More East 7th Street Eats

Last night, I tried the new Veloce Pizzeria on East 7th Street and 1st Avenue. I chatted with chef Sarah Jenkins over a square slice and a checked table cloth. Is East 7th Street heaven? Quite possibly. If we add them to our East 7th Street eats and drinks list (and we should!) we could start at East 7th and 1st Avenue with Porchetta, Veloce Pizzeria, and Abraco Coffee Then, walk down the block to Jimmy's No. 43 and Burp Castle for great beer at East 7th Street and 2nd Avenue. Sounds like a perfect day to me!

Thanksgiving Food and Drink

It's that time of year again. All the food and dining sections are preparing us for Thanksgiving. I hope you like stuffing... and which wine should it be? Beaujolais Village or Zinfandel?

If I had my way this Thanksgiving, I'd be drinking some really good German beers at Jimmy' s No. 43. Mahr's unfiltered lager 'Ungespundet" to name one. I'd like to dig into some slow roasted porchetta, pulled pork style, with a nice root vegetable pureee. Maybe I'd go all out and try a big porchetta sandwich at Sarah Jenkin's new Porchetta down the block at 7th St and 1st Ave!

Greenmarket Goddess 2002

In 2002, a little East Village restaurant named Patio Dining made a splash with its daily market menu. I was lucky to be part of that magical time. Chef Sarah Jenkins was working at Il Buco on Bond Street. She was my favorite chef. My wife and I had our first date there and many dates after that. We even had our rehearsal dinner there. One afternoon, she (Sarah) came to see me, "I quit Il Buco, I want to work with you.". I said, "Take a few weeks off, go back to Italy, then we'll talk". When she returned, we agreed to offer a daily market menu.

Sarah would go the market every day and buy what she needed for the menu that night. Every night there was one dish that was the best thing I had ever tasted in my life. One night it was the soup, the next it was the pasta and so on.

Rob and Robin at New York Magazine wrote a feature article titled Green Market Goddess- click here to read from the New York Magazine Archives.