5 Napkin Burger

The Sage Questions
Date Spot? Casual, Yes
Good for Groups? Yes
When Parents Visit? No
Cost? $15 burgers
Wines under $100? Excellent beer and whiskey selection, some wine
Location: 45th and 9th

Rating: 3

5 Napkin Burger is an excellent spot to go for a casual meal or drink if you find yourself (God forbid) in Hell's Kitchen. The decor is "meat-locker chic", with meathooks and small bistro-style tables strewn about a tile floor. It is warm, and it is loud. The signature "5 Napkin" burger is a ground sirloin burger that is just chewy enough without being dry, and is sublimely meaty. It comes covered in gooey comte cheese and slightly sweet sauteed onions on a big fluffy brioche roll. If you attempt to pick it up, you may need a great deal more than five napkins. My advice? They give you a steakknife - don't be a hero, just use it.

The excellent bar at the back features an arm's-length list of scotches and bourbons, as well as a great many flavored vodkas and local microbrews. Wine is one thing they're a bit light on, but if beer or whiskey doesn't do it for you, they do make a killer fruity cocktail as well.

If you're either in the neighborhood or looking for that next great burger fix, don't miss this place.

'inoteca

What a find! 'inoteca is a smallish corner shop in the LES offering Italian wines and small plates. This is a perfect spot to while away a weekend afternoon over a carafe of wine and a plate of meat and cheese. It is fairly crowded almost all the time, so be prepared to wait for a table, or do what I did and have a seat at the small but efficient bar. The menu generally offers small tapas-style plates that are perfect for sharing as well as a selection of slightly-more-robust panini, which would allow you to have a full dinner here if you start in the afternoon and by happy coincidence are still working your way down the wine list that evening. The staff is extremely knowledgable about the reasonably extensive meat and cheese menu, and will gladly translate the rest of the mostly-Italian menu as required.

The wine list is small, all Italian, and all below $50 a bottle. The waitstaff will point you in the right direction and the half-carafes, about 2+ glasses each, definitely encourage sampling. And then more sampling. And potentially a newfound belief that you can speak Italian.

Perfect for spending a lazy afternoon or a light meal - if you find yourself down in the LES pop in for a spell. You'll wish for more such spells.

The Sage Questions
Date Spot? Yes
Good for Groups? Yes
When Parents Visit? No
Cost? $8-15 apps and small plates
Wines under $100? All of them
Rating: 3

Babbo

What can you say about Batali's flagship except make a res and go immediately. Babbo, in a smallish two-level townhouse in the Village, is always packed, and typically has a several-hour wait for seats at the postage-stamp bar in front. The reservation line is open a month to the date beforehand, so typically you get to spend that time dreaming of calf's brains francobolli and the like while anticipation steadily grows.

There are three ways to go through Babbo - all will leave you very full, and potentially much lighter in the wallet. The first two are the standard paths - one of the two tasting menus (a pasta menu for $69 and a traditional tasting for $79) offer a generous feel of Batali's style and excessiveness (the pasta tasting menu portions aren't that much smaller than the a la carte versions). Budget 2+ hours, and don't plan on doing anything afterwards but rolling home. The second option is to have one each of the Antipasti, Primi, and Secondi. Again, a lot of food, but you will leave very happy. The third avenue, my favorite, is to stick to what made Batali famous - the pastas. We went with a group of 4 and managed to try six different pastas...a sort of do-it-yourself pasta menu that was much easier on the stomach, the wallet, and the schedule.

The only non-pasta dishes we tried were the famous warm lamb's tongue vinaigrette, fabulously tender tongue and mushrooms so flavorful it was a little hard to tell which was which, and a braised fennel salad to whet the appetite. Then came the pastas. Garganelli with mixed mushrooms was wonderfully thin and light, the cigar-shaped rolls delicately holding their form and paired with a simple light cream and wild mushroom sauce. Mint love letters, a Batali signature, didn't disappoint - envelope-shaped pastas with a minty and slightly spicy lamb puree. Sphagettini with lobster was also slightly spicy if a bit ordinary. One slightly down note was the bucatini with guanciale - the guanciale was perfectly cooked but was so delicate it couldn't quite stand up to the amount of fresh parsley in the dish. The highlight of the evening was the beef cheek ravioli, always a crowd pleaser, it gets the full treatment with a braised beef and red wine sauce and black truffles - so every bite explodes in a depth of flavor that just makes you feel decadent. After the last bite we sat quietly for a minute, digesting the food, imprinting the flavor and decadence into our minds, and trying to figure out how old Ryan Seacrest's companion was sitting a few tables away.

The wine list at Babbo is quite daunting, but the sommeliers are very helpful and pointed us to a 2004 Barberesco for under $100 that was wonderfully drinkable but still able to stand up nicely to the richer pastas. That said, there are about 10 of 500 wines on the list that are under $100, so the choices are limited.

Babbo is simply fantastic. I'm quite shocked that it didn't get a Michelin star in the latest iteration, but I've always been suspicious of those Michelin folks. It remains very near the top of my list of favorite restaurants in the city and one of the best for a special occaision. Go.

The Sage Questions
Date Spot? Yes
Good for Groups? Not really
When Parents Visit? Yes
Cost? $10-$20 Apps, $20-$25 Pastas, $23-$30 mains
Wines under $100? Precious few, but very helpful sommeliers
Rating: 4

Elettaria

Small, busy and inventive. Chef Akhtar Nawab brings us new American cuisine with an Indian kick. The smaller bar room in the front is generally very crowded, but isn't a bad place to sit and eat if you can grab precious seats at the bar. The room in the back is too small for the number of tables that they manage to cram in, so unless you snare one of the few booths, expect to be sitting in your neighbor's lap. The food though - wow - Mom never made samosas like this before.

The best way to navigate this culinary journey is to get a whole lot of the small plate appetizers and share everything. Curried rabbit samosas and garam masala spareribs both evoked memories of home-cooked Indian food in a way that I wasn't expecting. Star anise adds an eastern touch to the cod and a hint of cardamom infuses the duck breast - it makes these dishes taste just a little different than what you're used to and what you're likely to find at any of the other dozen new American joints in the neighborhood. Nawab isn't too heavy-handed with the spices, so this isn't at all like a trip to the local curry shop. Instead, what you'll get are brilliantly executed local market favorites with a spin that sets them apart.

Cocktails are killer here, and old school. The Zombie Punch has 3 types of rum and absinthe...they cut you off after 2. Quimby Fizz and Ginger Rogers also harken back to days of yore - when apparently lime curd and egg white were common cocktail additives. As odd as they sound, there is sure to be one that fits you just right. Just be sure you can stagger out.

(Note - a nice place to stagger to is the 8th St Wine Cellar, a little wine bar across the street, great place to start or end the evening).

The Sage Questions
Date Spot? Yes
Good for Groups? Yes, with a reservation
When Parents Visit? If they're adventurous and can deal with noise
Cost? $10-$14 apps, $25 mains
Wines under $100? $12 cocktails and an extensive liquor list
Rating: 3