Just read (in my son’s Northwestern alumni mag) about a fun way to experience Chicago – by bike, visiting various food outposts. A Northwestern Alum opened Fork and the Road, which offers these tours – after a test run with a giro del gelato (you guessed it – a bike tour that braked at five gelaterias in the Windy City). From the website (www.forkandtheroad.com) it looks like the tours are over for the year. Here’s hoping they start up again next spring. The 2010 tours’ themes included dumplings, international BBQ, and Mediterranean Cruise. (Don’t see mention of the gelato tour…)
Category Archives: DINING
West Village, “Eataly” and H&H
Just back from NYC with very clogged ear and stuffy nose after a cold developed just as I was getting on the plane home. Thought my ears were going to explode as we made the long descent onto a landing strip at the Milwaukee airport and bumpy connecting flight on a small plane to Des Moines didn’t help.
But hey, I’d do it all again because our NYC trip was so much fun. Yesterday L and I met my cousin J in the always charming West Village for lunch at Westville on 10th street (between 4th and Bleeker – I can never remember where it is and apparently there’s now a second one in Chelsea somewhere). Good food – fairly reasonable. Had fresh tomato basil soup and shared a plate of four vegetables (broccoli, snow peas, brussel sprouts and mushrooms all prepared so fresh, crisp with light seasoning.) Walked north to Eataly – the huge Italian market/restaurant recently opened on 23rd and 5th Avenue in the shadow of the Flatiron building. Pretty amazing place and if I wasn’t full from lunch and dragging a bit from my advancing cold, would have been tempted to eat a thing or two. Next time.
Met my brother briefly for coffee near Times Square where his office is – had a cappuccino at a too-loud Belgian place (frites looked good but waiter pissy when we just wanted coffee…hey it was 2:30 p.m.) called BXL Cafe (although awning says Duval) on 43rd. st. Managed to squeeze in a quick stop at H&H bagels on the upper west side (broadway, 81st?) to get some of NYC’s finest to bring back to Iowa and this morning, was glad I did!
Filed under DINING, New York City
The Hamptons and NYC
Beautiful day yesterday in the Hamptons – the wind died down and left a light breeze. Not as cold as the day before either so a perfect morning to walk on the beach with my cousins in front of their waterfront house in Southampton. We gave ourselves 2 hours to drive back to the car rental at LaGuardia and all went smoothly with little traffic, amen. Enterprise Rental worked well. Convenient location, very pleasant staff, good rates, free upgrade et. al.
Had dinner with my dear friend M at Nice Matin, good french bistro on 79th and Amsterdam. They had a good three course prix fix menu for $35. I had the grilled sardines, roast chicken and chocolate pot au creme. All very good and the place was quiet, as were many restaurants on the sunday after thanksgiving so we were able to linger and catch up for hours.
Filed under DINING, New York City
NYC – new museum, pre-parade craziness and Keith Richards
Went to the New Museum today to see the Last Newspaper exhibit. Strange but worth a visit. Also went to Cafe Habana for lunch – good chicken mole, even if not cuban. major celeb siting tonight at Scaletta Restaurant at 77th and columbus Ave. Keith Richards was sitting with a huge family group, lots of kids. bizarre.
Filed under DINING, New York City
Wieners and steak in South Dakota
Friends who recently visited the Sioux Falls, S.D. area for a cross-country meet (run Conor run!) report eating at two good places there:
In Sioux Falls, they visited Senor Wiener (http://www.senorwiener.com/), a local hot dog joint (in a strip mall. One of the “highlights” is the merchandise, including T-shirts with the kind of suggestive slogans that teenage males would love (“Grab life by the wiener.”). The web site, with “Senor Wiener” digitally inserted into various historic scenes, a la Forrest Gump, is fun. The hot dogs aren’t bad, either.
In Tea, S.D. (Tea, S.D.?) they went to the Tea Steakhouse (http://teasteakhouse.webs.com/), touted by the “Road Food” couple Jane and Michael Stern. It also gets raves as “best steakhouse” from various websites and ratings folks. Conor’s review: “Cheap, tasty and you got your food right away.” I couldn’t find an address on their website but I did confirm that Tea, S.D. exists – it’s southwest of Sioux Falls – and my guess is its small enough you can’t miss the steakhouse!
Filed under DINING, South Dakota
Baltimore art scene
Baltimore is one of those cities I collect travel info on since I may actually return there sometime (for work.) So here’s some suggestions from the NYTimes on the art scene in Station North, an arts district near Penn Station, the city’s railway hub (which itself sounds like it’s worth seeing):
Metro Gallery, 1700 North Charles st.
Joe Squared, 133 West North Avenue, serving great pizza (one with bacon and clams, yum), plus has exhibitions and live music.
