Well, the Saint Louis place made me think of its similarly named buddy in New York. However, the West Village “bar” is actually a coffee, tea, and candy house, painted in my favorite orange. It serves, duh, hot chocolate, coffee drinks and delicious chocolate tea varieties – not the weird store-bought ones that D and I have been religiously sampling – but the mixes of leaves and coco that provide for one of the best dessert tea drinking experiences ever! Read more…
D and I headed to this St Marks Place on-the-go food Mecca with one thought on our mind – chickplant! Certain to cause craving attacks and a definite sandwich hall-of-famer – chickplant is a pita stuffed with hummus, roasted (well, lets be honest here - it’s deep fried) eggplant, mashed boiled egg, mixed finely cut greens, and pickles. Read more…
Best known for welcoming late night East Village party crowds, this 24-hour eatery provides steady, hangover-healing meals. Early Sunday afternoon presented an opportunity for at least 2 in our 7-person gang to put Yaffa’s comfort food menu to a test. We were lucky enough to find a table in the backyard. Read more…
Favored by the perpetually broke NGO workers, NYU students and locals alike, Hi-Fi is a notable East Village attraction because of its generous happy hour, its large and goofy space, and its good selection of draft beers. I would be lying if I said that the always-friendly bartender mixes a good drink. Any vodka or whiskey order should always be put on the rocks with juice/pop omitted for the sake of preserving the original purpose of drinking – i.e. enjoying it, and the original purpose of a liquor drink – i.e. having a taste of the relevant liquor. Read more…
I was introduced to KGB by a fellow Eastern European when I first began investigating NYC alcoholics’ scene. Last weekend I decided to take my new Russian friend there. It turned out that Andrei – who recently moved here from Berkley and went to my high school in the motherland – heard of the place from a New York acquaintance of his. We went mostly to sample imported Baltika – aside from fine porcelain and equally fine views, the best thing to ever come out of our beloved Saint Petersburg. KGB is about the only place in Manhattan that serves it, which is exciting enough for me. Also exciting was the theory that Andrei’s friend had about the bar’s name Read more…
Comforting and delicious, Kati Roll Indian wraps are as good as ethnic fast-food can get. Presenting a menu of 8 well-spiced Indian dishes wrapped into warm naan, favorites such as Chicken Tikka, Aloo Masala and Paneer included, Kati Roll strives for simplicity in choice.
The eatery doesn’t overwhelm the gringo pallet; on the contrary, friendly employees of the downtown location are always eager to lessen the heat on my Paneer and Unda wraps. Though sometimes I have issues with eggs – Unda, aka the egg wrap, tastes nothing of an egg, instead it’s a fluffy mass of deliciousness and sauce. I usually get one wrap, but bigger eaters will be happier with two. I think 3 is an overshot – the food is rather heavy. The entries at the uptown location, similarly tasty, have a bit more grease to them. Both locations are open into the early hours of the morning catering to drunken-munchies crowds.
Address:
Downtown:
99 Macdougal St.
Map
OR Midtown:
140 W. 46th St.
Map
This tiny place obscured by the midtown misery is amazing. Kashkaval takes its name from a yellow cheese produced in Bulgaria and Romania, sometimes apparently referred to as the “cheddar of the Balkans.” The store fronts mostly as a cheese market and though I’ve walked in here before to purchase cheese, I never suspected that the small, dark backroom holds a sit-down eatery. Upon entry, it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to sniff at delicious cheese selections, olives and other snackables. Aside from staff and customers, an ever-changing cast of kitties permanently resides at Kashkaval. Strangely they show no interest in the customers or the cheese and laze about the store or sit by the door looking on to 9th Avenue. Read more…
My first official Alphabet City fave is always a goodie at 3 in the morning. Once a mafia hang out, now another NYU bar. But what else to do drunk and in search of cheap beer in the East Village? At least no one cares at Sophie’s. Whether you are smoking a cigarette, passing around a box of high fiber cereal or are changing clothes in front of the entire back room, the patrons seem calmly unfazed. Hurray!
Address
509 E Fifth St
New York, NY 10009
Map