Cafe Fiorello

One of the nicest parts about attending an event at Lincoln Center is the pleasure of eating at Cafe Fiorello . Cafe Fiorello is a wonderful Italian restaurant that has been in business across the street from Lincoln Center for 30 years.

The menu is huge. There are over 50 different antipasti alone. There are many Italian classics on the menu – really something for everyone.

When you first walk into the restaurant there is a seafood bar, with places to sit and eat and watch your dishes being made. The dining room is comfortable and warm, tables not too close together. Many small booths along the wall. Serving Spoon and Fork were lucky enough to sit in one of the small booths on the side of the main dining room. Because the booths are against the wall, no one bangs into one of the diners walking through the dining room.

The wine list is extensive and wonderful. Fork and Serving Spoon each tried the Vernaccia. Very light, Tuscan wine, crisp. Very yummy. With dessert, Fork had Moscato D’Asti with dessert – sweet, effervescent.

Fork and Serving Spoon had every intention of ordering from the Restaurant Week menu – we really did. It was a terrific menu. Three starters, three mains, yucky desserts. As an aside – the dessert is important too! So many Restaurant Week menus have really weak dessert courses. Why? Icecream is not a special dessert. But here, I digress.

Our server Curtis was terrific. Very enthusiastic about the menu, very knowledgeable about the ingredients, very accommodating, at ease, and friendly.

Although we were set for the Restaurant Week menu, once Curtis started to describe the special salad for the evening, our eyes started roving the regular menu – and that was that! Off to the regular menu we went!

For our starters we first ordered the special salad of the evening. A deconstructed salad that was mainly baby arugula with some field greens with a light, citrusy dressing. It needed to be light to stand up to, but not over-power, the peppery arugula and all the ingredients in the salad. There was a candied pear. Fork doesn’t think candied is necessarily the right word, but it was very sweet and was a nice contrast to the arugula. There were also chopped pickled beets, some sugared walnuts, halved grape tomatoes, a red currant gastrique, and a round of goat cheese that was lightly coated and fried. I know, I know, a lot of ingredients on the plate, but they all worked together so beautifully.

Our second starter was Cheese Fravioli.  This can be ordered with two ravioli or four ravioli. Fork and Serving Spoon looked at each other, not wanting to be piggies, but thinking two ravioli would not be enough. Curtis to the rescue. He told us the ravioli were rather large, we should order two. And large they were. Each a four inch square. Fried and golden. Crisp on the outside, tender on the inside. The filling is Stracchino cheese. Stracchino is a mild cow’s milk cheese – said to come from the milk of tired cows (stracca meaning tired). It is said that milk from tired cows is richer in fats and more acidic. Fork doesn’t know about that, it was DARN GOOD! When you cut into the ravioli the cheese was soft and stringy, great flavor. But, if that isn’t enough for you, each ravioli was topped with slices of prosciutto. Holy McMoly. A few more of these and a gigantic salad and you would be set.

But of course we couldn’t just leave it at that!

Both Fork and Serving Spoon ordered the Sliced Prime Steak with Potato Fonduta. A beautiful 28 day dry aged steak. Nice sized portion. Cooked perfectly, seasoned beautifully. Now, some may think that would be enough, but oh, no. This steak was like butter (think Mike Meyers imitating Barbara Streisand here). Fork could have used a fork to cut through this steak. It literally melted in your mouth. Just amazing. Served along with the steak was a potato fonduta. Fork isn’t quite sure how to properly explain this to you all. It’s a potato pie, covered with melted cheese. Fonduta is a fondue. So Imagine a potato pie, slices of mushroom, nicely seasoned, covered in meted fontina and mozzarella. The texture is amazing. Potatoes were nice and firm, the mushrooms gave it a nice earthiness, and the cheese was not quite as liquidy as a fondue, slightly more solidified. So, so good! Just a little complaint – it might be nice to add a little vegetable to a plate – but at least in this case there was something on the plate besides the steak.

The really bad dessert choices on the Restaurant Week menu is what really pushed the envelope for Fork and Serving Spoon to switch menus. Cheesecake or icecream. Yuck.

