Levain Bakery

In a city not hurting for bakeries, it sometimes takes a gimmick to get noticed (see Crumbs' enormous cupcakes or Magnolia's old-fashioned vibe - though don't get me wrong, I ain't mad at those joints either). However, Levain Bakery doesn't offer tricks so much as unique options, and those options are damn good. Ok, so they have cookies the size of softballs, but I promise there is more to this place than that.

In 1994, while Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald were training for an Ironman triathlon, they determined a good way to curb their constant hunger was with gigantic cookies. The women opened Levain on the Upper West Side in 1995 and have been selling six-ounce mounds of awesome ever since. The cookie exteriors are crispy, while the interiors are soft, and when eaten straight from the oven, they are a pleasantly gooey mess. The four varieties include walnut chocolate chip, dark chocolate chocolate chip, dark chocolate peanut butter chip, and oatmeal raisin. They cost $4 each at last check, and all were buttery enough to grease through the bag in which they were sold.

Maybe cookies aren't your style though (weirdo), so there are other reasons to swing by. The bomboloncini (not to be confused with the Gipsy Kings' breakout hit Bamboleo) are certainly worth a trip. They are essentially jelly donuts but are baked instead of fried and filled with tangy raspberry jam instead of miscellaneous red gel. Dusted with powdered sugar, the bomboloncini are a stellar combination of sweet, sour, and delicious.

Other baked selections include scones, olive herb semolina, ciabatta, cinnamon brioche, Valrhona stuffed sourdough, pizza-esque breads topped with the likes of artichoke and gruyere, blueberry muffins, and sour cream coffee cake. Levain cinnamon buns (served only in the morning) have been featured on Oprah, and former NYTimes restaurant critic, Frank Bruni, has waxed poetic on their baguettes with butter and jam (also typically a morning treat). The aforementioned cookies have been featured on various television programs and even won a Throwdown on the Food Network against Bobby Flay. Bottom line, you won't be disappointed - unless you order coffee, and they sell you lukewarm swill, which happened to me once, as these things sometimes do.

Levain Bakery is located on West 74th Street off the corner of Amsterdam Avenue. It is a tiny space down a few steps from the sidewalk, and there is little room in which to maneuver before hitting the display case. The ultimate goal is to reach this case to place your order, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. Behind the counter, you see the bakery in motion, as trays of cookies and other goodies are pulled from the oven before thine eyes. You may choose to revel in the appetizing aromas by eating on a stool by the counter below the window, but odds are you'll want to get the hell out of every other customer's way and eat elsewhere in peace. There's a bench outside if you can't wait long to find that peace...and by "find that peace" I mean "eat your cookie."

Stop by Levain for lunch when you have a hankering for something savory (hi, chive and goatcheese sourdough pizza), or swing through when you need to bring something sweet to a party (four cookies can probably sate eight to twelve people), but be sure to go early before they sell out of particular crowd-pleasers (bomboloncini, I'm looking at you). It must be noted Levain's goods are not cheap, but at least you get some pretty sizable, freshly baked bang for your buck (leftovers are donated every evening to charities). There is a second Levain location in Harlem and a third out in East Hampton, though the Hamptons outlet is only open seasonally (usually from July through Labor Day). Here, they sell rustic fruit tarts not available in the city, but I guess everyone's gotta have a gimmick.

Levain Bakery - 167 West 74th Street, between Amsterdam & Columbus Avenues
Levain Bakery - 2167 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, at West 117th Street
Levain Bakery (East Hampton) - 354 Montauk Highway, Wainscott, New York

Grape and Grain/Against the Grain

There is a restaurant in the East Village, which is really a wine bar and a separate annex offering craft beer. What? Well you see, first there is Grape and Grain, a wine bar that serves dinner seven nights a week and brunch on the weekends. Then there is Against the Grain, which is a sliver of a bar next door serving nibbles and brewskies. Yes, you may order wine and beer at both venues, but the more extensive list of vino is available from the former, while the full list of light, white, pale, amber, dark, and darker beers is found at the latter.

