Rubirosa

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I love the West Coast with its open spaces, towering mountains, and bounty of fresh produce year round. But when it comes to pizza, the East Coast steals my heart; especially New York’s five boroughs. So when visiting, I can’t resist taking to the streets in search of the perfect pizza pie. This time, my quest has brought me to Nolita (North of Little Italy) – a neighborhood long considered part of New York City’s Little Italy which has lost much of its Italian character in recent decades due to the migration of Italian-Americans out and yuppies in. From the outside, Rubirosa looks like many other ristorantes decorated with the colors of the Italian flag.
Inside, however, Rubirosa is more modern than those old school Italian joints; sporting a warm, European palace meets mountain cabin feel. The vibe comes from low lighting, wooden chairs and tables opposite a looong wooden bar and a copper ceiling rimmed with ornately decorated copper trim.
The crowd is young, hip, urban…and me. There’s lots of lively conversation swirling about mixing with mellow rock tunes decidedly not Italian.

I started my meal, as I start all good meals with a draught beer. Rubirosa has some nice craft beer options. I opted for a Dale’s Pale Ale from Oskar Blues for $7. I’ve had Dale’s at Oskar Blues in Colorado which ran me about $5 but I guess when you add shipping plus New York City, $7 sounds about right. Still, it left me wondering when did a good beer become as expensive as a cheap glass of wine?

And Dale’s is a good beer; amber-gold in color with a full-bodied rich flavor and a great bitter finish that lingered in my mouth like a roasted hoppy kiss. (Please don’t ask how I know what a roasted hoppy kiss tastes like. It was an experimental phase in college.) Anyway, my delicious beer arrived with two pieces of equally delicious Italian bread; a crusty exterior with a porous center which perfectly soaked up the full flavored olive oil. A match made in Italian heaven.

I began my meal in earnest with an arugula salad loaded with red and golden beets and topped with goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette for $11.

My bowl ‘O salad, big enough for two, was loaded with lots of fresh-flavorful arugula sitting atop beets which were cooked perfectly; thankfully not watery. It was topped with creamy goat cheese and the perfect amount of balsamic which added just a touch of sweetness. Each bite left me wanting more and embodied the Italian cooking philosophy of making simple food simply. Still, being a lily guilder, I can’t help but wonder how some roasted pignolias on top would have tasted.

As I was enjoying my salad, my pizza arrived. It looked like a work of art but see if by looking at the picture you can guess why my first reaction was, UH OH.
Danger! Danger! ARUGULA overload. When I ordered my arugula, cherry tomato, pecorino, eggplant and balsamic vinaigrette glaze pizza for $19, it hadn’t occurred to me (nor to my waitress apparently) that I was ordering my salad on a pizza. Maybe with the tomato, pecorino and eggplant, it would taste different.
Maybe not. The pizza had some highlights but some low lights too. The flavor was good and I enjoyed the technique of topping it with big slices of pecorino as a way to add cheese without overloading it. The crust was nice and thin but could have been crispier. My least favorite part of this pizza was a cloying sweetness that could have come from the tomato sauce but tasted more like it was from the balsamic glaze. With the ups and downs the best I could give this pizza is a B+. For some extra credit, I thought maybe the right wine would help to mellow the sweetness of the pizza.
The wine list is loaded with Italian options and the waitress allowed me to taste a couple of options. A Nebiolllo (one of my favorites) and an ’09 Velenosi Rosso Picento DOC Mentelpulciano/Sangiovese – Marche $9. I chose the latter hoping its hint of sweetness would mellow the sweetness of the pizza. It did…a little.

Rubirosa suffers from the same affliction I’ve experienced at many New York Restaurants. The inattentiveness of young under-informed servers that leaves you feeling slightly neglected. It was great to get a taste of a couple of wines but after an initial how is everything, my waitress was a ghost to my table. If you’re looking for an above average pizza and a hip crowd, check out Rubirosa. As for me, I know this is not the best pizza the East Coast has to offer so it’s back to the streets to continue my search. Stay tuned…

Rubirosa
235 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 965-0500

BRIO tuscan grille

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What do you get when dining at a Tuscan-themed chain in a mall off the 75 freeway in Southern Florida? An Italian meal where you’d rather leave the cannoli, take the gun.