Serving Spoon ordered the Cannoli Siciliani. What arrived were two beautifully plated cannoli. These were not what you automatically think about when the word cannoli is said. The shells were almond tuille. Very light and crispy. Nice almond flavor. The filling was made with ricotta cheese, but it was much drier than the usual cannoli filling. There were chocolate chips scattered throughout the cream. The cream wasn’t overly sweet. The cannoli were sitting in a pool of blueberry sauce. Blueberry sauce in February – now, you know these weren’t local and most likely frozen, but the sauce was still yummy. Scattered around the plate were sliced, toasted sugared almonds.

Fork ordered the Limoncello Tart. Before Fork starts – what is with the MINT? Do you see the tree in the middle of that tart slice? Why? Who eats it? Does it really look great? If you think your dessert can not stand on a plate without foliage, maybe your dessert needs some vavavoom of it’s own. A sugared mint leaf or two, okay, but this nearly required a machete along with a dessert fork. Thick, sweet, buttery graham cracker crust. Fork loves a good graham cracker crust – and this was a really good graham cracker crust. The tart crust was filled with luscious lemon curd. Tangy, citrusy, sweet, lemony, yummy. To make this even better, the lemon curd had a brulee top. Really! As you were putting your dessert fork into it, it cracked. Perfect topping for the tart. The caramel brulee, slightly burnt sugar taste was great against  the tart, sweet lemon curd. There was a quenelle of whipped cream – could have been a little sweeter. And what is wrong with a dollop, what is with the ever present quenelle. Chefs are making quenelles out of everything. Enough already – so over the quenlle. At the side of the tart was a small pile of long, very thin lemon zest. Not sugared. Not candied. Just lemon zest. Why? Lose the herbage, make the whipped cream a dollop, and either lose or candy the lemon zest and this dessert would be stellar.

If you are going to Lincoln Center and need a fab place to eat, this is the place. Actually, if you need a dynamite place to eat this should be on your short list of choices!

Cafe Fiorello ~ 1900 Broadway ~ New York, NY ~ 212.595.5330

Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse

You have to love Restaurant Week. Trying all sorts of new places. Restaurant Week is what brought Fork and Knife to Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse in Grand Central Station. Now, this seems like an unlikely place to try and in an unlikely location, but Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse has had fabulous reviews so Fork and Knife thought it worth a try.

The restaurant in located on the north/west balcony level of Grand Central’s main room. When you walk into Grand Central and look around, there is nothing pointing you to the restaurant – Metrazur has a sign – Cipriani Dolci has a sign – Michael Jordan’s? You have to guess.  When you reach the top of the stairs of the west balcony, you walk into the bar area for the restaurant. Jam packed with people who do not, apparently, understand the words ‘excuse me’ or ’pardon me’, perhaps we should have tried ’get out of my way’. But once you push past and through the bar area you reach a small lobby with a hostess.

Fork and Knife arrived at the hostess desk together. Fork gave the name for the reservation. The hostess asked if it was a reservation for two. Fork and Knife in unison said yes. The hostess proceeded to ask Fork if Fork would like to be seated while Fork waited for a dinner companion to arrive. Fork and Knife looked at each other, raised an eyebrow and looked back at the hostess. She figured it out.

By the way, there are two 8×10 photos of Michael Jordan tucked in by the hostess desk. If you didn’t crane your neck to see them you would never think that THE Michael Jordan was the same Michael Jordan that lent his name to the restaurant.

It was 5:45. The dining room, save for one table, was empty. We were shown to a table in the middle of the room, but we asked to move to a table near the balcony railing so we could look around beautiful Grand Central Station and people watch. No problem.

As our waiter handed us our menus he let us know that the Restaurant Week special menu was only available between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Not sure why at 5:45 he felt it necessary to tell us this, but what is interesting is that this time fact is NOT mentioned on the restaurant website, NOT mentioned on OpenTable.com, NOT mentioned on NYCgo.com. What if we had made out Restaurant Week reservation for 7:30? Would we have had to order from the regular menu? Seems this information should have been available somewhere so diners could make realistic plans for dinner.

The restaurant itself is beautiful. The whole place over looks the main hall of Grand Central, without the noise. We could see the beautiful constellation ceiling, the architecture, people running to catch trains, and all from the safety and comfort of our very large table, not spaced too closely to the ones next to us.

The menu for restaurant week was not overly exciting. There were two appetizers, three entrees, and two desserts (one of which they were out of).

