cocktail hour: clover club

I find that a very well-made cocktail can be as satisfying as a delicious meal. So when I read about the first ever NYC Cocktail Week going on from June 15-29, I was beyond excited. Adding to the anticipation was the fact that some of the city's best cocktail bars are participating: Clover Club, Death & Company, Employees Only and Lani Kai. The deal is that you get two cocktails plus an appetizer for just $20.11—pretty sweet considering most specialty cocktails at such establishments run from $12-16. The event benefits City Harvest's fight against hunger and The Museum of the American Cocktail's efforts to preserve mixological history—and I do so enjoy drinking for a cause!

The problem is that what I love about going to these cocktail bars is the experience of perusing extensive cocktail menus or in cases when there is no menu, spilling obscure cravings to the bartenders and waiters and allowing them to surprise me with something incredible in a glass. This doesn't necessarily lend itself well to the restrictions that understandably come with Cocktail Week's prix-fixe arrangements.

I trekked over to Brooklyn one Thursday night to join my cousin Melissa and her boyfriend Ben for cocktails at one of their favorite spots: Clover Club. We went there brimming with excitement at the prospect of Cocktail Week but our hopes were quickly shot down when we were told that the special menu was only served before 7PM and after 10PM. We asked to take a look at the menu, nevertheless, to see what was being offered. On Clover Club's NYC Cocktail Week menu:

COCKTAILS (Choose two)
New York Sour
Bulleit Rye Whiskey, lemon, orange juice, red wine
Cloister
Tanqueray No. 10 gin, herbal liqueur, grapefruit, lemon juice
Hotel Nacional Special
Zacapa 23 Rum, apricot liqueur, lime juice, pineapple juice
Jack Rose
Applejack, lime juice, grenadine

APPETIZERS (Choose one)
Crisps
All right, so they are potato chips ...
but they are tossed in duck fat and
served with a truffled crème fraiche.
Deviled Eggs
Classic deviled eggs, served three ways:
topped with smoked paprika & garlic breadcrumbs,
crispy bacon croutons and mushroom duxelles.
One of each. 

These drinks and snacks sound lovely enough but once I browsed through the extensive cocktail menu, so many wonderful things jumped out at me and I realized that I would not have been happy sticking to the abridged Cocktail Week menu. There were so many intriguing drinks waiting to be tasted and I didn't mind paying a few extra dollars for that privilege. For my first drink, I chose the signature drink, the Clover Club, and with my first sip, I fell in love. Any place that has an egg white in its signature tipple is clearly my soulmate. The Clover Club contains gin, dry vermouth, lemon, raspberry syrup and egg white, and is oh so very delicious ...

I can't recall what Ben's drink was but it was bright, refreshing and perfect for a humid summer afternoon ...

After tasting Ben's excellent drink choice, I thought I'd follow suit for my next drink. Ben ordered the Barrymore Room off the menu and I did the same. This was definitely my kind of drink with rye whiskey, an egg white and some mysterious but delicious friends comprising the drink. I seem to be embroiled in a love affair with rye whiskey and egg these days (I recently had a particularly delicious concoction in Milk & Honey involving rye whiskey, champagne and an egg yolk! LOVE.). It's out of control.

For her second drink, Melissa chose the Blush Baby, which seemed very promising with its mixture of rum, demerara syrup, lemon, blackberry, raspberry and rosé wine. From the look of it, you expected a drink just bursting with berry flavors ... but it tasted kind of watery. It was just okay.

For his last drink, Ben ordered the much maligned and mistreated Mai Tai. If you've only had this in, say, a Cancun all-inclusive resort which shall remain unnamed with an odd fellow named Greg, you'd probably hate the stuff. At its worst, a Mai Tai will contain cheap rum, artificially-flavored juice and that godawful darn sweetener. Over at Clover Club where the ingredients are legit, the Mai Tai sparkles with rum and fresh lime juice and makes you just want to lay out on a sandy beach somewhere with cocktail in hand.

