It's been a long 48 hours.
Just about 48 hours ago, I jumped on the Amtrak to New York City for a 24 hour nearly non-stop food and eating tour. Prior to boarding the 1:47pm train to New York, I grabbed a ham and cheese sandwich at the train station, chips, diet Pepsi (ugh) and a package of Tastykake Chocolate Cupcakes. Once in New York, there would be a Sabrett hot dog just outside of Pennsylvania Station, a cup of Red Mountain Papua New Guinea coffee at Cafe Grumpy, an exquisite dinner Thomas Keller's per se, a lox and cream cheese toasted everything bagel at Ruthie's, espresso and an americano at Ninth Street Espresso, sharpening stones and knives at Korin, a baked char siu bao at Mei Lai Wah and then an early dinner at Mario Batali's Babbo before jumping on the train back to Baltimore.
Once back in Baltimore it was another late night at Woodberry Kitchen filled with more char siu bao and some peking duck I had brought back with me before heading home at 3am. Up at 8am to open The Spro and I'm just completely exhausted...
How was Babbo? I'm heading up this week to make the rounds of coffee/tea/chocolate cafes and vendors, and I already have reservations for WD-50. I was thinking of poaching a spot at the bar for either Babbo or Blue Hill for Sunday night...
ReplyDeleteHey Jay! It's Julie and Fred from Los Angeles here. We enjoyed chatting with you at Babbo and I like your blog! Nice life! BTW, in case you are back in the city soon, check out Prune near 1st. St and 1st. Ave, LES/EV area. We had a life-changing serving of Monkfish liver there!
ReplyDeleteJulie & Fred!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you both! Hope the rest of your trip went as well as you had hoped. Trying to figure out a way to salvage the Babbo pics so it will take a little time but I'm not giving up. I'll be back in the city on the 7th for a hydrocolloid class and will try to check out Prune then.
True-
Babbo was really great. Julie and Fred sat next to me at the bar and I think they enjoyed the food as well. I went for some of the "crazier" stuff, like the beef cheeks, the pork cheeks and any kind of odd-sounding item.
I went there around 4:45pm because I just didn't have anything to do before my train and sometimes, when you're a solo diner, you get lucky. There was a line when I arrived and it turns out that they reserve five tables for walk-ins and people can sit at the bar.
If you're serious about eating at Babbo, get there at 4:30 and be prepared to wait a half hour. The food is good and tasty but would I wait in line again? Maybe. Otherwise, take your chances and hit Per Se - that's definitely worth the effort and money.
Jay-
ReplyDeleteJust got back from my 84 hour "eat and drink-a-thon" in NYC. We did manage to get a seat at the Babbo bar, but the dinner at WD-50 stands out as one of the outstanding meals of the year. I skipped the Alinea-style tasting menu and went a la carte. It was mind-blowingly good. I photoblogged the coffee-bakery-food marathon over at flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daseindesign/sets/72157603554545987/