Keens Steakhouse

Perhaps there are three ways in which you are familiar with mutton:

1. As chops on hipster faces.
2. In the phrase "mutton dressed as lamb." (See, your 55-year-old neighbor with the impressive collection of thigh-high boots).
3. As the only thing greater than true love according to Miracle Max.

For those who have been to Keens Steakhouse, mutton (basically the teenager of the lamb/sheep world) is perhaps that much more familiar to you. Though the restaurant stopped selling it some time ago, it is still listed on the menu, and they will serve you something close enough for your $45 (lamb aged approximately ten months).

However, mutton is only one notable element of the storied chophouse. The history begins in London with the Lambs Club, a famous theater and literary group. Its New York branch manager was Albert Keen, a theatrical producer who opened Keens in 1885. It was equipped with a pipe room, in which men would smoke thin-stemmed clay pipes, and the Pipe Club roster reportedly contained over ninety thousand names, including Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, and Teddy Roosevelt. The club was for men only, until 1905 when actress (and reported inamorata of King Edward VII), Lillie Langtry, took Keens to court, won, swanned into the restaurant wearing a feather boa, and ordered the mutton - as any twentieth century actress dating the married King of England would.

Today, Keens still has the feel of an old gentleman's club given the rich wood throughout its rooms, leather-cushioned chairs at white linen-topped tables, framed faded portraits, and the occasional bust and moose head. Also, since Keens owns the world's largest collection of churchwarden pipes, thousands are hooked to the ceilings throughout the restaurant.

And yes, this is a restaurant after all, so what are we eating for unsurprisingly hefty prices? Meat lovers will be pleased to find "dry-aged on premise" USDA prime grade porterhouse, New York sirloin, T-bone, lamb chops, beef short ribs, and eight to twelve ounce portions of filet mignon in addition to the aforementioned mutton chops. Pescatarians will be happy to note the menu includes oysters, Maryland crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, jumbo lump crab cocktail, Dover sole, pan-seared Loch Duart salmon, and two to six pound steamed Maine lobsters. Vegetarians are not to worry either, for Keens serves four types of salad, five preparations of potatoes, and several side dishes from creamed spinach to carrots with brown butter to sauteed escarole to roasted cauliflower and a few other prepared vegetables along the way. You'll want to stay away from the parmesan brussels sprouts, though, unless you're the kind of vegetarian who eats bacon.

So head to Keens for grandpa's birthday, for your not-so-bright son's acceptance to law school (phew), or for a seat at the bar to spy on that one hipster's blind date with your 55-year-old neighbor. If they don't find true love, at least they can enjoy the one thing greater.

Keens - 72 West 36th Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues

Bacardi Party

On Sunday, December 12th, I attended an event sponsored by Bacardi rum, and there's no reason why I should keep that information to myself. Well, the glaringly obvious reason is that this is a blog about restaurants, and the event took place at the Angel Orensanz Foundation (a synagogue turned art gallery and event space), but bartenders from around this great city competed for cocktail greatness, and I think that's something we can all get behind...especially you booze hounds.

It was the New York leg of the Legacy of the Cocktail Competition (the first two having been in Dallas and Chicago) in which twenty-three bartenders were required to use seven ingredients to create a new Bacardi Superior Rum based cocktail. The three winners advance to the national finals in Miami, Florida in February, and the best of the best goes on to represent the USA in the global finals in Sitges, Spain in April.

So which hometown kid shall we cheer on to win it all? Our three New York winners and contenders are Brian Matthys of Tribeca's restaurant, Compose, with his "Head in the Clouds," Roberto Fuentevilla of the Lower East Side's tiki-themed bar, Painkiller, with his "El Alcalde Daiquiri," and Tomas Delos Reyes of the Meatpacking District's Boom Boom Room at The Standard Hotel with his "Downtown." Since it wasn't made clear what ingredients comprise these various cocktails (besides rum, of course), you'll have to swing by the bartenders' respective establishments to find out. Sounds like a fun night to me! That is, if you have the time, deep pockets (a dinner at Compose reportedly costs $100 to $150 for a ten-course tasting), and the clout to get in (the Boom Boom Room has seen the likes of Madonna, Jude Law, and Donna Karan, while Compose serves only 10 diners per night with 20 more guests permitted at the bar).

While the competition took place on the main level of the space, press enjoyed a tasting of three rums in the mezzanine. The first was Bacardi Anejo, a mixable rum aged for up to three years and available for approximately $16 per bottle. The second was Bacardi Solera, a single-barrel sipping rum aged in oak casks and available for $20 to $23 per bottle. The third was Bacardi Reserva Limitada, and sorry folks, but this one's not yet available in the US. Aiming for a twelve-year target, this rum is a blend of ten through sixteen year old rums, and it may currently be purchased in Puerto Rico, St Maarten, Bermuda, Aruba, Barbados, and the Bahamas for $100 to $150 duty free.

