As a foodie who is also a devoted animal lover, I found I was constantly at odds with myself. I had an intense love for charcuterie but also a deep admiration and respect for pigs. I started my journey by giving up pork products. After just a couple of weeks, I thought, gosh, cows are lovely too–if I’m so fond of cows, how can I justify eating them? I was well aware of the horrors of big agriculture in our country, so my postponement of this decision felt lazy and just plain wrong. Once I came to this realization, the rest fell into place effortlessly. At last, in my early 30s, my conscience won over my belly and I decided to give up meat for good. Thankfully, I live in Brooklyn and there is no place on earth where it is easier to go vegetarian. Let me start by saying that I’m not at all into meat substitutes. I find seitan disgusting and I’m firmly opposed to faux-sausages. Why fake it when there are so many delicious vegetable-forward dishes out there? Continue reading →
Toby Buggiani describes his 4-year-old wine bar and restaurant as “a tiny, quirky space” where he gets elbow-deep in pizza dough and fresh vegetables on the daily. It’s a quiet little nook in Greenpoint (159 Greenpoint Avenue) where the things he loves can thrive: inventive art, plant-based cuisine, natural wine, and an ethos rooted in simplicity.
Adelina’s is a fairly young restaurant, but its story began back in the 1980s between the street art scene in Greenwich village and a humble kitchen outside of Tuscany.
“Most of what we do here is rooted in my history and what I believe in. Arthas a lot to do with that, actually,” Buggiani explains. “I was born in Italy, but we moved to New York City in the late 1970s for my father’s work as a painter, sculptor, and performance artist. I pretty much grew up in Greenwich village during the late 80s and early 90s surrounded by a lot of artists and musicians, friends of my parents and so on.” Continue reading →
Black Flamingo may appear to be all about the vibe, with its splashy seventies-in-Florida décor and stylish downstairs dance club that feels like a Norwegian sauna accidentally fell into a Dan Flavin installation. The space was designed by Hecho Inc., who worked on The Box, Stanton Social, Beauty & Essex, Speedy Romeo, Baby’s All Right, and these dumpster pools.
But the latest from David Shapiro and Etan Fraiman of Battery Harris (another destination restaurant where you can while away your evening hours and dollars in a beautiful tropical environment) is all about the food and the drinks, so far. The hordes of dance mobs have yet to descend.
Some scrummy new autumnal dishes from Adelina's (Pics by Rosie de Belgeonne)
Puffer jackets at the ready…this week’s gonna be a chill one with temperatures rumored to be dropping down to the 30’s by midweek. Brrrrrr. Fortunately our favorite neighborhood Italian Adelina’s has added some excellent new dishes recently and they are exactly the kind of thing we want to be eating on a cold winter night, washed down with a nice glass of red from one of the many wine casks that line the walls of the restaurant.
Here’s what we tried and LOVED when we visited at the weekend: Continue reading →
Glasserie (95 Commercial St) has been operating for less than a year and already it’s caused a significant stir amongst NYC foodies. When Sara Conklin opened the restaurant last summer it rapidly gained a glowing reputation for its modern Eastern Mediterranean food served in the beautiful setting of a former glass factory at the northernmost tip of Greenpoint. Continue reading →
It was our first week shaping our “social life” around our new pup “D” – ain’t she a cutie? Basically unless we find a dog sitter, we can’t go anywhere for more than a few hours because her bladder is the size of a pea and she really doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal to sneak into the living room and take a mini dump on the floor when Jon and I are passed out on the couch at 9:30pm. See what I mean about our “social life”? Continue reading →
