Divine Bar

Divine Bar is a wine bar and tapas restaurant. V and I went there for our birthday dinner tonight. I had scoped it out last week on the east side as a possible location for our birthday party, but decided it would be better for just a birthday dinner (partially because they serve only wine and beer at the bar - no rail drinks). My first impression was good the place seemed hip but not too trendy, you walk down a few steps to get inside and it had that kind of small downstairs feel, even with an upstairs accessible once you get inside. I felt like the crowd was slightly older than my age - which makes sense at a wine bar. I'm still in the mode of: drink whatever is cheapest, not what is the best Shiraz or whatever. Now that another year has passed, I'm edging ever closer to appreciating good wines. And, I got a wine Bible for Valentines day to figure it all out. So far, I know that Shiraz is masculine.

Anyhow, we ended up going to the west side location for dinner. It is just around the corner from "The Late Show with David Letterman" on 54th street between 7th and 8th Avenues. This location is much more open and trendy, with high ceilings and louder music. There was some kind of party going on upstairs, where we ate. I was expecting it to be more like the other location, but it wasn't bad at all. Being that it is a wine bar, we could order tasting "flights" of various varieties of wine. "Flights provide an entertaining and educational way to taste the range of wine flavors from a particular winery, region, country, or grape varietal." And so we did: 10 different reds between the two of us. We tried #6 and #9 and liked wines 61 and 93. I'm not going to get into much more of that. not until I finish the wine Bible at least.

As for the tapas, there is a great selection, of which we chose the baked brie, toasted ravioli (stuffed with lobster), tuna sushi roll, and the portobello, porcini, and shiitake quesadilla. Each was tasty and unique, a little different than we expected. We found it difficult to rate them or pick a favorite because they were each very good, and for different reasons.

Unlike V, I'd never before had toasted ravioli, apparently a staple in St. Louis. This was quite tasty with a lemon-caper-butter sauce and a nice crispy ravioli 'shell.' I found it a little thick-skinned, but I guess that's how toasted ravioli is. V called it "gourmet."

The tuna sushi was unique because it had a tortilla shell rather than the traditional seaweed wrap. The tuna itself was very good and the sauce had a sort of pesto-wasabi combo flavor that was nicely spicy. I felt like the tortilla added too much 'plain' to the flavor and texture.

The quesadilla's only problem was that we didn't eat it first so the cheese wasn't as hot and gooey as I would have liked. The mushrooms and suprise pine nuts and I think onions made it very tasty, and a good tapas portion size (about 6 inches around).

The baked brie was sweet and flaky and drizzled with some kind of caramel that made it hard to stop eating. There were also green and red apple wedges which added a nice crunch to the creamy cheese. I couldn't say it was my favorite because it seemed more like a dessert item with its sweetness...but it might have been my favorite.

We capped off dinner with fondue - white and milk chocolate with an assortment of fruit including blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, apple, and melon (too much melon). The chocolate was pretty good, but nothing amazing, and neither of us thought it was hot enough - the little tea candles burning below the fondue cups couldn't really do much to heat it up. Still it was a tasty end to delicious meal.

And I shouldn't forget to mention the cool chairs at our table! Both were velvet and comfortable, one was a swiveling armchair, which we had to share because we both wanted to sit in it. I'd like to try the east side location sometime, I think I'd like the atmosphere there a little better.

Family Corner

I dropped in to this little diner on the corner of 21st Ave and 31st St. this morning after moving my car for the alternate-side parking. I can't comment much on the food, I had a breakfast sandwich that was tasty, but the atmosphere and people really make Family Corner a nice place. The cooks were friendly, the guy who rang me up was friendly (he may have been the owner), and all together everyone seemed nice. Plus, the rest of their diner-esque menu looks appealing for a quick bite now and then - each category on the menu is a 'corner,' like the Breakfast Sandwich Corner, the Omelet Corner, the Sandwich Corner, etc etc. They cooked up my order very quickly, and it came to $2.15 - not bad, and they offer delivery.

Fatty's Cafe

Totally off the beaten path is a place we are sure you'll return to whenever you need to get away. Fatty's is the cheapest getaway in the city, great food, cocktails, atmosphere...

Fatty's Cafe was recommended by a friend and my guess is that if it weren't for that, I'd never have even set foot in this restaurant that now is on my list of "places to become a regular."

When we walked in the door, my first impression was good, I noticed an interesting mix of people, including families, some couples and small groups and people at the bar, a good crowd for a Sunday night too. The little place was almost full. My next thought was that everything on the menu would be vegetarian, it just gave me this sort of hippie vibe. That would be good for a diet at least.

