Blue Hill, Blue Duck, Stone Park

August was a great month. We laughed, we cried, we drank some wine, we saw old friends, we made some new friends, etc. etc. Throughout this month of highs and lows, strikes and gutters, the food I've been eating has been top notch. In three weekends I ate at three extremely delicious and very expensive restaurants. Some people may do this every weekend in New York but for me it has been quite a blowout.

A couple of weeks ago Jason was in town and he made us a late reservation at Blue Hill, which hadn't been on my culinary radar up until then. We had a great meal, which I will get into in a minute, but most of all we had a great time. I hadn't seen our friends Camille and Reed in far, far too long, and it was a pleasure to reconnect with them and to then proceed to drink copious amounts of whatever we could get our hands on. Blue Hill is a great space for a nice meal, it's very warm and welcoming. I particularly liked the minimal signage and the whole speak-easy vibe. We started out the meal with a really nice Morgon Beaujolais, a great wine to begin with. I had the sweet corn ravioli with red kale and basil. These tiny pouches were very delicate both in terms of texture and taste. They were not a huge portion, but I thought they worked very well as an appetizer, the intense sweetness of the corn and the buttery sauce was an excellent combination. I followed that up with the grass-fed lamb. I'm not exactly sure what cut they were using for this steak, but it was very flavorful and tender. Unfortunately, I thought they could have gotten a better sear on the outside, to be honest. It came with sauteed vegetables and an herb sauce that was also very fresh, rich and delicious. My entree went extremely well with the second wine we ordered, a Pinot Nero. I had digestif instead of dessert but they all looked great. I know that you have to pay a premium for fresh ingredients and sustainable, grass-fed meat, but I was still a little shocked at the sticker price on my lamb: $36. That's a lot of money. It was a great meal, but it's definitely going to be another special occasion if I'm going to return.

The next week I was in D.C. visiting Jason and we made a great meal, despite the last minute lack of a grill. The second night I was there we went out to the Blue Duck Tavern. This, I thought was a great restaurant. The open kitchen is a delight to watch. I am shocked, shocked that it manages to do all of the food for their many seats, the lounge and all the In-Room dining as well. How do you even place a meat order when you have that many possible people eating? On any given day you could have dozens of people eating in their rooms. Crazy. I feel like, while I had a great meal, I did not see this restaurant at its best. It was a Sunday night, so they ran out of both the soft shell crab appetizer and the mackerel rillette. Furthermore, they had recently had a chimney fire in their wood burning oven, which 86ed the roasted bone marrow... alas and alack, all my favorite dishes were dropping like flies. That having been said, the crab cake with remoulade was extremely crabby, sweet and delicious. Though not particularly innovative, it was certainly well executed, which is what haute tavern cuisine is all about. My braised beef rib with house steak sauce was extremely delicious. Perfectly braised, well presented, with the sauce providing a nice tangy, mildly hot contrast to the intensity of the beef. It was like the apotheosis of A1. The Brunello we were drinking didn't hurt the equation at all. I adore braised meats, I often find them to be the most interesting preparations since the cuts tend to be more flavorful and harder to find. Give me the braised beef cheeks and I'm happy. Ah yes, and an after dinner cigar, which we also indulged in.

Most recently I had a meal in Brooklyn at the Stone Park Cafe. This was an excellent meal as well. I went with wine aficionado and winebar-tender Dave, who was ready to blow out his gaff after 7 straight nights of work. I had heard good things about this spot from fellow Stoned-homie Buckley. I started with the braised octopus with chopped salad greens and a lemon- black pepper vinaigrette. The octopus was extremely tender. This is something I've never made, but am very, very interested in attempting. I order it pretty much every time I see it so I look forward to trying my hand. I then had the grilled strip steak with herb spatzle, wilted mustard greens and green peppercorn jus. This was a giant, and I mean giant steak. The sides were well seasoned and the jus was luscious. Weighing in at $27 I was quite happy with the dish. We were drinking an extremely, nay even obscenely expensive bottle of Barbaresco, which had a structure and finish that just wouldn't quit. A sensational meal, I will definitely return, funds permitting. I oddly found that this was the second sirloin I had in maybe 3 weeks. I adore steak, but having eaten 2 NY strip sirloins in such a short period I found myself thinking that it is a relatively uninteresting steak. Perhaps uninteresting is a little strong but I think I actually prefer the "lesser" steak cuts like hanger, skirt and flank, or tri-tip. They just have more interesting flavor.

On the whole it was a roaring success of a month on any number of notes, but particularly when it came to eating & drinking beyond my means, just generally living life in 4th gear.