Archive for February 2008

When you’ve been dating someone for a long time, and especially if you live together, it can be hard to remember to keep the romance alive. Between work and friends and Facebook, it seems like date night is the first thing to fall by the wayside. I am no more evolved in this department than anyone else; I’m ashamed to admit that more than a couple of Friday nights have seen me and my boyfriend choosing Netflix over braving the bar scene. But when we do go out, I’m prepared. There’s nothing worse than being stuck wandering the avenue looking for a place that isn’t so empty it’s awkward, doesn’t have garish lighting or loud/awful music playing, is informal enough that you can be comfortable and talk loudly after you’ve had a few, but is just a shade nicer than a pizza joint. Without a plan, this kind of hellish restaurant searching can go on for hours, and nothing kills the mood more than this kind of frustration. That’s why it’s good to know a handful of surefire date-friendly restaurants, so that whether you’re eating out with your husband of twenty years or out on a first date, you can appear both knowledgeable and spontaneous as you suggest a delightful little place you know right around the corner.

One of these standbys for me is Park Slope’s Sotto Voce. You can usually get a seat, they serve Brunch, and they serve perfectly decent Italian comfort food in a modern, casual-elegant setting. The restaurant escapes the usual pitfalls of date restaurants, i.e. being overly pricey, embarrassingly quiet and intimate, or being so trendy and overexposed that only obnoxious yuppies go there. That said, the restaurant has its share of problems. The waiters, though friendly, are often neglectful of their tables in my experience, and this really becomes a problem during Brunch, when endless refills of mimosas become one refill if you’re lucky. The problem may be under-staffing or poor management, but they should get it under control. I take the words “All You Can Drink” very seriously.

On a romantic night out, however, lax service doesn’t really bother me. Frankly, I’m more annoyed by the vulture-like hovering a lot of Manhattan waiters do, most likely in an effort to get you out the door faster and keep the tips coming. And the food at Sotto Voce is good enough to compensate, for the most part. Many of the Italian restaurants I’ve been to in New York suffer from a general blandness in their menu items, but with the exception of a handful of crowd pleasing dishes that could stand to be kicked up a notch, Sotto Voce manages to escape this fate. I like to start by sharing one of their gourmet salads, like the Insalata Tre Colori (arugula, endive and radicchio with grilled Portobello mushroom, served with toasted goat cheese bruschetta), with my beau, as an alternative to a boring dinner salad.

I usually stick to pasta for dinner, though the meat and fish dishes look divine. The Rigatoni Montanaro,
with Shitake mushrooms, onions and arugula in a Brandy Cream Sauce, is a rich and satisfying meatless option, while some of the best carnivorous pasta dishes include the decadent Fettuccine con Pollo e Funghi (homemade fettuccini with chicken, mushrooms and fresh rosemary in a cream sauce) and the Fettuccine al Sugo di Anatra(homemade fettuccine in a country duck ragu with black olives and tomatoes). You’ll leave with leftovers, but pasta is one of the best next-day foods there is, so no worries.

After a date at Sotto Voce, I always leave feeling a little bit lighter than air. Maybe it’s the red wine or the old-world smells of the kitchen, but Italian restaurants always do this to me, and perhaps you know the feeling. You become Lady and the Tramp for a second, and all the world is singing you a love song. Then, inevitably, a bum will flash you or something and the moment will be ruined, but it’s those little moments that make love happen, and if there’s one thing the world needs more of, it’s love.

There are plenty of perfectly wonderful restaurants, bars and cafés in New York and the surrounding boroughs, but it is the rare establishment that can combine all three. That's why Bar Toto has been, and remains, a Park Slope mainstay. The mostly-Italian eatery is a great place to take your friends for a girls' night out, due to the place's lively café attitude, but it's an equally good date destination, with candlelit tables and ever-flowing wine making for a downright romantic setting. Most importantly, you can sit here for hours, over coffee, food, drinks and conversation, and in true Italian fashion, it won't be frowned upon by the wait staff.