Grape and Grain is a small establishment equipped with an L-shaped bar and several sturdy wood tables. Seating is a mix of mismatched stools, wood chairs, benches along the walls, and pillows in the front windowsill. Ornate little chandeliers hang from the pressed tin ceiling, which help to illuminate the votive lit room. The close quarters, dim lighting, and exposed brick walls add up to all shades of snug and cozy. The pan European food, flowing wine, and increasingly loud conversations mean all sorts of satisfaction and happy. The menu here includes appetizers (such as white bean dip with spiced pita chips), cheese, sandwiches (including brie and ham with whole grain mustard and tomato), pizzas (eight different varieties), and dessert.

Against the Grain is situated just on the other side of the building's residential entrance in an even smaller space than that of Grape and Grain. One raised table runs down the center of the narrow room toward the minuscule bar at the rear. Wooden stools abound, as do hooks on which patrons may hang their belongings. Exposed bulbs and votive candles provide the room's light, while a ledge runs along the left exposed brick wall that is adorned with rotating collections of art. According to the restaurant's website, Against the Grain is ideal for groups of twelve to thirty people, though smaller parties should have just as much fun. The menu here includes charcuterie plates, beer steamed cockles, and beer sausages as well as limited options from next door (why yes, I would like a meatball pizza with caramelized onions, thank you very much). The waitstaff hustles between the two venues delivering food and clearing plates, so at times, the wait is long, and the service is harried. That's ok, though - you have your drink and your date to amuse you in the meantime.

So head over to Grape and Grain with that small group who is conspiring to set that one friend up with that other friend. Down the line, you can all celebrate their engagement by reserving the main table at Against the Grain.

Grape and Grain - 620 East 6th Street, between Avenues B & C
Against the Grain - next door

Perry St

First things first - Perry St is indeed located on Perry Street, but its entrance is around the corner on West Street. This information should save you the inconvenience of walking into the lobby of the building's residential section, and it should save the doorman of said section from redirecting yet another disoriented diner. You're welcome.

So yes, the restaurant is located on the ground floor of a Richard Meier building - a building comprised of swanky multi-million dollar condominiums, one of which is home to Perry St chef/owner, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Needless to say, the restaurant is not too shabby a space. From the outdoor slate tiles by the mini infinity pool-esque water feature, one enters through the glass vestibule into a sleek space of muted tones and minimalist decor with industrial touches. The host/hostess stand is in front of you, the lounge is to the left (beyond which is the coat check), the bar is to the rear, and the L-shaped dining room is to the right.

The lounge area is outfitted with barely-plush couches, leather benches, and knee-high tables under dangling filament bulbs. In the main area, diners sit on white leather banquettes and armchairs at rectangular tables or around high-backed rounded banquettes at round tables. Light in the main room is provided by shaded floor lamps arching over tables and by the sunlight pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows through which one spies the Hudson River beyond the West Side Highway. Glare is tempered by lightly colored sheer shades, which complement the dark chocolate carpet, light gray cement pillars, and varying hues of wood throughout the room.

Like at other Vongerichten restaurants throughout and beyond Manhattan, you can ultimately count on a great meal with attentive service. Dinner at Perry St will be a smidge more casual than his namesake at the Trump International Hotel & Tower at Central Park West. That's ok, because the prices are a smidge lower accordingly. The atmosphere at Perry St will be less ornate than his Spice Market in the Meatpacking District - less boisterous than the ambiance at Mercer Kitchen in Soho - less stodgy than the nuances at JoJo on the Upper East Side - more refined than the cafe-like touches at Nougatine back at Central Park. That's ok too, because it seems the point of Perry St is a return to basics, in which attention is predominantly focused on the food.

The food at Perry St is American at its core with French and Asian influences. The meal starts with an amuse bouche from the chef, usually a soup, which varies with the season. From there, you may order a la carte or from the price-fixed menu. The restaurant offers a $26 lunch and a $38 dinner, both of which are three courses (two plates and a dessert; additional plates are $13 each). The dinner promotion is offered between 5:30pm and 6:00pm as well as after 9:30pm everyday except Saturday.

Appetizers at Perry St include the likes of a beet salad with goat cheese and champagne mango vinaigrette, crispy poached eggs with caviar and vodka cream, and sweet chili crab dumplings with cilantro and sugar snap peas. Entrees include slowly baked arctic char with white asparagus and basil vinaigrette, fried chicken with a spicy pea puree and pickled onions, and braised rabbit with lemongrass and ginger sweet corn. The desserts are artfully composed as well. At one point, there was a chocolate mousse with crystallized violets on the menu; at another time, white chocolate and meringue with yuzu sorbet.

