Immaculate Infatuation

Amidst an incredibly fast moving New York City restaurant scene, Le Colonial feels old. It’s a well established Midtown East mainstay, but just the fact that you’re on this site right now has us betting that you don’t know much about it. This is the kind of place that people find out about from their 2004 hard copy of Zagat, not the internet. I’ve never seen the actual Zagat entry (didn’t want to spend the $14 for Yelp on paper), but I can pretty much guess how it goes. “Delicious food” in a “colonial French/Vietnamese setting” with “friendly service” and “a hip and sexy upstairs lounge”. Sexy upstairs lounge you say? Tell the babysitter we’re going to be home late.

So why did we end up spending valuable time and hard earned money evaluating a place nobody is talking about? An expert. A friend of ours who was born in Saigon and raised in Cali had heard great things and been aching to stack it up against mom’s cooking. We jumped at the opportunity to bear witness to proper judgement, and came away with the following conclusion: Le Colonial is legit. Yes it’s expensive, and yes it feels a little stuffy. But the food is delicious, (mostly) authentic, and the service is great. So now that you’ve heard about it here, go eat at Le Colonial and help it get some cool back. We’re sure they would appreciate it.

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Life definitely doesn’t suck for Tom Colicchio right now. Thanks to his lead role on Top Chef, Colicchio’s personal brand is bigger than ever. He’s up there with Bobby Flay and Mario Batali as the most recognizable faces in the food game. Colicchio has built successful Craft restaurants everywhere from Atlanta to Las Vegas. Problem is, when you’re a chef spending all your time in the kitchen critiquing quick fires and trying not to blatantly stare at Padma’s jugs, you’re not actually cooking. Craft and Craftbar used to be home to some of the more sought after tables in NYC. Not anymore. Although both restaurants still do good business, they’re no longer the talk of the town. The only buzz Colicchio has made cooking lately has been his well received Tom: Tuesday Night dinner, a bi-weekly limited sitting in Craft’s private dining room at $150-200 a head. Realizing it was time to get back in the mix full-time, Collichio decided to shutter his struggling Craftsteak and re-open it as Colicchio & Sons. Tom’s back in the kitchen (it’s true, we saw him), only now he’s not cooking for 32 people; he’s got to feed a whole restaurant.

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The Smile is a relatively new “cafe and mixed use concept store” on Bond St. What does that mean? Well, it’s a rustic space that serves food and also sells housewares and nick-nacks to the coolest people you have ever seen. Essentially, it’s hipster Cracker Barrel.

Though The Smile has been open for close to a year now, we’re betting you haven’t heard much about it. Situated a few steps below the sidewalk, it’s a place that you have to be looking for to see, and other than the models and musicians that fill it for brunch, it remains relatively under the radar. Yes, brunch is popular, but it’s not yet overrun by the hoardes in this city that treat the meal like a sport. People eat and linger, everyone seems to know each other, and everyone looks really good – even with dirty hair and last night’s clothes on. Dinner service began only a few weeks ago, and like the breakfast and brunch menu, the food is surprisingly good. Imagine Freemans without the two hour wait. Things here feel laid back and matter-of-fact, as if those running the place have no interest in the hustle that can come along with making a New York City restaurant successful. Maybe they are simply confident that word will spread and people will come. Or maybe they just don’t want them to.

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Whether you realize it or not, you’ve probably eaten a ton of Sullivan St. Bakery’s bread. Over 250 of New York City’s restaurants and markets serve this fine yeast, from Babbo to Dean & Deluca to Murray’s Cheese. When you dominate NYC’s dough scene, why not start a pizza joint? Co. (aka Company) is the hip, quasi-new addition to the Sullivan St. Bakery monopoly, and features a more complete menu than other next level pizza-throbs like Motorino and Keste. While the pizza is damn tasty, it’s not of the traditional variety. It arrives in awkward shapes and plays out more like awesome bread with toppings than actual pizza…which is by no means a bad thing.

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In case you haven’t noticed, Cobble Hill is fully stacked with great restaurants these days, many of which are new Infatuation favorites. Right at the top of that list is Char No. 4, and it’s easy to see why. It’s essentially my New York City dream house – a warm, inviting space with a wall of bourbon and a smoker. When we sell this website to Excite or Lycos or whoever is spending money these days, that’s totally what I’m buying. I guess for now I’ll have to stick with my current method of tossing a few woodchips into the toaster and ripping the batteries out of the smoke alarm.

While smoking meat is definitely a huge part of what Char No. 4 does (you’ll notice that damn near everything on the dinner menu is a “house smoked” something), it’s not all just ribs and brisket sandwiches. This is Southern influenced food in New York City, and you will find some really creative things on the menu, like the insanely good lamb pastrami, a ridiculous crispy sweet potato gnocchi, and a more than respectable brunch. We recently decided to put it all to the test by bringing in some palates even more discerning than ours. One of our favorite new bands hails from Dallas, and we decided to introduce them to Southern food, Brooklyn style. Take a look and see what happens when Char No. 4 meets Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights.

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