I avoid eating in malls only slightly less than I avoid eating road kill. I’m sure there are exceptions but the preponderance of “casual dining restaurants” found there are bland corporate chains with better slogans than food: Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood; Come hungry. Leave happy; When you’re here, you’re Family. So my expectations were set low when dining at BRIO tuscan grille whose slogan incidentally is: To eat well is to live well.

Unfortunately, here you will eat and live only slightly ‘weller‘ than an Olive Garden because like most corporate concept restaurants, BRIO executes its theme better than its food. It’s owned by a corporation called BRAVO | BRIO Restaurant Group publicly traded under the symbol BBRG. Typical of corporate restaurants, BRIO homogenizes the cuisine so it’s not too ethnic to offend any taste but not recognizable as what was originally made in the country of origin. Also par for the course, they have many locations throughout the U.S. in places with names like The Shops at such and such, so and so Mall or fill-in-the-blank Village. I stopped by this one in The Shops at Pembroke Gardens on my way to catch my flight out of Ft. Lauderdale airport.

I would guess they all follow a similar layout. This BRIO is a cavernous 8,400-square feet; filled with enough tables and booths for 260 and a faux-Tuscan-stone stamp on the walls, ceilings and the many hanging lights. It looks nice but has as much soul as The Cheesecake Factory.

If you are vegetarian or vegan, reading down the menu sounds like a Romper Room magic mirror roll call for meat.


Romper, Bomper, Stomper Boo; tell me, tell me, tell me do; magic mirror tell me without defeat is this menu full of meat? I see shrimp is having a special day. I see beef, calamari and I see chicken, chorizo and lobster. Going more omnivorous than vegetarian in a restaurant like this would be like heading to Sizzler for a nice steak. So as I weighed my few veggie options, my server Luis brought my bread and crispy flat bread.

The flat bread looked better than it tasted. The bread however was pretty good. It was warm and I’m a sucker for warm bread. The outside was crispy and the inside light with a hint of sourness but it lacked that made from scratch artisinal complexity that makes even carb counters fall off the wagon. The bread is served with a promising looking dip they called peperonata: tomato, onion, herbs and olive oil cooked together.

Unfortunately it leaked more oil than a BP rig with as much saltiness as the Dead Sea. If this had been a more traditional rustic peperonata with chunks of veggies and included red peppers, it would have been A LOT better. Switching to the other spreads wasn’t any better. The butter had that just-removed-from-the-chiller hardness and as little flavor as the cheap tasting olive oil.

I had higher hopes for the citrus garden salad I ordered. Fresh fettuccine tossed with spinach, peppers, carrots, scallions, basil, cilantro, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, lemon vinaigrette and topped with citrus glaze for $9.95.

Fresh cilantro and scallions made this salad spring to life. The raw red pepper added a sprightly crunch and veggie sweetness; the toasted almonds a nutty roasted dimension and there were just the right amount of dried cranberries so the salad didn’t take on that fruit cake quality you can get from the heavy handed use of dried fruit.

Fresher tasting salad dressing with little to no sweetener and better quality pasta served warm would have improved this salad. Also, at the end of my meal I was unpleasantly surprised to find a few small pieces of chicken at the bottom of my bowl. I would guess it  slipped in accidentally at the prep station. When I pointed it out to Luis and the manager, they offered me dessert and when I declined they comped my lunch.

I found BRIO’s customer service to be very good, their decor only good and their food a step down to ok. I would have enjoyed it much more if the roles were reversed with ok decor, good service and very good food. Instead, like fruit in the grocery store, everything at BRIO looks better than it tastes.

