Rue 57 - a bit of Paris with a NYC following

Rue 57

60 W. 57 Street

New York City, 10019

Mon-Fri: 7:30 a.m.- Midnight

Sat-Sun: 9 a.m.-Midnight

Brunch – Sat-Sun: 9 a.m.-3 :30 p.m.

212-307-5656 -Rue57.com, delivery 

By Jane Feehan

When I asked some New Yorkers for a short list of good restaurants near my hotel, Rue 57 was at the top. A “Brasserie Parisienne et Sushi Bar,” Rue 57 is a clamorous place with interesting fare that continues to beckon my return.

Located a few blocks from Central Park at the busy corner of 57^th and Avenue of the Americas, Rue 57 serves up some beautiful dishes for brunch, lunch and dinner. My first meal there, lunch, was a turkey burger with fries served with a side of artichokes and tomatoes that placed my pedestrian choice over the top.  A sautéed red snapper special on the second visit wasn’t as intriguing, nor the kale salad with apples and citrus dressing, which didn’t prove as tasty as the menu suggested. The salad was redeemed when more apples and dressing were delivered upon request. The not-so-fresh snapper was prepared beautifully but the dish was an unpleasant juxtaposition of mediocre ingredients and a valiant attempt at a cover up. A pleasant dessert of Profiteroles (cream puffs) in chocolate sauce made me soon forget the main course.  We returned a few weeks later for fluffy French toast with fruit, and an omelet with three cheeses ...  a perfect brunch.

I’ve yet to sample their sushi with so many dishes to choose from … next time. Service is quite good, reservations recommended, especially during peak hours when visitors vie with locals for a table at this popular corner of 57^th Street and Aveune of the Americas. Full bar and sidewalk table seating available.

Tags: New York City brunch, restaurants near Central Park, restaurants near the Marriott Residence Inn Central Park, NYC sushi restaurants 

Café Fiorello, NYC - Classy fare, setting near Lincoln Center

Café Fiorello

1900 Broadway – between 63 and 66^th Sts, across from Lincoln Center

New York, NY 212-595-5330

www.cafefiorello.com

Open lunch and dinner

Brunch on weekends

By Jane Feehan

Café Fiorello, across from the Lincoln Center, draws theater goers and loyal customers from the neighborhood and nearby businesses, including CNN.

Ideal for pre - or post-show dining, Café Fiorello offers a large semi-circular antipasto bar where a waiter will choose a few dishes to bring tableside or where diners can sit and and order their favorites for a light meal. This area of the restaurant features a great view of Lincoln Center.  

An elegant menu, with an array of fresh seafood, traditional Italian dishes, prime steaks and other meats, matches this restaurant’s classy dark wood interior. It’s expensive but thoroughly enjoyable right down to divine desserts. The café offers al fresco dining in warm weather. Service – good. Not a great place for kids, especially at night. For transit directions, visit: www.hopstop.com.

Tags: NYC restaurants, pre-theater dining near Lincoln Center, post-theater dining near Lincoln Center, Italian restaurants NYC

Coppelia, Greenwich Village: Luscious Latin food in this "diner"

Coppelia CLOSED

207 West 14^th Street

New York, NY  10001

www.ybandco.com

Open 24/7 – Catering also available

212-858-5001

By Jane Feehan

One may question why Coppelia bills itself as a diner. It’s not a prefabricated building. It’s not one long train-like dining car. But a counter dominates the main room and it does serve breakfast 24 hours a day, five days a week with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.  

Coppelia is much more than their description as a New York-style luncheonette with Cuban accents. It dishes up some luscious Latin food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and offers house-made desserts and breakfast sweets that alone would be worth a visit. Cuban coffees and Latin music punctuate a menu of

Huevos Rancheros; Pan France or Challah French toast heaped with fresh fruit; empanadas bursting with sweet corn, chicken or beef; Ropa Vieja – slow-cooked shredded beef in tomato salsa; Mejillones - steamed mussels, jalapeño bacon with cilantro and spicy fries; Camarones Diablo – dark rum-glazed shrimp with rice. For the less adventurous, there are diner standards: eggs plain, hamburgers, tuna melts, grilled cheese and more.  Happy Hour draws devotees looking for a little socializing to go with Coppelia’s great food.

