DBGB Kitchen & Bar

Food Network's show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" recently featured DBGB as one of the best places in NYC for meat.  It was obvious that it was a place that we had to check out, so B rallied up Justinien & Schwartz, two meat lovers.

Daniel Boulud the mastermind behind DBGB was once a chef at Le Cirque and then moved to open his own place called Daniel in the UES, then opened Cafe Boulud and DB Bistro Moderne (it's obvious that Mr. Boulud loves his name).  The whole idea behind DBGB is that they make their own sausages in house; there are 13 different types listed on their menu.  I personally loved the decor inside: concrete floors & walls, see through kitchen, steel & more steel, it's very LES chic.

Here's what we ordered:

Starters:                                                                        

Chop-chop Salad w/romaine, avocado, carrots, watermelon, & ginger sesame dressing

Jim's Matzoh Ball Soup

Special for the night - Heirloom Tomato Salad

Entree:

Roasted Chicken Breast w/spring vegetable

DBGB Hot Dog w/sautéed onion, mustard, ketchup, 299 relish, & fries

Pan Roasted Atlantic Salmon w/baby leeks, house made gnocchi & arugela

Dessert:

Chocolate-Chocolate w/truffle, chocolate chip cookies, cocoa nib crunchies, caramel sauce & whipped cream

The review:

Personally I thought the heirloom tomato salad was the best thing I ordered.  The matzoh ball soup lacked salt and it just didn't taste like my grandmothers, however I did enjoy the parsley infused in the matzoh balls.  The DBGB hot dog was the only type of "sausage" I could order off the menu because everything else had pork, honestly I'll stick to Hebrew National.  It tasted like rubber and if it wasn't for the relish I don't think I would have finished it.  The chocolate dessert was beyond amazing and every bite had surprise to it.  One bite would be all ice cream then the next would be a cookie, & then crunchies...yum.  Schwartz roasted chicken fell off the bone & a must try if you venture there.  Justinien enjoyed his salmon but really enjoyed the homemade gnocchi.

DBGB Kitchen & Bar - great booths for groups, lot's of energy, LES feel

299 Bowery

New York, NY  10003

tel: 212.933.5300

NY Times Review - 2 stars

NY Mag - 1 star

-S&B

Battle for the Best...French Fries

DBGB Kitchen & Bar

Ratings:

Level of Crispness - 4 out of 5 (they were all crunchy)

Oil Amount - 1 out of 5 (hardly any oil)

Flavor - 4 out of 5 (salty, classic fry)

Salt Level - 2 out of 5 (you won't be needing a glass of water after each fry)

Presentation / Experience - 2 out of 5 (loved the lil' dish; looked hand-cut)

Dips - served naked

Price - 5 out of 5..$6 bucks no thank you for this tiny serving.

BUT we would definitely go back to savor these fries & they go great with a burger.

-S&B

Bia Garden

 Happy Birthday Will!! 


Last night we celebrated his birthday at Bia Garden and we definitely had a blast.  This tiny hole in the wall has this great room in the back to host parties.  


When you walk down Orchard you are bound to miss it.  You step down and find yourself at this little counter wondering if you messed up and are at the wrong place...but you aren't!  There is a huge refrigerator door that opens you up into a hall then, up 2 steps and wahla..Bia Garden!!!  They have a very simple concept which makes sense and works, order beer by the 6, 12 or 24 pack! AMAZING for beer lovers.  
  
They also have a great menu.  Being a party of 30 we ordered all the apps plus a few extra things:


Green Papaya Salad
Lemongrass Sausage
Vegetable Summer Rolls
Crab Spring Rolls
Chicken Lollipops
BBQ Lemongrass Beef Short Ribs
Shaking Beef
Ginger Clay Pot Chicken
Veggie Vermicelli Noodles
Grilled Lemon Spicy Chicken


Everything was delicious and we couldn't keep our hands off the rolls & chicken lollipops, yum yum!  To end the night we sang happy birthday with 3 dozen BakedByMelissa cupcakes!!

Veggie Vermicelli Noodles

Bia Garden
154 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
tel: 212.780.0100


Happy Birthday Will!! Here's to your 30's...cheers!


-S&B

Battle for the Best...Treats

sugar Sweet sunshine bakery...let's just say they are little pieces of heaven.  These fluffy little cupcakes are divine.  The butter cream frosting melts in your mouth, add that to the moist pumpkin, vanilla, or chocolate cake and you have the perfect bite.  This is definitely a place to try and if you are in the LES an easy pick up!


