NY City 9/14 or 9/15?

Looks like I will be in for the Jets vs. Browns Monday night game. Likely to come a night or two early. Anyone interested in getting together either of those nights for some wine?

Loren - You should connect with Jay Hack for his tailgate festivities. They look and sound epic.

Agreed that’ Jay’s tailgate parties supposedly set the standard. Heck the WSJ wrote him up. I am in Ct but would be be happy to take train in Count me in if you do a dinner. If you want fancy there are plenty of choices but a place we have done lately is Wu’s Wonton King in Chinatown. Not fancy but delicious and no corkage. Great Peking Duck and Whole Suckling Pig if group is big enough is an option. But am happy whatever locale is chosen.

Loren has already contacted me about tailgating. It is a night game, so the tailgate will be slightly less epic than normal, but Loren will be satisfied. My recollection is that he is one of those vegan types, so I will have to come up with variations on the normal menu. Maybe he’ll agree to cheese, which will allow us to go with gourmet fire roasted grilled cheese sandwiches and if he takes fish, we can do one helluva paella on a Weber kettle.

As to the other dates, September 15 is my birthday and since my first ever off-line was on my birthday, I’ll go for another one. I have to verify that vegan thing, because that will define the restaurant. there are a lot of good Indian restaurants with great vegetarian menus, but you have to be willing to eat milk products. It’s kind of an odd paring with Loren’s preference for California rocket fuel reds, but why not?

1 Like

Jay Hack Birthday Offline B2B with Jay Hack Monday Night Primetime Tailgate - who can resist? Count me in.

Jay - Vegetarian but not vegan but I have no issues with everyone else enjoying themselves. I will find something to eat. No meat, fowl or fish, but cheese, eggs, honey, etc are fine. Thanks. As to wines, I like pretty much everything so no worries there. We can save the rocket fuel for the tailgate.

I make the best saffron mushroom risotto in the world. Just ask the people who were at my house for the Berserkerfest. I will check around for appropriate restaurants. Maybe someone else has good ideas besides Indian, which is fine with me but others may not like.

Jay Hack, you are indefatigable ! (said with admiration and a little awe)

I did mention Wu’s Wonton King (yeah hokey name) and nobody responded to it. Perhaps folks dont like good Chinese food or it’s not exotic enough. There have been at least 2 offlines there recently one of which I have attended. I did check the menu and there are plenty of vegan dishes including several vegetable dishes and tofu. If others dont want Chinese or dont like it fine. Just my.02 cents and will likely make the trek no matter where is chosen

OK, let’s move this along. I will make a “top of the line” suggestion and we can go from there. Jean George Vongerichten has a vegetarian restaurant, maybe even vegan, called ABCV. The corkage is expensive ($40 a bottle) but the food is relatively cheap because there’s no dry aged porterhouse or king crab legs. My guess is that it comes out about the same as a steakhouse dinner. The menu changes regularly based upon what’s fresh, but they just emailed me today’s menu and they said it doesn’t change all that much. I have pasted the menu below. Let’s see who raises their hand for that. If we get 9 or less, we just order off the menu. If we get 10 or more, we set up a limited menu based upon the regular menu so we don’t drive the kitchen crazy trying to serve us, but that’s no big deal. We just select a couple from each category.

No wine on their list.

Take a look at the menu and if this works for Loren, I will go vegetarian for my birthday and have a red meat orgy at the Browns game, with side veggies for the vegetarians who come to the game. The ABCV wine list is all sorts of biodynamic stuff and nothing in my entire wine cellar, so imagine what I might own and you are OK with anything like that. The restaurant is lower midtown, something like 19th street.