Cocktail Week or not, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening at Clover Club. Admittedly, the Clover Club would be quite a trek for a Manhattanite and I'm quite sure that even a serious cocktail enthusiast from Manhattan would rather squeeze into one of the tiny cocktail bars in the city for a tipple rather than trek out to Brooklyn. I live in the Financial District, however, which is a skip and a hop to Brooklyn so I am much more inclined to come back for more. I thought that the Clover Club's expansive digs dressed in vintage sofas and leather booths were a nice, relaxing change from Manhattan's lilliputian bars where you sometimes have to battle for seating space. The existence of this gorgeous bar with even more gorgeous drinks definitely adds to Brooklyn's ever-growing draw on me.

Clover Club is located at 210 Smith St between Baltic and Butler Sts, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn (718-855-7939)

let's do brunch: miller's tavern

"You're the only girl I know who'll order fried chicken for brunch," Monica said as she watched me tear into my plate of fried chicken smothered in pepper gravy at Miller's Tavern.

"It's fried chicken! With a poached egg! And gravy! It's everything I want in a plate," I replied, clearly in cloud nine. I don't go out to Brooklyn for brunch too often, but this plate of heaven was definitely worth the trek.

Monica's brunch fare was a bit more conventional: Eggs Miller—poached eggs atop crab cakes and English muffins, all drizzled with hollandaise sauce. 

The Bloody Marys were especially nice after a night of much beer and karaoke.

To cap it all off, a lovely latte.

Oh brunch, how I love thee!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend with lots of sunshine, coffee and well-deserved Bloody Marys!



Miller's Tavern is located at #2 Hope Street (At Roebling St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

brooklyn pub crawl

Don't you just love that feeling when a day ends up nothing like you think it will? I was kind of floating around yesterday, after a bit too much beer and not enough sleep on Friday, but there were all sorts of things on the Saturday agenda, so I just kept trucking on. Kate and I had our third aerial silks class, which is a little funnier (in my mind, at least) when you're brain dead. Afterwards, we had coffee, helped another friend Céline move into her new Chelsea pad (woot woot!), then trekked over to Brooklyn for an afternoon pub crawl. We took the A and a shuttle, thanks to the usual Saturday MTR madness, to get to Carroll Gardens and made a beeline for the first pub with outdoor seating that we saw. Downtown Bar & Grill was what it was called. Though service was ridiculously slow, they did have a great beer selection and pretty yummy bar food. I had the fish and chips with their recommended beer: Julius Echter Hefe-Weiss, which was a surprisingly light and refreshing dark wheat beer. 

The fish and chips were pretty good, especially when doused in vinegar, but I got tired of all the fried stuff pretty quickly. Thank god Kate and April were there to help me out. Afterwards, we rendezvoused with another group and headed for Camp. We had a hysterical time playing Jenga using a set that people had scribbled silly and dirty tasks on. The idea is that you have to do the task on the Jenga tile that you pull out. For instance:

"Huh?"

Then I looked at the corner behind the April and said, "Oh ... " We erupted into giggles when they saw what I was pointing at.

We ended up just doing the more innocuous things like "Hug a stranger" and "Kiss the cutest person in group." Oh, and "Buy everyone in the group a drink." I got that one, which resulted in this:

I thought it was hysterical that we all got much better at Jenga after two rounds of shots.

I just loved how I found myself having an awesome time surrounded by very cool people that I met  in random circumstances. That's what I love the most about New York ... you're constantly finding yourself wondering, "How did I end up here?" and just flabbergasted by all the fun people you come into contact with. 

Oh, one more thing: I'm seriously seduced by Brooklyn and its chill vibe. Mark my words, I'm gonna be a Brooklynite in the not too far future!

