Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new favorite BBQ spot. How it took us so long to get here is beyond me. Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing. We’ve been depriving ourselves of this hot action for way too long. If and when Team Infatuation opens our own BBQ spot, this is the place we’ll model it after. This is perfect destination for a night out with a big group for quality barbecue and booze. Situated inside what used to be an old auto body shop, this gutted garage is raging every night of the week. It’s essentially a combination of a Brooklyn beer garden and Texas style BBQ. House cured meats are served by the pound on butcher paper, and beers arrive in different sized jugs and growlers. Set up shop at one of the indoor or outdoor communal tables and you’ve got all the makings for a hell of an urban picnic. Never in my life have I seen a more attractive collection of females gnawing on pork ribs and drinking beers. Attention dudes looking for a nice woman who likes to get down on some BBQ: stop messing around with your buddy’s mom on CougarLife.com and turn your attention towards the bar area at Fette Sau.
It’s been a few years since Momofuku Ko opened, and now that the restaurant world is done freaking out over it, we figured it was time to check in on the place and see how it’s holding up. Well, that and it took us this long to finally get a reservation. By our calculations, that means we’ll be hanging out at the Boom Boom for the first time sometime during the summer of 2016.
In fairness to the Momofuku Ko system, it’s actually a very democratic, albeit competitive process for securing a reservation. No special treatment, no secret phone number, just log onto the website and pray that one of the 70 available dinner seatings for the week will be open. Repeat. Should you manage to secure a reservation, this is what you need to know. It’s going to be an expensive meal. It’s $125 per person just to eat dinner, and drinking will cost you quite a bit more. That hefty price tag affords you very little in the way of traditional luxuries. No white tablecloths (no tables, actually), no doting waiters, and no busboys with breadcrumb scrapers. Just a front row seat to some of the most creative cooking you can find anywhere…and some really good tunes. If you’re expecting fine dining for that kind of money and want to show off your new boat shoes at dinner, allow us to suggest Eleven Madison Park. We love that place too. But if you’re looking to put a notch in your culinary experience belt, Momofuku Ko has to be on your list. Good luck getting in.
Photo Credit: Noah Kalina
There are plenty of reason for me to love Back Forty. It’s around the corner from my apartment. The vibe is great. The drinks and beer list are excellent, and it’s the perfect Warm Weather Dining destination thanks to their sizeable Outdoor/Patio Situation. Unfortunately, every time I go, I leave with mixed emotions. The meals always start off well, only to have the bottom drop out half way through. I keep going back though, hoping to have a change of heart. After reading Sarma’s Friday Fives a couple weeks ago, I decided that the burger might be the thing that changes my mind. It wasn’t, and with all due respect to our girl Sarma, she owns a raw food restaurant. Cooked meat anywhere must taste amazing. The bottom line is that Back Forty is a solid place to go for a drink and a light bite at the bar. Back Forty is home to one of the best drinks you’ll taste all summer, the Red & Black, and pairing that with an appetizer is absolutely a good idea. Beyond that, I don’t commit a whole meal here.
We head out East for Friday Fives this week to link up with Top Chef alum and Surf Lodge Executive Chef Sam Talbot. It’s perfect timing too, as we’re shooting an Infatuation TV episode in Montauk this weekend with Sam and singer/songwriter/pro surfer Donavon Frankenreiter. When the summer is over, Sam will be moving back into NYC to open the Mondrian in Soho, and he’s also currently working on his first book. To keep up with all the Sam Talbot happenings, follow him on twitter and check out his snazzy website. Nice Kooks tune on there by the way, that’s a good jam.
Surf Lodge has single-handedly changed the Hamptons’ nightlife game. It used to be that if you wanted to seriously get after it on the East End, you were either battling the lines and generally awful people at Pink Elephant (RIP, finally), or getting really dirty at The Point. Thanks to Surf Lodge and their awesome indoor/outdoor set up and no doorman policy, the only problems we run into here are huge crowds, bathroom lines and too many hot chicks. For those looking for night of potential Drunk Hook Ups, this is your spot. Speaking of Drunk Hook Ups, our boy Sam here is the first Friday Fives participant to have the balls to select that category from the “Perfect For” list. Nicely done.
When it comes to this website, there are a few things that we believe in strongly – indisputable truths of the Immaculate Infatuation universe. Most of these tenets pertain to things that we believe will prevent you from Wasting Your Time and Money. The first and most important of those absolutes: any restaurant that employs a bouncer will inevitably suck. Today, however, we might have to make an exception to that rule, and we’re not particularly happy about it.
The Lion is a new joint opened by the chef from Waverly Inn and a bunch of other people you would only know if you a) spent too much time at Beatrice Inn or b) give a shit about who the “celebrity” investors are in a restaurant. Either way, this place is New York’s newest hot spot, and if you read all the other reviews, you’ll no doubt find a long list of A-listers recently sighted here. Exciting! But what has us considering an amendment to one of our beloved dining axioms is that despite all the baggage that comes along with a “scene” like this, the food at The Lion is actually pretty damn good. We’ve even found the place to be generally tolerable on all of our recent visits. Yes, tables can be hard to come by, and yes, it’s full of people who probably refer to themselves in the third person, but so far we’ve found the staff to be friendly and courteous. And while the quality of food and service are a bit surprising – what makes the biggest impression is the interior of the restaurant itself. The main dining area is an amazing two-story space that looks like the living room of a drug addled safari hunter/art collector (my dream job). It’s a pretty incredible place to eat your steak, and makes the hefty price tag a little more bearable. The bar in front is cozy and tavern-like, a perfect spot for sucking back dark and stormys and even possibly scoring a walk up table, especially if you arrive for dinner on the earlier side of the evening.
So while we can’t fully throw our full Infatuation approval behind a place that has a door guy out front, we have to admit that there is a lot to like about The Lion. Enough for us to make one exception to a big time rule…for now.
Photo Credit: Janelle Jones
