I love Bleecker Street nights.
Let me explain.
When a friend, loved one or acquaintance asks me: “Where should we go for I dinner?” I frequently reply: “Let’s just go down to Bleecker street and find something.”
I say that because there are SO many options on Bleecker Street and in that area. I’m talking, basically, about Greenwich Village—I love eating in the Village. I’m constantly stumbling upon new places and loving them. There are many treats to be had on Bleecker street–the cashew bar at Amy’s bread, the pizza at Joe’s or John’s. Bleecker Street is my favorite food street in New York.
So tonight with my brother, who is here visiting (my parents may follow tomorrow depending on whether my dad beats his cold), I took him down to Bleecker and we strolled in the cold cold cold. (I’ve been triplifying my prose, lately, I’m not sure why why why).
“Which place do you like, Michael?” I asked.
“I want Chinese,” he replied.
“Ummm,” I said, “There’s no real Chinese around here. But pick one of these places.”
We looked at Po.
“This is owned by Mario Batali,” I said, “It was his first restaurant. It’s supposed to be great.”
He studied the menu on the outside. “Quail? Sweetbreads? No thanks.”
We were on Cornelia St. (my favorite side street off Bleecker) and after wandering past a few more places, we discovered Home:
“Look, Michael,” I said gleefully. “It’s Home! It’s like we’re eating at home! Let’s eat here!”
With a grumble, he ok-ed it.
Here is Michael:
He’s sitting in Home. Our waitress came over and said: “Let me tell you about the specials…” It was weirdly done because usually you say: “Hi, how are you tonight?” Or something on that order. She just jumped right into the specials.
But that’s ok, we’ll forgive her. The food was great. We shared a fried cornmeal coated oyster appetizer:
Michael ate his half bravely and seemed to enjoy it. I enjoyed mine.
Then, for my entree, I had the duck which had great accoutrements (quince sauce and a butternut squash side) but the duck itself was a little fatty:
Michael had the roasted chicken with garlicky greens, onion rings and homemade ketchup:
I thought his looked fannntastic and I confirmed that by eating some. It was. Even Michael thought so: “I don’t normally like American food,” he said, “but this is really good.”
So that was us at Home.
But the fun doesn’t stop there. We were on our way to Film Forum for a festival of Westerns, but first we stopped into Rocco’s pastry shop for some cannoli. Look at this display case!
How can you NOT love Bleecker Street?
I’d like to say Michael and I shared this cannoli, but please forgive us and our gluttony when I say we each had our own:
I don’t think I even need to tell you how good this was.
After that, it was a brisk walk down 6th Avenue to Houston where a big line already formed at Film Forum. We bought our tickets and went in to see Jimmy Stewart and Janet Leigh in The Naked Spur which was terrific. I took this picture going in:
I think it’s my most artistic shot yet. Maybe because I was so inspired by our night on Bleecker Street?
I’m telling you–those Bleecker Street nights. They’re the best.
Wow! I ate at Home seven years ago with my Great Aunt who lives in the City–I was there over spring break and all the indoor tables were reserved, so we ate on the patio and were awarded Polar Bear Club membership–complete with a button.
I still have my button somewhere in storage back in Indiana.
Hmmm… I love Home. I like to sit outside on the patio in the fall or early spring. The weather is still a little nippy, but not too cold. They turn on the shielded heaters for you, and you sit with friends. I’ve never had a bad meal there. It’s just such a cozy little place.
Anyone who says they don’t like American food needs to take a look at what they consider American to be. Home is an excellent example of American Regional cooking as is Lark Creek Inn here on the West Coast.
It’s true that American food can trace its roots to overseas cousins often in a direct way, more readily than say European countries but in most cases it has been adapted to the ingredients found in this very bountiful land.
It also tends to be less codified than other again European cuisines and more open to experimentation (note: I’m not speaking about Spain and the molecular gastronomists).
Funny to hear Bleeker street being a good food street. When I lived in NY Bleeker Street was good for record stores, CBGB’s and the Bleeker Street cinema but not for food.
