About Us

Culinary Adventures

• La Esquina
  A sleekly restored diner car doubles as a taqueria and a front for one of the city’s most stylish dining destinations. Behind the door marked “Employees Only”, down the stairs and through the bowels of the kitchen, lies a gothic vault ornamented with wrought iron gates and dripping candelabras. Thankfully the unique space doesn’t outshine the food, influenced by consultant Richard Ampudia of nearby Cafe Habana. Every step pleases, from skillfully balanced ceviches to authentically styled tacos and the generously flavored main courses.
  
  106 Kenmare Street, SoHo
  Tel:  (1-212) 613 8858
• Daniel
  Lively yet elegant, Daniel Boulud’s sumptuous flagship remains one of the city’s worthiest fine dining destinations. Bursts of cherry blossoms wash the dining room in vibrant color while perfect handfuls of orchids make equally lovely impressions on tabletops. Every meal is a celebration, from an amuse bouche of warm gougers to oh-so-perfect, itty-bitty candies and chocolates which end the evening on a charming note.
  
  60 East 65th Street, Upper East Side
  Tel: (1-212) 288 0033
• A Voce
  Andrew Carmellini served as the right-hand man to one of the city’s great chefs, Daniel Boulud, in one of the city’s venerable, uptown restaurants, Café Boulud. The menu at A Voce is classically modern Italian, replete with a mix of fashionable rusticated dishes (tripe, lamb shanks) and old chestnuts like chicken cacciatora, veal chops, and even the chef’s grandmother’s recipe for ravioli. Everything about the place is carefully calibrated to convey a sense of soothing, almost soporific familiarity, including the décor, which is a study in retro modernity.
  
  41 Madison Avenue at 26th Street, Gramercy Park
  Tel:  (1-212) 545 8555
• Allen & Delancey
  English chef Neil Ferguson combines gutsy and luxe ingredients in unexpected combinations for a space designed as a layered homage to the neighborhood’s storied immigrant past. The rooms are windowless and dimly lit and there is an elegant little bar up front, where you can sit nursing your cinnamon pisco sour by candlelight. A thick curtain of red velvet separates the two little dining rooms, which are appointed with old oil paintings and shelves of books. But the menu at Allen & Delancey is not your normal Lower East Side menu as it contains references to truffled fingerlings, fenugreek syrup, and slips of raw hamachi decorated with what are described as “pink grapefruit beads”. These conspicuous uptown flourishes are the work of an uptown chef who toiled for many years as chief lieutenant to Gordon Ramsay.
  
  115 Allen Street at Delancey Street, Lower East Side
  Tel:  (1-212) 253 5400
• The Spotted Pig
  This upscale take on the classic English gastropub - with dark-wood decor accented with wooden pigs and appetizing drawings of produce - is homey and feels richly ensconced in tradition. The menu combines classics like shepherd’s pie, richly layered with creamy potatoes and meat, with more innovative dishes, including plump-fleshed wild bass with a piquant anchovy sauce. The chocolate “Nemesis” cake is worth saving room for, or finish with a slice of the excellent Somerset Stilton.
  
  314 West 11th Street, West Villiage
  Tel: (1-212) 620 0393
• Bar Boulud
  House-made charcuterie and a communal wine tasting table have stirred up big buzz for Daniel Boulud’s new Upper West Side bistro. Bar Boulud showcases Rhône and Burgundy wines, including the Beaujolais that wine director Daniel Johnnes believes go so well with the pâtés and terrines made in-house and sold retail during the between-meals lull. The place is a wine shrine, with a vaulted ceiling, limestone floors, and white oak. Along the walls is a series of framed photographs of wine stains made by Daniel Boulud and artist Vik Muniz.
  
  1900 Broadway at 64th Street, Upper West Side
  Tel:  (1-212) 595 0303
• Masa
  New York’s priciest prix fixe is an understated celebration of pristine and perfect fish that is worth every penny. Calming earth tones and an absence of decoration - with the exception of live bamboo posts in a shallow pool behind the sushi bar - put the focus on Chef Masa Takayama and his expert team of cooks. From the velvety toro tartare topped with an obscene amount of caviar, to the buttery foie gras and lobster shabu shabu, then finally to bite after bite of perfectly proportioned sushi, every piece of fish is the best of its kind.
  
  10 Columbus Circle, 4th Floor, Midtown
  Tel:  (1-212) 823 9800
• Grayz
  After a veritable archaeological dig in the old Aquavit space, Gray Kunz has emerged with news of brick walls, four fireplaces, and many more remnants of the onetime Rockefeller townhouse. The remodeled space is now fit for festive finger food and cocktails upstairs, and private fêtes below.
  
