Sunday, June 8, 2008

The New French


I was wondering about the New French, mainly it's name intrigued me. An article in the Voice stated the restaurant was not French, but named after a place with the same name in Minneapolis. The chef was also explaining this to a table of family and friends on Saturday at the spot around the corner from the West 10th. Street Housing Works. It is a small thoughtful, ultramodern space with two sides of black slab banquettes and alot of tables in a small space. An open kitchen is towards the rear and the specials are written on a chalk board. I ate two dishes one was the New French salad which was chock full of many ingredients including romaine, red, yellow beets, green beans, gruyere and radish in a very light dressing for $12. The quality of this salad reminded me of salads I have eaten in Europe which generally and I mean generally taste more interesting than many eaten in NYC. Continuing on with the meal, was one of the specials pizza bianca for $8. This was a pizza on focaccia with grilled onion, goat cheese, gruyere and roasted peppers which again had many good flavors going on. The dinner special for $25 was a striped bass with bacon, french beans and cherry tomatoes. The bathroom which looked like it was preexisting and had grey tiled walls and a black and white tiled floor and two candles burning and was very clean. Should you go? Go!

The Odeon Ice Cream Cart


Still on the hunt for killer homemade ice-cream, I heard about the famous Odeon Restaurant sporting a cart in front. The Odeon in Tribeca is a classic N.Y. restaurant, around since it's heydays in the 80's famous for late-nite celeb and model bites. The little cart serves up ice-cream and homemade waffle cones all made from organic ingredients. For $4 you can get one or two scoops. On Saturday when I was there the flavors were chocolate, dulce de leche and cookies and cream. I ordered the dulce de leche and chocolate. I will say that I was impressed. Again made in smaller batches than some of the other homemade giants the ice-cream tasted super fresh and the chocolate was rich, not too dense and had great chocolate flavor. The dulce de leche had a faint caramel taste and both went well together as well as with the homemade waffle cone which was very light and absolutely perfect. Should you go? Must go!