I’ve traveled from midtown Manhattan to the Village a few times just to visit Coppelia. I’ll dine there again before I return to South Florida. Will I find a Latin diner as good as Coppelia in Fort Lauderdale or Miami?        For transit directions, visit: http://hopstop.com

Tags: NYC diners, diners in Greenwich Village, Latin diners in Manhattan, good diners in NYC, Cuban food, Latin food in NYC

For transit directions, visit: http://hopstop.com

El Quijote at Hotel Chelsea, NYC - of Joplin, Hendrix, Dylan,Thomas Wolfe and ...

El Quijote Restaurant

226 W. 23^rd St.

New York City, NY 

212-929-1855

http://www.elquijoterestaurant.com/

By Jane Feehan

Part of Hotel Chelsea, El Quijote restaurant will be the closest most of us will get to the historic building for awhile. It’s been closed to all but a few long-time renters since late 2011 as it undergoes renovations by New York developer Joseph Chetrit.*

Stardust and nostalgia lure most to El Quijote, an old-time Spanish dining spot opened in 1930. It’s hard to imagine Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan or Sid Vicious stopping in for a meal - much less party at this sedate place - but stories abound about the hotel’s famous guests at this eatery.

Timeless murals of bull fighting and other scenes from the book of adventures of the man from La Mancha (Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, 1605) line walls of El Quijote. The décor appropriately complements a menu of Spanish dishes such as paella, camerones plancha (grilled shrimp), Red Snapper Vizcaina, lobster or steaks.Tapas serve as starters or small meals at table or bar.

We dined on succulent lobster, and seafood paella, crispy salads, tasty soup and finished it off with flan. Good, not memorable, but we – as do many others - will stop back for more tales from the bartenders and hope to feel (maybe see?) the ethereal presence of rockers and writers long gone.  Let’s hope El Quijote remains once the hotel reopens with a mostly new face and interior.

Reservations suggested, "casual neat" dress code.
For transit directions, visit: http://hopstop.com

*Hotel Chelsea was built in 1884 as a cooperative apartment building. At the time, it was the tallest building in New York City. It was designated as a New York City landmark in 1966 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Its architecture, Queen Ann style, is noted for interior and exterior wrought iron accents. Because Hotel Chelsea is a historic place, the developer will have to preserve some architectural aspects of the building. Among its list of notables guests are Bob Dylan, Arthur C. Clark, who wrote part of 2001: A Space Odyssey while there, playwright Henry Miller, poet/singer Leonard Cohen, writers Dylan Thomas and Thomas Wolfe. Sid Vicious murdered girlfriend Nancy Spungen at the hotel in 1978 room 100. 

Chelsea notables Henry Miller,

Dylan Thomas, Dylan Thomas

Tags: New York City Spanish restaurants, Hotel Chelsea, famous restaurants in NYC, famous places in New York City, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Arthur C. Clark, Sid Vicious, Nancy Spungen, film researcher

Rosemary's NYC - Packs flavor ... and crowds

Rosemary’s

18 Greenwich Avenue (West Village)

NYC 10011

212-647-1818

Breakfast: 8-11:30 a.m.

Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Dinner: 5 p.m.-12 a.m.

Rosemarysnyc.com

By Jane Feehan

One of New York City’s busiest new restaurants, Rosemary’s dishes up skillfully prepared Italian creations to an adoring local crowd willing to wait an hour or more for dinner.

Rosemary’s pays homage to the current farm-to-table trend with its roof-top-grown vegetables and herbs.  Their signature minestrone soup, or Minestra di Stagione ($16) overflows with garden fresh vegetables and is a lunch time favorite. Pollo al Mattone ($20), a juicy and flavorful half chicken atop brussel sprouts, beans and house-made croutons, is top notch.  Small dishes ($5) of vegetables, meat, seafood or cheeses either complement a meal or serve as mainstay. One of those dishes, Eggplant Caponata - roasted eggplant, and olives in a tomato-based sauce – bursts with flavor.

