Between last weekend's blizzard ruining a Restaurant Week meal and a very nasty head cold ruining two shows I was supposed to see this week (you know I'm not feeling well when I give up two sets of theater tickets, especially for the show based on Jane Austen!), there hasn't been much to blog about lately. I hope you've missed me, even a little. Today I forced myself to head over to Gaby Brasserie for a RW lunch - it was tasty, but probably doesn't make my list of best lunches ever. Thankfully, I could taste the food even with the nasty head cold...
Gaby Brasserie is located inside a nice midtown hotel - it's very light and airy, with lots of chrome and glass. The dining room isn't large, but it's nicely put together so it doesn't feel crowded. My reservation was at the end of the lunch rush, so I pretty much had the place to myself (a few more people straggled in later). The server was very pleasant, French, I think, and only appeared when necessary. It was as if I was having a leisurely lunch in Paris - no rush, no overly attentive server, just some yummy French food.
The bread basket that arrived had some very nice tiny baguettes and some olive bread included, though the olive bread looked as if it had oats in it (I have an oat allergy). I stuck with the tiny baguette and it was excellent, with a crispy crust and soft interior. And is there anything better than French butter? Maybe not. The pot of tea I ordered was also very nice; there were probably four full cups of tea in there, which meant I could have hot tea throughout the meal. I liked that. I went to a restaurant for a business lunch the other day and you'd think I had asked for a unicorn when I asked for tea.
I got the lentil soup as an appetizer and it was perfectly nice, though, to be frank, I've had better lentil soups in my lifetime. There didn't seem to be a lot of lentils, for a start, the broth was rather thin, and it was a little too delicately seasoned for my tastes. I NEVER do this, but I added a shake of salt to the soup and that perked it up a bit. I mean, it was fine, it didn't taste bad or anything, but I probably expected a little more. It was beautifully presented, though, in a gorgeous little white bone china tureen. I think I may need to get one of those little dainties for my own kitchen.
My entrée was a croque madame and it definitely lived up to expectations! Of course, how can you go wrong with ham, cheese, béchamel and a fried egg on top?! You can't! A heart attack on a plate, that's what I just had for lunch. But holy hell, it was delicious. The bread, even with the sauce, cheese and egg, was still crispy and light, and the egg was perfectly cooked so that the yolk just fell over everything and shared its deliciousness all over the plate. I am a big fan of perfect eggs. Plus, the sandwich was served with crispy frites and a tasty kale salad with a very bracing vinaigrette, which was just right to cut through the richness of the sandwich. I couldn't really eat it all because it was so rich, but it was very yummy all the same.
For dessert, I had originally intended on trying the bread pudding, but I was very grateful to my server for noticing that I hadn't finished my entire sandwich and quietly suggesting I change my order to the passion fruit mousse. Yes, a much better (and lighter) choice. I mean, I know I was eating 46,000 calories at one meal, but bread pudding, too? That's a bit much, even for me. And the passion fruit mousse was so good! Very light and tart, with some creamy whipped cream on top. There was also a sugar tuile and fresh berries. I couldn't finish dessert either (I am rather ready to explode), but I was happy to have that nice sweet/tart/creamy finish to my meal.
I enjoyed my quiet lunch at Gaby, but it wasn't an amazing experience, like some of my RW experiences have been. Just a very nice one. Which is fine. I've had a couple of other fun food experiences lately, too: I went with my very dearest pals last week to Harlem Pizza Co. They have a wood burning brick oven, just like the pizzerias in Naples, Italy, so we wanted to try it. When we got there, we were the only group in the place, so we had our delightful server all to ourselves. He was just the sweetest and most adorable guy - he gave us happy hour prices for our drinks, even though we barely made it in time, and he described the specials in such a way that confirmed why they were special! :) We ended up getting the special salad of the day, which was a kale salad with a butternut squash puree, croutons and burrata. WOW. It sounds kinda weird but it was amazing! Everything together was just oh.so.delicious. We were very glad we got two of them so everyone could have enough. All of the special pizzas sounded delightful, but I stuck with my tried and true margherita pizza. And it was...delicious. Very authentic to Naples, in my opinion - perfect proportions of cheese, sauce and crust. Yum.Mee. For dessert, we shared a nutella calzone, which was also off the charts yummy. Served with a huge side of whipped cream. SO good. We had a great time at Harlem Pizza Co and can't wait to go back again soon.
Last Friday, I went with some pals to celebrate a beautiful gal pal's birthday. She's always wanted to go to the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel, mainly to see the Maxfield Parrish mural that hangs there. So we met and had an absolutely delightful evening (I took entirely too many photos because it's so beautiful there; I'll include some at the bottom of the post). The Parrish mural is exquisite - I can't believe how vivid and vibrant the colors are on a painting that's around 100 years old! Very cool. It's not an inexpensive evening, to be sure, but it was completely worth it! The atmosphere was amazing, the cocktails were strong and the food was fresh and yummy. I got the Madison Avenue cocktail, which had patron tequila, blood orange soda, lime juice and a bit of salt. It was SO good and SO strong. One is all you need. I also got the crab cake sliders, but we all ended up sharing everything, so I also got a taste of the mini-burgers, the chickpea samosas and the lobster potato skins. Oh, and we shared an ice cream sundae for dessert. I mean, we WERE celebrating a birthday. Everything was just delicious. It's never a bad way to end a week: strong cocktails, lobster, crab cakes and fabulous friends. In a gorgeous locale. One of the many many reasons I love NY...
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