NYC, March 2010, Day 5

The day began normally enough. I was up early and hanging with Mister Speedwagon while doing the blog. We have basically stayed on California time while in NYC, which means that we wake up pretty late. Sometimes very. But we had a 2pm reservation at Balthazar for lunch, and even though there was plenty planned after that, the focus was on step one.

We could have walked, but time and motion wait for no man, so we hailed a cab and zipped over to SoHo. Soon we saw the red overhangs which mark the spot.

Time to name-check the one and only Kelly Winnik, who first introduced us to Balthazar. (I'm thinking maybe she was still Kelly Crawford back then. Man does time fly.) That first night here, we saw Savannah Sampson in the restaurant. The last time we ate here, we saw Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes smile for a bunch of pictures before they sat down to eat. This time...

Just that infamous guy with the colossal blog.

I handed Barbie the iPhone and said, "Take a picture with me in the bottom right corner." Like a genius, she took this fantastic shot. She is rightly proud of her photography skills.

Now Balthazar has a lot of amazing food. And you oyster types probably go nuts for their fruits de mer. But let me tell you something. There is one thing on this menu that is not only amazing, it is literally the best thing of it's kind. Anywhere.

No joke. This one item you can get at Balthazar looks at the hundreds of thousands of other restaurants that serve the same thing and it laughs. It knows that what the other restaurants serve you is a sad joke. A pitiful attempt. A crime against humanity.

Batlhazar's Onion Soup Gratinee. I'm not exaggerating.

This is no watery soup with a layer of cheese over the top. That spoon has pulled the top layer of cheese over and what do you see? More cheese.

Do you think this is a game? A silly exaggeration? Shame on you. Look at that spoonful. It is to onion soup what Michelangelo's David is to sculpture.

The toasted french ham and gruyere sandwich is good, but after the soup I should have just had another cup of soup.

Until we meet again, Balthazar.

It was time to walk over to a new hotel, the Crosby Street Hotel. Opened by the owners of The Soho Hotel in London, which if you are a loyal blog reader you saw on these very virtual pages late last July, the Crosby Street Hotel is one of NYC's newest five star hotels.

In the lobby one finds this nine foot tall skull made of random letters. I liked it very much. Time to see some rooms.

The view from one of the suites.

How's that for a hotel suite? Beyond the chandelier you can see the bedroom.

We saw more rooms, but I'll not bore you with lots of pics. But I do have something funny to share with the nerds. All of the computers for the hotel, the ones at check-in, the concierge, and the restaurant, are Macintoshes. Huge iMacs at the front desk, MacBook Pro's at the concierge and restaurant. And get this... I was standing behind the concierge and noticed... it was running Windows XP. So I stepped behind the one at the restaurant, Windows XP. How hilarious is that? They have all these beautiful Macs on display but the hotel software they use requires Windows. I had half a mind to joke with them that my Dell Mini PC is running Mac OS X, which makes it kind of the opposite of their machines, but I knew full well that one should keep one's nerdiness on the down low.

Back to the non-techy world, we walked a few blocks over to The Mercer, to meet with the new General Manager.

The Mercer's lobby lounge. I do love a wall of books.

After that, we headed home for a quick stop and then we were off to the Grand Central Hyatt for a hotel trade show. A small one, but Barbie took the opportunity to meet with some people who may not make it out to Los Angeles often.

Hotel Sales Managers, grabbing every travel agent they can find to pitch their properties. Fascinating stuff, actually.

And free grub. But we did want to eat too much, because our dinner reservation was at Del Posto.

This NYC skyscraper shot is the first of the trip to be portrait, not landscape. I feel so cheap. This one should be in black & white, but I'll not take the time right now.

A pic of a taxi from a taxi. And that one's an Escape Hybrid. As the young folk might say, Ford Escape Hybrid For The Win.

Our taxi pulled up next to a truck ornately decorated with graffiti. This is not a defaced building. It is a vehicle which was painted this way intentionally.

Del Posto. Before you go thinking they have named a super-fancy restaurant after an Italian post office, they haven't. Del Posto is Italian for, "The Place." No, I did not know that until I looked it up.

A sign of good eats ahead.

We had to wait a bit for our table, and I felt not like drinking, so my coaster went unused.

These mini-sandwiches were brought to thank us for waiting.

Denise, Barbie and I took our table. This meal is our thank you to Denise for giving us a bed for five nights. As you will see, we really know how to thank a person.

After you order they bring you these three things, and they tell you what they are but you simply do not remember. The little cups hold delicious soup, that is all I can tell you.

Then comes the bread, with your choice of butter or lardo.

We ordered two Primi courses to share, and an entree each.

Garganelli verdi with ragout bolognese.

Vacca rossa risotto. (Vacca rossa is fancy-ass parmesan, so I was in heaven.) They bring this in a huge saucepan and spoon it onto your plate. I really should have gotten a pic of this process, as it's not an everyday thing. And in hindsight, the guy would have probably loved that I wanted a pic of him doing it.

Denise and I each ordered the duck. Patrick Stewart was nowhere to be seen, so we were okay. (Ten bonus points to all who get that one.)

Barbie had the Dover Sole, which we learned is shipped ALIVE to to NYC and then they kill it, let the meat relax, and then they cook and serve it. You see, right after it is killed, the meat tenses up and if you cook it then it is tough. Wait just the right amount of time for that fish muscle to relax after its quick demise and it is as tender as can be. I did not get a pic of Barbie's sole, but believe me, it was delicious. Better than the duck, which I truly liked.

For dessert the Torta Carotina, or carrot cake.

After dessert the waitress spoke to us for a while, telling us the facts about the Dover sole, and Barbie said to me, "You can put that in the blog," and then said to the waitress, "He has a blog all about travel and food." A minute or two later the waitress asked us if we wanted to see the kitchen. Coincidence?

Barely one third of the kitchen. Shockingly clean, no?

A last view of the entry way of Del Posto. We grabbed a cab and came back to the Lower East Side, where Oreo Speedwagon and David Letterman awaited.

Tomorrow... the final day of this excursion. Denise is going to have to check my bags to make sure that Oreo is not moving to California. Do not worry, he is staying here where he belongs. Thankfully, he may visit us in Los Angeles sometime.