BITE will keep you in touch with what I’m eating and what I love and what I left on my plate. I’ll share dialogues I have with heroes and divas, princes and barracudas and what I overhear from the next table. Not every day will I have a meal worth writing about, I suspect, not good enough, not bad enough. Dear friends have asked me if I could try to be meaner so I fit in better on the net. I intend to try. As any man who has lived with me will tell you, I was born to be a critic. Of course, isn’t it the critic who has the thinnest skin of all? I must admit to a certain anxiety. It’s been a long time since I wrote without an editor, a fact checker and a copy-reader to catch my errors, misspellings and typos. I apologize in advance. I’m left-handed and that can sometimes be confusing. I might have stopped reviewing restaurants twenty-five years ago when my first novel, Blue Skies, No Candy lingered on the best seller list. But I am addicted to instant gratification. So I’m still here. On my death bed, I am sure my last words will echo those of the sister of Brillat Savarin:
“Bring on dessert.”
July 24, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
aRoqa
Somehow I’d missed the drum roll when it opened...
July 10, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Masseria dei Vini
In minutes the white of the tablecloth has almost disappeared under the offerings…
June 26, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Sushi Ishikawa
We surround our hero as he wipes his work place, waiting to know our command…
June 19, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Where I’m Eating Now
I’ve found so many new places I want to return to even after writing about them…
June 12, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Avena
It’s very good and it hasn’t been written about...
June 5, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Marlow Bistro
I like to head uptown at a whisper of cuisinary...
May 29, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Ortzi
Gladiator Jose Garces may be a video hero and a star in Philadelphia, but that’s not what brings me…
May 22, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
The Grill
It’s where everyone in my crowd wants to be...
May 15, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Bevy
I’m lost in a marble palace on the way to dinner…
May 1, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
33 Greenwich
Or is that Greenwich Street? I need to look it up on the map every time…
April 24, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Empellón Madison
“We’re using tacos as a gateway drug to get..."
April 17, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Majorelle
It feels very welcoming, well-mannered, actually quite rich…
April 3, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Kings of Kobe
None of my usual dinner cronies is willing to...
March 27, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Satsuki at Suzuki
We have the master himself focused only on us at the near-deserted sushi bar.
March 20, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
4 Charles Prime Rib
It isn’t easy getting past the front door into this crowded 19th-century doll’s house…
March 13, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Lilia: Brooklyn Bait
Thrillingly delicate, yeasty little donuts are sprinkled with a blizzard of grated sheep’s milk cheese…
March 6, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Café Village
There’s a certain sweet innocence: the fake fireplace, the collection of samovars and little china animals. The waiters, too…
February 27, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
BarBacon
I’m reminded why Noah made certain to get a...
February 20, 2017 | BITE: My Journal
Paola’s
It’s the Manhattan institution you might not know on the corner of Madison and 92nd…