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LES, Raising the Bar
Clerkenwell, A Gastropub on the Lower East Side – NYC
12.10.09 | Permalink | Comment?

This week I went to Clerkenwell for Serious Eats. It didn’t live up to the hype in my head, but I did discover they had Strongbow Cider on tap. Pretty cool. Read “Raising the Bar: Clerkenwell, A Gastropub on the Lower East Side” for details.
Small Shops, West Village
Fish & Chips at A Salt & Battery – NYC
03.18.09 | Permalink | 10 Comments

Whiting Innards @ A Salt & Battery

I can’t stand Throwdown! with Bobby Flay. If you aren’t familiar with the show, basically Bobby Flay, a classically trained chef, goes around the country challenging small-time cooks to a cook-off of their specialty dish. Unfair is an understatement, especially when you consider Bobby appears each time unannounced at the poor victim’s mom and pop shop, with high tech gadgets and gizmos, fancy ingredients, and two sous-chefs in tow. It’s completely absurd, but even more absurd is that Bobby Flay usually loses, even with the odds in his favor.

So normally, I don’t give in to the hype of any restaurants featured on the show, but when I saw the Fish and Chips Throwdown! a few weeks ago with Mat Arnfield from A Salt & Battery winning, I have to admit I was intrigued. David loves the fish and chips at the Coffee Shop in Union Square, so once in a while I’m dragged there against my will. You see, I’m not a big fan of the Coffee Shop. The food isn’t horrible, but the pretentious wannabe actors/models working there drive me crazy. The place seems to be more about scene rather than food. Once the bouncer there actually tried to start a fight with a guy in my group because he claimed he pushed him. Now aren’t bouncers supposed to be stopping fights not starting them? So as a result, I’ve been trying to find a decent fish and chips place without much luck in New York for the past few years. A Salt & Battery I heard was good, but when their 2nd Avenue location closed a while back, I thought they were gone for good. However, after watching the Fish and Chips Throwdown!, I learned they still had a shop in the West Village, so this past Sunday, I dragged David to A Salt & Battery with hopes of finding him a new favorite fish and chip shop. MORE »

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