Latest Food Reviews
It’s been a busy couple months of eating it up for the New York Press, especially in Brooklyn with one trek all the way up to 112th Street in Harlem. Here are the latest and greatest published reviews I have done.
Hot Bird in Fort Greene
“Hot Bird is owned by Frank Moe, the proprietor of Rope, Fort Greene’s popular art-student filled bar. Though Rope never hooked me in, Hot Bird is a different story. The bar gets its name from the famous chicken place that used to shell out roasted birds and ribs until it closed in the early 1990s, and while the restaurant doesn’t remain, the bright yellow signs that still deck a few building walls off of Vanderbilt and Atlantic avenues have become iconic ads. One, which towers over the bar’s spacious front yard, only enhances the new bar’s appeal.” (read the rest here)
Nero Doro in Bed-Stuy
Nestled on the blossoming corner of Classon and Greene avenues is nero doro, a relaxing, simple and fresh Italian café owned by Italian transplant Carolina Barbagallo. the airy space hums with soft jazz (and, recently, the buzz of the vuvuzela during the World Cup matches) and beckons the weary traveler to take a seat in one of the cozy chairs or pastry-laden coffee bar. There you find Barbagallo at the helm, serving combos of salads, paninis and le piadine, a soft flat bread from the Emilia Romagna region in Italy. (read the rest here)
5 & Diamond in Harlem
After the trek from Brooklyn to Harlem, our mouths were watering as each plate whisked away from the kitchen to their assigned tables. While we longed to sample the fare, a mix of chef David Santos’ creations and those of the original man behind the stove, Ryan Skeen, our thoughts were distracted by the gossip surrounding the ex-chef de cuisine. skeen’s mysterious departure from the head chef position at 5 & Diamond right when it began to produce a lot of buzz, his past work at Irving Mill and his infamous email termination from Allen & Delancey had our curiosity whetted as we eagerly looked for him to whizz out of the kitchen like one of the plates. We never did see him, and instead ordered glasses of the mildly spicy Danjean Pinot Noir ($9) and some small plates to cure our hunger. (read the rest here)
I also did a preview of the NYC Food Film Festival, which was amazing. One of my favorite films was Florent: Queen of the Meat Market by David Sigal.