vegetables
light & fresh

green chickpea hummus, thai basil, fresh pita or crudité 18
pine nut and lemon, harissa, dried apricot, fresh pita 18
avocado lettuce cups, toasted cumin, serrano and lime, pepitas 16
crunchy lettuces, spring vegetables, cashew, mustard dressing, fresh herbs 17 sun gold tomatoes, white nectarine, crisp fennel, aged sherry vinegar 19 ginger, basil
slow roasted beets, dijon, avocado puree, chili aioli, pickles, lovage 18
fresh sauerkraut, horseradish, dill, extra virgin olive oil 14
heirloom melon, cucumber, pink pepper salt, lime, flowering coriander 17

warm & hot
fire roasted rosa bianca eggplant, charred and pickled summer vegetables, tahini, olives, fresh pita 21
wok seared snow peas and romano beans, garlic, shiitake, lemon 17
market carrots, stone ground nut and seed butter, chilies, lime 17
wood grilled donko shiitake, new potato salad, basil, pickled onion 24
half or whole roasted cauliflower with turmeric-tahini and pistachios 18 | 26
saison battered maitaike and oyster mushrooms 23
black sesame, honey, za’atar, scallions sweet corn, baby potato, chanterelle, gran kinara, australian winter truffle 58
sauteed herbs and tender spinach, fermented heirloom tomato, garlic, meyer lemon 16

noodles & rice
sungold tomato fried rice, shiso, szechuan aromatics 24
pandan coconut sticky rice, lemongrass grilled fairy tale eggplant, peanut, thai basil 16
sweet corn wontons, tender squash, spicy tomato broth, chili oil, cucumber salad 26
mushroom walnut bolognese, carrot paccheri, celery, mint leaf 23
casarecce, cherry tomatoes, baby squash, pistachio, mint, basil 25

legumes
beluga lentils, chili oil and black vinegar, yams, broccoli stems, cilantro 18
fresh tofu, spicy szechuan pepper oil, peanuts, grilled and pickled cucumber 25
applewood smoked butter beans, crispy maitake, fried capers, ginger rosemary vinaigrette 19

dosa
plain dosa 10
yogurt, avocado, sprouts 19
smoky eggplant, tomato chutney, coconut yogurt, cilantro 20

Although I am quite enamored with Jean Georges all the way back to the Quilted Giraffe, I am sadly very limited in my love of vegetables. If they had other non Vegan options great, but I am afraid I would have a problem not having some sort of fish beef or steak. It sounds like a great restaurant, book it if others wish but count me out unless a different venue is chosen

I am good either way Jay and everyone else. I can always find something to eat with side dishes, etc. Let’s find something that everyone will enjoy if possible. Where ever you choose is fine with me though.

There are some very good other choices with lots of vegetarian alternatives. Let’s start with Greek. I have brought wine to both of these but I do not remember the corkage fees. Both are centrally located within a few blocks of Grand Central and all the subways, which makes it easy.

Kellari Taverna. https://www.kellariny.com/menus-2/

Ammos Estatorio. https://ammosnewyork.com/dinner-menu/

The eggplant and zucchini chips at Kellari are to die for. I could sit there and eat those and drink wine all night and be satisfied. Add some Melitzanasalata (eggplant salad) and Tzatziki sauce and you’re ready to go.

I will check about corkage.

That sounds great. The vegetarians can always get Lamb. Thank you Jay for the leg work!

I could eat. Let’s see how this shapes up.

Vegetarians eat lamb? Sounds good to me. I will see if I can do a private room deal at Kellari. It looks like Ammos is closed on Sunday.

I’m interested if there is flesh to be consumed. How about PDH, Midtown? Plenty of veggie alternatives. No corkage. Thanks for your work, Jay.

PDH as Tom mentioned sounds great to me.Never been. Kellari looks pretty good too. Gave them a quick call to check corkage fee. They charge $25 per btl.

Ok. Moving forward. After discussions with Loren, I am looking at Utsav, a high end Indian restaurant in midtown west. Utsav has a very broad menu https://utsavny.com/new-york-midtown-west-utsav-food-menu. The From the Grill portion should satisfy most carnivores other than those who will die without beef and there are lots of vegetarian selections that even I often order when I eat there. Assume starting something like 5:30 or 6 pm Sunday, subject to me making a deal with the restaurant.

My backup is Amma, a really nice but smaller Indian restaurant on the east side that has great Zagats scores. I really like the food at Amma, but it is a small space and may not work depending on how many people we have. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ab575c3ee1759ebede378c3/t/5ad76d640e2e72aa52f96968/1524069053450/Dinner_Menu.pdf

SO - if you are interested, please post below so that we can work out arrangements with the restaurant. I am hoping we can just order off the menu but if we have a big group, I may have to agree to narrow it down a bit.