Knife and Fork both chose the Marinated Mushroom Salad with frisee and goat cheese. Now, from this description, one would think this was a marinated mushroom salad with some greens and goat cheese. Nope. This was a frisee salad with some marinated mushrooms and two or three little dollops of goat cheese. Now, don’t get Fork wrong, this was a good salad. Good dressing. Nice sized portion. The frisee could have been trimmed a bit so that it was easier to eat and the heavy stalky end was gone. But, certainly, the salad was better than Cauliflower Soup!

Fork and Knife both also ordered the Filet Mignon with Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Mustard Greens. These were great steaks. Really big, great steaks. Very tender. Very flavorful. Perfectly cooked. They probably didn’t rest enough from the grill to the table, when we cut into them, there was a lot of juice. Even with that faux pas, yummy. Fork is not sure the same can be said about everything else on the plate. Let’s talk about the ‘whipped’ sweet potatoes. Now those words alone make this piece of cutlery envision light and fluffy sweet potatoes. Sigh. This was not to be. The whipped sweet potatoes on our plates were really loose and runny – reminiscent of baby food – and really unpleasant. The mustard greens were just wilted. They were good, but would have been better if sautéed with more garlic or a squeeze of lemon juice.

Before Fork and Knife were shown the Restaurant Week menu, our waiter brought the regular menu to the table and Fork’s eyes were instantly drawn t0 Hashbrown Potato Pie. Doesn’t that sound amazing!? What arrived was an 8-inch crispy disk. Sadly, before Fork was able to take a photo of the entire thing our waiter HACKED into it to plate. I would have preferred to do that myself. He actually used a spoon to attempt to cut through this crispy disk. What a mess. The top was crispy and brown. The bottom was crispy, but not so brown. The center more like lumpy mashed potatoes than hashbrowns. The potatoes were really good. Nice and creamy (minus the ‘hashbrown’ lumps), a lot of  fresh herbs flecked throughout. Fork may need to try this at home.

Pet peeve – one of the bus boys came to the table and without asking reached his arm across and took my plate. What happened to, ‘Are you finished?’, ‘May I take your plate?’ Seriously bad form.

Our last decision of the night was dessert. Not much of a decision. There was ice cream (only vanilla or chocolate) or sorbet (mango or raspberry).  They made it quite clear on the menu that it was ONLY one scoop of whatever flavor. There was also cheesecake on the menu, but none was even offered as a choice. The scoop was very generous. The sorbet very good – probably Ciao Bella. There was a cut up strawberry and a spring of mint. Mint that everyone feels is part of every dessert on the planet.

Was dinner good? It was okay. The service was good, the steak was good, everything else was passable. Would I go back? Nope.

Oh, wait!! IT NOW GETS WORSE – and this is not for the faint of heart! Also, don’t be sipping any beverages while reading. We will not be responsible for you spewing liquid while laughing!

Fork and Knife decided that before the long trek home we should visit the rest rooms. Fork asked the waiter where the rest rooms were and he graciously walked us over to their location. There was a woman standing in a vestibule before three mirrored doors. The vestibule was darkly painted and there was a high counter with three wall mirrors. She opened door number one, wiped down the toilet, made sure everything was clean and straight and let Fork in – I am sure Spoon had the same experience. I am sorry if this becomes a little graphic – Put my things down, unbuttoned slacks, turned, sat, looked up and was facing the back of the door. The back of the MIRRORED door! Fork was totally stunned. Is that me? Am I that fat? Wait a minute? I am going to the bathroom and I am watching myself! Who cares if I am fat! This was so WRONG on SO many levels. It was like some psychotic porno movie! Trying on bathing suits is far less humiliating than this. Totally flabbergasted, Fork quickly concluded what needed to be done – with a certain sense of shame, I might add! – and bolted from the chamber of torture.

While waiting for Knife to finish, I realized that where these bathrooms were located was the old entrance to Grand Central Station from 44th Street. You entered onto the balcony. There were two sets of french paned doors – three, a break, three more. There was about a 7 foot space between the outside doors and the inside doors. They made two walls, tiled them, added sinks and toilets and kept the original doors. Always a fan of keeping as much original architecture and structure, the original doors are a nice touch. BUT MIRRORED – MIRRORED and DIRECTLY across from the toilet!?

Knife’s experience was exactly the same and equally as shocking!

