Eating around Manhattan

I try to stay productively occupied during the day, which isn't so easy since I last worked at a paying day job in late 2006, when I put teaching behind me before it killed me.  (That was a three-and-a-half year period of being abused, if not by crazy-bitch administrators then by thuggish adolescents.  To say it was traumatic to this old geezer is an understatement.)

Lately I seemed to have dined out a lot, and I'm not quite sure why.  Things are just happening.  You'd think I had nothing better to do, that I lived a life of sybaritic self-indulgence.  Hmm...

In the past week or so I have been to Crispo, a place on West 14th Street.  It got a Zagat rating of 23.  More like a 16, it seemed to me.  Eh.  Crummy wine list too. 

Went to Boqueria, where the tapas were delicious, although, as I've noted, the Spanish wines were pretty underwhelming.  The waitresses were great, knew their wines pretty well, and one told me about her cocaine addiction.  Her name wasn't Jane, though.

Yesterday I ate out not once but three times, technically.  I met Robin Stark, who is a wine maven from San Diego, for lunch at etcetera etcetera.  I just had an antipasto of prosciutto with bacon-wrapped figs and melon, which was worthy of Italy itself.  No wine for me.  I had walked there at high speed from the East Side and I felt all pure and everything.

Robin's bat mitzvah picture:  "Today I am a woman."  Not crazy about the Randi Weingarten blouse thing.

I did this and that in the afternoon, walked over to Cornelia Street where Ken, Peter and I were going to celebrate Ken's birthday at Po.  I was early, went into the very cute and appealing Cornelia Street Cafe (see cute and appealing pic below) for a glass of wine, quickly realized I'd be plastered on a glass if I didn't get something to eat, so ordered a tasty plate of country pate with cornichons.  Very nice pairing with the simple Cotes du Rhone I'd ordered.  Their wines-by-the-glass are generally good but there isn't a big selection.  Oh, and I did once see Seymour Philip Hoffman there!  That was right before his Truman Capote film was released.

Caution: too many adverbs in the following paragraph.  Obviously.

I'd never been to Po befo', but it was surprisingly moderate in price.  The wine list was good -- all Italian, very reasonably priced -- and the food was simple but extremely well-prepared.  It's obviously a frequent gathering place for a lot of loud suits from downtown, and unlike some of the ultra-high-end joints around town (like Per Se) it was packed even on a Wednesday night.  It was one of the first outposts in the Mario Batali empire, although he sold it some years ago.  The restaurant seems to be doing fine without him.

By the way, Robin told me that she'd been to Per Se the night before; very few tables were occupied -- the place was practically empty.  So even at that temple of gastronomy economic sanity is thrusting its brutish way in.

Tonight I go out again (not again!?) with my sister-in-law from Las Vegas.  I have to choose a good but moderate-priced place by our parochial standards.  I could spend all day deciding among them.  Not a bad problem to have.  Note to visitors: such places are never in Midtown. 

Comments

[Lisa Qiu]

Midtown? In hell's kitchen there's this great restaurant called Hell's Kitchen--- is that considered midtown?

[Terry Hughes]

Delightfully louche Midtown.