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03/12/2007 Archived Entry: "NYC Restaurants"

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As promised, let’s get to a few of the NYC restaurants I have enjoyed lately.

You may recall that several weeks ago I went to RUB, on W. 23rd St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves. in Chelsea, to taste their pastrami. A friend had asked me to contribute a dish to his list of 100 Things You Have To Eat Before You Die. I said Katz’s pastrami. He retorted that I could say that only because I’d never tried Rub’s pastrami. Of course, after eating the meat in both places, he had to agree: Katz’s is better. Still, I was so impressed with Rub’s other smoky offerings we tasted that day, I couldn’t wait to get back and eat more.

I have to say Rub’s ribs are great – deeply smoked, succulent and tender, not steamy and falling off the bone as too many are. Rub’s ribs only succumb when they reach your teeth. Then they melt.

I love Rub’s bacon, too. You say “Bacon?” Yes, they deep smoke bacon slabs, slice them thickly, put the slices on the grill, then cut them into chubby chunks. The bacon is served, like everything else at Rub, in paper boats, which is totally in keeping with a b-b-q- joint – I wasn’t a bit offended by the lack of china -- saves the restaurant money, and allows the prices not to be crazy. Of course, bacon is such a fatty indulgence that you think you will merely nibble a chunk or two, but this bacon is so addictive I bet you can’t eat just three.

Rub has delectable smoked brisket, too, but the night I was there they didn’t have any deckle, otherwise known as “second cut” and “thick cut.” To my mind that’s the best part, or at least my favorite part of the brisket – juicy with streaks of fat and a coarser and more satisfying texture than the leaner, tighter grained so-called “first cut.” You can order just brisket ends, however, and so we did. Against our better judgment, we wiped out a paper boat full of those, too.

I even love the mayo-dressed potato salad and cole slaw. And the barbecue chicken, although not my first choice on this mostly meat menu, is pretty damned wonderful, too.

The bill -- with beers, sodas, tax and tip -- came to about $35 a person. But we really did order more than we should have – including their silly batter-fried Oreos for dessert -- and we ended up taking home enough food for two for lunch the next day. Now I have to go back and work my way through the rest of the menu. And hope they have deckle.

This news was in a few restaurant newspaper columns, but maybe you haven’t heard that only after a year or so ONERA, the cutting-edge Greek restaurant at 222 W. 79th St., near Broadway, which was an instant success, has closed and reopened as KEFI. The new name means “happy times” or happy gatherings” or something like that in Greek. The chef is still Michael Psilakis, and he still can’t help being creative and stylish. But the food served in the ever-so-slightly less formal dining room, still done up in deep blue and white, is more down to earth. Frankly, I like it better than the old Onera. It’s more a retake on traditional Greek food than the high-style Greek inspired food served previously. The prices are lower. The room is quieter now that white cloth has been draped under the ceiling. It is still quite cramped, but that’s easier to accept in a less expensive, more informal place.

Why change a successful restaurant? Psilakis says because the small room on 79th St. could not have the amenities that a posh restaurant should have, and that his fancy food deserved – or frankly, command the prices necessary to produce that kind of cuisine.

A new incarnation of Onera will be opening in the space formally occupied by Aqua Pazza on W. 52nd St., across the street from ‘21’. Now listen closely because this is a tad confusing: The new restaurant – I forget what the name will be -- is owned by chef Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia, who together owned Dona, on E. 53rd St., which they had to close recently, after less than a year of business, because their landlord sold the building. Aqua Pazza, their new space, was owned by Donatella’s brother, Dino Arpaia, who will continue to operate Cellini.

Leaving Manhattan for Queens, I also had a wonderful meal recently at a glatt kosher Israeli grill in Kew Gardens Hills, HAPISGAH, which means “the tops” in Hebrew. It’s at 147-25 Union Turnpike – actually their business card, now that I look, says the location is Flushing. According to my friend Barry Lewis, who you know as the architecture and city historian that does the walking-tour specials with David Hartman on PBS, it’s Kew Gardens Hills. Barry knows his neighborhoods, and in this case – not always, I have to say – he knows good food. We ate wonderful mezze, then juicy ground meat kebabs. We had a beautiful flirtatious waitress – doesn’t that always make meals better? – and I would go back in an instant.

Back to Manhattan: I had heard such good things about the Neapolitan-style pizza at LUZZO’S, 211 First Ave., near 12th St., I couldn’t wait to try it. I pride myself on being very pizza savvy. Unfortunately, I went there with friends who had been before and they convinced me that the pasta and other food was very good, too. It wasn’t. I liked the pizza well enough. It has an unusually light crust, maybe a little too light. It was topped well enough. I can’t say I will run back. The pizza is a bit pricey at $16 an individual pie. I can say, however, that I would never order anything here but the pizza.

One more: One unusually warm Saturday night in early February, I tried to get into A LA TURKA at 1417 Second Ave., at 74th St. I was with friends from the neighborhood who swear by the place. Without a reservation, however, the wait was going to be about an hour. That’s what we were told by the first manager we spoke to. After waiting some time, however, I went to ask again and this time I was told forget about it. “We won’t be able to accommodate you tonight.” Walking through the restaurant I saw fabulous looking food on every table – especially the platters of grilled meat, the mixed grill. I became obsessed. A couple of weeks later, I returned on a very cold weeknight, with a necessary reservation this time, and indulged. There truly was not a bite of food that wasn’t delicious – from the cold appetizers, such as cacik, strained yogurt with cucumber seasoned with garlic and dill; imam bayildi, which is eggplant baked with onion, tomato, and lots of olive oil; through the sigara boreki, flaky rolls of pastry filled with feta; arnavut cigeri, cubes of sautéed liver served with an onion, parsely and sumac salad, to that glorious mixed grill with lamb shish kebab and Adana kebab, a spicy ground meat skewer. Even the rice was superb.

We have a few excellent and very inexpensive Turkish restaurants in Brooklyn – my favorite is TACI’S BEYTI on Coney Island Ave. near Avenue P, so it is not likely I will return unless my friends from the Upper East Side insist, but I have to say that this was one of the best values I’ve experience in Manhattan in years. The appetizers are all under $8, some as little as $5, and that big mixed grill that we ordered for two at $20.95 each, was enough for four with leftovers.

Now that I have fulfilled my promise of some New York restaurant items, I can get back to the moment I am living in. I am now sitting in a charming bed and breakfast in Catania, in Sicily. Today I went to the Pescheria, the city’s fish and vegetable market, which has to be the most exciting outdoor market in Italy (okay, maybe I exaggerate slightly, but, then, well, maybe not), then took a drive to Taormina, where we ate at Da Giovanni, with a view of the sea and Isola Bella, the tiny island just off shore. Tonight I am eating at the home of my friends Ersilia and Michelangelo Arezzo. They are preparing some typical Catanese dishes for me, and I have to get over their soon to watch them cook.