BRIO tuscan grille
14576 SW 5th Street
Pembroke Pines, FL 33027
(954) 431-1341
Locations throughout US

For more information on the author, please visit Brian von Dedenroth.

13 Gypsies

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13 Gypsies advertise themselves as “A Peasant Kitchen.” After eating here I know why. They cook like peasants, have the taste buds of peasants and treat you like a peasant.

A typical day when I’m on the road is: work in the morning, workout in the hotel gym, grab lunch, hop a plane (or when in Jacksonville, drive my rental car from Orlando or Tampa) to my next destination, check-in to new hotel, go to dinner. So by the time, I go out to dinner, it’s usually on the later side and the only thing I dislike more than a restaurant that closes at 9, is a kitchen that closes at 8:45. I arrived at 13 Gypsies at 8:30 and was immediately told by my waitress, who looked 13, the kitchen closes in 15 minutes so I better get my order in fast. So I quickly roll through their tasty looking menu.

I had high hopes for 13 Gypsies after seeing it on The Food Network’s show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. The vibe didn’t disappoint. It’s a small restaurant with a convivial intimate feel; nicely lit with candles on wooden tables.

I started with Pastor Rioja for $8/glass made of 100% viura A.K.A. macabeo – one of the grapes in the Spanish Sparkling wine Cava. It had a Sauvignon Blanc character with crisp acidity, a palate of lemon rind, good minerality and a medium finish. It was fun to have it served in a copa – the typical glass used in tapas bars in Spain.

It wasn’t fun, however to have all my food served at the same time. It’s a pet peeve of mine. As I’m eating one dish, another arrives and makes me feel pressured to finish it before it descends to room temperature. Normally no big deal if you’re dining out with lots of tapas eating buddies but with just me, I asked my waitress if she could stage my dishes. That way as I’m finishing one, the next one would arrive piping hot on its heals. She says, NO. It’s out of her control which I think is code for “I don’t care enough to care.” Of course after ordering, I’m quickly faced with a table full of food.

The first tapas I try is the bruschetta del dia which for this dia consisted of roasted peppers, onions, salt and vinegar served on grilled white bread. It was pedestrian. The veggies were cold, extremely vinegar-ed and the bread was a pasty Wonder-Bread-like Texas toast.

After a few bites, I switched to the Fish Tomatino for $9. White flake fish cooked in a sweetened tomato sauce. A Classic Spanish offering. The fish was a good size; firm but still moist with a nice roasted quality. The tomato sauce however tasted like Ragu. A bad mass produced marinara sauce with a strong canned tomato flavor.

I then turned my attention to a fire roasted red pepper stuffed with fontina cheese and cooked in a sweetened tomato sauce for $9. This dish had more problems than Spain in the E.U. The red pepper seemed more jarred than fire roasted. The cheese wasn’t fully melted and tasted like bland mozzarella and it had more of the same odious sauce that was on the fish. It was as dreadful as a dish I used to make when I was a kid: An English muffin with Ragu pizza quick sauce and American singles cooked in the toaster oven. I still remember the jingle for the sauce. Open a jar…of pizza quick sauce. And Open your own…Pizzeria. I don’t think so.

As I’m making my way through my line-up of tapas, the staff turns off the music and lets us dine to the sounds of the refrigerator and clanking utensils.

It was about around this time, 15 minutes after I received my table of food, my waitress finally ask if I was doing good. I said, “fine” which was code for “No, I’m not doing good. I feel rushed, most of my food is cold and I would have enjoyed another glass of wine about 10 minutes ago. And by the way, you are one of the worst waitresses ever.”

Lastly I dug into the only item meant to be room temperature: The Cordoba salad – mixed greens, queso blanco, sauteed shrooms, oranges, sliced almonds and balsamic vinaigrette for $9.
The cheese had a saltiness but besides that was pretty bland. The oranges were nice and crisp with a fresh citrus flavor but someone in the kitchen has a vinegar fetish. Like the red peppers in the bruschetta, it was heavy handed on the salad too.

