Craft

This past week my mom, brother and I went to Craft in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan (map). The restaurant, owned by the famous Tom Colicchio, is an amazingly cool space with modern hanging lights and a large leather wall. The menu lists our a wide range of meets, side dishes, salads, pasta, seafood and more and is served family style, meant to be shared with the table. We ordered a wide variety of dishes each better than the next! We started off with cocktails and two side dishes. My brother ordered the Crispy Bacon, recommended by our waiter, while I went with the Roasted Tokyo Turnips. The Crispy Bacon was four big slices of bacon, it was like nothing I had ever seen before, I never knew bacon could be so large. The bacon was sauteed in orange marmalade and my brother loved it. The turnips were very tasty and a great dish to share.
Before our entrees were served we were greeted with a shot-like portion of fava bean panna cotta puree. Thankfully I had mentioned to the waiter that I'm a vegetarian when we ordered our side dishes because they gave me the non-bacon garnished fava bean puree. :)
Our entrees included the Roasted Baby Carrots, Asparagus, Roasted Beets with tarragon, Gratin Potatoes, Mezzaluna Pasta (moon-shaped pasta) and the Braised Beef Short Rib.
It was too hard to pass up dessert since everything else we tasted was so fabulous we knew that dessert would not disappoint. My brother had a single scoop of vanilla ice cream while my mom and I shared the Warm Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting, candied walnuts and Rhubarb sorbet.

The service was amazing, our waiter was very friendly and made wonderful suggestions. Just like at Bouley the hospitality continued until we left the door, as we left we were each presented with individually wrapped homemade chocolate chip muffins.
Craft is a restaurant where you are encouraged to sit as long as you'd like, enjoy your company, the food and the wine. You may want to make your reservations via Open Table a few days in advance.

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.

Britney makes her debut tonight on Will & Grace on NBC!

One more thing about Spederline... Kevin will be in Dallas, TX tomorrow--- Friday! At 8:15am he is going to be interviewed on 106.1 FM, and tomorrow night he is, along with an American Idol contestant, will be at ClubX from 11pm-2am. (Quick)

Matt LeBlanc Files for Divorce
(Source)
After 3 yrs. of marriage, Matt, 38, is filing for divorce from his wife, model Melissa McKnight, 41. The couple have a 2 yr. old daughter, Marina, who suffers from a rare neurological disorder called cortical dysplasia. They also have 2 older children from McKnight's previous marriage, Tyler, 13, and Jacquelyn, 10.
"Melissa and Matt LeBlanc have decided to end their marriage of three years," the couple's rep told US mag. "The dissolution is amicable. They will remain devoted parents and friends."

Josh Duhamel makes golf seem ultra-sexy!

On Wednesday, in Pacific Palasades, CA, Josh participated in the Los Angeles Autism Speaks' Third Annual Celebrity Golf Challenge held at the Riviera country Club! (Source)

Woo Baby.. check out this seaside action
[Source]
Nicole Richie and DJ AM spent quality time together on a beach in Mexico- March 27th. In the last photo, he has his camcorder out, Possibly recording her walk away.

Mama Jolie and Maddox
The pair shop together at the Rougier & Pie craft store in Paris yesterday. (She's due mid-May.) [Source]

Could this be true?
Tari Hatcher and Ryan Seacrest kissing? (Source)
The two walked along a beach in Malibu.

Destiny's Child gets a Star in Hollywood! (Source)
The girls still look cute, despite the rainy day!

Jessica's new favorite pose:
She had her arm up like this in the picture I posted the other day too. Maybe she's afraid of her extensions falling out! [photo source]