All in New York City

Kesté Pizza & Vino

Kesté Pizza & Vino

Adam Goldberg
New York City

Slowly but surely, New York's quest for authenticity is improving the quality of pizza in the city. The legends of New York-style pizza: DiFara, Patsy's, Lombardi's, Grimaldi's, are facing a wave of new comers bringing traditional Neopolitan-style pies to the Big Apple. Instead of extra large crispy pies overloaded with mozzarella and globs of olive oil, which make no mistake are still delicious, Neapolitan pies are more restrained: smaller, lighter, elastic, and sparse with cheese and saucing. Fork and knife are required. Unfortunately, there aren't too many places in the city that serve an authentic Naples pie. Kesté is one of them, and it serves the best. Roberto Caporuscio, chef and co-owner of Kesté Pizza & Vino, is a pizza master. Chef Caporuscio comes from Pontinia, Italy just over an hour north of Naples, the putative birthplace of pizza. After several years of training in Napoli he ventured to the United States to share this traditional style of pizza without compromise. New York-style pizza wasn't for him. Despite being the president of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, he is rarely found outside of the kitchen. And if he is, his hands are always covered in white dust. Roberto's enthusiasm for making the perfect pie can be seen almost immediately by watching his slow precise hands working the dough, his eyes almost never straying from the pie.

Marea

Marea

Adam Goldberg
New York City

When most New Yorkers think of Italian food, they think of pizza, lasagna, and spaghetti and meatballs: dishes with strong dominantly red sauces. And with good reason. These southern Italian dishes originate where the majority of New York’s Italian immigrants came from. At the turn of the 20th century, New York was the single largest nerve center for Southern Italian immigrants coming over from Naples and Sicily. As a result, Southern Italian cuisine is vastly over-represented in the big apple (which I’m definitely not complaining about). But with this disproportional representation comes the omission of the wonderfully light fish dishes from the coastal cities of Northern Italy. This is where Marea comes in. As sister restaurant of New York's other Northern Italian gem, Alto, Marea's menu is rife with raw seafood. Over half of the menu, in fact. At times some of the plates look Japanese in simplicity and presentation, that is until the golden dab of olive oil shines through.

Marea occupies the former space of San Domenico, which other than perhaps Del Posto, was the most expensive Italian restaurant in the city. In this respect, Chef Michael White's cuisine is similar: it's expensive. But the restaurant space has been completely renovated and no longer feels like a scene from CSI Miami. Its reflective hard lacquer surfaces and focused halogen lighting put the food on a well-lit pedestal.

Joe the Art of Coffee

Joe the Art of Coffee

Adam Goldberg
New York City

Coffee fuels the city that never sleeps. Unfortunately, most of it is terrible. But there are exceptions. It would be unfair to not give Starbucks tremendous credit for raising awareness of coffee and its many forms; however, most of its products remain heavily sugared and over-diluted with milk, cream, and syrups. It's become fast-food drinkable dessert. And even assuming that its beans are of decent quality, its computerized machines over-extract them while many of its unskilled "baristas" continue to flip on the milk steamer and walk away to help other customers, leaving the milk burnt and undrinkable. What was once a trendy logo to carry in your hand is now a red flag for poor taste.

However, a better educated coffee-craving public now has higher demands that Starbucks cannot fulfill in its current form. For this new demand, boutique coffee shops have been opening up and thriving. So much so, in fact, that Starbucks has been opening unbranded, clandestine shops with a community feel to trick consumers into thinking they're local shops. But no matter how hard they try, it will be hard to emulate what's available at Joe the Art of Coffee on Waverly.

Momofuku Noodle Bar

Momofuku Noodle Bar

Adam Goldberg
New York City

When I first discovered Momofuku Noodle Bar, the concept bewildered me. A New York ramen restaurant seemed misplaced. How could a low-key Asian street-stall dish be hawked to New York's hipsters at high prices? Very readily, it turns out. And I believe the reason for the smashing (if not immediate) success of Noodle and its later brethren lies in chef/owner David Chang's business savvy: small portions, bar seating, loud music, and food that seems at once exotic and comforting. And despite a well-documented hatred for food photography, which I strongly disagree with when done tactfully (no flash and no pictures of diners), Chang allows such gaucherie at the Noodle Bar which means I can share my most recent experience there. The Noodle Bar is sneaky, offering slightly under-portioned dishes at reasonable prices. Designed to be shared, these small plates add up to cost more than a multi-course tasting menu at one of the city's fancier restaurants. This low barrier of entry provides diners the comfort of being able to spend modestly, while the small-statured dishes create the illusion possibility of having "just a bite." Chang is a polarizing figure, with ardent supporters and adamant enemies, but he is tuned in to what the dining public wants in a way many of his peers can only dream of. When one concept doesn't work, he tries another. Noodle's namesake items might be the least popular thing on the menu, and at Ssäm they aren't even available anymore.

Di Fara

Di Fara

Adam Goldberg
New York City

New Yorkers take their pizza seriously. Perhaps that's because of New York's Italian roots, considering 30% of Italy immigrated to New York at the turn of the 20th century. The majority of these immigrants emigrated from the south, from areas such as Naples and Sicily, carrying with them recipes, traditions, and skill to turn mere flour and water into one of the most delicious foods ever created. It is no coincidence, then, that New York has been labeled by many as the pizza capital of the world. But is it really? Truth be told, a visitor to America's pizza home may not feel the same way. While great pizza in this city can be found, the majority of pizzerias serve mass-produced pies lacking any sort of character or flavor. With the viral growth of chains like Sbarro, Famiglia, and "CPK," most of the city's great pizza has moved from an Italian artisan craft to the product of a big city assembly line. A relatively mundane mix of ingredients, in theory, pizza should be simple. But simple ingredients lend to complex preparation intricacies that, if left to the wrong hands, can result in a pizza that tastes terrible. Let alone soulless. A lack of skill, care and quality ingredients can lead to soggy crust, excessively salty cheese, oily residue, and a frown. Great pizza is no easy task.

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Adam Goldberg
New York City

No matter the time of day, my appetite, my clothing, or my food preference, L'Atelier always seemed like the right place to go, and I think that's a really important quality of a favorite restaurant. Considering the amount of times we've eaten here, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Aaron and I have tried everything on the Fall 2006, Winter 2006, Spring 2007, and Summer 2007 menus, and even some of executive chef Yosuke Suga's experimental dishes. Maybe this is why L'Atelier is perhaps our favorite restaurant in Manhattan. L'Atelier's location inside the Four Seasons Hotel might suggest a level of stuffiness, but this is quickly eliminated by Joël Robuchon's unique sushi-bar style seating, which forces complete strangers to talk with, rather than about, each other. This setup also means that the final platings are done directly in front of diners, allowing them to have an increased appreciation of the work that goes into each course, while cleverly hiding the messier kitchen elements behind closed doors. The energy from the adjacent Four Seasons cocktail lounge also flows into the restaurant, setting a lively tone without airs, something that is very much appreciated in contrast to many other haute French restaurants where the only sound is that of cutlery hitting the plate.