Eataly

Okay, this is about Eataly, because like every other blogger-douche I have to get my say in. I've been twice only. I'll blog about it again in a year (maybe less).

The other night, I had two delicious pastas, a sinful assortment of cured meats and cheeses, a pizza and a beer (or two). Everything was pretty damn good.

Got back today at the perfect time; the espresso bar wasn't much of a zoo. The espresso is perfectly serviceable...maybe even more likable to the general public than the espresso at some other places...

There's another espresso station as well...

This one seemed a little more serious. They were pulling shots of Jamican Blue Mountain at $5 a pop. I didn't try one. This was more my goal...

Looked fairly hot in there...

The pizza I ordered was described with a lot of initials after it's name...T.S.G.* And then the definition of those initials. Gives you something to read while you await the end product.

Which was worth the wait today. Cheese-less, topped only by a sweet tomato puree with bits of thinly sliced garlic barely melted from the heat of the oven, basil and olive oil atop a perfectly cooked crust.

My pie was $9 and the retail prices of some items certainly look comparable, if not a bit lower, than other high-end markets here in NYC.

At the shellfish counter...overseen by fish guru David Pasternack...

Wow. There's surely a lot more for eat here, which means a lot more trips. Perhaps Significant Eater won't mind going tomorrow for lunch?

I think Eataly sets a new bar. It brings together, for our shopping and dining pleasure, the high quality of product (at retail) that Batali has always demanded and the high quality of cooking that we've always expected from the Bastianich (and I mean Lydia here) and Batali et.al. kitchens. Is there anything like this in the U.S.?

It has a certain energy; it'll be interesting to see how long that lasts. Sort of like what Otto was when it first opened; like no other Italian restaurant in the city, with a good deal of focus on the front room and standing and eating and drinking being OK.

At Eataly, it may be about standing and eating, or sitting at counters and eating or browsing the aisles while waiting for a table. It may be about nothing but shopping, for that perfect piece of mozzarella, 1/4 pound of prosciutto or to see if Silverton's sourdough has changed along with the seasons. It's beautiful and fresh and new. And the fact is, it's exciting.

There were plenty of people buying T-shirts and aprons today, and that's OK too. For me, it'll always be about the food first. I can get my Alessi somewhere else.

A Wedding, A Lobster Roll and Grilled Cheese

Ahhhh, wedddings. Who doesn't love a wedding? Other than me, for instance. I mean, getting dressed up in a suit, tie and "fancy" shoes isn't really my cup of joe. And then being forced onto the dance floor because, you know, you have to dance at a wedding...sign me up! And oh boy, that catering hall food - boring filet mignon and overcooked chicken breast...ooops, I mean paillard and pardon me - yummo!

The whole wedding schtick just isn't for me...or for Significant Eater either. After all, she and I took our vows in Las Vegas - at the county courthouse - with only our moms and dads as witnesses. Followed by a delicious meal at the late, great Jean-Louis Palladin's Napa Restaurant. And then gambling. How bad could that be?

But every once in a while, if you're lucky, you get to go to a great wedding. Something different. Something special. And this past weekend, Significant Eater and I got to do just that, partying ferociously into the night (although not as far into the night as the kids, I'm sure) at our niece Rebecca and her husband Sean's (heretofore known as Shivery McPickles and Fred Swayze and don't ask) awesome, effing Cape Cod wedding.

Of course, a wedding on the Cape means something else too...lighthouses (that's the Cape Cod Light above), lobster rolls and fried things like clams and scallops. A busy schedule only allowed for a few tastings, so let's get right to it. First stop, Eastham and...

Arnold's is a much touted place on "the boards" and the line out front stretched a good 30 people deep, but we're troopers, so we hopped in line and ordered a light lunch...

And it was disappointing, to say the least. The fried clams, big fat bellies as beautiful as they look, were a bit soggy and their breading was tasteless. I guess that's what happens when you serve hundreds of people a day - you get to rest on your laurels. The lobster roll looked great...

It just didn't deliver. Also in need of some seasoning - you've heard of salt? And resting on a bed of iceberg can't do anything but detract from the flavor of the lobster, no? Yes - it does, but it seems to be the way they make 'em on the Cape...Cape Cod, that is, because iirc, they were a bit different on Cape Ann. Anyway, onto our hotel, where the view from our room, looking out over the dunes towards Provincetown, was spectacular...

