Since I did not cover any ground that has not been extensively explored by Roadfooders before me, I will just cover the highlights of the trip. Every meal was at least good - not a dud among the bunch (unless you count the free continental breakfasts at the hotels, but hey, free and quick is good too)
1) I was very, very happy to finally get to The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Ground Zero. Ground Zero is very covered up now, 20-30 foot high fences covered in tarps, ergo no decent views from the street level, though I assume if you know enough about the surrounding tall buildings, you could find a place to get a look
2) the wife bowed out late, so a couple of college buddies took my up on the invite to ride along in her stead
3) Did not get to go nearly every place I wanted to - Patsy's and Yonah Schmimmels and etc were skipped due to full bellies or not enough time or other hindrances.
4) Difara
was very good, not life changing, and it was indeed about watching the man work than eating the pie. Which was good, because none of my companions wanted to deal with the crush up at the counter, and thats EXACTLY where I wanted to be. So it worked out. Liked the (thin) round pie MUCH better than the (thick) squares, which are par baked in advance and finished off at the time of ordering. Very little space to sit and eat, so if you go there when it unsuitable to do a carryout, take at least 2 people with you so that you can monitor the counter and ensure your pies dont get missed, and the other two can simply grab the next available table, and then sit down and wait thereafter. One other thing - yes, the whole pies are a better value than the slices, but plan to wait a whole lot longer if you want a whole pie. They know they're making more money on slices, and it was clear from watching that they were trying to spend as much time on generating pizza for slices as they could. besides, just to try them out, you don't need a whole pie - a slice aiece will do,and you'll get out of the queue there a lot earlier, and have time and belly space to check out some other great pizzeria - maybe Lucalis.
5) Peter Luger's
was excellent albeit quite expensive - nearly 250 incl tip for the 3 of us with no adult beverages. The steaks met my extremely high expectations, and the bread basket was just outstanding, but the burger - oh man, the burger exceeded them. I had heard that they frequently overcook their burger, and indeed, my MR came out more M to MW. Despite that, it was easily the very best burger I have ever eaten, hands down. The beef flavor was intense, and it was juicy as all get out. The wife still wants to visit NYC with the kids when they are older, and I will take her here. She will get the steak, but I will HAPPILY settle for the far, far less expensive burger. Hell, I may get two of them. Yes, I do know it's a lunch-only item :-) Oh, and we got in fine right at opening with no reservations, and casual dress.
6) Katz's
The environment was everything I expected it to be, but the pastrami sandwich did not meet my high expectations. There was not very much of it, maybe a third of what i see on sandwiches others have taken a picture of, and it was good but not great. Again, it was a good meal, but my expectations were set very, very high from reading the experiences of others. I did have the cel-ray with the sandwich - tasted like ginger ale, smelled like celery. Interesting. Oh, and we also picked up a 5$ halal combo platter to go with this, just to sample some classic ny street meat. Also good but not great.
7) Frank Pepe's
---(*)---BEST STOP OF THE TRIP---(*)--- Side trip to New Haven on Monday. We got there about a half hour before they opened, and walked the length of Wooster, marveling at how many italian eateries thrive on this short street. Naturally, several folks told me to go to Sally's instead of Pepe's, but with Sally's closed on Monday the choice was easy. We ordered a white clam (naturally), a plain pie with mozzerella, and a bacon pie. These three pies now occupy the number 1, 2, and 3 positions in the list of best pizzas I have ever eaten. The crust in particular was amazingly good, with excellent leopard-spotting on the underside. My favorite was the white clam, although the larger pieces of clam were rubbery and so I removed them from the many slices I ate. My companions marveled at the bacon pie, as every bacon pie they have ever ordered has little bits of bacon all over it - whereas this was full 4' whole slices of very good bacon all over this pie. I had everyone order birch beer as their beverage, and everyone liked that as well. And to top it off, the prices were not much higher (clam excepted) than far far lesser pizzas to be found in my own area. Great value. If I am anywhere near this area again, this will be an absolute must-stop, even though I'd love to also make a stop at Sally's, Modern, etc.
8) G&M and Faidleys
One of my bufddies just absolutely loves seafood, and so i modified my original plan to include a stop for dinner in Baltimore on the last part of the trip. Ok, ok, I have always wanted to go to this place anyway, but with him along, it made the decision that much easier. So we drove from lunch at new Haven to late dinner in Baltimore. My buddy absolutely raved about the crabcake at G&M, proclaiming it the best he had ever had. I liked it as well, but the thing he liked - the near absence of filler - actually was a negative for me. I wanted some more spice, a more cake like texture, more flavor. All f which I got in abundance at Faidley's the next day. Faidley's is smaller, less crab, and little more expensive, and in a far less nice setting - but despite all that, I thought it was worlds tastier. My buddy proclaimed it the second best he had ever had but a distant second - still high praise, as he travels a lot and eats a lot of seafood. The other thing about Faidley's is that it is located within the Lexington market, which is the most impressive assortment of single proprietor food stalls I have ever laid my eyes on. I felt like a kid walking through a toy store. I could eat here every day for a month and probably still not get to sample even a quarter of the prepared foods available. Now, the place is a little grimy and rough around the edges, maybe not a great place for kids, but any Roadfooder in the area should stop by fo a look, even if you're not planning on crabcakes at Faidley's.
9) Finally
if you plan on visiting NYC, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you spend some time familiarizing yourself with the various systems of public transportation and
use them. Driving in NYC was an experience I will always remember, but not fondly. One of my passenger commented that he'd have pulled his hair out after just an hour if he'd been he driver. Learn the system, use the system, and use cabs to fill in for the very few gaps where walking and other public systems don't fit the situation. I had intended to do just exactly this, but did not invest the time needed to learn the system(s), and so we spent many many MANY hours sitting in dead-stopped traffic, mostly in Manhattan. Dont make the mistake I made :-)
10) Finally (part 2)
My hotel in Jersey City was Red Carpet Inn on Tonnelle. Parking was great, within their own enclosed, well lit, camera monitored lot - and was free. Free high speed internet, free continental breakfast, fairly near Manhattan, clean and comfortable, no frills - and downright cheap. However - Tonnelle is divided, requiring a lot of u-turns to navigate but without turn lanes, so navigating it was treacherous at times. I am also not sure about how close public transportation was due to my mistake of not trying to make use of it (see item 9). That said, if someone will confirm public transportation is within walking distance, I unequivocally recommend this place on the cheap/nofrills basis. As an aside, a cool roadfood type place is right across the street - White Manna, which is an ages-old diner and slider joint - but the traffic is so heavy and I was always so full and tired when i got back to the hotel that I never checked it out. Yet another mistake, I'm sure.
<message edited by TJ Jackson on Wed, 11/25/09 7:07 PM>
