Immaculate Infatuation

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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We love a good girl fight, especially a lovers’ quarrel over our favorite aphrodisiacs – lobster rolls and oysters. We know this is old news, but apparently Pearl (of Pearl Oyster Bar) and Mary (of Mary’s & Brooklyn Fish Camp) used to get it on like Ellen and Portia. They ran Pearl’s together until something happened. We won’t speculate, as it’s none of our business, but it’s definitely possible someone looked at someone else the wrong way one night at Meow Mix. Whatever it was, it was bad enough to drive Mary out. She packed up her lobster pots and moved into her own place down the block. Bad news for Pearl – excellent news for the rest of us.

On this island, taking a break from the beach and rolling to the local clam bar in flip flops and a bathing suit doesn’t happen. While our concrete jungle does indeed have a few solid fish shacks and oyster bars (The Mermaid Inn, Luke’s Lobster), most come with a certain Manhattan spin that seems forced and rather lame (Ditch Plains, Lure Fishbar). Mary’s is the rare authentic feeling fish house around these parts. It could easily be transported to Montauk or Cape Cod and fit right in. The pale pink and blue decor, simplistic dishes and laid back attitude are what we expect from a place that only serves seafood. Sure, the prices are a bit high, but this is Manhattan- everything is expensive. Mary’s is always jammed, so go in expecting to put your name on the list and then grab a drink around the corner. They’re accurate on their wait time and will call you as soon as your table is ready. As far as we’re concerned, Mary’s is one of the best seafood jams in Manhattan. Get some.

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Paella is the new ramen noodle and I’m officially obsessed with this place. No bigger than a subway car, Socarrat packs the majority of their patrons on bar stools around a communal table. The idea here is that they do paella the way it’s done in Spain, as one big family. In such a small space, keeping the drool inside your mouth while you wait for your food is no easy task. People are devouring sweet smelling goodness right next to you and all you can do is sit and watch. The smart move is to get a small plate or two to start and get those taste buds warmed up for the main attraction. The paella dishes are served in a huge pan for your party to split. It looks like an intimidating amount of food but the second you start getting in there, it goes fast. Make sure you scrape off the crunchy rice (socarrat) at the bottom, that’s the real good stuff.

You’re most likely going to have to wait a little for your table, but they’ll take your number and call your cell when your time comes. While you wait, we highly recommend Peter McManus, a solid Irish pub on the corner of 19th and 7th that always seems to be playing either Oasis or Rage Against the Machine. Also, keep in mind that this isn’t a cheap meal. Each paella is in the $20-25 range per person, not per paella. Lastly, don’t be surprised if you’re tastefully pushed along during prime time. On one occasion, we were gracefully asked if we wouldn’t mind finishing our cocktails on their private back patio. They even offered up a round of after dinner drinks on the house, not a bad way to end a meal.

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Pearl, Ed, Mary, meet Luke. He’s come to town to show you what’s up. Luke and his lobsters have arrived in the East Village, and anyone in the neighborhood with a lobster roll on the menu is officially on notice. Luke grew up in Maine and the family business is seafood, so he’s using his lobster connections to get them cheap and truck them in daily. His mission? Show this city what a lobster roll should be – pure, unadulterated lobster goodness at an affordable price.

Now, we’re no stranger to the lobster roll, and honestly, there are some that come chock full of mayo and celery that we love. However, at the end of the day, a fourteen dollar roll of high quality fresh lobster is exactly the kind of thing that gets us fired up, even if it comes in the middle of October. There are definitely going to be some haters out there, and no doubt we’re going to get a bunch of emails from some jackass in Boston about how much better some seafood shack in Rockport is, but we don’t care. This is about New York City, and we back this place. One last thing to note: crowds are already starting to gather and lines are inevitable, but Luke’s Lobster is actually something in the neighborhood worth waiting around for. Artichoke, you are officially on notice too.

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Lobster rolls are a hot button topic in this town. Bring up the subject of whose is best in a large group and you’re likely to stir up either a passionate discourse or a knife fight, depending on what kind of crowd you run with. We’re healing up nicely, thanks.

We certainly have an opinion on the topic, but are also equal opportunity eaters. We haven’t met too many lobster rolls we don’t like. Not the case for some. As a matter of fact, there is a rivalry that exists between fans of Pearl Oyster Bar’s roll and Mary’s Fish Camp loyalists that’s almost as heated as the Biggie/Tupac beef was before Al Gore had them both killed (we’re entitled to our theory).

We’d like to use this review to go on record and say two things: we really like Pearl Oyster Bar, and stop the violence. Pearl’s lobster roll won’t take the title of best in town from us, but the place does score high on the Infatuation meter. Almost everything on the menu is fantastic, and we love sitting at the bar with an Anchor Steam and getting into some seafood with our hands. What really keeps us coming back though, is the fried oyster sandwich. That thing is food worth fighting over.

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