Downtown Bar & Grill is located at 160 Court Street, corner of Amity Street, Brookyln, NY 11201.
Camp is located at 179 Smith Street between Warren and Wyckoff Streets, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

the problem with market-based menus

Anthony Bourdain obsessed freak that I am, I HAD to trek over to Williamsburg to check out Diner after seeing Tony wolf down a bone marrow butter-smeared ribeye in this joint. It's one of those places that offer a very seasonal, market-based menu. You can expect grassfeed beef all around, butchered right at Marlow and Daughters a few doors down. While there are very few regular items in the menu, the specials list takes maybe 5 minutes to recite. I loved the look of the place. Diner inhabits a cozy 1927 dinercar, and is dark and candlelit—a great place to go for those just-heating-up second dates.

The sad thing is, there were absolutely no steaks when we went. They had apparently sold so much of it over the weekend that they had none left by the time our party rolled in. SO SAD. This is the first time I experienced the downside to market-based menus. When there's no more cow to go around, there's just no more cow. We had to content ourselves with beef carpaccio and burgers ...

The burger was quite delicious. Nice and juicy with all the gooey melted goodness of white cheddar on top. YUM. Yum enough to make me salivate for a burger right now, but not enough to make me trek all the way back to Williambsburg. I would trek back though to attempt another shot at the bone marrow butter-smeared steak. I mean, it's smeared with bone marrow butter for crying out loud. I will not rest until I have it.

In the meantime, I am starving. I woke up at 3:40 after a night that involved me doing my very first keg stand, among other things. So I'm gonna go out and buy an overpriced cafe mocha and sandwich at Starbucks. That's all I got folks! Happy Sunday!

Diner is located at 85 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11211. Tel. (718) 486-3077

let's do brunch: roebling tea room

Interiors photographed by Ryan Bevans for New York Magazine
 

Yesterday, I took the subway to Williamsburg at 10:30AM to meet Zoe and Amanda for Pilates and brunch. Zoe brought us to The Well where she had taken Pilates classes before to get in shape for her trip to Greece. I'd only ever taken Pilates classes at the gym before, and this class was WAY better. I feel the effects on my abs, glutes and arms today, which are deliciously sore from the workout. As I gritted my teeth through the seeming neverending repetitions, I was kept going by the thought of brunch at Roebling Tea Room.

A little over an hour later, we were seated at the breezy patio of the sprawling tea room. I'd been here a few times before but always for a nightcap so I was really excited to try the food. Roebling Tea Room looks to me like a clubhouse in one of the former colonies, where people might gather for tea and scones on a balmy afternoon. I love how relaxed the atmosphere here is on a Sunday afternoon. We didn't have to wait long for a table, and never felt rushed through our meal. It was all very easygoing, which is what Sunday brunch should be, in my opinion.

Amanda ordered the intriguingly named Red Flannel Hash, which consisted of potatoes, beets, goat cheese and a fried egg. I didn't try it because I'm not a fan of beets, but Amanda loved it. Zoe and I both ordered the baked cheddar eggs with raisin fennel toast, apple butter & grits. Amanda savored her Earl Grey de la creme tea, which was flavored with bergamot oil, real bourbon vanilla & blue mallow blossoms. Zoe and I both went with refreshing glasses of iced fresh ginger lemon mint tea. That iced tea is a true picker upper; the ginger is strong and delivers a real zing. I loved it.

The cheddar baked eggs were everything I could ever want for breakfast in one small souffle cup. Every bite of chedder crusted egg was just heaven to me. The raisin fennel toast smeared with apple butter was a significant component to the meal. The bread was so tasty and the apple butter just divine. I'd love to have a jar of that at home. I'm still getting used to grits since I am the farthest thing possible from a Southern belle, but I did like this version. Nothing resembling the Velveeta mess Britney Spears' father makes for her, thank god. Best of all, the meal set us back $16 each, which is not bad at all ...

A very pleasant Sunday afternoon, for sure. One I'd definitely drag myself all the way out to Brooklyn to enjoy again.

The Well is located at 25 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Roebling Tea Room is located at 143 Roebling Street (at Metropolitan Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

saturday in brooklyn

I had a great Saturday. I got a full 10 hours of sleep, woke up and watched several episodes of Nurse Jackie (officially my new favorite show—thank you Chelsea Handler for turning me on to that), then trekked over to my favorite borough for the Brooklyn Flea Market with my girlfriends and Che's patient boy, Mike.