"Why can't we get it here?!" you scream during the night as you awaken in a cold sweat. The answer is that a lot of aged product does not exist, as the tropical climates in which Bacardi is produced lend to faster evaporation and maturation. With a six to ten percent loss in the first year of aging, you are basically left with an empty barrel twenty years down the line - or so said the Bacardi Brand Master Apprentice conducting the tasting, and I chose to believe him, figuring you do not earn a title like Brand Master (apprentice or not) for spewing lies.

Now that we must wait to see who is the ultimate cocktail competitor in the finals of the Legacy of the Cocktail Competition, we should kick back with mojitos, pina coladas, mai tais, or whatever other rum based drink tickles your fancy. If you book a flight to St Maarten in order to try the Bacardi Reserva Limitada, you should probably know that I prefer a window seat.

Frank Restaurant (and Vera Bar)

Like so many worthwhile restaurants in New York, Frank Restaurant draws crowds willing to wait seemingly endless minutes (sometimes 60 whole ones) for a seat and (if all goes according to plan) a meal. As is the case at petite-yet-popular Tartine, Tomoe, Tia Pol, and even restaurants that don't begin with "T," you can sometimes breeze in and get seated right away. It is wise, however, to brace yourself for a wait, as one is never completely out of the question. Hey, when the food is good, the wine is flowing, the price is moderate, and the vibe is congenial, you sometimes put up with the hassle...or you only go for lunch on holiday weekends when most people are out of town. Options!

Frank Restaurant opened in 1998 with 29 seats and soon expanded to include Vera Bar; a space with a custom bar (at which customers may eat as well as drink), additional small tables, and one large table at the back of the room able to accommodate 20 people. The expansion ultimately resulted in one bustling venue comprised of two rooms and a fenced-in portion of sidewalk out front that can be used for dining as well. Vera Bar is where patrons may feel crammed during peak dining hours, as the stools at the bar back up to the nearby 2-tops against the opposite wall of the slim space, and those waiting for seats stand betwixt the twain. The second room of the restaurant is where we find the open kitchen and small tables whose surfaces are wrapped in what seems to be brightly colored and patterned contact paper - you know, the stuff with which you covered your textbooks back in Junior High (but with more pictured fruit).

Both rooms are snug yet cozy with details like chandeliers, exposed brick, tin kettles on shelves, and mason jars topped with small antique lampshades. Most noteworthy, however, are the decoratively framed chalkboards. Here is where you find the specials of the day, and if you are lucky, those specials will include the luxuriously creamy burrata cheese served over ripe tomatoes. Which brings us to the food in general, which is tasty, hearty, and tasty some more. Frank Restaurant serves the kind of Italian food one might expect to be prepared by an Italian grandmother. Since Frank Prisinzano, the owner, uses recipes in the restaurant perfected by his Italian grandmothers, this makes sense. His paternal grandmother, Elvira (mmhmm, Vera for short), is represented on the menu by way of her lasagna and calves liver, while his maternal grandmother, Carmella, is responsible for "Carmella's slow cooked gravy" on the sausage and meatball hero. Their guidance, combined with Frank's culinary education, result in simple dishes made with quality ingredients - throw in a glass of wine, and it's not a bad day.

So the wine? They're not screwing around here. Over 500 bottles of Italian wine are available (as well as one selection from the Napa Valley - but it's from Italian-American Francis Ford Coppola, so it gets a pass). Some are available by the glass, some by the bottle or half-bottle, and some by consumption. Huhwhat? This means that you may drink however much of the bottle as you would like and then pay only for that which you poured. If you drink half a glass, you pay that small fraction of the bottle's price - if you drink three quarters of the bottle, you pay for three quarters of the bottle. The staff is able to make suggestions according to your tastes, and the "Frank's Choices" list steers you toward some of the best values. All in all, there is a good chance you will not be disappointed; though if you are, the menu (at last check, anyway) said something to the effect of the staff being willing to drink that which you won't.

Go to Frank Restaurant (and Vera Bar) when your out-of-town guest asks to eat where the locals eat, when it's cold outside and you think "Uncle Tony's Gnocchi" is just the kind of stick-to-your-ribs dish to warm you up, or when you are on your way home after the late shift at work and need a filling meal at a late hour (the restaurant is open until midnight on Sunday, until 1am Monday through Thursday, and until 2am Friday and Saturday). Be sure to bring cash, as that is the only form of payment accepted, and feel free to make a reservation if you have 8 to 18 people in your party, as one won't be accepted otherwise. If you don't want to wait for a table and don't want to leave your apartment at all, they will bring the goods to your door if you are within their delivery area - let me know if you intend to do that during peak dining hours, and I just might come over to join you.

Frank Restaurant (and Vera Bar) - 88 2nd Avenue, between East 5th & 6th Streets