May 2010 Archives

New York Magazine Bar Buzz has a great listing of rooftop bars. It's been 90 degrees today, so a rooftop bar is sounding pretty good!

View the list here.  Some of them are opening soon, or later in the Summer.



Shown above: rooftop bar at The Strand, Top of the Stand, 33 W. 37th Street. Wow, great view of the Empire State Building!

More from my weekend in Chicago... Osteria Via Stato in the River North neighborhood (620 N. State St.). You enter the restaurant into the more casual Pizzeria via Stato section and go through a swinging door to the Osteria.  It's quite large with 2 rooms and several really big farmhouse tables for large parties or communal seating.  We went on Thursday night, it was pretty busy but not full capacity.


Here is the menu.  It has a la carte and "famous Italian dinner party" options.  The Italian dinner party sounds fabulous if you're starving or with a big group.  It features antipasti to share, 2 pastas, a main course and sides for $38.95/person. Here is the full description.  We opted for a la carte but tasted several things.  We started with the grilled baby octopus with roasted fingerling potatoes, then shared a small serving of the handmade spinach ravioli with truffle oil, then the seafood stew and prawn entrees.  It was all delicious and we paired everything with different wine courses from their nice selection of wines by the quartino.  They also have a rather clever option for people who don't know wine very well called "Just Bring Me Wine" and they will match up the wines for you. Oh, and I almost forgot - - the bread is amazing!  It's warm and has a perfect crisp crust and tender center, it's heavenly.

I've been working up to having a burger for years... I'm not a vegi but I just kind of prefer not to eat meat.

Well.... I ran across a burger so compelling in Chicago this past weekend that I had to have it!

The burger was at the Park Grill in Millennium Park, the giant bean sits on top of the structure that houses the restaurant.



Here is the description from the menu: Peppercorn Crusted Kobe Burger with gorgonzola, balsamic grilled onions and grain mustard on a pretzel bun

Oh my goodness!  This was so perfect since I love every single part of this - what put me over the top was the pretzel bun.  I love pretzel bread and it's so hard to come by!  They gave no hassle about substituting the fries that normally come with it for a mesclun salad.  They had some great wines by the quartino, the Unti Dry Creek Zinfandel 2006 was a perfect match for the burger!

Their menus have a lot of great things.  Take a look at the lunch and dinner menus.  To my taste, stand out items are: the Apple & Fennel Salad with mixed greens, candied almonds, mindoro bleu cheese and cider vinaigrette; Thyme Roasted Scallops with edamame, tofu, radish, pea shoots and lemon-salt; and Pacific Dover Sole with crisp capers, arugula salad, baby artichokes and italian parsley.