Up early the next morning, Sig Eater and I checked out P-town and then Wellfleet for lunch at Mac's at Wellfleet Harbor...

This was more like it. First of all, there's a lobster truck parked out front. Then, there was this...

Perfectly cooked lobster, nicely seasoned and dressed lightly with mayo nestled on a bed of green leaf lettuce, perhaps the best lobster roll I've tasted in a long time - and at about $12 a relative steal. And the fried scallops, up in the corner there, were a revelation. Sweet, succulent, not often ordered, but just great. Go to Mac's, skip Arnold's, and you'll be just fine.

And then...the wedding. On Cape Cod. Yes, indeed. Dress - picnic fabulous - so I got to wear short sleeves and sneaks and be really happy. Food - sausages, deviled eggs, oysters, pickles, 3 kinds of soup (including one of the best gazpachos I've ever had), 4 different grilled cheese sandwiches (of which I ate way too many lobster/bacon combos), creme puffs, cannoli, cookies, wedding cake, bourbon and beer - and need I say more?

The happy couple just moments after the big event...

The totally awesome grilled cheese wedding cake...

So I'm convinced. A wedding can be fun. The food can be wonderful. The dancing can be great and hot and sweaty. It can move even the most curmudgeonly amongst us. This wedding was all of that and more. It was families and friends coming together on a beautiful Cape Cod night. Seeing joy and love expressed in a very special way. For two people that are special to Significant Eater and me. Doesn't get much better than that, does it?

As a matter of fact, SE and I were so overjoyed by the weekend's festivities that we had to have one more delicious meal before she headed back to DC for a short work week...

Arturo's - you're special too. Just in a different way.

Congrats - Bec and Sean - we wish you all the best for ever and ever.

Pasta Duo...and Lupa and DBGB Too

Yesterday, I was feeling kinda lonely after Significant Eater headed back to DC on the 10 AM. And since I had, with all good intention to cook, stocked up the kitchen with farmer's market goodies and then failed to cook any of them while she was here, I decided to invite some friends over for Sunday dinner - thereby forcing myself to use up that lovely produce.

Oh, don't feel too bad - it's not like Sig Eater and I starved the 3 days she was here. Just the opposite, as a matter of fact. On Friday, we ate a Vietnamese lunch which was totally pedestrian at An Choi and don't you love it when your server seems to be put out by the simple act...of service? Maybe she was thinking about her next tattoo or piercing; perhaps she was communing with the flying insects, which were in abundance. Never again, because this place has been on a steady downhill, in my opinion.

That night though, we had a delicious meal at DBGB, grabbing some seats at the bar early on; and don't you love it when the food is good and the service is even better? Finally, on Saturday night, we met a friend at Lupa, again grabbing some prime bar seats just ahead of a huge rush, and enjoyed outstanding cured meats, great grilled sardines, a gift from the kitchen of perfectly fried stuffed zucchini blossoms, 3 knockout pasta dishes and the same dessert we've enjoyed since day one, the frozen tartufo. Oh yeah - the service - as always - perfectly wonderful and wonderfully perfect. After dinner the 3 of us padded our way across Houston St. and finished up with a nightcap at Pegu Club, elbowing our way past the Snookies and the rookies to knock back a Saz or two. It's always a treat to watch the experts behind that stick handle that crowd with aplomb.

But back to the kitchen. I was staring down a giant bunch of basil, a couple of pounds of heirloom tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, garlic, cucumbers, the first apples of the year (Granny Smiths) and various other pantry odds and ends. Of course, pasta with pesto, green beans and potatoes is a classic Italian dish. Then I figured what the heck? Why not make a raw tomato sauce with those heirlooms, and serve a duo of pastas. Easy enough. I put the potatoes on to boil and blanched the green beans while prepping the basil for the pesto and saving some of it for that raw tomato sauce. I peeled, seeded and cut up the heirlooms, saving their lovely juices and putting it all in a bowl with a chiffonade of the basil and a few glugs of olive oil in which I had warmed a cut up clove of garlic. When the green beans and potatoes were cooked, they went into another bowl along with a good half cup of the pesto. Now all I had to do was cook the pasta and add it to each of the bowls.

When my friends arrived, I mixed up a batch of Manhattans, put the pasta water on to boil and threw together a simple salad of endive, cucumber, Granny Smith apple and parsley leaves, dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. It got raves. Then the pasta came out of the water, tossed with each sauce, tasted for seasoning and plated like so. The only thing that would have made it better? Significant Eater...