Milchig Kosher Gourmet? You must be yidding - cough - kidding me.

I only allow myself to use that racial epithet, since I have been voted an honorary member of the tribe since joining the Feuilleton and have learned of its somewhat erratic policies.

Until "Night Kitchen" finds a permanent food critic, I'll be handling all restaurant reviews.

For my first culinary outing, I chose "Va Bene" the only Kosher Dairy Restaurant in the city. Located at 82nd and 2nd Avenue, this pricey joint blends in nicely with the gentry-reeking 'hood. The facade, advertising the Kosher cuisine of Rome, and the elegant, red interior, are auspicious signs as I enter into the medium-sized establishment.

The menu, too, seems promising, with very tasteful (no pun intended) and mouthwatering descriptions of salads, pastas and fish dishes. Only when I turn to the wine menu and ask about the house red, do I notice unsettling signs. The waiter makes like he doesn't want to tell me what it is, and assures me that I'll like it. I press him further. He responds curtly that it's a Sangiovese and quickly darts off - ostensibly, to fetch me a glass.

The house red wasn't half bad, although certainly nothing justifying its $9 price tag. Still, it was probably the menu's best value. The double-portion Caesar salad - lettuce, Parmesan, anchovies and dressing - was priced at $30, the same price as the Tuna marinated in Balsamic. That dish was moderately flavorful, although unevenly cooked and seasoned. The sides of asparagus and potato were likewise bland and visually displeasing.

The penne, one of the cheaper options, was serviceable. No word yet on whether "Va Bene" makes their own pasta. According to the unremarkable evidence - i.e., the dish it question - there's no reason to think that it was.

The Minestrone soup was thick, hearty and woefully under-seasoned. Though a pinch of salt did aid a bit, the best one could hope for from the soup was to warm oneself up a bit.

An evening of mediocre and overpriced fair came to an unexpectedly glorious finish with a Tiramisu that was just short of cataclysmic. The velvety desert was a perfect marriage of cream, cake and chocolate. The only shortcoming was an overemphasis on the coffee-flavor.

Beginning with the wine incident, the service was downright lousy. The wait staff was inattentive and brash, and flagging a waiter down required superhuman effort. One waiter was actually chewing gum as he took my order. Another waiter refused to turn down the AC, after my party had complained - repeatedly - about it being too cold in the restaurant.

All in all, this overpriced joint is a simulacrum of a fine-dining experience, the likes of which many of its clientelle know absolutely nothing about, due to their dietary restrictions. Hopefully, a world class Kosher restaurant is possible yet. "Va Bene," however, falls short of accomplishing this.

Requiem for a Coffeehouse

June 25, 2007

This past Sunday, Corey Lopez-Thomas, the general manager of the Upper East Side café DTUT, turned 22. That evening, the much-loved coffeehouse located at 2nd avenue between 84th and 85th streets closed its doors once and for all.

The café, which has been a fixture on the Upper East Side for over a decade, lost its lease a week ago after the rent doubled overnight.

DTUT had a hip, run-down feel more often associated with downtown than with the posh Upper East Side. Up until a year ago, they had open-mike nights. The love-it-or-hate-it artwork on the walls (and for sale) was changed every 3 -4 months, according to Lopez-Thomas.

The atmosphere was festive in the oblong café, decorated with myriad mismatched couches and bizarre artwork. At the counter, Lopez-Thomas took orders and fratrinized with the customers, mostly 20- and 30-somethings nursing cups of coffee and beers (available at cut prices to get rid of stock).

Some sat eating the café’s specialties, Make-Your-Own S’mores and Chocolate Fondue ($10.95 each).

Above a dining-room table reserved from guests with laptops, the baseball game played on TV. Nobody seemed to be watching.

“It was a great place for people who don’t like bars to get together. And it was romantic for couples.” Lopez-Thomas pointed out a seating-area cut off from the rest of the café: private quarters available on a first-come-first-served basis. “We call it the make-out room,” he explained.

Even with a liquor license, DTUT made the bulk of its revenue from coffee-sales, according to Lopez-Thomas. During the day, the café catered mostly to students, who would sit decked out with laptops for hours on end.

John Greenblatt, 37, a physician who remembers when DTUT opened, said his girlfriend was depressed about the closing. “It’s a shame. It was really part of the neighborhood.” He compared DTUT to Central Perk, the café on the TV show “Friends” and lamented that rent in the area had become prohibitive.

It remains to be seen what the landlord makes of the cavernous storefront. “The best thing that could happen would be Starbucks opening up here,” Greenblatt mused. “A more loungy Starbucks, I mean.”

The Apple Store

I have a good friend who lives at 58th and Park. We usually meet up downtown, but I happened to be in his neighborhood last night. When we finally met up at midnight, my friend wasn't up to a long subway ride downtown so we decided to walk around his neighborhood. What's there to do in midtown east on a Sunday night at midnight? Any guesses?

The Apple Store at 59th and 5th is open 24/7. My friend has joked that he can always skip over there at 3am if his computer crashes. Well, we did case out the joint and found that it was hopping! At least, for 3am. There was a line at the genius bar and quite a few natives and tourists were inspecting various wares. We also got a sneak peek of the iPhone. Below are some images from that unforgettable visit.

The Florescent Apple

iPhone (Shown Actual Size)

The Genius Bar at 12:30am

A Gathering of Apple Store Employees

For $175, you can expect a lot more from your headphones

New Site!!!

As you see, we've done a bit of reformatting here. Our URL has changed as well, so please update your bookmarks. Night-Kitchen.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Mon Frère Dans Le Couloir / Girlfight / 57th and 7th

Mon Frère Dans Le Couloir

This will be my last enthusiastic drunken post on this evening. You may laugh, you may cry...but my 12-year-old brother Judah is sleeping in our hallway tonight. No one's willing to share a room with him. For a while, he was sleeping in the living room and then with my parents, but we've settled on the hallway as an ideal compromise. It just means that we need to go through the kitchen to get to the dining and living rooms.

Posted by Adam J. Goldmann

Girlfight

There was a row between two girls this evening on the uptown 1 track at the 59th Street / Columbus Circle Station. One girl allegedly punched the other in the nose. The injured girl threatened to press charges. After she did, a large sample of New York's finest turned up at the station to quell the violence amid a large crowd. Apparently, the police were concerned lest something should occur on the night of the Gay Pride Parade...Original, exclusive footage taken with a 6MP digital camera. Please note the policeman who can't hop over the turn-style. Poor guy!!!

Posted by Adam J. Goldmann

57th and 7th

Here's a remarkable document of the astounding corner of 57th street and 7th Avenue in midtown Manhattan. Be afraid. Be very afraid!!!

Posted by Adam J. Goldmann

Welcome

G'd ev'n and welcome to the first ever posting on this here weblog, After Hours, the latest addition to the New York Feuilleton blogring. After Hours functions as a continuation of the New York Feuilleton in many respects, covering issues and stories that are somewhat too off-beat and quirky for the Feuilleton itself. We hope to update the site regularly with exciting and exclusive content you will not find anywhere else, selected by a first-rate team of New York aficionados and experts. Plase check back early and often for informal postings of videos, news flashes, restaurant and night club reviews and video reports.

"In the Night Kitchen" is so named in homage of Maurice Sendak's surreal children's book of the same title. As lurid and warped as that work may be, we at the New York Feuilleton blogring firmly believe that every New Yorker should undergo a similarly nightmarish and exuberant experience at least once in his lifetime...ergo the appellation.