Abe & Arthur's

Hot New NYC Restaurant Alert!Friday afternoon I got a text from my friend Shannon inviting me to an exclusive Friends & Family night at a hot new restaurant in New York's Meatpacking District. Abe & Arthur's is on track to becoming a true hotspot. Upon opening week the EMM Group restaurant hosted an after party for the VMAs and the Charlotte Ronson's Fashion Week party and the celebs have continued to pile in... even on Friday night Russell Simmons and his posse dined a couple tables away.

Abe & Arthur's doesn't officially open until October 1st so in the meantime they are training their staff and testing menu items an custom cocktails. I'm glad they're still learning though because by the time we got there around 8pm they were already out of french fries and just reading over the menu their fries sound amazing! There are Spiced Sweat Potato Fries, Zucchini Fries and Truffle Herbed-Parmesan Fries. Also, one of the signature cocktails of the evening, The Hemingway, wasn't really up to par. Honestly it was the first time I'd seen Shannon order a drink and not even come close to finishing! I had the Strawberry Capriana followed by a glass of champagne.

The space may be familiar to many New Yorkers... Abe & Arthur's is located at 409 W. 14th Street (near 9th Ave) which was formerly the home of another trendy scene, Lotus. [MAP]

The menu offers a variety of upscale dishes from appetizers like Roasted Beets & Westfield Farms' Goat Cheese and Scottish Salmon "Rolled"(avocado, crispy rice, radish and cucumber)- see the pics below. For my entree I had the Fall Harvest salad- mixed greens with toasted pumpkin seeds, golden raisins and Loganberry Vinaigrette while Shannon had the 7 oz. Filet Mignon and a side of asparagus.
In general they had several good vegetarian selections but the majority of the menu was full of fresh fish and gourmet meats.

Rock Center Cafe

The iconic outdoor skating rink in New York's Rockefeller Center turns into the Rock Center Cafe, a casual outdoor restaurant that is perfect for lunch, dinner and especially happy hour. They feature daily drink specials and light entrees at both the larger tables with wait service as well as at the bar. I was here twice over the summer, once with my roommates for a small bite to eat after work one evening and another time with my brother and his girlfriend for a late-afternoon cocktail.
Here's a look at their MENU.
Located at 20 W. 50th St; near 5th Ave [MAP]
Their hours change depending on the season...
Jan-Sept: Mon-Fri, 7:30am - 10:30pm; Sat, 11am - 11pm; Sun, 11am - 10pm
Oct-Nov 15th: Mon-Fri. 7:30am - 10pm; Sat, 11am - 10pm; Sun, 11am - 9pm
Nov. 16h - Dec: Mon-Thurs, 7:30am - 10pm; Fri, 7:30am - 11pm; Sat, 11am - 11pm; Sun, 10am - 10pm

Craftbar

Earlier this summer I had the chance to celebrate my brother's New York arrival at Craft with him and my mom. So it was only fitting that we ended his New York experience with another one of Tom Colicchio's restaurants... this time we went to Craftbar. Located at 900 Broadway [MAP], Craftbar is Craft's informal sister-restaurant. the menu changes seasonally and features a variety of amazing dishes like Pecorino Fondue with Hazelnuts and Acacia Honey, Summer Squash Puree, Grana Padano Frico soup and more. (I didn't try either one but both sounded like great vegetarian options.)

My brother, his girlfriend and I shared a cheese plate where we chose four different cheeses- Sweetgrass Dairy Green Hill (cow cheese from Tomasville, GA), Sprout Creek Fram Toussaint (cow cheese from Poughkeepsie, NY), Holland's Farm Marieke Gouda (cow cheese from Thorpe, WI) and Ancient Heritage Dairy Adelle (sheep and cow mixture from Scio, OR).
Stephanie had the Bouchot Mussels sauteed with white wine, garlic and parsley. I had the Wild Arugula, Lemon Vinaigrette, Grana Padano and Pine Nuts salad. While Michael had the Linguine, "Cacciucco Livornese."
For dessert we all shared the Warm Brownie served with chocolate source, whipped cream, and mint chocolate chip ice cream. A bunch of the other desserts sounded great too like the Ricotta Fritters and the Vanilla Ice Cream Float.

Craftbar is now even open for weekend brunch- Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 4pm.
See their brunch menu HERE.

Graffiti

Graffiti is a small hole in the wall restaurant in the East Village, located on 10th St. near 1st Ave. [MAP]
Founded by former Jean Georges pastry chef Jehangir Mehta, Graffiti offers shareable dishes ranging from $7 to $15. My friends and I started out with a cheese plate- a combination of three cheeses, along with a bottle of Chardonnay. For our entrees we ordered a few dishes to share including the Watermelon Feta Salad with Mint Sorbet, the Zucchini Hummus Pizza and I believe they shared scallops- which I actually don't see on the online menu so it must have been a special that night. I was pleased to see so many vegetarian options on the menu and really enjoyed the dishes we shared.
NYMag.com lists Graffiti as a hot date spot and place for notable desserts and wines.
Chef Mehta will actually be on The Food Network on The Next Iron Chef show, premiers October 4th. Check out this video of Chef Mehta explaining his cooking style and a bit of his background.

Gilt

As a fan of the popular show Gossip Girl I have wanted to check out Gilt, the bar/restaurant inside the Van Der Woodsen's residence- the Palace Hotel. My friend and I met at the bar for drinks and a small bite to eat one evening after work. We opted to site in the bar & lounge area rather than in the formal dining room as we weren't crazy about the mandatory pre fixe menu. We were impressed by the creative drink and lounge food menus. The cocktail menu featured real cocktails like the Black Mojito and the Gilt Classic Smash as well as an extensive list of "mocktails" like the Thia Lemonade and the Garden of Eden.
Our waitress suggested that we try the truffle french fries and of course we were hesitant to order but we were taken by the fact that they were truffle-infused so we just couldn't pass them up.
For my main meal I had the pear and pecorino salad which was a nice, light dish.
The hotel in general was absolutely beautiful, somewhere I would like to walk around inside more to check out their other restaurants and bars. The Palace Hotel is located in the heart of midtown on 50th St. between Park and Madison Avenues, see map HERE.