Welcome back, gracenotesnyc!

Thank you so much for patiently waiting for gracenotesnyc to update and upgrade our blog (I say “our” as if I have employees…nope, just the best volunteers out there!). There are a ton of great upgrades to the site – some are obvious, others are not (especially to those of you that subscribe to the blog through RSS feed and don’t have an opportunity to come to the site). Here’s what we’ve been working on for the past two weeks:

General layout of gracenotesnyc:

The layout is a little more spiffy now; I started out with a basic background but it was time to upgrade. People mentioned that they wanted to see categories, which were a little difficult to find before, so my “tech team” fixed that problem and made a whole side bar of categories based on location and food:

So if you’re ever looking for a place to go for brunch, just click on it and it’ll lead you to all of my posts on brunch foods.

Another feature that allows you to search: archives. If you’re interested in reading entries from a specific month, just click on the calendar:

Finally, the upgrade that I’m MOST excited about: RATINGS. I’ve named them “Grace Faces,” since, you know, the ratings are based off my face and my name is … Grace:

Ratings go from 1 Grace Face (meaning the restaurant sucked) all the way to 5 Grace Face’s (meaning you should book a reservation ASAP). If the place is REALLY bad, there’s a SPECIAL face:

That means you should RUN in the opposite direction of the restaurant!!

I’ll post another entry about Grace Faces soon and I’m working on adding Grace Faces to older entries. Hope it was worth the wait!

The Green Table

One of my favorite restaurants in New York, The Green Table, is located in the Chelsea Market and serves great foods that are purchased locally (meaning all ingredients are purchased within driving distance). They have simple ingredients and simple items; grilled cheese, burgers, macaroni and cheese, chicken pot pie, and other comfort foods. I went with the chicken pot pie:

The chicken is really tender, the vegetables are cooked but not overdone, and the seasoning is near perfection. Also, the crust is flaky but not too buttery. Another great thing about The Green Table – their salads are always dressed SO well. There’s just enough oil, lemon juice, and pepper on every piece of arugula!

Chris ordered the Green Table burger:

The burger had an interesting tomato relish instead of pickles – just the right amount of tanginess to add to the well-cooked burger. I really love eating at Greenmarket because everything is so fresh and well-prepared. The only complaint – it’s not large enough; it only seats around 15 (including the communal table outside) so you might end up being turned away on a busy night.

Updates!

I have exciting updates to the website that will be revealed later this week (if my tech guys aren’t too busy!). After the website changes, I’ll post the 10 restaurant reviews that are sitting in my queue!

Grace

Dogmatic

Dogmatic, a vendor in the west village, is a gourmet hot dog stand that Chris’ landlord told him about when he first moved to New York. They serve $5 hot dogs (expensive, I know!) that are served inside baguettes instead of your usual hot dog buns. The vendor isn’t around during the summertime (weird, considering it’s in a park with tons of little kids and their parents) but we were lucky enough to catch him when he was opening one afternoon. Dogmatic setting up:

There are three options for the sauce you can order, but jalapeño cheddar is the most popular, so I ordered a beef hotdog with jalapeño cheddar. The packaging:

While Dogmatic (I forgot his name) is getting the actual hot dog, a baguette is toasted on a metal stick that is a little larger than the hot dog (you can see it in the background of the first picture) After it’s been toasted, he dips the cooked hot dog in the sauce of your choice and sticks it into the toasted baguette. The final product:

I know it looks a little gross, but this hot dog is definitely the best hot dog I’ve ever eaten; the jalapeño cheddar oozes out of the perfectly toasted baguette and the hot dog tastes more like real meat than what the other vendors peddle in Central Park. It’s gourmet! Dogmatic is the perfect treat to eat in the early fall when you’re checking out the farmer’s market nearby.

The Spotted Pig

The Spotted Pig, one of my favorite restaurants in New York and a Michelin star restaurant, has a crave-worthy sandwich. The cubano, filled with lots of pork, cheese, peppers, and other ingredients to clog your arteries on a perfectly toasted baguette, is one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. EVER. Better than Jimmy John’s (by the way, when are they going to bring those to New York?!). Better than Potbelly’s (which is saying a lot since I used to go there everyday when I was in college). Even better than Pearl Oyster Bar’s lobster roll. (…actually, I take that back….the lobster roll isn’t a “sandwich,” it’s a “roll,” meaning they’re in two different categories!

My perfect cubano with a side salad:

Every time I look at my cubano pictures I begin to salivate; I can’t even begin to describe how elated I am whenever I see the sandwich!!!. The cubano from The Spotted Pig definitely ranks up there with the best sandwiches ever made because of the salty flavor of the pork mixed with the crunchy pickled veggies and perfectly melted cheese. If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is.

Chris ordered the French toast with bananas:

I’m kind of picky when it comes to French toast; the bread has to be thickly cut so when the bread is dunked in the egg mixture, it completely absorbs it but doesn’t lose its original shape. Also, it can’t be thick to the point that the batter can’t touch every crevice of the bread because then it’s unnecessarily dry. Picky, I know. The French toast at Spotted Pig fit all of my criteria; a thick piece of challah bread that was perfectly moist but not soggy flavored with crème fraiche and syrup, with bananas on the side. Perfect!

Chris and I have gone to The Spotted Pig on a couple of occasions and have always been treated nicely by the wait staff, but I feel as if the prerequisite to work there is that you HAVE to be a hipster with absolutely no food service background. Seriously, they have really terrible service! This time was no exception; we already looked through the menu before we got there knowing there’s always a long wait for the cubano (allow at least 15 minutes for prepping) but on our most recent visit, we ended up waiting an hour and a half for my sandwich and Chris’ French toast! Not only that, but we were seated in an area with a direct view of the kitchen so I could see what they were doing – and I saw the hostess grab my salad with her bare hands! She was using the phone, touching her body, scratching who knows what, and then she just used her bare hands to pick up my salad! Can you believe that? I mean, I’m not a germaphobe, but when I see something like that, I get completely turned off. I brought it up to our waitress and she gave me a new salad, but seeing the way the hostess handled my salad was enough to put me off.

Since the kitchen took so long to get our orders, they offered us a free dessert – which took another 20 minutes – can you believe that?! We ordered the lemon lime tart:

The waitress raved about the tart and said she really loved the taste so we ordered it, but it was just a lemon square that hadn’t completely solidified so it was a little goopy. Not something I’d order again.

Overall, the food was great (minus the dessert) and I would go there again, but they should definitely work on their waitstaff because the time you wait for your food is simply unacceptable.