Riders On the Storm

Hurricane Sandy brought countless damage in her winds while power outages and floods have left a majority of New York City's restaurants temporarily out of commission. Our travels have removed us from the wrath Sandy wrought on the city, but our thoughts are with everyone affected by the storm.

David Chang offered the above words of wisdom via Twitter, which has been our source for updates on the storm and the city's condition while we're in Vietnam. Here are a few more to come via Twitter regarding restaurants that are able to open tonight:

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Angolo SoHo Is Down On the Corner

Adam Platt heads to the corner of Grand Street and West Broadway to weigh in on Italian new comer Angolo SoHo. He takes a few jabs in a pretty overwhelmingly negative review, but doesn't close without mentioning what works well at the restaurant. Chef Michael Berardino, formerly of dell'anima and Cannibal, is responsible for the "comfortingly generic items" on the menu that are offered in a room whose "tables are outfitted with orange café chairs that look like they’ve been purchased on sale at some Ikea remnant store on the outskirts of Milan."

Berardino's pastas "aren’t as accomplished as those at the grand, multi-star pasta palaces around town, but if you’re looking for a little sustenance while wandering this carb-challenged shopping mecca, you could do worse." Saving graces are 26 wines by the glass and Emilio Bagnoli, "who appears to be Angolo Soho’s owner, or maybe its maître d’ (or maybe both)," with his charming, practiced tango he dances in shoes seemingly borrowed from Sirio Maccioni.

Platt cites "problematic location" and "generic decor" as a few blemishes to Angolo SoHo's perfection, and most of the desserts "won't win any prizes." He gives the restaurant one star out of five in a review that is the first from the critics to investigate the explosion of Italian restaurants to land within a few blocks of one another in SoHo. Still in the cross hairs are Galli, Isola Trattoria e Crudo Bar, and Principessa, all Italian restaurants to open in SoHo within the last six months. Who heads where next?

Eat the Week; Oct 22nd - 26th

Welcome back to Eat the Week, a compiled list of our posts from the week. This week was a little different for us in that we landed in the Philippines late Wednesday night. We launched "Asia Feed" to document everything we eat while we're here and it'll be our homepage until we get back to the city. We'll be in Vietnam from the 30th to the 5th. Stay tuned! Here's what happened this week in your neck of the woods:

Asia Feed: We introduce "Asia Feed" to document our journey to Manila and Saigon | We land in Manila | Breakfast at Mary Grace | Lunch at People's Palace | Traditional Filipino food for dinner at Fely J's | Breakfast at home

New York: L'Apicio opened on East 1st Street | Three restaurants that serve $10 pastas | Wells pays a visit to Midtown's "21" Club | Hometown to bring barbecue to Red Hook | Tien Ho's love for "funky" wines and our excitement for Montmartre's wine list | Donde Dinner? - 346 East 21st Street

Donde Dinner? - 346 East 21st Street

Donde Dinner? wants to make your next dining experience an adventure. So, we'll pick a restaurant and post its address for you every Friday. The catch is, that's all the information you get.  No name, no type of cuisine, and no Googling! Before we get to this week's Donde Dinner?, here's last week's address:

69 Thompson Street = Vin et Fleurs

This weeks spot follows typical Donde Dinner? fashion. Price, quality, and accessibility have all been taken into account. You won't be waiting at the bar for two hours with $15 cocktails, and you don't have to worry about a dress code. Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:

346 East 21st Street (btwn 1st and 2nd Aves)

Anticipating Montmartre

[krieger] tien hoTien Ho was a sous chef at Cafe Boulud before leaving to work for David Chang at Momofuku Ssam Bar. From there he moved uptown to work as the executive chef at Ma Peche when Chang opened the restaurant in the basement of the Chambers Hotel. Ho left Ma Peche in the fall of 2011 and spent the ensuing year out of New York City restaurants, a time he describes in a recent interview with Eater as "really depressing."

Times have changed. Ho is back, and for his next trick he has teamed up with Gabe Stulman in a partnership that will add Montemartre, a casual French restaurant, to the Little Wisco empire. The project is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2013 and will happen shortly after Chez Sardine, Stulman's Izakaya-inspired restaurant, opens at 183 West 10th Street. Along with the exciting food we can expect at Montmartre, we're predicting a stellar wine list.

