Sunday, J and I got up a little later than scheduled (which would be the running theme for the rest of the trip), so we only had time to grab a couple of bagels from a local deli before grabbing some pretty sweet spots on 5th Avenue to watch the Pride Parade.
After the parade, I insisted on us heading over to the Dumbo to Greeshma and my beloved Vinegar Hill House for some brunch!
After the adorable brunch, we strolled through the Dumbo and enjoyed some scenery:
Where we made our way to Jacques Torres chocolate shop. During the summers, he opens up the space next door as his ice cream shop where you can make your own ice cream sandwich from the dozen or so flavors and choice of his signature chocolate chip or chocolate chocolate chip cookies. He also has pre-made ones in the freezer by the door if you want to just grab a dozen and chow at home in private.
After, we zonked out for a nap at home before heading out for dinner and a comedy show that night.
I do like Otto - I appreciate the Iron Chef opening up a spot with a super reasonable price point (our pasta plates only cost $9 each!). His gelato isn't bad either, unfortunately we did not have time to try some, but next time!
Strawberry cream cheese on cinnamon raisin
Peanut butter on toasted multi-grain. Love me some melty peanut butter in the morning!
The 2010 Parade was pretty terrific. After the Halloween parade, I think it's my second favorite NYC parade yet!
After the parade, I insisted on us heading over to the Dumbo to Greeshma and my beloved Vinegar Hill House for some brunch!
No clear name posted outside of the restaurant, but hopefully you can just sense the plain coolness that is Vinegar Hill House.
Egg & Tomato: two eggs baked in tomato sauce and topped with parmesan cheese and parsley
Beautiful medium cooked eggs
Crusty bread dipped in the rich, red tomato sauce. Overall dish was so simple but darn tasty. I made sure to get every drop of sauce from my half of the plate.
The awesome sourdough pancake with fresh ricotta and bruleed banana
I know you've seen this before, but can you ever get tired of looking at this beauty?
The surprise for me this time though was that this pancake was blueberry! The one Greeshma and I had tried before was just plain. The blueberries were a great addition!
Plump and delicious. Vinegar Hill House remains in my top 2 favorite pancakes of all time!
Mr Chocolate!
Where we made our way to Jacques Torres chocolate shop. During the summers, he opens up the space next door as his ice cream shop where you can make your own ice cream sandwich from the dozen or so flavors and choice of his signature chocolate chip or chocolate chocolate chip cookies. He also has pre-made ones in the freezer by the door if you want to just grab a dozen and chow at home in private.
The bright ice cream shop interior
We made an ice cream sandwich with chocolate chip cookies and hazelnut chocolate chunk ice cream.
The chocolate chip cookies were really good. The chocolate used to make the cookies were flat discs which covered a lot of the cookie ground: the whole cookie had a high chocolate to cookie ratio - yum! The cookies were a bit hard though, so it was difficult to eat it as a sandwich, so we each took a cookie and ate the sandwich open-face style.
We grabbed some Italian from Otto, one of Mario Batali's venues designed after an old train station, so it has this ingenius wait board shown above. The hostess hands you a slip of paper (below) with a destination name and you wait for the name to appear on the board! And the board is all very mechanical and amazing. All restaurants should take note!
The wait slip
Rigatoni, escarole and spicy sausage. This had no sauce, but we didn't miss it. It tasted so light and green and the sausage was not greasy and had great flavor. I kind of wished I had ordered this.
Instead, I orderd this: penne con stracotto. My dish went the opposite route from J's, it was: super saucy with tender, plentiful shredded braised pork shoulder, and added bonus of basil throughout.
I do like Otto - I appreciate the Iron Chef opening up a spot with a super reasonable price point (our pasta plates only cost $9 each!). His gelato isn't bad either, unfortunately we did not have time to try some, but next time!
72 Hudson Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 522-1018
350 Hudson Street
Brooklyn, New York
(212) 414-2462
1 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10003-4312
(212) 995-9559
honestly, i could look at pictures of vinegar hill house all year!! that banana... sigh...
ReplyDeleteand for some odd reason i REALLY want that bagel with strawb cream cheese!! looks so tasty...