It was our first time ever going to the Brooklyn Flea and had so much fun browsing around the vintage accessories and houseware. I really wanted to find some random tchotchkes for the apartment but I guess I'm not really a vintage type of person cos I didn't find anything. Not that there wasn't anything interesting. I just couldn't imagine any of it in my apartment. Che totally wanted that little blue vintage fan below, which was selling for $25 but was worried it wouldn't work.

These vintage ads were really cheap, but the only interesting ones were the alcohol ads and I don't have anywhere to put that.

The only thing I ended up buying was this fedora for $20. I love it because it's so neutral. The band matched the straw part perfectly. I love it. I can move to Williamsburg now cos I can pose as a hipster.

What's the opposite of buyer's remorse? Non-buyer's remorse? Miser's remorse? I take pride in having a lot of self control when it comes to shopping for clothes and accessories, but sometimes in bites me in the butt. I liked a necklace with a small pendant engraved with a C, and a leather bracelet studded with rivets but didn't buy them. Thing is, everything seemed to be priced $30 and that seemed a lot to me. But now I feel like I might trek back next weekend to buy them anyway. Well, I'll have to come back there anyway to try the kimchi hot dog and bulgogi burger at Asia Dog. Drooling just thinking of it now.

After we had our fill of shopping, we had an early dinner at Cafe Lafayette. Place was cute, I lusted after Bads's escargot, and I had some nice mussels. But the real revelation was Habana Outpost next door. It has the same owners as Cafe Habana in Nolita, so you get the same awesome corn and slushy mojitos, but in a fun outdoor setting. No elbowing other people in a cramped diner here.

We went because Bads was dying for some grilled corn, and we all ended up getting a round of margaritas and mojitos. I loved this place and I am SO going back. I'd love to hang out in the festive outside tables just downing those amazing mojitos and chowing on corn and Cuban sandwiches. They had a shoutout to the King of Pop:

I got a wee bit tipsy from downing my mojito plus half of Bads' margarita. She was gonna leave half of a drink un-drunk! I wasn't gonna let that happen, even if it meant getting brain freeze. Those drinks sure made our little trip to Ikea afterward very interesting indeed.

Now I'm home for an early night and looking forward to sleeping to the sound of the pitter patter of rain. Lovely Saturday indeed. Hope you had a great one too!

fette sau

I was hoping to do my Napa Valley post today but I don't have my pamphlets on me and wanted to do that wonderful place justice, so I'll hold off for a bit. Instead, let me show you the carnage that took place last night at Fette Sau.

Fette Sau in Williamsburg, Brooklyn holds a dear place in our hearts because Mika and I made some really wonderful friends there last year. We came back yesterday, in fact, to celebrate our "one year anniversary" with Zoe and Carl. We happened to share a table a year ago and bonded over chunks of barbequed meat and beer. We've been great friends ever since. It's really a quirk of fate that we even met because Mika and I weren't planning on going to Fette Sau that fateful spring night. We were on our way to Roebling Tea House when we got sidetracked by this wonderful barbeque joint.

We each got about 2 1/2 pounds of meat each on our trays (which comes down to 1.25 pounds per person). Zoe had somehow discovered that yesterday was National Brisket Day so we had to get hefty servings of the tender, juicy beef brisket. It was sooooo delicious. Another winner was the pork belly, which had ridiculously soft and moist chunks of meat hugged by heart-palpitation inducing fat. It was so soft you could cut pieces with a fork. The Angus beef boneless spareribs were a letdown, though. The meat was not as tender as the brisket and a bit dry. Always get your ribs on the bone, I say.

Mika and I made the controversial decision to order habanero chips, which caused us a lot of sadistic pleasure and pain. The chips had a yummy barbequed flavor for about 2 seconds before the habanero heat slammed into our throats and tastebuds in waves for about, oh, 2 minutes. We kept thinking we'd get used to the heat eventually so we kept munching at these fiery chips, but we were wrong. It was painful every time. I might want to try that again.

