Where I eat in NYC

Not a definitive list, a personal one

If you like the crisp edges of lasagne, the soaked croutons, the whipped cream that gets icy around the chocolate scoop - you’re in the right place.

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Hi folks—something different from me today. I get asked a lot where I eat in New York City, and I wanted to share some of the places I adore.

I didn’t choose the restaurants on this list to present a balanced selection of cuisines or neighborhoods, and I haven’t conducted three fastidious visits to eat through the menus. I’ve eaten at each one more times than I can count, and tend to order the same few things over and over. 

Like many, I love restaurants that don’t feel as though they’re trying too hard. This isn’t to say that restaurants should not put effort into what they do, but I don’t want to be aware of their mechanics, especially any mechanics aimed at pleasing me. 

Of course, there are many restaurants that are so good at offering fine dining and fine service that they make it seem effortless, but this isn't usually what I'm after. I like a cold beer, simple food, and to have my plate cleared when I’m done. Ideally, the people cooking and serving will enjoy—or at least seem to be enjoying—themselves. I’d like the people of the restaurant to be busy and relaxed so I may be largely ignored and relax myself. 

As a general rule, I avoid new openings—perhaps because of my memory of the trauma of opening my own restaurants. I don’t need to watch someone else’s vision crash into the reality of cooks/servers who are all learning which side the fork goes on and what’s the set on the steak (been there, done that). I prefer restaurants that have been through puberty.

Ease and confidence takes time for restaurants to develop, especially in ecosystems foaming with hype and compelled by the competitive pursuit for relevance. In New York, this tends to mean I like places that are busy and worn—past their ‘prime’ or well into it, or at least assured enough in their customer base that they don’t give a monkey’s uncle what I think. 

Anyway, the spots on this list fit that bill, and I’ve eaten at each one enough times to forget an average meal if I ever had one. And I do believe that average meals are a necessity in the kind of restaurant that I can actually love: restaurants that are consistent enough to never deliver an average meal probably lack the spontaneity and humanness that please me in the first place.

The list