Joseph Leonard is 650 square feet of seriously hyped restaurant. By my estimation that makes about four bloggers per square foot that wrote it up based on a pencil sketch and insider information from a delivery guy. I guess that makes us late to the game. So while we won’t exactly follow suit and take you through the place of origin of every antique light fixture and picture frame in the building, we will tell you this – it looks like a tastefully furnished studio apartment that’s 50% bar (my kind of apartment). It’s also pretty obvious that the restaurant was conceived in the spirit of Little Owl. Every inch of space serves a purpose, including the upper level bar seats, perfectly engineered for surveying the action while you eat. The menu is American with both French and Southern touches, and while dinner is generally better than brunch, it’s a nice place to dine any time of day. We like it and will visit often – a new West Village go-to even – but you’ll find that all that hype is pretty hard to live up to. Don’t look to us if you go in expecting a religious experience and come away a little disappointed. That’s what you get for spending too much time on Yelp.
L’Express is an Infatuation MVP – a staple in the repertoire that is good for just about everything from casual dinner with friends, to business lunch, to drinks and crossing your fingers on a first date. The menu sports French classics like escargot and duck a l’orange, but good ole USA eats like burgers and sandwiches are plentiful as well. Brunch, lunch, and dinner are all excellent and unshakably consistent, but we especially love this 24 hour French brasserie for the New York City menagerie that it becomes at three in the morning. Late at night the restaurant fills with a colorful crowd of drunks looking for something other than a diner omelet to help them survive the morning. We’re with them. Somehow that lamb burger tastes even better when you’re on the precipice of a full on black out.
Little Owl, I want to love you. I really do. We’ve had a few nice evenings together and honestly, I think if things were different, it could work out between us. The problem is that none of my friends like you. Every time I bring my friends around, you make them mad. You sometimes serve a sub par piece of fish or kill your tuna lettuce wrap appetizer with salad dressing. Every once in a while you run out of an entree. You are always so friendly and they expect things to be great, but then something goes awry and I have to defend you. They tell me I should be spending my time somewhere else. They say there are better places in the West Village to spend my money. They say I am too good for you. I know I should just take their advice and walk away, but you have such a sweet, sweet pork chop. If you only served pork chops and meatball sliders, I would give you a 9.0 rating and we would move in together and have game night every Thursday. Think about it. We would be so happy. I made you a mix tape.
Local produce is hot right now, Padma hot. Last week’s Top Chef revolved around the local produce of Napa Valley (and Padma of course) and I feel like every restaurant I go to now is making a big fuss about it. Bandwagon initiated. Hop on board, drink some Blue Point and eat some pigs that grew up in Dix Hills.
This brings us to East Village newcomer Northern Spy Food Co. which recently popped up around the corner from Infatuation HQ and prides itself on serving – yes you guessed it – local produce. Interest was piqued when Eater posted Chef Nate Appleman’s tweet saying he had his “best meal of 2009″ here. It’s a chill spot, and they succeed in establishing the country vibe. It’s set up as both a sit-down restaurant and a take-out market. Think of it as Westville light with a smaller menu (that changes every week) and hotter waitresses. Northern Spy is a solid local hang with a very reasonable price point. It’s not necessarily a destination restaurant, but if you live in the hood, it needs to get into the rotation, if only to grab a beer poured from the taps protruding out of the wood paneled wall. We feel that.
Ask any New York City female what her favorite Chronic Brunch spots are, and I guarantee Prune is on the list. Chicks freakin’ LOVE this place. They can’t get enough of the predominantly gay wait staff in their tight pink t-shirts, and are willing to to wait obscene amounts of time for Prune’s killer bloody marys and infamous triple decker Monte Cristo. The place is tiny – the mob scene out front on any given Sunday is worse than the first day of a Steven Alan sample sale. But while we all know the brunch is solid, what you may not realize is that they also have an adventurous and quite tasty dinner menu. It’s a cozy little restaurant, and combine that with a quality drink list and aphrodisiacs like oysters and mussels on the menu and you get a good sleeper spot for a First/Early In The Game Date. Good luck.
