Pages Navigation Menu
Categories Navigation Menu

Sexy Spring Cocktails

Posted on May 30, 2012 in Best Of, Spring Eats, Summer

We’ve been known to enjoy a cocktail (or three), and what better way to celebrate the warm weather than with a fresh from the garden libation?  The city’s hottest bars and restaurants around the city have swapped out their stiff winter warmers for lighter, brighter concoctions in honor of spring. With fresh ingredients, like mint, muddled strawberries and cucumbers, seasonal libations are high on our radar right now. Especially the ones at the newly minted Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg.  There, you can savor the waterfront views at The Ides, the rooftop bar, and sample a “Chihuahua,” a citrusy blend of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice and tequila served in a highball glass with a salted rim. And there’s plenty more to enjoy all over town — from ABC Kitchen’s “Strawberry Royale,” an idyllic combination of fresh strawberry juice and sparkling rose, to...

Read More

Bacon-Stuffed Burger Anyone?

Posted on May 28, 2012 in Gizmo Girl

Shaping the perfect burger is an art that chefs work on perfecting their entire lives.  First, there’s the blend of meat, then the burger to bun ratio, and of course, the toppings, which could launch a thousand debates.   But we’re always looking for some new form of inspiration, some new tool to experiment with, but we didn’t see this one coming.  Bacon-stuffed hamburger anyone?  We’re in. This Stuffed Hamburger Press, exclusively from William Sonoma, makes it easy to stuff your burger with anything you can dream up — from cheese to jalapenos to pickles and vegetables.  With summer right around the corner, you can impress guests with homemade stuffed burgers in no time, or even let them pick their fillings themselves!  We love the simple three-piece design. Just fill it with meat, add your fillings, and close it....

Read More

Martini Rim

Posted on May 23, 2012 in Gizmo Girl

Ever notice how your bartender swirls a little gin (or vodka) around the glass before pouring your martini be it dirty or dry?  Well, now you can play the part at home. Instead of the customary rinse of liquor around the edge of your martini glass, which often leads to waste (and who wants that?), this little martini atomizer lets you spritz instead.  Open the top and fill the funnel inside  the stainless steel tube with gin or vodka.  One spritz adds the perfect dose of spirits to the inside rim of the cocktail glass.  The subtle notes of flavor foreshadow that much needed cocktail you’re about to enjoy as opposed to overpowering the senses with just one sip. Drink up! Martini Atomizer...

Read More

New York’s Best Oysters

Posted on May 23, 2012 in Best Of

The oyster is often overlooked as the quintessential New York food, but there was a time when oyster carts were as common as food trucks and hot dog stands.  Times have changed, but there’s still plenty of oysters being shucked across the city, and they happen to be the perfect summer food. Still, a good oyster is like finding a good man, and you can’t eat just any old oyster.  So what to look for? Well for starters, freshness. Walk into an oyster bar to find a pile of pre-shucked oysters and you’d be wise to head to avoid the raw bar and head toward another section of the menu. A good oyster arrives artfully shucked with no ragged edges or mangled bodies, no questionable coloring or offensive smells. The perfect oyster lies in a shell its own cool liquid, ready to...

Read More

Perla’s Potato Chips All’Amatriciana

Posted on May 18, 2012 in Dish Spotting

First, there was Joseph Leonard, then Jeffrey’s Grocery followed by Fedora.  In just three years, Gabriel Stulman has built himself a tremendously popular restaurant empire in the West Village. But his latest venture, Perla, which debuted two months ago, just might be his finest effort to date. The chef is Michael Toscano, who first got his start at Babbo, then moved on to man the kitchen at Manzo’s, the meat-centric restaurant inside Eataly. Perla is Michael Toscano’s coming out party and he manages to make quite an impression at this casual Italian with seriously good and often innovative cooking.  There’s an outstanding riff on vitello tonnato, a beautiful saba-glazed duck with spring peas and pancetta, and a guinea hen with mushrooms, asparagus and sauce made from foie gras dust. But one of the best dishes on the menu happens to be a bar bite, which is...

Read More

Gizmo Girl’s Wine Aerator

Posted on May 17, 2012 in Gizmo Girl

Exposing wine to just the right amount of oxygen not only brings out more flavor, but also enhances an effortlessly smooth finish and aroma. What we love about the Vinturi Tower Deluxe Wine Aerator Set is its sophisticated design and ability to enhance your vino in the time it takes to pour a glass.  There are no crazy contraptions, no transferring of wine from one container to another, and reduced risk of spillage (we wouldn’t want that!). This 6-piece set includes the Vinturi red wine aerator (you can also purchase one designed for white wine), tower arm, tower base, no-splash grate, and sediment filter and actually looks impressively presentable on your countertop or home bar.  The glass aerator securely hangs at the top of the tower for a simple hands-free process as you simply pour your glass of wine...