The place has the appearance of a European sidewalk café from the outside, especially between April and September or so, when Bar Toto's outdoor seating becomes a hot commodity. The interior, with its pressed-tin ceiling and antique knick-knacks, feels like something straight out of 1960's Rome (if you ignore the lack of smoke clouds and Vespas parked outside). I always feel a bit like I've stumbled onto the set of an old movie when I come here, and indeed the location is often used for film shoots. The thing that stands out the most the first time you visit, however, is the seating arrangement. It still seems strange even after months of eating there, actually. They don't leave any room between the tables! When you're getting seated, you see, the waiter pulls out not your chair, but your table, and after one of you is seated, back the table goes, and you're locked in. Tables flying here and there, people awkwardly squirming out to use the bathroom…it all seems so impractical, and yet it works.

When gathering with friends and loved ones, I believe you should always start with an appetizer, and the House Antipasto ($10) is a time-tested crowd-pleaser in this regard. The complimentary flavors of the assorted cheeses, pickled vegetables and cured meats leave your hunger piqued and your senses tingling. Pay attention to the daily specials, because some of the best dishes I've tried at Bar Toto have been specials – a sign of good cooks at work. As far as entrées go, I particularly recommend the pasta dishes, which include the fantastic Penne with Peas and Prosciutto in Tomato Cream Sauce ($9). The restaurant's flatbread pizzas are topped in classic Italian style and are great for a light meal, but if you're really hungry, go for one of Bar Toto's special Panini Burgers. The Toto ($9) is the house Panini Burger, and comes grilled to order, topped with Gorgonzola cheese and red onion. The fries that accompany this and a number of other entrées are abnormally delicious, and would be fantastic alone as a snack with drinks (with a side of mayonnaise if you really want to do it up European-style).

Even if you dine elsewhere, you can stop by Bar Toto afterward for $3 drafts and well drinks at Reverse Happy Hour, which takes place seven nights a week from 11:00pm to 2:00am. Late-night Happy Hour is a tricky thing, though; by 2:00am, going to work the next day starts to seem a little more optional.

There's a lot to be said for being single this Valentine's Day. You won't need to seek out a good wax, there will be zero jitters about whether or not to wear sexy lingerie, and best of all - no expectations! So heed my advice and grab your best gal pals for a perfect Valentine's Day in the city.

Since chocolate is the overarching theme of every Valentine's day, plan to meet your girlfriends at Vosges Haut Chocolat (132 Spring St.) where you can all indulge in an exotic sampling of truffles like the Black Pearl, which has hints of wasabi in it. Once you've satisfied your sweet tooth, walk over to Soho Nail (458 West Broadway) where you'll get a fantastic manicure and pedicure for a measly $20. Talk about being a cheap date.

Once your tootsies are pampered, continue to indulge yourself at Sabon (93 Spring St.) This pricey but fabulous soap shop will let you scrub your hands in their giant sink. If you're not in the market to purchase some of their washes (roughly $30) ask for some free samples, which they'll gladly dish out. Walk around Soho with your newly purchased soap and hit up lots of the fabulous boutiques where you can continue to indulge in some shopping. Cynthia Rowley? (376 Bleecker St.) Marc by Marc Jacobs? (163 Mercer St.)

Now that you've worked up an appetite shopping, you may as well stop in to Magnolia's for another ode to your sweet tooth. Just cross your fingers that the line isn't too long. Gather up your shopping bundle and catch a great indie flick at the Angelika Theater – no girly movies allowed. You can cry over spilled hot chocolate on V-day, but not over boys. Grab a cab and cap off the night with some sushi on the west side. Try Empire Sushi Garden. Excellent service, excellent sashimi, and excellent sake! End the ladies lovefest at nearby Alice's Tea Cup where you can rehash your day over a cup of tea – and perhaps another dessert. You can never have too much dessert on Valentine's Day.

When it comes to the proliferation of cafes and coffee shops, New York may not be on the same level as cities like Seattle or Portland, but it’s still got its fair share. And although Starbucks may have taken over Manhattan to the point where independent coffee shops are an endangered species, Brooklyn and the other outer boroughs still offer a wide array of possibilities for the discriminating caffeine junkie.