A bar surrounded by high top, chairless tables keeps patrons occupied while waiting to be seated. Some wait for a cell phone call announcing their table while at nearby bars. Rosemary’s, once the site of a stationary store, is short on ambiance and is a noisy, crowded place most of the day. It’s trendy, moderately priced and casual. Union Square lies a few blocks away. Service: good.
For transit directions, visit: http://hopstop.com

Tags: Top new restaurants in New York City, West Village Italian restaurants, Italian restaurant lower Manhattan, farm-to-table restaurant NYC, NYC Italian restaurants, West Village brunch, West Village lunch, West Village breakfast,  film researcher   

Rossini's NYC - Cutting corners cuts business - Fuhgeddaboudit

Rossini’s Restaurant

108 E 38^th Street

New York City 10016

212-683-0135

http://rossinisrestaurant.com/

Lunch and dinner

By Jane Feehan

Open since 1978, Rossini’s has drawn Madison Avenue execs and minions seeking quality service,  comfortable, sophisticated surroundings, and long ago, good food. One who used to patronize Rossini’s suggested I stop by, recalling his good ol’ days there. He suggested I try their lobster.

Those who say you can’t go home again must have had Rossini’s in mind. I knew I was in trouble when lobster wasn't listed on the menu and tilapia was the fish of the day. That’s one fish I won’t eat. It’s farmed, full of hormones, antibiotics and void of good omega 3s. Cheap. (See: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400472/Avoid-Tilapia.html)  I settled on swordfish. It was so old -- mealy and mushy and covered in sauce -- I could barely down the second forkful. Then I asked for a half order of spaghetti and was sorely disappointed. Overcooked and swimming in olive oil. Fuhgeddaboudit.

Even the wine was lousy - their "private" label. The cabernet sauvignon tasted the same as their pinot noir. That cheap. There were no other wines by the glass. The service was excellent except for the snotty captain who ran through a litany of specials looking at his watch or behind him to goggle at the people straggling in.

To the restaurant’s credit, they reduced my bill by about a third without me saying anything. They knew how bad the fish was. No, this is one place I won’t return to. Seems the competition in the Murray Hill area is forcing Rossini’s to cut corners.

Tags: Italian restaurants in New York City, Italian restaurants in Murray Hill, Madison Avenue restaurants

Keens Steakhouse - New York City - steaks, churchwarden pipes, and history

Keens Steakhouse (their sign says "Chophouse")

72 West 36^th Street

New York, NY

212-947-3636

Monday-Friday: 11:45 a.m.-10:30 p.m.

Saturday: 5-10:30 p.m.

Sunday: 5-9 p.m.

Closed only at Christmas

keens.com

By Jane Feehan

Once a meeting place for the famous and the only survivor of the Herald Square Theater District, Keens is one of those New York restaurants that people flock to for its fin de siècle ambiance and traditional menu of quality steaks.

Theater district figure Albert Keen took ownership of the restaurant in 1885 and turned the spot into a gathering place for actors, playwrights, publishers and newspaper types. There’s lots of history here, including some Abe Lincoln memorabilia and a large collection of churchwarden pipes – those pipes that smokers would leave at a favorite restaurant for their return visit because they were too fragile to haul around.  

Keens took reservations for 800 this Thanksgiving; it’s a popular place. Steaks reign but fish entrées win accolades. Their bar draws lots of locals, including New York Times reporters with bylines - an interesting bunch. Keens’ pub menu offers less pretentious fare than the main dining rooms, including sandwiches, burgers and salads. Friendly bartenders make the solitary diner feel comfortable. Garage parking is directly across the street.

Tags: New York steak house, New York City restaurants, New York City dining, New York history, film research