Clinton Street Baking Co.

I have been avoiding this place since we moved to New York. I read about it somewhere and it sounds exactly like the kind of place I would love, until I got to the part about there always being a crowd. I hate crowded little restaurants. Well, on a recent snowy morning I played hookey and thought I might sneak in without a crowd. Wrong. Big crowd, little restaurant. Luckily I was flying solo and a counter seat opened up almost immediately. Woot woot! I got a buttermilk biscuit sandwich with scrambled eggs, cheddar, chives, bacon and tomato preserves (= fancy ketchup). It was amazing. I don't know if I could wait a hour for it, but it was great.

Chili's - Chicago O'Hare Airport

I know this is disgusting and that's kind of the point. We had a three-hour layover in Chicago today and there weren't a lot of choices. If you can't be with the one you love...

In this photo, I love how the bleu cheese looks like it's throwing up on the sad little boneless buffalo wings.

If I had it to do over again, I think I'd maybe just eat my toenails.

 

Peet's Coffee

God it's been a long time. Why isn't there a Peet's in New York?? Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. You don't want to expand too far because the quality will suffer. This just in—the coffee in New York sucks. There, I said it. Someone will probably kill me now for saying that. But seriously, it sucks. It's weak and watery. Starbucks is just a place where homeless people go to the bathroom and soak their beards in free milk. Dunkin Donuts, if it ever used to be good, now tastes sour and funky as hell. For all of the amazing things here, you'd think decent coffee would be easier to come by. Anyone reading, feel free to correct me or point me in the right direction. I'm sure there are a few great cups of coffee to be found, but so far, none in the mile and a half between my apartment and my office. And there are some pretty foodie blocks in that walk. Ok, this has gone on long enough. Peet, I love you and your delicious brown coffee. And I'll come see you every time I am in California. Love, me.

Bleecker Street Pizza

I think every place in town has some sort of sign saying that they have the best pizza in New York. This time, it might be true. At least for this single slice of pizza. Maybe the other 7 slices on this pie sucked, and I just got lucky. But I doubt it. It was a good day for the Nonna Maria Pizza—fresh mozzarella and homemade marinara. I could eat this every day, and I'm seriously considering it.

Double D

Holla atcha boy! Old school miniature Dunkin Donuts are in the house. After lunch the other day, four of us split a box of 50 stale Munchkins while a homeless man salivated into his beard. It was worth every penny.

PinkBerry

Pinkberry is old news. What is new to me, though, is Pinkberry with a shot of pomegranate syrup. I know it looks like someone had a bloody nose on top of my frozen yogurt, but trust me, it's delicious.

Dell'Anima

We sat at the chef's table at Dell'Anima and one of the chefs squirted pomegranate juice all over us. Not in a Gallagher kind of way, rather a oops, my bad kind of way. But it was cool. The food was great and they offered to pay my dry-cleaning bill.

You might think this looks like a picture of lemon ice cream, a licorice sundae, and apple cobbler topping. But you are way off. It's a trio of delicious crostini spreads: homemade ricotta, roasted beets with yogurt, and octopus aioli.