  13–15 W. 54th Street at Fifth Avenue, Midtown
  Tel: (1-212) 262 4600
• Pastis
  Pastis is a French bistro located in the Meatpacking district opened by Keith McNally. Executive Chefs Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson and Chef de Cuisine Pascal Le Seac’h prepare a menu that combines hearty Provençal dishes with moderately priced bistro fare. The bar serves a range of house cocktails, wines by the glass, carafe or bottle, and several varieties of pastis, an anise-flavored aperitif from the south of France. The restaurant features a communal table, a zinc bar, and an outdoor summer café.
  
  9 Ninth Avenue at Little W. 12th Street, Meatpacking District
  Tel:  (1-212) 929 4844
• Mercat
  Mercat means market in Catalan, the language spoken in the Spanish region that inspired this restaurant and tapas lounge in Noho. The 90-seat space is equipped with an open kitchen, a ham-and-cheese station, and a basement tapas lounge, and the wine list is all-Spanish, with a selection of cavas, sherries, and seasonal sangrias. To supplement such familiar territory as tortilla español and patatas bravas, the menu offers regional specialties like fideua negra, or noodles cooked with cuttlefish and its own ink, and Catalan fish stew with haddock, mussels, shrimp, and lobster.
  
  45 Bond Street between Lafayette and Bowery, East Village
  Tel:  (1-212) 529 8600
• Per Se
  Thomas Keller’s exquisite NYC debut is a destination for fresh, inspired and indulgent French-New American fare. The Time Warner Center’s crown jewel surrounds diners with detailed luxury: soft cream leather on the walls, brass and copper tiles on the floor, and tables dressed with layers of fine linens. Diners benefit from the first taste - miniature sesame cones topped with a scoop of buttery salmon tartare, which arrive as a gift from the kitchen - to the last, gracious nibbles of homemade truffles.
  
  10 Columbus Circle, 4th Floor, Midtown
  Tel: (1-212) 823 9335
• Nobu Fifty Seven
  Nobu Fifty Seven, the first uptown New York location for legendary chef Nobu Matsuhisa, showcases Nobu’s signature new style Japanese cuisine with classic dishes such as Yellowtail with Jalapeño and Black Cod with Miso, and new creations from the wood burning oven and the hibachi table. Designed by David Rockwell, Nobu Fifty Seven evokes fluidity and the imagery of an Asian river.
  
  40 W 57th St, Midtown
  Tel:  (1-212) 757 3000
• Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House
  This is without question the most urbanely elegant steakhouse you will ever see, its meat locker filled with terrific beef. The menu offers a lineup of USDA prime steaks at higher-end prices paired with sides such as crab cakes, fried oysters and onion rings.
  
  1221 Sixth Avenue at 49th Street, Times Square
  Tel:  (1-212) 575 5129
• Davidburke and Donatella
  The latest culinary fusion is taking place between two personalities: award-winning Executive Chef David Burke has teamed up with savvy young restaurateur Donatella Arpaia. The result is Davidburke and Donatella, serving provocative Modern American cuisine in an elegantly refurbished Upper East Side space. The restaurant's design features bold colours and lacquered surfaces, yet it has a decidedly contemporary aesthetic. The main attraction at Davidburke & Donatella, however, is Burke's food, which is characteristically inventive, sometimes over-the-top, and always delicious.
  
  133 East 61st Street, Upper East Side
  Tel: (1-212) 813 2121
  
• The Modern
  The Modern is a fine dining restaurant located at the Museum of Modern Art featuring the original French-American cuisine of Alsatian-born Chef Gabriel Kreuther, with desserts by Marc Aumont. The Modern offers two distinct dining experiences, The Dining Room and The Bar Room. The more refined dining room, which overlooks The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, features a multi-course prix-fixe menu of Chef Kreuther’s elegant, creative French cuisine. The Bar Room, a more casual dining and bar area, serves small plates of rustic, Alsatian cuisine.
  
  9 West 53rd Street, Midtown
  Tel:  (1-212) 333 1220
• Sweet Sugar Sunshine
  An itsy-bitsy bakery where taste matters more than looks and an anything-goes ambience rules. Decorated with funky light fixtures and mismatched thrift-shop furniture, Sweet Sugar is the kind of joint whose retro appeal reliably allures, regardless of what’s for sale. As luck would have it, owner-bakers Debbie Weiner and Peggy Williams sell a limited selection of pretty tasty, if not exceptionally pretty, stuff.
  
  126 Rivington Street near Norfolk Street, Lower East Side
  Tel: (1-212) 995 1960