One of the shining stars of the Brooklyn café scene is a chain of tea and coffee shops known as Tea Lounge. With three locations currently in operation, Tea Lounge’s popularity is growing daily. The Union Street location, in the heart of Park Slope, is the mother ship, and it offers a few things the other locations cannot. The larger space allows for live music and other performances on a regular basis, and an expanded kitchen means you’ll find more options in terms of food here. All of the locations, however, offer a delicious array of baked goods and snacks, not to mention the teas, coffees, and other beverages Tea Lounge is famous for.

Browse the extensive tea menu for your favorite blend (popular choices include Tea Lounge Chai, Yerba Maté, and the addictive, though pungent, Lapsang Souchong), or try Tea Lounge’s special blend of hot chocolate, which regulars swear is the best in the neighborhood. The coffee and espresso here are also outstanding, and a refreshing alternative to the heartburn-inducing Starbucks brew. Although Tea Lounge’s baristas have been called everything from snobby to flaky, I find that they are consistently excellent at their jobs, whipping up perfectly-crafted cappuccinos and Chai Lattes with care and attention to detail that you don’t often see these days.

Tea Lounge is great because it works equally well as a place to come by yourself or with a group, though I feel that coffee’s power to stimulate the mind makes it a perfect social lubricant. Take your friends along and order a few desserts to go with your drinks. The Fat Witch brownies are particularly addictive, although offerings also include vegan cookies and ridiculously rich cupcakes. If you’re hungry for something more than dessert, Tea Lounge serves typical, and fairly unremarkable, café fare like salads, Panini sandwiches and bagels. If you’ve had enough caffeine, fear not, for wine and beer are also on the menu, allowing the place to make a seamless transition from café to wine bar after hours.

The thing that really sets Tea Lounge apart from other cafés in the neighborhood, however, is the patrons. You’ll find your fair share of hipsters (including the baristas), but you’ll also find lots of writers and intellectuals, most of whom seem to have their noses permanently buried in their laptops. At the Union Street location, you’ll find Park Slope’s typical mix of mommies and more mommies, especially during the day, so if you don’t like your coffee with a side of breast milk, you might want to check out the Park Slope South location. Either way, Tea Lounge is well worth checking out, for the coffee, the snacks, and of course, those cute hipster baristas.

With more and more New Yorkers going vegetarian and vegan, you would think the city would be just bursting with restaurants catering to the herbivore crowd. Unfortunately, that is not yet the case. That isn’t to say, of course, that vegetarians should throw up their hands in defeat. If you know where to look, there are a handful of fantastic eateries scattered throughout the five boroughs that combine vegetarian eating with the comforting flavors you know and crave, and one of those is The V Spot.

Brooklyn’s Park Slope has long been a haven for healthy eating, with its many coops and natural food stores feeding the locals since the neighborhood’s gentrification. Any neighborhood known for its artists and poets is bound to play home to a vegetarian or two sooner or later, and so came the need for restaurants like The V Spot. You won’t find any plates of colorless gruel here, though; vegan food has come a long way in the last decade or so. Nowadays, you can feast upon all of your diner favorites, sans guilt. Start with an appetizer of meatless Buffalo Chicken ($9), served with spicy BBQ sauce and sesame garlic blue cheese dressing, which is, like everything else on the menu, 100% vegan. You’ll completely forget you’re not eating chicken as you toast your microbrews, feeling more like you’re at a sports bar than a vegan restaurant (if you ignore the lack of TV’s blaring sports, of course). Then take your pick from one of the restaurant’s many sandwiches, entrées and pasta dishes. My favorite is the Classic Veggie Burger ($6), which is prepared with lentils, black beans, veggies and secret seasonings (top it with soy cheese or tempeh bacon to add some flavor). Other standouts include the Sesame Seitan ($16), which beats greasy Chinese takeout any day, and the Penne with Vodka Sauce ($10), which, like many of the other pasta dishes, utilizes the restaurant’s uncanny soy-based heavy cream in its sauce.

Check out The V Spot’s website to keep abreast of wine specials and other events, and don’t forget to stop by for brunch. If vegan restaurants are rare in the city, vegan brunch is even rarer, and it would be a shame for anyone to miss a New York tradition as venerated as weekend brunch. Here you can chow down on some meatless steak and tofu scramble, and show your non-vegan friends that you don’t have to eat meat to be a foodie. See, you can win friend with salad.