If anyone from Michael Jordan’s reads this…..PAINT THE MIRRORS THE SAME COLOR AS THE WALLS! It isn’t as if there isn’t a mirror over the sink. Trust me, no piece of cutlery in the world wants to see that much of themselves!

Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse ~ 23 Vanderbilt Avenue ~ New York, NY ~ 212.655.2300

Maialino

Maialino! Maialino! Let me in! Come to the Gramercy Park Hotel and Danny Meyer and his wonderous team will not only let you in, they will treat you like family, make sure you are well fed, and have you leaving satisfied and thrilled to have been part of the experience. Just in case you think Fork bent a tine, Maialino translates to little pig from Italian.

Maialino, the newest jewel in the crown of restaurant king Danny Meyer, is located in the revamped Gramercy Park Hotel. And, true to the Meyer formula, this restaurant is different from every other Meyer restaurant, but with the same painstaking attention to every detail in every inch of the restaurant, a fantastic menu, and a staff that is knowledgeable and truly happy to be there helping you through your culinary adventure.

Spoon called Fork on the fly to see if perhaps Fork was free for dinner. Really? Is that a question that needs to be asked? Meet me at 5.30. We’re going to the bar room at Maialino. Well, alrighty then, Fork will be there – with bells on.

Maialino is the hot, hot, HOT place to be, so snagging a table in the bar room is easier than a reservation in the dining room. The portions are smaller (and less expensive), but the food is still fabulous, as is the service. But, beware, the bar room fills up quickly, so the earlier you get there the better. The restaurant is booked until mid-February, you could chance a walk-in around 5:30 or just be happy with the bar room, and happy you will be!

While Fork and Spoon were trying to decide what to start with, Spoon spied slim breadsticks on the bar and scattered around the high bar tables. Spoon asked a passing waiter about them, and the waiter brought some right over. What arrived was a slim glass lined with butcher’s paper and filled with slim, crisp, cheese sticks. They were small but packed a full wallop of flavor. Bread was also brought to the table, along with olive rolls, and semolina rolls. The cheese sticks are made on the premises.

All the breads and pizzas come from Sullivan Street Bakery. Fork remembers seeing an interview with Danny Meyer once and one of the most endearing things he said was along the lines of not knowing how to do everything well, so why do it half way when he can surround himself with people who know how to do it better. Such would be the case with breads coming from Jim Lahey.

Iced tea is fresh, bottomless, and filled without having to ask, as is the water. Nothing makes a guest feel more welcome than everything being refilled and refreshed before you realize you need or want it.

Our lovely waitress Genesa was very knowledgable about the menu. Not just about what went into each dish, but how it tasted, how it played with other things we ordered. What a treat to have someone so in tune with the menu taking care of you.

We started with Panelle alla Gricia. Panelle is a polenta fritter. This polenta was narrow and then rolled like a pinwheel. Rolled inside the panelle was guanciale (an uncured italian bacon, like pancetta, made from pig jowls or cheeks), and pecorino cheese. On the top of each was chopped fresh rosemary, a big hit of black pepper, and sea salt. Fork’s first bite brought Fork back to childhood and a sausage bread that AG made all the time. It’s a wonderful experience when something you eat brings you to a happy time in your life and a piece of cutlery that you love.

Next arrived Suppli al Telefono. Lovely croquettes made with a tomato risotto and mozzarella. Crisp shell, creamy risotto, wonderful mozzarella, diced tomatoes. What a wonderful flavor combination.  Suppli al Telefono is a roman rice ball dish that when hot and pulled apart the mozzarella is stringy. Someone, sometime, thought they looked like telephone lines and the name stuck – I kid you not. And, like the Panelle, one bite of the croquette brought Fork back to being just a Forklet and a wonderful dish from young days in the cutlery drawer. I know this is repetive, but isn’t wonderful when a simple taste can bring you back to another wonderful and perfect time in your life? The croquettes are served with a light tomato sauce for dipping. But, frankly, with the tomatoes inside the croquette, the dipping sauce is redundant.

Next arrived Zampina di Maialino. Fork was not too sure about this dish. Suckling pig’s foot! Sigh. Yes, Spoon, of course, Spoon, I trust you … BUT SUCKLING PIG’S FOOT! Fork is usually game for anything, and if Spoon wants to try it how bad could it really be? But Fork still sat waiting for the dish to arrive and walk itself onto the table. What arrived was nothing that was expected, a beautiful ring of tender, luscious pork, sitting in a pool of tender, tiny lentils with slices of celery and celery leaves. Very rich, very tasty, very unfoot-like!