Those averse to extreme spiciness should consider getting the pickles as sides, which were so fresh, crisp, gorgeously green and tart. Mmm-mmm. Beer fiends will also love this place for their ever changing selection of microbrews. Standouts were the Kelso Fette Sauv, a light lager brewed especially for the restaurant, and a Belgian White beer that was quite lovely.

That Fette Sau delivers is just one more reason for me to consider moving to Brooklyn on the next apartment hunt. That lovely pork belly and a microbrew brought to my doorstep?! Mmm ... Until then though, it's another great reason to visit my favorite borough.

Where: 354 Metropolitan Avenue between Havemeyer and Roebling, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211. Tel. 718-963-3404

speak low

What a morning ... I wake up to a call from my good friend announcing they're having a baby! And I'm just um, recovering from all those cocktails last night. It totally made me feel like I'm on a whole other track from the rest of my longtime girlfriends. Their calendars in Manila are crammed with weddings and baby showers. Me? Um, I popped my Dark & Stormy cherry last night! Yay.

But hey, my very first Dark & Stormy cocktail ever really was quite a moment. Last night, Zoe and I ventured to DUMBO to celebrate my new friend Amanda's birthday. It was my first time in DUMBO and I was so fascinated with the place. Quite hip, and the apartments are to die for. Made all the apartments I've seen in Manhattan during my hunt seem really ... lame.

But I digress. The party was at Speak Low, a cool lounge tucked under Rice. They make some very good cocktails. Historically conscious recipe-wise, and using good spirits and fresh locally grown ingredients. I started with a green tea gimlet which was absolutely refreshing. Next I had The Presidential, which was the drink of the night, involving two kinds of rum, orange bitters, and what other essentials a mixologist might put in there. Yumminess. But the revelation of the night for me was the Dark & Stormy. Why had I never had this drink before?? Rum, ginger beer, a little bit of candied ginger ... mmm mmm mmm. So good.

Speak Low has a nifty happy hour where you can get a couple of steamed buns and Tsing Tao for about $8 (I think? My memory's hazy) from 5-7PM. I had the pork belly steamed buns last night and while they don't quite hold a candle to the Momofuku version, they're still pretty darn good.

Where: 81 Washington St., below Rice restaurant, Brooklyn, NY 11201

how to ... see cherry blossoms in bloom

Image via mc8photo_usa's photostream

I'm determined to see the cherry blossom trees in bloom this year at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (yeah right, I say that every year). Joy of joys: I discovered this handy tool on their website that tracks the cherry blossom trees in the garden to ensure we don't trek all the way to Brooklyn just to find the trees either still budding or all bloomed out. Pretty nifty, I think. The Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) takes place this year on May 2–May 3, 2009 from 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Click here for more information.

Peaches for Me ...

Bye bye summer, bye bye outdoor dining. One of the places I love for its outdoor dining is Brooklyn. I adore their little hidden spots that make you feel, just for a few hours, that you've escaped the frenzy, noise and pollution of the Big Bad Apple.

Buddha and Monkey brought the Spidey's Arsenal team to one of those off the beaten path Brooklyn gems: Peaches Market Cafe. Peaches is the newest baby of Craig Samuel and Ben Grossman, the men behind The Smoke Joint and the Little Piggy (Market). The Bed-Stuy cafe is an airy but very cozy space serving up a market-driven menu of Southern-inflected American eats. We went on a Friday and were set up at a table in the quaint little garden. Linda and Jay (who took the awesome food shots below) are regulars at Peaches, Smoke Joint and Little Piggy (Market), so we relied on their recommendations and were truly glad we did!