Flavors:
Sunshine - yellow cake with vanilla butter cream
Bob - yellow cake with chocolate almond butter cream
Ooey Gooey: chocolate cake with chocolate almond butter cream
Sexy Red Velvet: red velvet cake with "The Moose"
Sassy Red Velvet: red velvet cake with chocolate almond butter cream
Black & White...Just Right: chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream
Pistachio: pistachio cake with "The Moose"
Pumpkin: pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing
Lemon Yummy: lemon cake with lemon butter cream
Coconut: coconut cake with meringue
Faux-Coconut: coconut cake with satin butter cream


Cupcakes - $1.50
Mini Cupcakes - $1.00


Favorite Flavors - pumpkin & pistachio


sugar Sweet sunshine bakery
126 Rivington Street
New York, NY  10002
tel: 212.995.1960


-S&B

Cienfuegos

When UrbanDaddy announced this hot spot back in April we got excited! A rum bar, LES, old school feel rooms that are pink = new spot for us! Yippie!! Getting there is a pain in the ass, really if you don't have a private car, take a taxi, a scooter, well then get ready for the 10 minute plus walk from the subway. The day we visited was like every summer day in NYC, 90 degrees plus 100 degrees of humidity, not fun. We stepped into this tiny bar and gave our name to the host.

After waiting for an hour we were finally brought upstairs to a room packed with people and no A/C...fabulous! We quickly opted for two punch bowls, 6 Toe Punch & Cuba Copana. YUM!! 30 minutes later the punch bowls were wiped clean. Dinner was next, we ordered 3 orders of sloppy joes, plantain chips, a simple salad and veggie empanadas. Let's just say the drinks are way better then the food and we would definitely go back but not in this heat.

Cienfuegos - great punch bowls, good for groups, rum lovers will be feliz

443 E6th Street

New York, NY 10009

-S&B

Hint: they do not take reservations, get there early.

CON ARTIST - EVERY WEDNESDAY!

If you're looking for something to do on Wednesdays, head to Con Artist on Ludlow for their Gallery Nights. Open 8 till late! It's actually a vintage store that has a good size back room utilized to feature different Artists weekly. (side note: we found Valentino & Givenchy ties for $40 & $55 - holler)
Chris Mendoza's Retrospective is the main event this week and we have had the pleasure of meeting him! We stopped into Con Artist last week for his debut and we LOVE his work. The man is seriously talented and famous his precise etch work. When asked how he gets is lines so perfectly fine, he replies "Sometimes I use a Metro Card". We tried to get an up close image of the detail but the iPhone only zooms in so far and you're just going to have to check it out for yourself.

Chris draws his inspiration from his Mayan and Spanish heritage and projects it through a Street Graffiti voice - his Mayan references are immediately apparent. (see 4 of 13 in Artworks) His father is an architect, so we can clearly see where he gets his artistic and technical talent from. This piece below is approximately 3 feet x 5 feet (maybe larger) and sells for around $7K. It is, hands down, our favorite. Anyone have an extra few grand they want to give us? We need something to decorate our S&B Run This City office with!

You have to....no, you MUST go see him. The artist that smells of sweet patchouli and has a great sense of humor is waiting for you tomorrow night with a cash bar (a little B.Y.O.B.) and some hot DJ's beats by Rage Johnson. Put this on your To-Do list ASAP.

-S&B

S's Birthday Party - The Delancey

S's birthday was celebrated at The Delancey roof deck located at 168 Delancey Street, Lower East Side. B picked up S at the nail salon with KL, the three of them took a sketchy black cab down to the LES. As we moved downtown in our town car S's birthday crew was busy putting candles on her mini cupcakes. We pulled up to The Delancey and rushed inside to be greeted by Mumm, Whit, Justinien & ALiu with 36 cupcakes on fire! S quickly made a wish only to be tricked by trick candles...thanks Mumm. We laughed as the candles quickly melted into these tiny cakes only be lite again and again and again.

Shortly after we all indulged in pumpkin, sunshine, & black & white...just right cupcakes we headed to the bar. We quickly learned that they were having a $5.00 BBQ, yum! We had burgers, hot dogs, and potato salad, not bad for $5 bucks. Every Wednesday!

The space is actually great. Since the weather report said there was a 90% chance of precipitation we knew the roof deck idea might fail but luckly The Delancey has a retractable roof. That was fantastic except for the fact that they also had a huge grill on, so the air inside the space was...let's just say smokey, as noted in the photo. The set-up was intimate and it allowed us to stay within our group. We had a great time catching up.

Roof Deck:

Space - good for parties, nice view, LES crew

Music - dead

After we drank upstairs we decided to take our party downstairs to enjoy some A/C. We were greeted by Scooter Pie from Sugar Shack; burlesque dancers that perform ever Wednesday, who knew?! Their show is called "Shaken & Stirred" and we definitely got that impression. Definitely some talented ladies, but we were turned off by the creepy men who thought 2 girls dancing around on a stage was hot. The show started around 10:30. The first girl was tall, pale skin, and thin. She did a cute number which ended with her in her red undies & tassels. The 2nd girl, we won't mention her at all. Loo, S, B, & Justinien had some great laughs as they imagined S showing up to work wearing only tassels on her boobs and making copies...hilarious.

Downstairs:

Space - could be good for parties

Burlesque Show - good idea but let's try to keep the creeps out

Music - Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough & Little Richard - Tutti Frutti

- S&B