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Manhattan Notes -
Restaurants
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Thursday, 12 February 2009 17:21 |
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 Gustorganics
519 Avenue of the Americas
212-242-5800
gustorganics.com
There is so much to say about this restaurant and most of it is not about the menu. Now this is not to say that the food is not delicious. In fact, the food offered at America’s first and only 100% certified organic restaurant is wonderful. It’s a full menu (breakfast, lunch and dinner) with a latin-flavor that ranges from grilled organic pizzas and empanadas to risotto and filet mignon. But really the most impressive part of the restaurant is its undeviating focus on “green” and sustainable.
Yes, we know these have become catch-all phrases used by many a marketers to pull at our ethical side in order to sell!, sell! sell! But Gustorganics may be what many of us imagine as (hopefully!) the future of restaurants. Founded in 2008 by Argentinean-born businessman, Alberto Gonzalez, who was struck by the lack of fresh food when he traveled to NYC, Gustorganics abides by a mission that consists of serving natural food to its customers, respecting our health and treading lightly upon the planet. Here are a few of the qualities reaching towards there prominently displayed mission on the restaurants windows : Truth, Integrity, Sharing, Respect, Sustainability, Fair Trade, Healthy:
1. Gustorganics is the first and only certified organic restaurant in New York.
2. America’s first restaurant to use 100% USDA certified organic ingredients.
3. One of the greenest restaurants in the world.
4. The first and only USDA certified organic bar on the planet.
5. Uses only wind energy.
6. Use of solar lighting.
7. Energy-efficient kitchen equipment.
8. Water conservation equipment.
9. 100% recycled paper, bags, and boxes.
10. Restaurant built with recycled woods and eco-friendly materials.
The list goes on and on and this I take is absolutely a good thing and a breath of fresh air. Whether you try the Buenos Aires style steak or the home-made turkey meatballs, you can rest assured that your meal will be chemical-free, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, and GMO-free. Thank goodness the pizza I tried, layered lavishly with zucchini, tomato, eggplant, and squash wasn’t taste-free! Nor was the atmosphere. In the evening the modern-rustic space is dimly lit with tasteful orb-like hanging lights and the natural light coming in from the huge window that runs the entire length of the restaurant. It’s a warm, calm ambiance that makes it good for most dining occasions.
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Manhattan Notes -
Restaurants
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Tuesday, 10 February 2009 04:21 |
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Piada
3 Clinton Street
(btw Houston and Stanton)
212-677-5415
www.piadanyc.com
One of the qualities that separates great Italian food from other cultures is its elegant simplicity. Once when traveling though the smalls towns in the north of Italy, I remember the sensation of impossibility I experienced when I tasted for the first time, a pasta marinara, impossible because it contained only five ingredients and was the best tasting pasta I had ever eaten. The contents of the meal: pasta, tomato, basil, olive oil, and salt. It was as if some hidden alchemy long forgotten was used to draw all the flavors together into a simple taste-explosion, no fillers needed.
Piada, the small Italian sandwich shop in the Lower East Side contains some of this same alchemical quality. Serving a range of sandwiches, wraps, and salads, this tiny stop is a great place to pick up a healthy and quick meal as you venture to your favorite LES bar, gallery, or vintage clothing store. The shop aims for a sleek modernist feel, white and grey clean lines and minimalist simplicity but ends up more with a flatness that you wish was a bit more welcoming. Yet, the saving grace is the wonderful assortment of 60’s Italian cinema posters that line the wall; a little Fellini (who also inspired the names of the sandwhiches) always adds a little cultured flare to a more sober surrounding.
The shops specialties are its two types of breads:
Piada (or Piadina) “is a very popular Italian flat bread made with wheat and extra virgin olive oil served folder or wrapped. It is a speciality of the Emilia-Romagna region.”
Ciabatta is a traditional Italian bread that is formed into a rounded rectangular shape loaf. Baked with a hard crust, it contains a soft-textured open to dense crumb.”
