We had already finished our shared gazpacho with crab and whole roasted trout with fried potatoes when our usual (superb) waitress set down new flatware and then expertly grilled asparagus with aged provolone and a bowlful of sensational buttery-tasting lentils, but they both were so good we kept eating. Who cared that the fish tasted the way so much farmed fish does, of only the grain it had been fed? WIGB? Always, especially if my grocer is in the house so we can reciprocate. 578 Amsterdam Avenue near 88th Street, 212 799 7400.