The Charles Cinema, 1711 North Charles street – longtime artsy film house.
Tapas Teatro, 1711 North Charles – Iberian-influenced tapas including asparagus w/Serrano ham (my brother just returned from Spain and raved about the ham there – and Gaudi buildings!) and crab/spinach in sherry cream sauce (which would probably kill me but sounds delicious.) Plus rare wines like Txakoli from the Basque region.
Northwestern University – around and about
We’ve been at Northwestern off and on this weekend to see our son during parents’ weekend and to, alas, watch Iowa lose, narrowly, to Northwestern’s football team. A few finds:
– Not bad sushi at the student union
– Very good hot chocolate and an enormous tuna melt sandwich at Clark’s – an unassuming good-value coffee shop on Clark street near campus. Great place to warm up after you’ve been sitting in the rain and cold watching two teams of young men bang into each other for hours while middle-aged men shout nasty words from the stands.
– We followed Northwestern’s instructions and didn’t bring our car – and were glad of it. The El took us directly, if not swiftly, to Evanston. Free shuttle buses (the buses were labeled “Positive Connections”) arrived quickly to transport us from campus to the field which was so much smaller than Iowa’s (or Michigan’s) – really a treat. Our seats were in the 11th row so we could see the football game just yards away, up close and personal. It was like being at a high school game.
– Earlier in the trip, we went to Nightwood in the Pilsen neighborhood which alas was disappointing. My $15 hamburger – the least expensive thing on the menu – arrived medium rare (I ordered and was promised rare). I sent it back and the new one was about the same. (At which point, I split it with my brother – who didn’t eat most of his chicken because it was undercooked.) Too bad because there were good things about the place – a very attentive waiter, welcoming ambiance, some good entrees and hors d’oeuvres, tasty deserts (including a free one the waiter brought me as “a gift” because of the hamburger problem.)
More Detroit hotspots – pt. 2
I forgot to mention another NYT story in its fall 2010 T magazine about Detroit – this one about “artists in residence” in some struggling Motor City neighborhoods. It likened the city to a modern-day Rome. um, not exactly. But here are more suggestions of things to do, places to see:
Restaurants – Atlas Global Bistro, 3111 Woodward Ave!; The Cass Cafe, 4620 Cass Ave; El Barzon (Mexican-Italian?) 3710 Junction STreet; Russell Street Deli, 2465 Russell Street.
Museums/Galleries: The Butcher’s Daughter, 22747 Woodward Ave.; Detroit Institute of Arts (duh); G.R. N’Namdi Gallery; Heidelberg Project – between Mt. Elliott and Ellery streets heidelberg.org; Lemberg Gallery, 23271 Woodward Ave., Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, 4454 Woodward; Paul Kotula Projects, 23244 Woodward; Susanne Hilberry Gallery, 700 Livernois. Sad not to see my parent’s gallery, The Rubiner Gallery, in the list but it’s been closed for many years after a long run in suburban Detroit.
Hotels: The Inn on Ferry Street.
More Detroit hotspots
The NYTimes seems to be promoting Detroit as a tourist destination these days and why not. Here’s some suggestions from their latest travel piece on the Motor City:
– Roast – “Detroit’s most talked about restaurant”…..
– Rub BBQ Pub – with a sandwich named after local boy gone rocker Ted Nugent
– Detroit Beer Company – behind the Opera House beer. And my favorite beer name “People Mover Porter” – with chocolate tones.
– Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. Take off the first name and it feels like the good old days. or the bad old days. take your pick but nice to see this place open again after a $200 million renovation. What’s next – the downtown Hudson’s???
Apples in Fort Dodge Iowa and BBQ in Des Moines
I was glad to see that the Community Orchard near the airport in Fort Dodge Iowa is still looking good and doing a bustling business. Having the State Cross County Meet a stone’s throw away probably didn’t hurt business – that’s why we were in Fort Dodge for the first time, in my case, in maybe 15 years. Alas, the orchard was out on Jonathans – which I use to make applesauce in mass quantities this time of year – but they still had plenty Honeycrisps and other varieties. Also pies, carmel apples, apple crisp and a lot more fattening stuff we avoided…although we did try Smokey D’s BB ribs in Des Moines on the way home. The sauce a little too sweet for my Kansas City BBQ-oriented taste, but the service was good, tje ribs meaty and well-smoked. The sides – including homemade potato chips that came in a soon-greasy brown bag served with way-too-good-and-fattening thick ranch dressing, and smokey baked beans with just the right touch of bacon – were good too. Also turned out to be a good place to watch U of Iowa’s football team trounce Michigan State’s!
Filed under Agritourism, Des Moines, DINING, Iowa
TakeBetsywithyou 