Gramercy Tavern--Manhattan (again)

212.477.0777

Don't be fooled by the $165 prefix.  They kill you on the booze.  Super simple ploy, really, but one look at their incredibly expansive and expensive wine by the bottle will tell you you're not escaping dinner for less than $300 a head unless you stick to water.

This was our second go around here.  Food and service was as good as ever, though the service ninjas were in full effect.  You get two choices per course, and the portions are just so you don't leave hungry, though you're hungry for more--if that makes any sense.

But if you wanna have a bottle or two of wine with this, you may want to open a Heloc.  Not to mention starting with a Boulevardier and finishing with a Sauternes.  Yeesh.

House of Mac--Miami

786.636.6967

Bailed on a family adventure to take a lazy few days in Miami with the whole fam.  Let me tell you, a great move.  Miami is like if Venice and Summer in Williamsburg had a gay baby.  Loved it.

I know, I know, but House of Mac is in this neighborhood Wynwood, which is a bunch of low cement buildings with graffiti and design stores everywhere.  It really brought me back.  It also had a Mac and cheese joint that would put Dumont to shame (RIP Collin).  

Seriously, the Mac and Cheese offered something for everyone, was super tasty--delivered in cast iron pans-- and was pretty inexpensive.  Oddly, the whole shebang was app based, so we sort of ordered a la Shakeshack by a QR code, and then they ran the food out.  As we were there for lunch on a Thursday in the dead of February, the dude behind the counter was great answering questions so it could have been a disaster if I was six beers in.  But since I was with the wee ones and the ol' wifey wife--no big deal.

Definitely try the traditional, and the jerk.  

Word

Francie Williamsburg

 

718.218.7572

Holy Shit!

This place rules.  Where did it come from?  WTF? Went here with Glasserie Events as a thank you.  Man oh man, did they deliver.  I cannot gush about this place enough.

Food?  Exceptional.  Some odd ball stuff (sweet potato in puff pastry?) but we ordered the huge as steak and it came out with baby's breath and I nearly shit myself.  Fantastic wine, fantastic food, all of the staff was young and hip and beautiful, I mean, just top notch.

As an odd post script we then scuttled over to Diner and it was sad and dark and empty.  I remember a day when that place was the center of the universe, and now it seemed so ordinary and lifeless compared to where we'd just come.