The problem with a diet is that you have to eat healthy food, and on a lot of menus that limits you to the salad. And a lot of the time making a unique salad is a challenge, so it just seems like a waste to order the salad when there's so many other truly unique things to try on the menu. Such is as it was at Fatty's.

My impression was way off - there were definitely meat items on the menu, and it all looked very good. We ended up ordering several appetizers or "goodies" rather than main courses. here's how they ranked:

First, The Grilled Cheese of the day was, if I remember correctly, a sandwich with zucchini, mushroom and red pepper. I may not have the ingredients exactly right, but I know that it was delicious. And cheap.

Second, The Black Bean Bowl (not on the linked menu) was a hot bean dip with what I believe were house made chips. It was covered with sour cream and scallions. Amazing. We practically scraped the huge bowl of dip clean.

Third, Empanadas. We had one cheese and one beef. They were good but nothing amazing, to me.

Fourth, Fatty's Calamari was unique, almost a tempura style with a puffier fried breading. It didn't stay very crispy but was otherwise tasty. It came with an alioli dip which we enjoyed.

I'm interested in trying the burrito, and perhaps their build-your-own salad...and the burgers look great, as do the sides. I'll definitely be bringing others in on this little secret down the street from my apartment. Am I getting repetitive saying I'll be back? I guess I'm going to have to try more than one restaurant a week. I will have to remember to bring cash, as we found out, almost too late, that they don't take credit cards.

Finally, I found out who Fatty is - but I'm not telling.

Mama Mexico

I've dined at Mama Mexico at least three times now, having gone to celebrate my birthday this year and last. There are several great things about dining here starting with the margaritas. They somehow get the ice in the frozen margarita to be extra smooth and easy to drink. The made-at-your-table guacamole is tasty and at $13 might not be worth it but I like it. We split the 'Fajita Mamá' which came with "Marinated grilled chicken, skirt steak, scallops, onions, zucchini, peppers, fresh tomatoes and mushrooms," and was very good. And all together we were full, and happy (not just because between two of us we finished a full pitcher of margarita).

The place is a little pricey, and reservations are recommended. We waited 20 minutes for a table or two, but there were a lot of larger parties waiting for tables. I'm not going to become a regular, but I'll be back.

Mundo

This restaurant was a complete surprise favorite. Mundo Cafe and Restaurant is just off Broadway at 32nd St. in Astoria. I've walked by it dozens of times (yes, I just moved here, but I've been to the neighborhood before) and I always thought the place looked odd and honestly, kind of uninviting and scuzzy. But last week I walked by and picked up a copy of the menu to peruse and it looked fantastic, and not too expensive.

We dined there just a few days later and had a wonderful meal. The place is tiny, with enough seats for maybe 25 people. The atmosphere is nice with art for sale on the walls. When you're walking by outside you can see into a window into the kitchen, and it too is tiny - not much bigger that the kitchen in my apartment. There were just two servers for the whole place. The were very helpful and friendly.

There was a lot we wanted to try off of the menu. We ended up going with the Cheese & Spinach Dip, the Ottoman Dumplings and the Crab meat Burger. Everything was good though a little different than I expected. The dip was very spinachy with cheese melted on top. I had expected it to be more blended or creamy. We ate it with little pita wedges, which there weren't enough of. The dumplings were smaller than I expected, about the size of grapes, each with a little piece of ground beef inside. The yogurt sauce was mellow and tasty. The burger was great, with huge chunks of crab and great herb-seasoned fries on the side.

We definitely liked the place and will be back - there's a lot more to try!

Patsy's

"Patsy's Italian Restaurant is a traditional, family-owned and operated Italian restaurant located in the theater district on Manhattan’s west side." I went there for lunch today with my office. The food was good, if pricey, and the service was excellent.

I had the veal chop ($35), which was huge and not as tasty as I expected, perhaps full-grown beef is more to my tastes. We also had calamari and fried zucchini, which were good, but to me could have used a bit more salt and and could have been crispier - is this a result of the no-trans fat law in NYC? Dessert was excellent: I tried the carrot cake (magnificent), chocolate cake (light) and Italian cheesecake (almost lemony).

Overall: glad the office paid for it, glad I got to eat there. Beware the mirrored staircase.

Sac's

"Sac's Place boasts one thing that only a handful of pizzerias in this fair city can claim: A coal-fired oven." - Slice

Pizza for dinner was very good, very authentic but it didn't quite hit the spot for the salty-greasy-pizza I was craving. This is a good thing though. The pizza was delicious, we had it with prosciutto and portobello. There was a generous amount of each with good portions of sauce and cheese. The crust was great, nicely crispy and chewy with a little char from the "coal-fired" oven. Additionally the quick service was nice and the prices were reasonable: $40 with tip for a medium pizza and two glasses of wine.