Give a try to the delicious Giulietta Degli Spiriti a special warm piada made of simple grilled veggies and mozzarella or the La Strada, filled with salame, Pecorino cheese and balsamic vinegar. Both are excellent with the no-filler simplicity of the best Italian food.
What is surprising is the care in detail in which the shop seems to reside, a rare addition to the “fast food” world. On the back of the menu you’ll find a wonderful description of the ingredients many of which are organic. Its feels like a guided tour through the Italian landscape. Here’s a quick look:
Pecorino Toscano Fresh “is a cheese made by sheep’s milk and aged a minimum of 20 days. Pecorino is quite mild and rather creamy though it does have some nutty oak leaf overtones that keep it from being insipid.”
Prosciutto di Parma “is aged 16 months and marks one of the high points of the Italian culinary tradition. It goes far back in time to 2,000 years ago.”
With reasonable prices, speedy service, and quality fare, add this to your stop and go list (and grab one of their oatmeal cookies).
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Manhattan Notes -
Restaurants
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Tuesday, 03 February 2009 23:50 |
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 Raoul’s
180 Prince Street
212-966-3581 Perhaps you have been dreaming of studying in France because you love the accent and those dirty French novels of the 19th century or you've always wanted to become a budding poet like Rimbaud or a celebrity philosopher like Sartre. Well, if those dreams haven’t yet come to pass, you can still experience the excitement of an authentic French bistro right in the heart of Soho. |
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Manhattan Notes -
Restaurants
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Monday, 02 February 2009 21:43 |
Hampton Chutney Co.
68 Prince St.
212-226-9996
www.hamptonchutney.com
The plaque to your right as you enter the restaurant states:
“While the food is served, everyone chants God’s name. In this way, good impressions enter the food and when people eat it, they imbibe those good impressions.”
And this is exactly what the intelligent cashier behind the counter explained occurs for all the food. He told me the story of how the founder of the Amagansett-based eatery, Gary MacGunn, had lived for a number of years on an ashram in Indian and it was there that he learned how to make what the Chutney Co. has now become known for, its sourdough crepe made from rice and lentils called dosas. These dosas are filled with one of fourteen different tasty chutneys from the classic masala dosa (spiced Indian potato filling) to the wonderful avocado, fresh tomatoes, arugula, and jack cheese.
In addition to the dosas, the Hampton Chutney Co. has become well known for changing “America’s perception of chutney” traditionally considered “a spicy condiment made of fruits or vegetables with vinegar, spices, and sugar” by creating a new combination. Two that stand off the menu are the seasonal roasted butternut squash, roasted beets and goat cheese, as well as the calamata olives, fresh tomatoes, and roasted onions.
Even amidst the lunch rush of ambitious Soho-ites, the chefs retained their attentive focus to the food at hand and while I could not hear any chanting of God, the constantly glowing candles in the kitchen were a good sign.
We received our dosas and sandwiches so quickly I hardly had time to contemplate the guru images that lined the two walls of the restaurant. The cashier explained to me that the images were of meditation master and Teacher Gurumayi, founder of a Siddha yoga center in upstate New York where MacGunn regularly practices. And perhaps this is the most interesting aspect of the restaurant, fast food that is wonderfully affordable, healthy, and allows you to contemplate the inner mysteries of the self. MacDonald's could learn a thing or two from this place, where efficiency does not negate quality.
And just to give you a little taste of who else thought this eatery was a winner, here are the recent awards won:
- "Best Meal Deal" - Food & Wine Magazine - April 2005
- "Best Fast Food" - New York Magazine 2002
- "Best Cheap Eats" - Time Out Magazine 2001
- "Where to eat in 2002" - New York Magazine's "Hot List"
- "Best Fast Food" - New York Press 2001
As I headed out the door with my delicious chai, the cashier called after me and gave me a card with more info on the thoughts behind the restaurant. You can find out more at www.siddhayoga.org. I am very much hoping that this is a new beginning to the future of fast food. (Meal prices from $7-12).
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