bohemian

great jones (bowery/ lafayette)

link to yelp

a few months ago, jenny, derek, and i were wandering around noho, trying to find a good spot to eat. along great jones street, we noticed a brightly lit japanese butcher shop. right next to it was a long narrow corridor with a locked door at the end. through the glass door at the end, we saw a woman carrying a pitcher and assumed that it must have been a restaurant. we stepped back out, checked the door, checked above the door, looked around, trying to find the name of the restaurant. we even walked around the block trying to find the entrance before arriving back at strange corridor again. we decided to just give it a go and walked down the corridor. a woman let us in, then asked if we had any reservations. of course we didn't. just then, the chef comes out of the kitchen and introduces himself and his concept. its a "secret" restaurant. there's only 4 tables and a couple of seats at the bar. reservations can only be made if someone passes on the secret phone number to you, and the chef graciously gave us that number.

and so we made reservations a few weeks later, snagging three seats at the bar for a 10 pm reservation. the black miso cod with mushrooms was incredibly buttery and rich. each of us got a kobe burger - solid. my favorite part of the meal, however, was the cocktails. the bartender clearly took a lot of pride in his craft. i had a delicious slushy drink with fresh strawberries, basil, champagne, and rum. derek had a bloody mary with corn-infused vodka, house-blended tomato juice, fresh lemon juice, and fresh oregano and thyme. amazing. at the end of the night (after asking how we found out about the place), the bartender treated derek to a small glass of his home-made limoncello. wow.

five points

great jones (bowery/ lafayette)

website

it's been a while since my last post. i have a massive backlog of food photos that need to be posted. once again, i've been too busy to blog, but obviously not too busy to eat. okay, onto five points, where derek and i had brunch nearly a month ago. it's famous for its brunch, which generally means long lines, which generally means we're not going because i'm too hungry/impatient to wait. derek and i were shopping the bowery and decided to drop by to see how long the wait was. thankfully, it was only about 15-20 mins. not bad. we waited outside (a month ago, it was still warm out) and watched all the hipsters walk by.

once seated, it took another 5-10 minutes to figure out what to order. the menu was packed with fancified comfort food - baked eggs, pork-fennel sausage, free-range chicken, polenta ... i finally settled on the "roasted tomato and eggs" - the simply named dish ended up being a complex mix of flavors - smoky roasted tomato, sprinklings of ricotta cheese, buttery polenta, and chunks of sharp parmesan were perfect with the runny baked eggs. delicious. i honestly can't remember what derek ordered (hey, it's been a month) but i do recall that he had an excellent bloody mary from their surprisingly varied menu of brunch drinks. this place definitely lives up to the hype.

gemma

bowery & bond

link to yelp

jenny, derek, and i were wandering around noho looking for a good spot to try for dinner. walking along bond street, we noticed a corner restaurant lined with christmas lights and what looked like a nice outdoor deck. turns out it was gemma, a restaurant that jenny heard was good. in fact, it was great. it was a lovely space - lots of tables, nice outdoor seating. it was a cozy italian hideaway in a rather industrial-looking neighborhood.

the bread basket was some of the most delicious focaccia bread i've had in a while, served with excellent olive oil for dipping. we ordered appetizers to share - a cheese plate with fresh grapes and polenta fries. my favorite cheese was the caciotta al tartufo - flavored with black truffles. for the entrees, jenny had pasta with zucchini and shrimp, while derek had the homemade pappardelle with oxtail ragu - both of which were far superior to my boring scallops. next time i'll stick with the pasta.