Read More

New York’s Best Spring Dishes

Posted on May 15, 2012 in Best Of

You know it’s spring when squash and parsnips lose their spots on the menu to asparagus, snap peas, beets, and ramps. And suddenly, it’s a whole new dining scene as restaurants reinvent themselves with the first signs of spring.  We’ve spotted pickled ramps, rhubarb a briny spectrum of oysters, and even spotted our first, soft shell crabs of the season. Chefs are seizing the opportunity to do a little spring cleaning, shedding hearty comfort foods and sprucing up their offerings with vibrant, spring produce. There’s asparagus risotto and asparagus fries to boot at The Little Owl, soft shell crabs at Aldea, and a dramatic set change at Park Avenue Spring. Then, there’s the more unique offerings, like roof-to-table dining at Bell Book And Candle or Northeast Kingdom’s seriously seasonal dishes replete with a chef that gardens and forages for...

Read More

Nordic Cooking In Season

Posted on May 10, 2012 in Trendwatch

You could say 2012 is the year of Nordic cuisine.  Americans have been culinary adventurers for decades now.  We’ll eat anything we can get our hands on, but lingonberry sauce, smoked herring, hay-smoked meats, and cloudberries have never really made it into our dining repertoire until now.  Enter what many have dubbed the New Nordic Cuisine. Let’s be honest it: Ikea’s food court, with its Swedish meatballs, lingonberry sodas, cinammon-cardamon buns and seven kinds of herring had a lot to do with it.   But when a Cajun restaurant in NoHo gets transformed into a chic, Nordic restaurant, you know it’s officially having its moment.  This is a new brand of Nordic food with fresh, clean flavors, wild herbs, wild berries, wild game, edible weeds and plenty of farm to table ingredients. We’ve sampled the city and picked a...

Read More

LA Times

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“The new openness is epitomized by Freeman, who believes that ‘a younger dining set’ is looking for a ‘voice and face to identify with’.”

Read More

NY Law

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“Restaurant Girl is one of the more well-traveled food blogs on the Web. We sat down with her to learn more about the life of a food blogger.”

Read More

NYT Dining

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“Danyelle Freeman, the restaurant critic for The New York Daily News is taking the opposite approach. She’s calling in the lawyers to reclaim her name.”

Read More

WWD Friday

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

Women’s Wear Daily, “Bare Necessities” with Danyelle Freeman

Read More

Real Simple

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“My policy is never to settle when it comes to food. If you feel you’ve made a bad choice, cut your losses and quietly exit.”

Read More

Harper's

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“Dining hot spots: falling in love with NY”

Read More

NY Insider

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

New York Restaurant Insider: “Picholine Reinvented,” by Danyelle Freeman

Read More

Debonair

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“She combines a young, urban hipness with a genuine love for food, the dining experience and has an undeniable sex-appeal.”

Read More

Daily News

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“Gemma’s cuisine takes a backseat to hip downtown scene,” by Danyelle Freeman

Read More

Daily News

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“Restaurant Girl hits a firehouse fete to find the tastiest plates.”

Read More

Daily News

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Press

“Another cheap decor trick by Freeman: buy a Polaroid camera and take a photo of each of your guests.”

Read More

Mother’s Day DIY Cheese Kit

Posted on May 7, 2012 in Gizmo Girl

Last minute shopping has never been our strong suit, so we figured we’d better get a jump start on Mother’s Day gifts. If you’re mother’s a chef, an aspiring chef, or just a foodie, this may be the perfect gift.  We’ve always loved Do-It-Yourself gadgets to experiment and experience things for ourselves, but we’re a little intimidated by the notion of making our own cheese. That is, until we stumbled upon William Sonoma’s Cheese Kits (pictured right). We’ve seen and tried our hand at making cheese before, but these are almost too easy.  And you can make cheese in less than an hour.  (Yes, really.)  Each kit comes with all-natural ingredients to churn out homespun cheese, including a thermometer, cheese cloths and bacteria. Your mom can make ricotta, mozzarella or goat cheese for pizza toppings, pastas, salad, grilled cheese...

Read More
12