By the time I finished, the restaurant was as devoid of life as my food had been.

Gypsies and the number 13 are much maligned around the world and this place does little  to help either stereotype. If you want to be treated like a valued customer by a well trained staff and enjoy nicely prepared food, go elsewhere. If, however you want to boost your Romaphobia and triskaidekaphobia, then this is your place.

13 Gypsies
887 Stockton Street
Jacksonville, FL
(904) 389-0330

For more information about the author, please visit Brian von Dedenroth.

Area 31

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When traveling for work, I’m in a new city every day of the week. Think George Clooney in Up in the Air without the sexual encounters. And after an exhausting day of planes, cabs and rent-a-car’s I appreciate it when the hotel restaurant is good enough to keep me on the property. Area 31 at the Epic Hotel in Miami Beach is one of those.
Located on the 16th floor of the Epic, you have the choice to dine indoors or alfresco; surrounded by Miami skyscrapers

and canals.

When the background music and conversation adds to a restaurant’s ambiance it enhances your dining experience. When it doesn’t, it’s as pleasant as listening to Steven Tyler sing the national anthem. Unfortunately, next to the dining space, Area 31 has a raucous outdoor bar where club music, loud conversations of Spanglish and smoking is de rigueur. Why does the smoke always drift toward the non-smokers?

The club vibe aside, the food from Executive Chef E. Michael Reidt is described as showcasing pristine, sustainable seafood from the restaurant’s namesake, fishing Area 31. I’m a sucker for culinary lagniappes. The meal starts with the worlds largest croutons which are a chewy way to provide a taste of of both white and raisin bread without risking cries of FOUL from the carb counting crowd. This crouton klatch is served with a dip of soffrito consisting of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, Provencal herbs and shallots.

I appreciate a chef who serves food which fits into the culinary culture of the restaurant, especially something I’ve never had like soffrito, but it suffered from too much tomato and not enough garlic, shallots and herbs.

At home I eat mostly vegetarian but when I’m on the road and especially in a place known for having great local and sustainable seafood, I have to try it. So I started with a small bite of wahoo crudo for $9. It is raw wahoo, garlic, olive oil, shallots and citrus powder – a mix of various citrus piths. The presentation was clean and fun with each glistening bite of wahoo skewered with a miniature bamboo harpoon.
The wahoo was meaty and substantial but did have a hint of fishiness. And like the tomato did to the soffrito, the citrus overwhelmed the wahoo adding an unwelcome bitterness. The same problem when you eat sushi doused in wasabi or siracha mayo and it’s all you can taste. This dish would be better if it were more ceviche-like topped with just citrus juice, no rind and a bit more shallot and garlic.

My next course was Florida corn soup for $11. Lump crab meat arrived in a bowl sprinkled with a dehydrated brown butter powder. Then Javier, my amiable server, poured a mixture of cream corn and rendered bacon over the top.

I don’t like bacon however I can’t call myself an OMNIVOROUS vegetarian if I’m not willing to try anything. And I’m glad I am because this is pork and seafood done right. Instead of an overwhelming salted pork flavor I’ve had in the past from dishes like prosciutto wrapped shrimp, in this dish it adds an extra dimension of richness and savoriness.

I chose a Flora Springs Napa Valley Chardonay ’09 to pair with my soup and entrée. It’s a mix of 50% French Oak aging and 50% stainless steel.

The creaminess of the corn matches well with wine’s roundness and buttery quality and the brininess of lump crab with the wines minerality. It’s a great pairing for this soup and a great setting to enjoy it.

For an entrée, I ordered yellow tail snapper with coconut rice, baby zucchini rounds, globe carrots, lump crab meat and a cilantro pesto for $27. Another great presentation, from the  bowl it was served in to table side pour of the cilantro pesto. But…

like the crudo, the snapper was a little fishy. As I experimented with different bites I discovered it was the skin that was adding the fishy funk and once removed it went away  but the fish was a still a little dry and chewy. This dish would be better with a richer and more substantial fish without the skin, replacing the lost crunch of the skin with some fried herbs, kicking up the flavor of the bland rice and adding rendered bacon. I’m kidding about the bacon…or am I?

