{"id":796,"date":"2014-04-06T11:03:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T15:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/?p=796"},"modified":"2014-04-22T12:55:23","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T16:55:23","slug":"new-york-minutes-catch-up-and-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2014\/04\/new-york-minutes-catch-up-and-new\/","title":{"rendered":"New York minutes, catch-up and new"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something old: Brasserie Magritte<\/a> on the Upper East Side, where my consort and I headed after the divisive \u201cInside Llewyn Davis\u201d* rather than resorting to our usual Toloache in that restaurant dead zone. The place looks great, with, of course, paintings and symbols hanging everywhere. And the staff was quite friendly. But we got an odd table, too wide for two and in an awkward spot, and the cooking would be more suited to musty French joints in the Theater District. My sad duck confit, an appetizer, seemed fatigued, while Bob\u2019s $25 coq au vin looked and tasted like yesterday\u2019s special. The $9 frites with two sauces at least delivered. WIGB? Maybe. It is a dead zone. And the setting did motivate us to go see the real Magrittes at MOMA, which were totally vaut le voyage.<\/p>\n

*I’m apparently alone in liking it. Not least for the \u201cwhere are his testicles?\u201d scene.<\/p>\n

Something new: Cafe Luxembourg<\/a> on the Upper West Side, where I met a great friend who was staying off Times Square and wanted to meet in that dead zone between him and me. As I promised, \u201cThe food is not dazzling, but the place is pleasant.\u201d And it still has its charm, and good energy, but the waitress seemed not quite up to the selling job for the menu and wine. I was tempted by my usual fish and chips (for the fries) but thought I should give a special a try; my reward was a beautiful slab of $32 halibut cooked dry, with no sauce, just a scattering of ramps and vegetables. Rolando said his sea bass was in the same sorry state. He had tuna crudo to start and we sort of split the rather dinery profiteroles. He sent back first glass of wine because it was too sweet (not fruity — sweet), and I noticed how chintzy the flatware felt. Still, WIGB? Sure. For the fish and chips and the space and, not least, the acoustics. Our table felt as if we were under a dome. We could actually talk.<\/p>\n

While I\u2019ve been DAOTI, sad fates have befallen a couple of places in my catch-up pile of receipts. Casa Pomona<\/strong> on the Upper West Side, where we took refuge after \u201cAmerican Hustle\u201d one night when Kefi\u2019s kitchen was closed early (where are we? Middle Earth?), is apparently becoming a Flex Mussels. The food on that second or third visit was respectable (three types of croquetas, cheese, migas) and certainly the service was snappy. But seafood might be an improvement. And Calliope<\/strong> has lost its chefs, which means the end of the best cheeseburgers I have ever eaten. I\u2019m just glad I had the foresight to go have one last one before I even knew it would be the last — I\u2019d sent friends there, but they apparently are not into cerebral experiences and were underwhelmed, so I took myself back just to see if it was as spectacular as I\u2019d remembered. And it was even better: great beef, cooked perfectly, on chewy ciabatta that stood up to the sturdiness of the meat, with perfect fries and a mustardy sauce for both spreading and dipping. This was a late lunch, so the gorgeous room was quiet. I\u2019m just sorry we never made it there for dinner. The spicy tripe Bob ordered twice at brunch was amazing both times.\u00a0 And I’m saying that about tripe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something old: Brasserie Magritte on the Upper East Side, where my consort and I headed after the divisive \u201cInside Llewyn Davis\u201d* rather than resorting to our usual Toloache in that restaurant dead zone. The place looks great, with, of course, paintings and symbols hanging everywhere. And the staff was quite friendly. But we got an… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,29,30,80,90,40,79,49,32,48,35,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american","category-belgian","category-bistro","category-burgers","category-cheese","category-east-village","category-fish","category-lincoln-center","category-small-plates","category-tapas","category-upper-east-side","category-upper-west-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}