I used to live on the corner of E 3rd St and Avenue A, and I loved the neighborhood. This was before this blog existed, but I still was excited about the many food options available to me: Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches, Mama’s, and a 24-hour Key Food, among others. I was not, however, aware of the existence of Perbacco, an Italian restaurant that blends tradition and the avant-garde. Lucky for me my friends Jess & Garrett knew about it, and the three of us met there for dinner last week. Lucky for you also, because their photos came out much better than mine (click the link to their blog if you don’t believe me).

Click to continue…

Sometimes you get so caught up in going to the newest, hippest, most happening restaurants in town — What’s got great buzz? What’s been reviewed recently? What’s the newest trend? — that you forget that there are plenty of restaurants that have been around for a while. It takes a visit to a real veteran restaurant to make you realize what it takes to run a successful restaurant in New York City. At a recent dinner at Po (after a few drinks at Vol de Nuit) with my friends Jeff & Eva, we had just such a revelation.

Click to continue…

I watch Lidia Bastianich on television quite a bit. In some ways she stands in for the Italian grandmother I never had, complete with exhortations to join her (and her family) at her table to eat. I’d been meaning to check out Felidia for a couple of years now, but somehow never made it. My family has started a little bit of a tradition in the past few years: when my parents, my sister, and I are all in town, we try to go out to a fancy meal. With thoughts of family in my head, I realized Felidia would be a perfect place to go.

Click to continue…

We apologize for the lack of posts recently — now that the holiday season is over, we promise more will be coming. Although we didn’t get to all of the restaurants we wanted to visit in 2009, that didn’t stop us from making a list of restaurants we want to visit this year. Some of them are Howard’s and some of them Donny’s — and some of them are both. Can you figure out which are which? Either way, we’re looking forward to a lot of good eating in 2010.

Anywhere in Flushing
The Breslin
The Brooklyn Star
Buttermilk channel
Char no 4
DBGB
Defonte’s of Brooklyn
Diner
The Good Fork
Joseph Leonard
Locanda Verde
Marlow and Sons
Prime Meats
Scarpetta
Shopsins
Txikito

Howard: I last ate at Dirt Candy almost exactly a year ago, shortly after they had opened. I enjoyed my meal quite a bit, particularly the grits. When I expressed interest in going back, Donny surprised me by saying he wanted to go as well. Donny, eater of chicken feet and pig’s tongue, wanted to eat at a vegetarian restaurant? He most certainly did.

Click to continue…

Donny sometimes gives me a hard time about being so “obsessed” with pizza, but if there’s anyone we know who’s more into pizza than me it’s Donny’s roommate, our friend Mo. He recently suggested that we do a tour of Brooklyn pizzerias, in which we would hit as many as we could in one day. He even volunteered to drive us from place to place so that we wouldn’t waste any time. We came up with a list of about six different pizzerias that we wanted to visit. Unfortunately, as Robert Burns said, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley.” In other words, it didn’t go exactly as planned.

Click to continue…