Immaculate Infatuation

As you might have recently read (everywhere), we are currently in the midst of a lobster roll boom. It’s like 1998 all over again but New York City is Silicon Valley and stupid websites are lobsters. We understand that some of this craze has to do with competitive lobster pricing and a relentlessly growing public obsession with food (God bless you all), but it also feels like Luke’s Lobster might have set something off. When Luke and company set up shop in the middle of October last year, we were intrigued, and inevitably became obsessed with the fact that we could get a fantastic roll in the East Village for fourteen bucks. And we weren’t the only ones. Suddenly Luke’s was blowing up in the middle of winter and by May, it seemed that everyone in town had a lobster roll lined up for their summer menu.

Something else happened in May. Luke quit his finance job to go full time lobster and opened up a second location on the Upper East Side. The new restaurant is a little bit larger and still cranks out amazing food, this time not to East Village post-grads, but to a mix of UES families, frat dudes, and old timers packed into the place. Business is most definitely booming, and we’re inspired. So much so that we’ve devised a plan to quit our day jobs and start a lobster roll truck loosely based off the Dumb and Dumber shaggin’ wagon. See you next summer.

Photo Credit: Kerry Cheeseboro | PHUDE-nyc

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The subway during summer. The current season of Top Chef. Lebron James. The new M.I.A. album. Wildwood Barbecue. What do all these things have in common? They all f*cking suck.

For those looking for a little bit of suburban mall dining in NYC, you’re in luck…just wander over to Union Square East. You can go ahead and add Wildwood to your Brother Jimmy’s and TGI Friday’s rotation. For those of us who take pride in our never ending culinary crusade through the world’s best food city, this is definitely one stop you should avoid. I can think of ten BBQ spots in NYC I’d hit before this, and a couple of bodegas that serve pulled pork sandwiches too. Don’t Waste Your Time and Money, unless of course your crew of frat bros are in town to watch the big game and you need to properly let the dawgs out without being judged. In that case, the size (huge), sounds (Nickelback) and food (numbingly average) might actually be what you’re looking for.

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Marea definitely needs some good Infatuation press…they haven’t gotten much love lately. Makes you wonder if people around these parts have even heard of it. I mean, it’s only been awarded Best New Restaurant in America by the James Beard Foundation. While we haven’t yet logged enough hours on the road to make that kind of statement, we can definitely say that Chef Michael White makes some of the best pasta in New York City. That would be a bold statement if everyone on earth wasn’t also saying it.

Marea is one of those restaurants, like Eleven Madison Park, you walk into knowing damn well it’s going to be incredible. The food, especially the aforementioned pasta, is exquisite. A few of the dishes, including the lobster burrata, the fusili with octopus (and bone marrow), and the steak are among the best things we’ve eaten all year. Service is top notch as well – the staff know the menu inside and out, and they take excellent care of you. But for all that talk about pasta, it’s good to know this: Marea is a Quality Fish restaurant first, Italian restaurant second. To properly indulge, you’ve gotta be willing to strap on the scuba gear and eat whatever swims your way.

There are two ways to approach a Marea experience, and both are the tasting menu…it just depends on what time of day you want to eat like a baller. For lunch, the two course $42 tasting menu is a steal. That’s a better deal than what you find at most boring ass midtown business lunch destinations. Dinner is almost affordable at $89 a person for a four course tasting menu and a meal of this caliber. Ordering a la carte is always an option as well, but with such a deep menu, you’re going to be better served trying as many things as possible.

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Our Infatuation with Passion Pit started early. All it took was one listen to “Sleepyhead” and we were in it for the long haul. Their debut album, Manners, was one our favorite releases of 2009, and we used their addicting single “Little Secrets” as the soundtrack to our first ever video, Cookies Across The City. Needless to say, we’re pretty excited that Ian Hultquist, the band’s keyboard player/guitarist (left of the piano in the photo), took the time to drop his go-to restaurant picks on us. We learn from our friends, and there are definitely some spots in this list that we need to check out.

If you don’t already own it, it’s never too late to buy Manners. It’s currently on sale at Amazon for $5. And to keep up with all the latest, make sure to follow both Passion Pit’s band twitter and Ian’s personal twitter too.

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Bert and Ernie? Fergie and the weird looking dude from the Black Eyed Peas? That won’t work, Steinthal can’t run in heels. Sorry, just thinking of a few disguises for all the bank robberies we’re going to have to pull off to keep eating at 15 East. Maybe we’ll do the Hamburglar and Grimace. They’ll call us the “Fast Food Bandits” and we’ll take down a few Burger Kings just to make sure the name sticks.

A while back in our Kanoyama review, we talked about the three tiers of sushi restaurants in New York. This is most definitely a Tier One sushi establishment. It’s upscale, it’s expensive, and it’s good enough for me to consider earning a criminal record for. Why is it worth all that? Well to start, the fish is incredibly good. Everything is fresh and authentic, and will make you realize why people freak out over things like fresh uni and toro. It’s also a pleasant environment for a meal – a good option for a date or a business meeting…which can’t be said for many of the other elite sushi restaurants in town. Here’s the thing though – if you are dining for either of those reasons, make sure you go with people that want to get down on a serious sushi experience. If you’re bringing someone that’s going to ask for the spicy mayo, skip 15 East and go somewhere cheaper. That ain’t this how this place gets down, and you shouldn’t drop a car payment on somebody who would be just as happy with a mango tempura jalapeno red dragon roll.

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