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.”
August 23, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Night Eats at Xiao Ye
We’ve fallen off the edge of the Earth into the full tornado of millenial pop chow. We are braving Lower East Side no reservation turf…
August 16, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
10 Downing Street Redux
Summer in the city seems to have emptied a lot of restaurants, especially on steamy weekends. Mondays can be desolate too…
August 9, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Coney Island Capers
We’re headed for Brooklyn. I figure we’ll start at Nathan's, wallow in clams on the half shell, grab a couple of dogs…
August 2, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Considering Nuela
The fates have conspired against the ambitious project in the vast sweeping space that used to be Sapa…
July 26, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
La Fonda Del Surprises
First thing I notice is that La Fonda Del Sol has sprouted a colony of bright red umbrella’d outdoor tables. Youthful office evacuees are paying homage to Bacchus and Venus, oblivious to the evening heat…
July 19, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Co Ba/Má Pêche
Spotlight on the yin and yang of Vietnamese food, a weenie new storefront in Chelsea and a sprawling midtown canteen in the basement…
July 12, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Rebooting Annisa
Supernatural vibes may be superfluous given how quickly bold invention is provoking murmurs of shock and pleasure from our foursome tonight…
July 6, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Plein Sud
Am I just imagining it? Frederick Lesort’s Plein Sud seems to be shockingly smiley-faced, welcoming, wanting to be a hangout…
June 28, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Where I Eat
I have three faces. What I love. What I liked.And where I eat. If you don’t feel skilled enough to read between the lines…
June 21, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Plaza Food Hall/Todd English
I’m excited. The oral personality wants it all. Where to begin? The Raw Bar. The Pizza Station. Something from The Grill. Handmade dumplings...
June 14, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Bar Artisanal Goes Spanish
Terrance Brennan had been promising to open a Spanish restaurant long before the economy went flat. So it was a surprise but no surprise to learn that overnight he’d rejiggered the Tribeca annex…
June 7, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Hamptons Eats
The morning air is fresh and cool. An entire holiday weekend without rain, oh, maybe a few drops: A miracle. It was as if humidity had not yet been invented…
June 1, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Summer@Pearl Oyster Bar
First warm weekend of spring, our friends swarm the Hamptons... The Road Food Warrior and I choose constant overseas travel over a grey shingled cottage or even a shack near the beach…
May 24, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
My Secret Garden: Lugo Caffè
I couldn’t get any of my usual reviewing dinner pals to go. As soon as I said “Penn Plaza near Madison Square Garden,” they would ask…
May 17, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
The Lion Purrs
It’s feeding time at The Lion and a surge of modish narcissi swarm in...
May 3, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
DOB 111/Bao the Scorpion
As he cuts his deadly swath through Manhattan restaurants, expanding his own empire in shabby little holes, one tricked out after another…
April 26, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Wall & Water
Ideally, if the fates conspire, eating in the dimmed dining room could feel rich and sexy, a smart setting for seduction, romantic or financial
April 19, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
5 & Diamond
I’m on a psychedelic high from tasting the best thing done to a sea urchin since Jean-Georges’s uni on dark bread with jalapeño, possibly even since the urchin in a Nantucket scallop shell that had foodies storming Union Pacific in the days when Rocco DiSpirito was still cheffing.
April 12, 2010 | BITE: My Journal
Mark by Jean-Georges
We’re eating the Alsatian-born chef’s idea of comfort food, rustic and classic everyday dishes from his childhood and ours, pizza, a Frenchman’s take on pasta, fish and birds and chops…