While Spoon and Fork were sitting quietly, contentedly munching on our wonderful selections, sipping our bottomless iced tea, we were suddenly hit with food envy! We were watching dishes being placed on the table next to us, grabbing our menu, what is that, we need that, where is Genesa?

One of the things ordered was Carciofini Fritti. Fried artichoke hearts. Little tiny nibble of tender, crispy artichokes. There is a super light coating on the artichokes before frying with some herbs. Totally yum! We were so happy the cutlery next to us ordered this dish. The carciofini was served with and anchovy bread sauce. I don’t think Spoon or Fork tried this. The carciofini was certainly a stand alone and we didn’t need the sauce – and Spoon does not like anchovies.

In between the bar room and the trattoria are a bread station on the left and a salumeria on the right. You just want to stand and stare at the goodies on both sides. The breads and pizzas are beautiful. As mentioned earlier, they come form the Sullivan Street Bakery, and as you walk past you experience a treat for the senses, they look beautiful, they smell fantastic, and you already know how good they are. Not even the cutlery who live in fear of carbs could possibly resist these goodies.

And after looking at the prosciutto and speck and salame and fabulous cheeses, Fork and Spoon had to try a sampling (by the way, this is the advantage to eating small plates). We ordered the Assaggio di Prosciutti – a trio of prosciutti, each different and completely fabulous. There is Prosciutto di Parma, this is what most people experience when they have prosciutto; salty, tender, slightly leathery texture; Prosciutto di San Daniele, buttery in texture, salty; Prosciutto, La Quercia, the most wonderful domestic prosciutto, slightly more marbled than the other prosciutti.

Now, how can Fork and Spoon possibly have an assortment of prosciutti without cheese, a 3 selezioni, but with 13 to choose from, how can you possibly be able to choose – Genesa to the rescue again.  Fork and Spoon chose the Gorgonzola Cremificato, Taleggio di Bufala and the Testun Occelli. The Gorgonzola Cremificato has a higher water content of other gorgonzola cheeses. There are less veins and more pockets of the blue. Taleggio di Bufala is a semisoft cheese made from buffalo milk, very mild in flavor. The strongest in flavor was the Teston Occelli, a hard cheese with a very pungent smell and taste. All three fabulous!

While trying to figure out what was ordered next to us, Fork spied Panini di Porchetta on the menu. This was actually the largest of the dishes that we ordered. Succulent, flavorful roast pork on ciabatta. We’ll just eat the inside and leave the bread. The crispy skin, the tender pork – but, wait, the ciabatta soaked in all the juices from the porchetta.  Well, we’ll have just a tiny bit of the bread. Maybe just a little bit more. Does Fork need to tell you the bread was gone, as was the porchetta, all that was left was what seemed like an inordinate amount of fat on the plate.

All the desserts call to you! We were very tempted to order more cheese for dessert so we could try a few more, but we really were stuffed.

We’re so full. We’re so full we couldn’t possibly eat another bite. Oh, okay, we’ll take a little peek at the dessert menu. Torta della Nonna – Grandmother’s cake – served with a lemon caramel. Flaky tart shell, filled with sweet pastry cream made with ricotta, topped with toasted pinenuts. The torta sat in a pool of lemon caramel, and truthfully, this is what drew Fork and Spoon to this dish. It was barely placed before us when fingers dipped in for a taste. Rich, deep flavor with a huge hit of bright citrus, almost to the point of being more honey than caramel in flavor. The caramel would be great over gelato too!  The pastry cream was so light. It much have been from the ricotta. The tart shell thin and crisp, standing up well to the pastry cream. Nothing worse than a soggy crust! Pinenuts, toasted, scattered on top and dusted in powdered sugar. The thought and taste of the lemon caramel stayed with Fork and Spoon for some time, trying to decide if it was too honey like and not caramel enough. The lemon was a constant goodness!

Can the happiness of a Fork and Spoon be judged by anything better than an empty plate? We think not! Whether you try the bar room or the trattoria, Maialino will not disappoint. You will leave full, happy and thanking Danny Meyer for another wonderful oasis.

Maialino ~ Gramercy Park Hotel ~ 2 Lexington Avenue ~ New York, NY ~