I love your food blog, and I made my mom list it in her directory website of handpicked links to the best foods/ingrediants/ foodblogs etc at http://www.food411.com :)
keep up the great work!
Cornelia Street? What a great place! I was there last autumn and just loved this street and the wonderful neighbourhood all around it. I didn’t get to Home but had a great meal at the Cornelia Street Cafe. Have you, Adam, (or any of your readers) tried that one? Apart from the great resaurant upstairs, it has the added advantage of a very atmospheric and effective performance space in the cellar where great jazz can be heard.
Also, I ate at Bouchon Bistro nearby (at 41 Greenwich St), which I thought to be pretty good. Worth a detour, as they say.
The West Village is a great place for food! I like Le Cafe Figaro, and Yagatan has pretty good falafel. My fav food street, however, is St. Mark’s Place. Cafe Orlin is my fav New York restaurant (they have the best veggie burger I’ve ever tasted…everything on the menu is good!), Zen Cafe has half off sushi, Yakitori Taisho has delicious chicken meatballs, The Crooked Tree has good crepes with chestnut filling, Jenny’s Cafe has a phenomenal mango and taro tapioca pearl smoothie (Saint’s Alp has nothing on them!), and Nino’s has one of the best slices in NY. I really liked St. Mark’s Pizza, but they were replaced by Chickpea. :-( Also, Jas Mart has good stuff, although it’s pricey. I hear Crif’s Dogs and Yaffa Cafe are good, but I haven’t eaten there. I also want to try Australian Homemade and Khyber Pass! SO many ethnic restaurants on St. Mark’s.
I think Home is a hit or miss type of place. The first time I went there (Summer ’03) I really enjoyed a Chipotle gazpacho followed by homemade pasta in a light sauce, but I just went to Home this past Feb., and I wasn’t thrilled. I had the chicken with greens and onion rings too and I felt like it was all extremely heavy and there was an epic battle between flavors (some barely existant and disapointing and some overwhelming). The great part though is the homemade chocolate chip cookies in lieu of mints.
It’s Bleecker, with a “c.” (Just helping you build up your credentials as an authentic New Yorker.)
Snap, Adam. You got served.
Nice pic Adam, you are a regular Jimmy Felder.
If you’re in the Bleecker Street environs, you *must* go to Five Points (on Great Jones-aka 3rd Street- between Bowery & Lafayette). A-mazing. Go for Sunday brunch. Show up exactly at 11.30, or else make a reservation and wait until 3pm. Order the custard-y baked brioche french toast. It’s like you died and went to bread pudding heaven. Oh yeah, and everything else is really tasty, too. Mmmm. Can’t wait to go back!
Adam…I was shocked to realize today that my day job’s firewall is now letting me get to your site. Why was it blocked before when no other blogs are?
Good question…but let’s not focus on that.
I actually know the owners of Home…did you have any wine when you were there. They also own a vineyard out here on Long Island…still pretty new, but the wines are fun and their consultant winemaker is an emerging start out here.
NEW YORK- Winner of the 2004 Timeout New York Eat Award for “Best Chocolate Store” and New York’s candy store for grown-ups, Chocolate Bar celebrates CBGBs: Home of Underground Rock with limited-edition products dedicated to saving Manhattan’s cultural institution. For more than 30 years, the eternal downtown nightclub has with ragged pride, served as the incubator for much of the punk and art-rock which came out of New York over the last thirty years including The Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Blonde and The Talking Heads. Founded in 1973 by Hilly Kristal, the now grandfatherly 73-year-old converted a Hell’s Angels hangout into one of the most famous venues for live music and in doing so established a New York City landmark. Debuting this May, 2005, Chocolate Bar, in collaboration with Hilly Kristal unveils two edible lines of CBGB products including the CBGBs Punk Rock Box ($25.00); a 16 piece truffle collection embossed with the pioneering history and iconic imagery of CBGBs illustrious music scene. Served in a chocolate brown box, hot-stamped with the venues famed logo, it comes complete with a postage-paid petition to save CBGBs, a record-shaped biography, steel logo keychain and a collection of CBGB stickers. CBGB Retro Bars ($3.00 each); Inspired by those colossal flavors from late-night, post-show snack attacks, discover pure 1970 nostalgia with two new retro flavors. Each is wrapped in a limited-edition CBGBs keepsake, weighs an impressive 2.25 ounces and comes complete with a postage-paid petition to save the venerable venue. Chocolate Bar is located at 48 Eighth Avenue between Horatio and Jane Streets. Consumers can order product for delivery anywhere in the U.S. by calling 1.800.481.2462 or by visiting http://www.chocolatebarnyc.com.