Ho describes his appreciation for "Funky wines" in an interview with The Insider, "especially from Jura and Naples. Bandols, too!," he goes on, "And I have a very soft spot for wines from Aubin." His mention of Bandols refers to a wine growing region on the Mediterranean coast in southeastern France. Mourvedre is the predominant grape there and it produces dark, complex, and age-worthy wines. Eric Asimov recently wrote how the same grape thrives in Spain, where it is referred to as monastrell. In each place, the grape produces dark, complex, and age-worthy wines.

Wines from Jura have garnered a following that may best be described as cultish and Ho's affinity for them is shared amongst members of the wine community. Jura's arsenal includes exceptionally clean, vibrant sparkling wine a la Cremant du Jura, racy whites a la savagnin, and light, elegant, mineral-driven reds from the trousseau grape. The region's unique growing conditions and limited production have resulted in wines of extraordinary character that wine lovers will go out of their way to seek out.

Ho's interest in unique wines, coupled with his proven talent in the kitchen, have us anticipating a seriously très bon dining experience when Montmartre opens early next year.

Hometown Catches the Brooklyn Barbecue Wave

[photo: alan neuhausar] Chris Miller and Billy DurneyStephen Starr and Joe Carroll were about five years ahead of the Brooklyn barbecue movement when they opened Fette Sau in Williamsburg in March 2007.  The restaurant's success was further legitimized last week when a second location opened on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown, Philadelphia.

Since the original Fette Sau opened in Williamsburg, Carroll Gardens got Char No. 4, Fort Greene got Hot Bird, and Park Slope got Fort Reno Provisions and some BBQ from Dale Talde via his menu at Pork Slope in the same neighborhood.  Gowanus is next.  Fletcher's Brooklyn Bar-B-Cue is ready to open any day now on Third Ave and upstate-BBQ heavy-hitters Dinosaur BBQ are scheduled to open at 604 Union Street in March.

As the wave gets bigger, Red Hook wants in.  After a successful meeting with Community Board 6 to acquire a liquor licenese, it's all systems go for longtime friends Chris Miller and Billy Durney.  The two will bring Barbecue to Red Hook via Hometown, which will occupy 454 Van Brunt Street sometime next spring and boast 100 seats and a 4,000-pound hickory pit.

"21" Club Short On Stars, Not Charm

[photo: krieger] chicken hash at "21" clubWells describes his review of "21" Club this week as, "a kind of love letter to a restaurant where the food is largely forgettable and the prices are almost always unwarranted."  Some of the food "was classic, unsuspenseful and solidly prepared," but Wells explains, "I ate only four things at “21” that I’d go back for with any anticipation."

The restaurant's saving grace seems to come via wine director Phil Pratt and the bathroom attendant, "whom everybody calls the Rev."  "On a good night," Wells explains, "everybody who works at “21” behaves like a bartender, and the meal sails along on a river of alcohol and high spirits."  It's Pratt's job to keep the booze flowing and he does so with a "practiced theatricality and patter more often heard above the splash of gin than the gentle swirl of old Bordeaux."

As for the Rev, "he holds court among vintage pastel murals that depict men and women relieving themselves in complicated ways, scenes that were naughty once and will be bizarre forever."

Wells makes it clear that "21" Club has its misgivings, but the amount of charm at 21 West 52nd Street warrents a "satisfactory" rating.  His review ends with a list of regrets, namely missing the chance to sing at Bill's Gay Nineties before it closed and tuning in to Danny Stiles back when he was a record spinning radio host.  When it comes to dining at "21" club, Wells concludes, "I don't want to add "21" to the list."

Where to Get $10 Pasta During National Pasta Month (Oh, It's National Pasta Month)

We've done our share of coverage on Industry Night at Osteria Mornini, which is every Monday night from 9pm til close (11pm).  For those two hours, each pasta on the menu is $10.  In honor of National Pasta Month (which is apparently the month of October), we thought we'd mention a couple more options on where to go for a $10 plate of pasta.

Otto has been serving cheap pasta since the restaurant opened back in 2003.  For $9 you could have spaghetti carbonara, puttanesca, and a handful of other Italian faithfuls.  The price has since bumped up to $10, but that's the fixed price and definitely a bargain in our book.

1 5th Avenue | 212.995.9559 | www

Principessa, one of a few newcomers to SoHo's Italian scene, is getting in on the deal starting tonight with $10 pastas that run through Thursday.  The special starts at 10pm and goes until close (midnight).  They'll take a break from the deal over the weekend, but it'll be back for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

199 Prince Street | 646.682.7377 | www