Eating Good in New York City
An overview of my favourite places to eat in NYC
Week in brief
What’s in season: strawberries! I saw that the first batch of Irish strawberries had arrived at the pastry kitchen in Ballymaloe and it made me just a tiny bit homesick
What I’m reading: Burnt Sugar, by Avni Doshi. A beautiful novel set in India (shortlisted for the Booker prize, my fave prize) which kept me entertained on a very long (but fortunately air-conditioned) bus today
What I’m listening to: El Invento, by Jose Gonzalez, which just felt like the perfect song for Sayulita
What I’m eating: tacos. Best so far were shrimp tacos from Mary’s, Sayulita
In Nora Ephron’s wonderful book, Heartburn (which you should read immediately), she says of New York:
“I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.”
After 10 wonderful days in New York City with my friend Mary, I came to the rather comforting conclusion that I could never live in New York. It’s expensive and dirty, the property market is even more messed up than Dublin (which is saying something) and there are a lot of very large rats (so many that the Mayor recently hired a rat “tsar” to deal with the situation - I’m not even joking). There is, however, something magical about New York. Everywhere you look, people are hustling. Everyone is busy and no-one is bored. The food is some of the best in the world, because it has to be. It’s competitive and ambitious and progressive. People really are rushing around, “looking for action, love and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie”. I may never live in New York, but I will definitely come back and visit again soon, because it is very exciting and the food is very good and my friend Mary is very lovely. While I didn’t find the world’s best chocolate chip cookie (spoiler alert), my heart DID do a little dance every time I ate something delicious.
Here’s my New York City map, where you can find some of my favourite places in New York - most are centred around the East Village and the Lower East Side.
I’m going to be a real tease and give you my top pick of each category here, but if you want the full list of recommendations, upgrade to paid and save the list for later!
Bars
Bar Pisellino: I went to this bar with my friends JR and Mary last year, and immediately felt transported to the Mediterranean. An oak panelled standing bar with white marble, tiled floors and the most beautiful selection of Italian pastries. We came straight from a doughnut shop, though, so we just opted for drinks: martinis (with the vermouth served in the most elegant glass jug perched in a bowl of ice and two olives) and negronis.
Bakeries
Frenchette Bakery: as the name would suggest, this is a French-style bakery with some pretty excellent viennoiserie offerings. I tried the Kouign Amann and the canelé, and I can confirm that the latter is the best I’ve had outside of France. I am also reliably informed that their croustillant (think croissant/doughnut vibes) is incredible.
Ice-cream
Caffe Panna: we went here before a comedy gig one night and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The Caffè Bianco Stracciatella was gorgeous, and there are a whole range of flavours which change fairly often. They also do soft-serve and affogato, which I would have 100% gone back for, if we hadn’t left it too late (a confession: I tried to order a pint of ice-cream to be delivered to the apartment on my last (very hungover) day in New York, but we weren’t in the right neighbourhood and I was disproportionately upset).
Restaurants
Superiority Burger: this is a new restaurant run by Brooks Headley, known for his music as much as his food (he used to be the drummer in several “hardcore punk and indie-rock bands”). He also used to work as a pastry chef at the Michelin starred Del Posto, and his book Fancy Desserts is lauded as a pastry bible (albeit an eclectic one). The menu is entirely vegetarian and a lot of it is vegan too, but the burger was the best I’ve had in a long time. The cocktails were wonderful, the service was excellent, and it’s a really cool venue - but it was the desserts that blew me away. See below: poppyseed cake with strawberry whole Meyer lemon jam and buttermilk ermine frosting, studded with almond-poppy croquante. Also a rhubarb galette with the most beautifully laminated pastry, and icecream. Highly recommend.
Bagels
Black Seed: Black Seed are Montreal-style bagels, which means they’re slightly smaller and denser, and baked in a wood-fired oven. I ate a lot of Black Seed Bagels during my time in New York (thanks to Mary), but my favourite was Bacon Egg and Cheese on sesame with ketchup. Nuff said
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