SAVE CBGBS: Eat More Chocolate
CBGB’S by Chocolate Bar Collection Launch: May, 2005
You may have a desk job but you can still raise hell. Chocolate Bar invites you to Save CBGBs by celebrating two of our favorite things brought together for one good cause: CBGBs: New York’s landmark venue and luscious, gourmet chocolate. Five bucks gets you in the door to an all-chocolate, rock-and-roll experience. Come down to the club, sign a petition and be the first to partake of the CBGBs by Chocolate Bar Collection. All proceeds go to Save CBGBs. Press please contact Workhouse Publicity, CEO Adam Nelson by telephone 212. 645. 8006 or via email at nelson@workhousepr.com
CBGBs: Home of Underground Rock
In 1973, behind the paint-splattered metal shutters of a former Hell’s Angels’ hangout in the East Village, New York club owner Hilly Krystal opened a bar previously known only as a wino haunt. He christened it the Country Blue Grass Blues & Other Music for Urban Gourmets – CBGB & OMFUG for short. But it never did become the haven for down-home roots music he wanted it to be. Instead, bands like The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie and Television discovered the place as somewhere they could play the sort of loud power-chord rock they wanted. From the word go, CBGBs, as it quickly became known, was the darling of the New York rock scene. The space resembled a tiny hallway, making the acoustics great and even the tiniest crowd seem a teeming mass. By 1975 the club was being raved about in London, after Malcolm McLaren – then managing the Sex Pistols – caught a gig and decided that, in America, this was the place to be heard. As CBGBs ‘discoveries’ like The Ramones and Patti Smith graduated to bigger (and cleaner) venues, an avant garde streak of experimental rockers emerged there in the early 1980s, almost as a challenge to the out-there crowd who’d gone before them. Among them were New York experimental artist Lydia Lunch and a bunch of Brian Eno ring-ins dubbed “No-Wave” (as opposed to New Wave, which had by now grabbed England’s imagination). But CBGB didn’t stop discovering new talent then; They Might Be Giants, Black Flag and Living Colour are three discoveries of the late 1980s whose first gigs were at CBGBs. These days, CBGBs is still helping alternative bands from all over the world find their way up the food chain. And though there are far more alternative bands now than there ever were in the 1970s and 1980s, CBGBs is still the center of New York’s dynamic cultural scene.
Chocolate Bar
Winner of the 2004 Timeout New York Eat Award for “Best Chocolate Store”, Chocolate Bar is a candy store for grown-ups offering cosmopolitan luxury through old-fashioned collections and unique inspirations. Incorporating style, comfort and classic New York treats, Chocolate Bar features sweets by New York’s Jacques Torres, Sweet Bliss and Garrison Confections along with a signature line of nostalgia-influenced chocolate bars. The boutique’s dazzling menu includes authentic New York Egg Creams, coffee by illy Caffe, fine teas by Serendipitea, four kinds of iced and hot chocolates and pastries by the City’s best bakers. Decadent confections are available for everything from Corporate gifts to personalized wedding and party favors. Online orders are available through Chocolate Bar’s dynamic web site which allows visitors to order a host of scrumptious items including truffles, chocolate bars, hot chocolate, tea and more visit http://www.chocolatebarnyc.com. Chocolate Bar is located at 48 Eighth Avenue between Jane and Horatio streets in New York’s West Village and since the store’s opening in May, 2002, the concept has become extremely popular with sweet lovers of all ages. Created, designed and operated by Alison Nelson. For more information please visit http://www.chocolatebarnyc.com
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