Thursday, September 17, 2009

Literally the Best Burger in NYC




Irving Mill http://irvingmill.com/was my friend's choice of place for dinner, close to the W at Union Square with a simple fresh off the farm menu. We arrive after a quick teeter on high heels over wet pavement and are greeted by my friend's hubby who has kindly come into the city just to meet us. There was such a warmth about the place and the gathering of my old friend and our loved ones. The dark wood and high ceilings made the place feel like a spacious rural tavern. The bar at the Irving Mill is large, a good place to assemble a larger group for dinner. Ryan Skeen the Exec chef is known for his preference for pork and the fat rich mix of wet-aged flap beef, beef cheek, even the inclusion of fatback resulted in a juicy flavor rich burger for a reasonable $15.00! I found myself encountering a bit of grizzle in the meat but I was not daunted, it assured me the meat was ground freshly on premise. I started with one of the best Ceasar salads I have ever eaten, the entire heart of the romain served with small, crisp savory croutons and white anchovies. The salad was a perfect blendof fresh greens, salt, cheese and acid. Irving Mill, named after the famed author Washington Irving who wrote classics such a Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, made us feel like we had slipped out of the crush of the 21st century city. This is a great new Manhattan restaurant with affordable well prepared food that will give those who have not gotten used to the din and pace of NYC a place to rest and enjoy a repast.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

NYC EATS and DRINKS - Part One

W is for What?

Ok so the drinks at the W were overpriced but the company and the people watching were the equivelent of a floor show. There was the pint size woman in the Jackie O glasses and turban stomping to and fro and the young woman with the thick southern drawl who sounded like she had lost her way to an off Broadway production of Sweet Bird of Youth. "Oh, Skippa" she sighed breathlessly to my husband, "Would you be a darlin and mind our table while I slip outside for a cigg?" and of course the out of work actor/model waitress who seemed barely interested in bringing us drinks. We were practically sitting on the floor on our leather clad preschool furniture and she was going to put us in a timeout for asking ....for anything.

After a while my husband was engrossed in conversation with our new aquaintance and my college friend and I dished about the past...after we parted company with the magazine editor we all admitted that the din at the W prevented us from hearing many parts of the conversation. But the W is a slice of life if you want to see loads of black clad industry types trying to look like they don't care....about anything.

Empire Strikes Back Part 2


The doorman at the Marcel "Angel" and I chat about the significance of the day. He brought it up. We stood watching the rain together quietly and then he broke the silence with, "Hard to believe it has been eight years". I was about to comment that the attacks seemed so long ago for me when he continued, ".........seems like yesterday". I asked if he was in the city when it happened and he nodded. He said he and thousands of New Jersey commuters walked over the Brooklyn Bridge together. "For one day, New Yorkers bonded and really helped each other." He seemed like he was wishing the bond had not been broken even though those who would break it would be waking up the next morning in their beds, ready to live out another day. He said, "I will never forget that feeling, we just did not know if it had ended or if there was more to come...we just walked and walked and when we crossed the bridge to the other side, our families were waiting....they were waiting, crying, carrying water and there were so many people safe on the other side...looking for us." He stopped. We both had come to a place where our emotions were crossing over...past the point where we would have cried openly in the lobby. My husband dashed in from the rain and Angel smiled, grabbed his umbrella and hailed us a cab.


So we rush off to the W at Union Square for drinks with a magazine editor and my college friend. Friend calls enroute to say.."Place is packed, trying to get table - Fashion week , ugh". Waves of guilt at the thought that we are arriving fashionably late and keeping someone I have yet to meet

(magazine editor) and someone I have not seen in 20+ years waiting and fighting off droves of fashionistas for a table in the W lounge.


Mind you the word "table" at the W consists a piece of furniture the size of a cardboard box and chairs are not much bigger. Of course this is a non-issue because the patrons who frequent the W have asses the size of two mini marshmallows. Our cab darted through the traffic in the rain, we hop out and I scan the room trying to match the redhead I saw on FB with the redheads in the room, except my connection was a natural redhead...and you can't miss a natural redhead. My college friend was right behind her and both had found "tables". I had try to time our arrival so I would have a few minutes to catch up with my college friend before the introductions began...but I blew that...but arriving anywhere in New York within 30 minutes of expected arrival seems forgivable.

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Empire Strikes Back


This trip to New York on 9/11/2009 started with the reconnect with an art college friend on FB. He chatted away in his office in New York, where he works as an agent for a reputable firm for "talent", photogs, illustrators, stylists. I was in my home office in Mayberry, Pennsylvania repping a sculptor. We both had taken our art degrees and turned them into art facilitating careers. It was time to get together after 20+ years and compare notes and meet one another's respective husbands. All he had to say was the ever popular, "We should get together sometime" and I was booked.


Yes, booked into a hotel he did not recommend.You see the room was too small and inspite of his devotion to yoga practice, he did not like the cramped quarters at The Marcel at Grammercy. But he said some important postive things that every hotel should offer "clean", "good bed" and "good location"..that was a start. So I called the very same hotel front desk and said, "Look, my friend said he liked your hotel but you gave him a room the size of a suburban closet. Can you do better for me?" The next thing I knew I was in the native New Yorker game of "Oh Yeah, well lemme show you what we have got!" Room 707 at The Marcel was a corner deluxe with large by any standard and with great views of both 24th and 3rd ave and the parking was actually reasonably priced in the cleanest and even hippest parking garage called "The Penny Lane" brightly painted and papered with original posters from various Beatles joints.