For dessert I chose the Strawberry “Rock”. No. Not a wrestling doll combing the girlish innocence of the Strawberry Shortcake doll with Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling alter ego though that would be hilarious. If you smell what the Strawberry Rock is cooking? This strawberry rock is a dessert of macerated strawberries, tres leches cake and pistachio ice cream for $8

It was good but not great. The strawberry flavor comes nicely through but the strawberries could have been fresher. The dish has a nice variety of textures: hard, soft, crunchy, creamy but the strawberry rock tasted like cheap strawberry ice cream from Thriftys. The pistachio ice cream would be better with more creaminess such as in pistachio gelato. And pistachios roasted with sea salt would have added more interesting flavors than the candied pistachios. Overall, I’d give this dessert a pass.

I paired the dessert with a Kracher Auslese Burgenland Austria ’08 $15. It’s a viscous dessert wine with lots of orange flavor, orange rind, orange blossom and honey. It was a good wine and fantastic pairing with a dessert called Orange Rock. The strong orange flavor of the wine completely distracted from the strawberry flavor of the dessert. An orange liqueur like cointreau in the cake or an orange rind garnish might bring the dessert and wine better together but probably switching to a light berried dessert wine would be the best option.

Javier my server described Area 31 best when he said it’s, “food you can play with.” I appreciate that and even though some of the food you’d rather play with than eat, the knowledgeable and friendly service, the dedication to local and sustainable and it’s location are enough reasons to check out the Area.

Area 31
16th floor at EPIC Hotel
270 Biscayne Blvd. Way
Miami,FL 33131
305.424.5234

For more information about the author, please visit Brian von Dedenroth.

Grateful Spoon Gelato

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What could be better than ice cream on a hot Arizona day? GELATO any day. If you grew up in suburbia like me, you screamed for ice cream but one taste from Grateful Spoon Gelato and you’ll be screaming for gelato instead.

Their logo looks like gelato revolutionaries uniting in solidarity to overthrow ice cream’s  oppressive (egg) yolk around the taste buds of the people. And once you see their assortment of flavors, you’ll want to grab a spoon and join in.
The usual suspects such as vanilla and chocolate are joined by more exotic fair e.g. pistachio, nutella and dulce de leche. Like any good frozen confectioner, you can sample your way to your own taste bud nirvana. I decided on a decidedly different combo of Hazelnut and Cortina which is almond with lingonberries.
While we wait for my double dip of deliciousness to be served up let’s take a quick look at gelato. It’s an Italian frozen dessert sometimes attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti, a cook from Florence who served the treat to Catherine de’Medici in 1565.

Gelato differs from ice cream in that it generally has 15-30% less air churned into it during freezing resulting in a denser product with more intense flavors. It also has about 10% lower butterfat content than ice cream and as much as double the amount of sugar. What this means to your mouth is that each bite coats your tongue with a dense cream that satisfies your soul.
The hazelnut has a roasted coffee flavor with a rich creaminess and the cortina tastes of vanilla cream mixed with a raspberry-strawberry hybrid. After tasting these, I’d rather have a lotta gelato than scream for ice cream any day and the scoops are large priced at $3 for one or $4 for two. Grateful Spoon claims to prepare their gelato in small batches just like in Italy and based on the equipment behind the counter, I believe them. They also state they use local 100% natural products without pre-made bases, starters or mixes and even pasteurize their own milk which says they care about quality.

But I wish they’d take their caring a little further. Rather than serve their gelato in plastic containers with plastic spoons, why not use a biodegradable paper or plant-based bowls (preferably non-GMO corn) and wooden or bamboo spoons?

Besides that I stand in solidarity with you Grateful Spoon and you should too. You’ll be grateful you did.