So make a reservation at Perry St for your favorite forty year old who would prefer a quiet birthday celebration if you must celebrate this new decade at all, for your date with the woman you are finally ready to introduce to your friends (maybe meet them afterward for cocktails at the Jane Hotel five blocks north), for lunch with Calvin Klein and Nicole Kidman who were rumored to live upstairs (in separate apartments, of course) at one point or another. That is, if you actually know them.

Perry St - 176 Perry Street, at the corner of West Street

Table d'Hote

So you know how Le Grainne Cafe was this casual French bistro? Well Table d'Hote...isn't. Yes, it is French, and no, they will not turn you away in jeans and sneakers, but it is less "Let's grab a crepe," and more, "I'll have the seared salmon with accompanying roasted shallot risotto and greens."

Thankfully, the ambiance is not pretentious. On account of the small size of the room, the hutches that serve double duty as decoration and wine storage, the framed drawings of fruit and women lining the walls, the wood chairs with straw seats, the half curtains covering the bottoms of the windows, and the restaurant's location on a quiet side street on the Upper East Side, Table d'Hote is neither bustling like Paris nor decadent like the Riviera. Instead, it feels more like the countryside - cozy, inviting, and informally elegant.

The menu is divided into firsts and mains, but the mains are further categorized into tasting and entree portions. Although smaller than the entree sizes, the tasting portions are not exactly small. On a recent visit, I ordered a bowl of cauliflower and blue cheese soup (a special appetizer that day) and the tasting size of the quail. The plate was loaded with rosemary and ginger stuffing, swiss chard, and a well seasoned bird. The waiter explained the entree size would have come with the same amount of stuffing and greens but with two birds instead of the one. My order was the appropriate size for my appetite, but perhaps it would not have been sufficient for someone who had skipped the appetizer - for someone who had sadly worked through lunch that afternoon - for someone who had not just consumed the beer I had just consumed at the Central Park Boathouse.

As is fitting of a delightful restaurant on the Upper East Side with quality food, a suitable wine selection, and attentive service, the prices are moderately expensive. However, price-fixed menus are available at brunch, lunch, and dinner, so it is certainly possible to enjoy a reasonably priced meal - rendered all the more enjoyable and somehow more scrumptious by the reasonable price.

So head over with that out-of-towner who asked to visit the Guggenheim, that couple you and your wife met while wine tasting in the Hamptons, or your partner of 35 years. If you are gamblers by nature, you can go to the fewer-than-30-seats restaurant without a reservation. Though a craps shooter in casinos, I am less of a risk taker when it comes to dinnertime and suggest calling ahead.

Table d'Hote - 44 East 92nd Street, between Madison & Park Avenues

Le Grainne Cafe

Bonjour mes amis! Aujourd'hui nous parlerons d'un restaurant francais. Pamplemousse ananas framboise. Which translates to: Hello friends! Today we're going to talk about a French restaurant. Grapefruit pineapple raspberry. (Sure, those last three words are nonsensical here, but they were fun to say).

Said restaurant, Le Grainne Cafe, is a casual, bustling spot on the northwest corner of 21st and 9th. It is one open room filled with tables, tables, an open kitchen, and tables. Upon entering through the glass and nicked wood door, one has the inclination to maneuver past the table in the doorway, over to the right, where there's enough room by the hostess stand to get in every waiter/waitress' path and accidentally bump the diner's chair at that corner table in the window. Thankfully, the hostess hustles you to a seat promptly, so the next party can squeeze in and jostle each other in their attempt to get out of everyone's way.

In true Manhattan and Parisian form, the tables are close to one another so as to fit as many patrons as possible. This means sitting close to strangers on the wood banquette near the window to the left or on wood and plastic woven chairs at paper-covered tables stretching down the center of the room to the back wall.

Yeah, it's a tight fit, but that does not mean Le Grainne Cafe is without its charms. For starters, little chalkboards advertising sweets lean against the painted pressed-tin walls. Decorative roosters (a symbol of France - check out the crest on the National Team soccer kit) perch in windowsills. Old school posters are classic nods to a land where museums line the Seine, the Cote d'Azur sparkles at sunrise, coffee is strong, swimsuits are small, and most sandwiches are smeared with butter. France. I'm talking about France.

