The Sheep's Station

On the up and coming Fourth Ave., yes you read that right is a few new places sprouting up. Wait a few years with a new plan for redevelopment and all. Anyway, more Aussie have opened this corner restaurant/pub. Wide wood plank floors and a wooden bar and benches as well as worn tin ceilings give the place a very organic feel. I was here for brunch and having read about the burger opted for that. This is no ordinary burger, but a super burger. Not only was the meat cooked to perfection, but the beet, lettuce, tomato, fried onion, pineapple and added Aussie cheese made this burger rock. Yes, all that was on the burger. Fries were very good, but the burger was one of the most interesting I have ever had. There is a daily scramble with home fries and toast for $7. and most items are under $10/cash only.

Homemade Ice-Cream

Since on a ice-cream roll here, I must give honoroble mention to the little bakery I like very much on Fifth Ave. near Carroll in Brooklyn. They make a few select flavors here and are top-drawer. Today, I had the strawberry and my all time fave caramel crunch. Costing $4. for two flavors a virtual bargain for such high quality stuff, their flavors rock. The strawberry was intensly flavored and creamy and the caramel is one of my top flaves of all time. The texture is smooth and insanely caramely with crunchy pieces of caramel included. Flavors change daily and they are all delish.

Cones

Located on the ice-cream triad in Greenwich Village on Bleeker, this mainstay gelateria opened by Argentinian brothers has been serving homemade gelati and sorbets for years. My favorite flavors are banana and chocolate followed by dulce de leche and dark chocolate. The Argentines have a great history with gelato given the number of Italian immigrants there and I remember yummy gelato when I spent a month there in 2000. I have read some reviews that find the brothers unfriendly and only allow you to try two flavors. They arrange a tasting on a double sided spoon which is very smart as some folks taste endlessly before deciding. The service is always friendly here based on my experience and the price is $5 for two scoops with the first requested flavor being the larger serving in the cup, Cones is a reliable place for ice-cream in the Village. It will be interesting to see how the newly opened Groms down the street affects the business at Cones. My guess is that the folks at Cones really know their customers and have a reliable repeat customer base where Grom hires kids to work who are not as interested in getting to know customers.

Grom

Opening yesterday for the start of ice-cream season on the corner of Carmine and Bleeker, Grom was celebrating their grand opening with free gelato all day. This is significant because Grom is the most expensive ice-cream store in NYC and with some reason. They use imported high quality ingredients from Italy in much of their creamy gelato as well as the top machinery to produce their product. Pistachio, tiramisu, chocalate with Ecuadorian chocalate and cinnamon with "regina" cinnamon from sri lanka are some examples. The flavor of the month is bacio a chocalatey concoction with pieces of imported hazelnuts- perfetto! The fragola or strawberry had an authentic strawberry taste and creamy consistency. I have eaten many flavors uptown and they are all top of the line in terms of taste. The cones are not out of a box and have a nice bite and crunch. The store serves a little biscuit with their gelati- which is very European style. All this yumminess costs 4.75 for a small cone or cup and $5.75 for a medium cup or cone. Uptown swallowed these prices pretty readily, let's see if downtown follows suit.