Grateful Spoon Gelato
4401 N. 40th St.
Phoenix, AZ 85018
602-955-2448

For more information about the author please visit Brian von Dedenroth.

Taco Temple

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I first heard about Taco Temple when I was filming The Winemakers in Paso Robles in 2007. Since then, I’ve made many pilgrimages to the Temple with offerings of an empty stomach and have always been rewarded with a satisfied soul. The place is legendary in the area but with its location in a nondescript parking lot East of Highway 1 on the Northern end of Morro Bay, it’s location is not. Neither is it’s shack-like appearance.

It also doesn’t look like much from the inside but has some fun decorations; brightly painted surfboards hanging from the ceiling that look like they belonged to a Maori surf club and eclectic Mexican tchotchkes and paintings decorating the walls and alcoves. It’s old school California beach culture but looks aren’t the reason to trek to the Temple.

The food is. And so is the wine and beer. Taco Temple offers affordable local wine and beer from Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo including popular Firestone Walker Brewing Company. So, with all the local offerings what did I opt for? A $4 pint of Scrimshaw Pilsner on draught from North Coast Brewing in Fort Bragg – 400 miles away. I love draught beer and it sounded like the right beer for my lunch. It was.

Scrimshaw Pilsner tastes like the perfect beer to drink when you come in from the harvest or perhaps a tough day of whaling. It’s color is proof blonds have more fun. It has a medium body, a crispness highlighted by a touch of caramel sweetness and a sprightly finish with the lingering taste of grains; plus it was served American cold. I don’t share many American’s love affair with overly air conditioned indoor spaces and water glasses overflowing with ice cubes. But when it comes to beer, God Bless America. Nobody does it colder. Makes me feel sad for the rest.

It also makes me feel sad when Mexican restaurants charge for chips and salsa. Taco Temple does not. Their chips and salsa bar include freshly made chips with a few different salsas: A red piquante with a roasted flavor. Your typical pureed Mexican red sauce; tongue burning and sweat inducing. A pico de gallo which had a boring canned taste. It needed more cilantro, some onion and garlic, fresher tomatoes and some fresh jalapeños. Fortunately, they also offer fresh jalapeños by themselves which provided me with some ammo to perk up the pico. I give the Temple high marks for having fresh jalapeños at the bar and not using those disgusting pickled jalapeños from the can.

Taco Temple is renown for their fresh and local fish BUT as they say when haggling South of the border “es muy caro”; It is very expensive e.g. one fish taco for $16. I’ve had them before and they’re excellent but pricey so instead I opted for The Kind Veggie Burrito. A monstrous affair too big for one sane person; served in a sun-dried tomato tortilla slightly charred and served with dollops of guacamole and sour cream.

Under the hood, you’ll find a delicious salad of spring mix, tomatoes, rice, cheese, black beans, radishes and carrots. If you look around you’ll see many other plates with a similar accompaniment. They like using the spring mix. And I appreciate that it’s healthier than a lot of Mexican food with its characteristic gobs of cheese overflowing every nook.
However my burrito, like the salsas, was tasty but not mind blowing. The ingredients aren’t seasonal and you can taste they lack a freshness. Still, if you’re hungry and in the mood for good Mexican food in a casual kick-back atmosphere accompanied by a nice selection of beer and wine, Taco Temple is worth a trip.

Taco Temple
2680 Main Street  Morro Bay, CA 93442
(805) 772-4965

Bryant Park Grill

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If you find yourself hungry in Midtown Manhattan and you want to treat yourself to an excellent meal, don’t go to Bryant Park Grill.
It’s easy to be tempted. The Internet is full of positive reviews. Concierges like mine at The Hyatt Grand Central highly recommend the place. The location in Bryant Park is fantastic with great views from inside where large windows offer front row seats to a parade of humanity strolling by.

And the interior is bright and airy BUT Bryant Park Grill charges for location, location, location without providing food with flavor, flavor, flavor.

