Brindle Burger Baby

I've been a little burger crazy lately and therefore doing a little research to figure out what the best burger in the East Village is. I had the burger at Blk Mrkt a few weeks back and it was pretty awesome! I have yet to try the burger at Royale but I'm hoping to try it out soon. I've heard mixed things, but mostly positive. After being out way too late and way too many drinks the night before, I was in serious need of a juicy and delicious burger.

I found it at Brindle Room. I had been there once before for their duck confit poutine but I can't say that it was good enough to get me back there so soon. But that morning I read an article saying that the burger at Brindle Room was neck in neck with Back Forty as runner up for best burger in the EV. Boy they were right! It was delicious! Super juicy and crazy flavourful! I think it's WAY better than Back Forty. The chef explained to us that his partner ages the beef longer than usual and I think there's salt added to it or something, it's almost crispy yet extremely juicy on the inside. They serve it with caramelized onions on it and I added basic all american cheese to it (aka the hangover special) and boy did it ever do the trick! We gobbled it up and fought over the last bit even! We also tried the french toast, which was covered with caramelized bananas and nutella. Also delicious even thought sweets for breakfast isn't my thing. I'm looking forward to going back to try the shrimp and grits!

Brindle Room
277 East 10th Street
New York, NY
brindleroom.com

Sandwich in the City

City Sandwich is all the rage right now. It was named one of the best hero bread in New York by Grub Street a few months back and now everyone is eating it up. Including us. Our office is located nearby so it makes for an easy delivery option. I've only tried it twice now and was semi-impressed. It's true that their combinations sound inciting and their homemade sausage and broccoli rabe is tasty, but it's just not amazing. I do want to try some of their egg sandwiches and their cod one too. The menu is all based on people names, probably their family and friends, which is super cute, and the menu is divided in 3 sections; meat, without meat, and egg-based. All colour-coded of course. The ingredients are fresh and the combinations are interesting so I'll have to try a few more to give a proper assessment. As for the bread, I prefer No.7's softer hero bread.

City Sandwich
649 9th Ave
New York, NY
(646)-684-3943
citysandwichnyc.com

Take the Metro North to Italy... I mean Westchester!

In the quiet town of New Rochelle lies a simple family restaurant full of some of the best italian food around. The family is from Rome and they are dishing out some tasty albeit ugly peasant food. My boyfriend knows the owners sister and got us in there. The resto only seats 38 and it is always booked. Locals frequents this spot on a regular basis and keep it packed.

There's no menu so Rina will ask you if there's anything you don't eat and start the flow of food. It was great. She first brought us simple basic grilled bread... from heaven! I don't know what is on that bread but it was amazing. Simple olive oil that must have been soaked in garlic. It comes garnished with a single clove of raw garlic on a stick that you are meant to rub all over the bread before eating. She then brought out 2 other appetizers (the size of entrees); eggplant parmiggiano and fagioli al pomodoro. Both excellent. Simple roma tomotoes bring these dishes to life. The sauce was perfect and the fagioli dish was great and have a slick kick to it! We then shared a pasta, which was a Mushroom Carbonara, but without the cream. So it was nice and light. All the dishes were simple and you could taste all the ingredients. It was great. The wine was good, I tried their own bottle that they just finished producing. We got a bottle to bring home too. We ended on a piece of tiramisu, which was not the prettiest one you've ever seen. Rina told me that her tiramisu is often called ugly but she doesn't care. Neither did we. We loved the ugly and extremely tasty tiramisu. I left feeling part of the family and can hardly wait to go back again.

One note, I recommend going on the early side (you need to reserve ahead btw) because the last trains out of New Rochelle are 10:30pm then midnight, nothing in between and nothing after.

Spadaro
211 Main Street
New Rochelle
(914) 235-4595
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/nyregion/westchester/17dinewe.html