Some sandwiches get the butter treatment here as well (saucisson beurre and jambon beurre to name two). Other French dishes include the croque monsieur (toasted ham and cheese), moules (various preparations of mussels), crepes (both savory and sweet), escargots (in their shells, Pretty Woman style), and onion soup, bien sur. A variety of salads, sandwiches on toasted baguettes speared by a sprig of rosemary, quiches, and side dishes (ratatouille, anyone?) are offered, as are some entrees that stray from the expected options - fettucini carbonara, various risotto dishes, and linguini with spicy shrimp to name a few. Classic desserts (including tarte tatin, mousse au chocolat, and creme brulee) are to be enjoyed as you linger over your cafe au lait, cintron chaud (fresh squeezed lemon, honey and hot water), or rhum lait chaud (spiced rum, milk and honey). Le Grainne Cafe also provides a full wine list, fruit juices, sodas, and label-free bottles of tap water.

Le Grainne Cafe is one of those great neighborhood spots, where you know you'll be satisfied for breakfast (when croissants and egg options are available), lunch, or dinner when you just can't think of anywhere else you would rather go that day. Proximate to Chelsea Piers, the Highline, and the art galleries tucked all around the area, it draws those from beyond the Chelsea borders as well. Need a quick bite after success at the driving range? Want an espresso to energize you for that elevated park stroll? Feel you deserve a nutella crepe after staring at who-knows-what by who-knows-who to express are-you-kidding? C'est le cafe pour vous! Pomme de terre bibliotheque singe. (This is the cafe for you! Potato library monkey).

Le Grainne Cafe - 183 9th Avenue, at the corner of West 21st Street

Tartine

I need to have patience when I go to the wee French restaurant Tartine. This West Village hot spot doesn't take reservations (or credit cards, FYI), so it operates on a first-come-first-served basis. On nights when people come out in droves, it may be quite some time until you are seated, let alone served.

There is no room inside the restaurant for patrons to wait for a table. They are therefore relegated to the sidewalk where the line extends down West 11th Street and often wraps around to West 4th. On my patient nights, part of the Tartine fun is in the waiting. You make friends with others standing on line, you decide whether or not you'll order what those dining outside are eating, and you catch up with your friend, because hey, that's why you guys came out tonight anyway, right?

On other nights, I'm cranky. No promise of reasonably priced delectable French food nor memories of past positive experiences here is enough to keep me waiting for upwards of half an hour. On those nights, I'm grateful I live in Manhattan where myriad dining options are only steps away (Corner Bistro, Smorgas Chef, Tea & Sympathy, The Spotted Pig, and dell'anima to name but a few. More on those in subsequent posts).

Alright, so on the busy nights (and they're not ALL this busy, by the way), you've waited, and you're told your table is ready. Now what? Well, upon entering, you probably already stubbed your toe on the base of the first table in your path. Excepting the display case of desserts to the right of the doorway, the room is dedicated to tables and seating. Diners sit on wooden chairs, in window sills, and basically in each others' laps. In warmer weather, a string of tables hugs the outer perimeter of the restaurant.

The restaurant's draw is one part food (because yes, the classic French fare - salads, entrees, and pastries included - is prepared well), one part ambiance (because despite the clamor for seats, the atmosphere is pleasantly lively, and the nautical touches lining the walls are charming), and one part BYOB. With no liquor license or corkage fee, every party comes packing with their own. The waitresses deftly remove your plastic bag from the wine store (Manley's Wine & Spirits is located three blocks north on 8th Avenue at Jane Street) and supply the necessary glasses in its place. On one particularly entertaining night, a pair of dudes (and I use the term endearingly for these fratty backward-baseball-cap-wearing types) came equipped not with a bottle of wine but with a case of beer. They plowed through it, stacking the empties on the edge of their table, while they nibbled the quiche du jour, grilled saucisson, salmon with a side of julienned vegetables, and a tarte tatin for dessert. It was incongruous, yet most impressive. Nobody batted an eye.

This restaurant is probably best for small parties - small patient parties with wine and a good attitude. If your children are the screamy, throwy, tantrumy type, it's probably best to leave them home with a babysitter - a patient babysitter with wine and a good attitude.

Tartine - 253 West 11th Street, at the corner of West 4th Street