The problems began with their beer selection: Budweiser, Coors, Heineken and Corona. I expect generic mass produced beers when I’m traveling on a plane but I haven’t heard a selection this bad in a well regarded restaurant since the 80′s. How about a local beer? How about some craft beers? How about more variety? Or how about switching to wine?

Sadly, with Ménage à Trois, Chalone, Folie à Deux, Jacobs Creek, etc…, the wine was only a marginal improvement over the beer. I’m not saying these wines are bad but I am saying they’re $8 Trader Joes drink-at-home-when-you-don’t-care wines, not I want a nice glass of wine chosen by a sommelier who knows more about wines than I. Still, I was in the mood for something so I tried a wine I was unfamiliar with; An ’09 Ca’ Donini Delle Venezie Pinot Grigio for $9. It was fruity and simple and lost me at bonjourno. I was hoping the food would make up for the beverages.
  I started with a white bean vegetable soup with aged Vermont cheddar garnished with a green onion puree for $8.50. With chunks of veggies and beans It looked good. It wasn’t. The vegetables were DOA, lying dormant in a flavorless watery grave. No fresh herbs detectable. What little taste there was had a diluted V8 quality to it. Their secret stock perhaps? This soup was so bad not even Campbell’s would put their label on it.
Oh look! Both my dishes are here at the same time. YIPEE! Great job Bryant Park Grill. Now I can choke down my flavorless soup as my entree sinks toward room temperature. Instead, I pushed my gruel aside and put all my faith on my entrée.

Vegan stir fried curry quinoa for $17.50 with wild mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, serrano chili peppers, English peas and grilled eggplant. I appreciate they offered a tasty sounding vegan option but…whomever plated the dish must have learned their presentation skills at a soup kitchen where glopping the food on the plate earns you volunteer of the month.

A mountain of unappetizing quinoa dominated the plate with a few veggies fleeing over the side. 70% of the plate must have been quinoa, which was waterlogged, with one piece of overcooked eggplant, 4 pieces of wilted asparagus, some grilled iceberg, a few peas and not a wild mushroomn nor flavor of serrano in sight.
If you have no taste buds, love being charged inflated New York prices instead of served good food or think the quality of their vegetarian offerings will in no way reflect their meat dishes, then head on in to Bryant Park Grrrrrrill.

Bryant Park Grill
25 W 40th St  New York, NY 10018
(212) 840-6500

Olio e Limone

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I’m a fan of the band Pink Martini. At first glance, they appear to be an orchestra from a bygone era replete with classic instruments, suits and evening gowns. But when you look a closer, you’ll notice personal style such as: bleached blonde hair, sparkly sequins and tattoos. The band, like their music is an smorgasbord of sights and sounds that are uniquely their own. Uniqueness and personalized interpretation are the same qualities I want when I dine out. I had been told that Olio e Limone in Santa Barbara was such a place. So with tickets to Pink Martini at the Arlington theater on State Street in hand, my date for the evening (A.K.A. mom) and I headed over for some pre-show dinner.
Olio e Limone Exterior
The quaint space on West Victoria was surprisingly packed for 7PM on a Thursday. Either a reflection of the newlywed or nearly dead reputation of Santa Barbara or the crowd was heading to the 8PM show across the street like us.
Olio e Limone Interior
Olie e Limone is a Goldilocks sized place; quaint and intimate, nice lighting and a clean adobe hacienda-look. “Simple elegance” as mom described it. Friendly and welcoming with mirrors and windows making the room appear larger with a pleasing Feng Shui effect.
Olio e Limone Reflection in Mirror
A bottle of Alberello Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is brought to every table with bread. It has a clean, mellow, light taste. An every man’s olive oil.
Alberello Organic Olive Oil
Spongy Italian bread accompanies the oil. My favorite foil for olive oil. Soft and spongy inside for Gulf Coast level oil absorption with a harder crust for a crunchy contrast.
Italian Bread
Our waiter like our olive oil was imported from Italy. It was fun to listen to his Italian accent as he corrected my mis-pronunciations of every dish I ordered. We started with an, unseasonal for October, Insalata Primaverile (spring salad). It sounded too good to pass up: Mixed baby lettuces, grilled eggplant, roasted bell peppers, goat cheese and Olio e Limone dressing for $12.
Insalata Primaverile
Great presentation and a nice flavor but the ingredients lacked a feral depth of freshness you get with seasonal and local produce. Also, if the zucchini had been warm, it would have provided a nice temperature contrast that would have been more interesting in the mouth. It was good just not amazing. Next we ordered Fiorellini di Mellanzane.
Fiorellini di Mellanzane
Housemade ravioli filled with roasted eggplant and goat cheese with fresh tomato sauce, basil and ricotta salata for $21. This dish was amazing and our favorite. The eggplant provided a heartiness, the raviolis tasted fresh, the goat cheese was simultaneously creamy and rustic with a tart after taste and the ricotta salata provided a nice saltiness. Soul satisfying Italian comfort food. Along with the ravioli, we ordered Spaghetti allo Scoglio.
Spaghetti allo Scoglio
Spaghetti with fresh dungeness crab meat in a spicy tomato sauce topped with a big prawn for $26. It was deliciously spicy and briney but a little fishy and the prawn lacked that little lobster flavor you find in the really good ones. Still, I dispatched it with alacrity.