For starters we had barbecued shrimp with pineapple-coconut rice ($7). The shrimp was very tender and well marinated, and the rice and salad added a nice touch. I ordered the crawfish and andouille gumbo with okra and tomato ($10), and totally thought, "This isn't enough food." I was pleasantly surprised that the gumbo was so filling. The gumbo was so rich and flavorful, and the chorizo, crawfish, okra and rice swimming in it was so satisfying and filling that I could barely take the bites Mika kept offering me ...
But of course I did take a bite (or two) of the smoked beef short ribs with cajun potatoes and onion marmalade ($18) that he ordered. Without exaggerating, these had to be the softest, most flavor-packed short ribs I have ever tasted. The meat was eased off the bone so easily. And those cajun potatoes? Mmmm. Oh and I must implore you to get an order of french fries. They are fried to a perfect crisp, and the dusting of barbeque flavor make them so tasty that you needn't dip them in ketchup. But if you must, who am I to stop you?
And the dessert ... I forget what this is called but this was a winner. Our skinny Bonnie managed to wipe out one practically by herself. The Peach Cobbler is apparently the must-have but alas, the kitchen ran out of it. Yet another reason to come back!
Oh, and did I mention that Peaches is currently BYOB? Pause. Reflect. Now get your butt over to Bed-Stuy!

To read Jay's blog on his Peaches experiences, click here. And to see more of the food pictures he's taken, visit BrooklynJay's Flickr Photostream.

Peaches Market Cafe is located at 393 Lewis Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11233. Tel. 718.942.4162

 

Great Chicken AT LAST

I bow down to Monkey and Buddha's eating powers. They will never steer Mika and I wrong. From now on, they can bring us blindfolded to a restaurant. Heck they can order for me. They are yummy grub masters!

We have had one good Brooklyn eats weekend with our friends Monkey and Buddha. The climax was our dinner at Luz Restaurant in Fort Greene. I had previously opined that's near impossible to find really good chicken in a restaurant, but I've been proven wrong! Luz is a Pan-Latin American resto that serves excellent Peruvian style rotisserie chicken. The meat is cooked to utmost tenderness and can be eased off the bone with a prod of your fork. The skin is crisp and wonderfully seasoned. The sauces that come with the chicken bring your bites to another level of gatronomic bliss. The combination of red chimichurri and spicy cilantro mint sauce brings a whole other dimension to the already flavorful chicken. It's simply addictive! At $6 for a generously cut half of a chicken, you get amazing bang for your buck at Luz. But they make it up on the sides, which I feel are a tad overpriced at $4-5, no matter how big the portion. But I will suck it up because the chicken is THAT good.

Our appetizers were equally superb. We started with a couple of delish empanadas: one with Spanish manchego-goat cheese and spinach, and another with skirt steak ropa vieja. The empanadas were served atop a fire roasted tomatoes salad, which provided a nice and fresh counterpoint to the rich flavors of the empanadas. I particularly loved the cheese empanada, since I love manchego. Mika dogged it and dropped a portion on the floor, and he seriously considered picking it up and eating it (5 second rule!). Thank god the second appetizer arrived and distracted him! The Pinchos de Res was also amazing. The chunks of filet mignon were nicely grilled to our preferred medium rare temperature, so that the meat remained tender and a little bloody (yum!). The meat is skewered onto crispy yuca and served with that addictive red chimichurri. I wasn't that into the yuca (I'm more used to the Filipino way of serving rootcrops, which is as sweets. Kamote cue ... mmm ... ) so I mostly ate just the beef with the chimichurri. Yum yum yum ...

We felt a little sad that we didn't have enough space in our tummies for the Lechon Asado and the dark rum and sugar cane glazed lamb chops that we spied on the table next to us ... so much good food, so little stomach space. We'll be back ...

Where: Luz Restaurant @ 177 Vanderbilt Ave. between Myrtle and Willoughby Avenues, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11205, Tel. 718.246.4000

P.S. I haven't had Filipino Andok's chicken in awhile, but now that I think about it, that is pretty friggin good too ... I bet it could give this Peruvian chicken a run for it's money! Hmmm ... What I wouldn't give for some good old Andok's--preferrably in Boracay! Yum ...