January 24, 2008
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Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I hope that you’ve all recovered form your hangovers and are well into fulfilling those resolutions. As for me, I don’t do resolutions. I’ve tried in the past and they just don’t stick. Maybe it’s something in my skin? But the New Year does often inspire reflection and contemplation of one’s life and with that does come some desire to set goals for the New Year. Now the term “goal” is one that tends to feel less intimidating to me than RESOLUTION, which has this air of biblical commandment to it that just doesn’t work with my constitution. So, yes, I have set a few goals for myself for 2008 -- some rather frivolous, some not. One of my “goals” for this year is to cook more (I rarely have the chance because of the restaurant reviewing thing), another is to continue to try to help the people of Darfur (I created a charity called Dining for Darfur and you can read more about it at diningfordarfur.org), and yet another is to see more theater. That last one is what this blog is going to be about. I imagine a lot of you travel to the city to hit the Broadway shows and you may not know where to eat. Well, I’m here to help.
My fiancé is a playwright and I’ve always been a theater lover, and for 2008 we committed to seeing more plays together and we purchased a bunch of tickets in advance to make this goal a reality. We have tickets to Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming in a few weeks, and recently saw Edward Albee’s Peter and Jerry, and the ferocious and heartbreaking dysfunctional family drama by Tracy Letts, August: Osage County. But one of the downsides of seeing theater for me has always been Theater-District dining. Other than Esca (the best theater-district restaurant in the city), and more traditional see-and-be-seen places like Sardi’s, I’ve just never been all that impressed with the food in The Theater District. I’ve also found a lot of the pre-theater menus to be a rip-off, charging inflated prices for three courses of lackluster fare.
Comments
Bernie_B wrote:
Andrea,
While you definitely have a good sense of writing and certainly know your way around a restaurant it took me some time to figure out what it is about you that annoys the heck out of me. As a midwesterner I feel you alienate me as part of your audience as like many people on coastal cities you come across as typical "If it isn't on the coast there's nothing to talk about". Pretty stereotypical New Yorker attitude even if unintentional. Furthermore, your blog is entirely New York centric, and while I concede NY is an exciting place to be, it really is not the center of the universe.
I'm particularly pleased to see that the next season of Top Chef is being held in Chicago and am eagerly awaiting the next batch of Chef-testants to knock our socks off.
posted on January 26, 2008 at 5:36 AM
C.Lewis wrote:
Umm, can't wait to go to this spot. I'm going to a show in the next month, and this is just what I was looking for. Nizza is the one I want to try. the Focaccette sounds to die for! I'm hoping it's as good as she makes it sound!
posted on January 26, 2008 at 6:29 PM
Kate wrote:
Perhaps a modest dining-related resolution would be to try HORIZONS, Philadelphia's top vegan restaurant. You could get very ambitious and tie it in with a show at one of the Philadelphia theaters on Broad Street... This time of year, after overloading on hefty holiday fare, lots of people are drawn to vegetarian cuisine, and Horizons does it best.
posted on January 26, 2008 at 8:17 PM
Larry wrote:
The best restaurant in this area has got to be Pam's Real Thai Kitchen. By far a standout in Thai for Manhattan and better than Esca. Get the spicy crispy duck.
posted on February 12, 2008 at 2:30 PM
chuck wrote:
I've never found pre-theater dining a problem. Post theater can be challenging.
posted on March 31, 2008 at 4:22 PM