Olio e Limone offers a nice selection of Italian Reds by the glass for $11-13. Mom went “The Godfather” with a Sicilian Nero d’Avola. I stayed local with a Z Cuvée from Zaca Mesa. Both paired well with the entrees. Olio e Limone doesn’t serve up Pink Martini level flavor, but it’s ambiance, location, food and wine does well enough to satisfy the newlywed, the nearly dead and those in between.

Olio e Limone

17 West Victoria Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone: 805-899-2699

Cosmo’s Pizza

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Boulder Vegetarian PizzaPizza Gigantor from Cosmo’s Pizza in Boulder Colorado. A 24″ monster with a price tag to match. For nearly $40 you too can have this half Veggie Supreme and half Greek veggie. According to Cosmo’s website, the toppings on the Veggie Supreme are: Green Pepper, Mushroom, Onion, Tomatoe & Black Olive AND the Greek Veggie has: Spinach, Sun Dried Tomatoe, Artichoke Heart & Feta Cheese. Save your money and ignore the hype you read on-line about Cosmos. It was probably written by drunk and stoned college kids from nearby CU. The size of the pie may impress but nearly all of the ingredients have that canned “food product” flavor you find when restaurants source from companies like Sysco. The black olives taste plastic, the artichoke hearts have no heart, sun-dried tomatoes are uninspired, cheese is plebeian and the tomatoes…well…they’re as good as the spelling of the person who wrote tomato with an e on their website. Dan Quayle would be proud – but I bet he wouldn’t like their pizza either.

Cosmos Pizza
659 30th Street
Boulder, CO
(303) 447-3278

Bridgeport Brewpub

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If you like beer, than you would love Portland, OR with more brewpubs per capita than any city in the U.S. It’s my favorite beer city. Bridgeport Brewpub in the historic Pearl District is a great place to knock a few back. With distribution in many states, maybe you already have but it’s always better at the source. Especially if you’re there for the $3 a pint happy hour. Where else can you get a great draught beer for $3? In Portland, everywhere. I’m always astonished at the quality and affordability of beer, wine and food when dining out there.

India Pale Ale is one of my favorite styles of beer when it’s not too heavy but has a noticeable but not overwhelming hoppy bitterness.  And while Bridgeport’s IPA was a beautiful amber color, it tasted very light and was slightly effervescent with a citrus character rather than a hoppy or bitter one. It was a refreshing beer but not my favorite IPA ever. I thought it lacked some complexity and richness in flavor that I’ve had in other IPAs. The alcohol was a respectable 5.5%. Still with so many other beers to choose from on draught and in such a great old building, if you’re in Portland and thirsty for beer Bridgeport is definitely worth a stop.