Birthday Dinner: Union Square Cafe

It's that time of year: my birthday! This year ABF took me to Union Square Café: a Danny Meyer joint we both had yet to visit.

We both ordered a Keynote peach, made with dark rum, orgeat (which I LOVE), Lillet, fresh peaches, ginger, and bitters. This came with damn near half a real peach in it, and it was LOVELY! Not too sweet, a lovely departure from my usual wine.

We got a table on the upstairs level, tucked away in the corner, perfect for us.

The breadbasket comes with several toppings: a dukkah dip (Egyptian spice/herb mixture with olive oil), luscious purple olives dusted with orange zest, and butter sprinkled lightly with salt. I can't wait to put orange zest on my next batch of olives!

My starter: heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese, red onions, & basil chiffonade. This was so quintessentially summer. Juicy, flavorful tomatoes, soft, creamy, tangy goat cheese, and strips of fresh basil in every bite.

In a rare moment, ABF (Awesome Boyfriend) actually had a little bit of order envy-- normally I'm coveting whatever HE ordered! This was a very generous serving, so I shared several bites with him.

ABF's starter was the scallop crudo-- raw scallops in a spicy cucumber broth with crunchy quinoa. The scallops were fishier than I expected-- while I love a good seared scallop, I don't think I care for them in crudo form.

My entrée: the pan-seared Berkshire pork chop with roasted peach & corn salsa and a few house-made onion rings on the side. Um, YES. This was a HUGE pork chop, brilliantly, perfectly cooked and juicy. The corn was so fresh and crunchy I'd swear they waited to take it off the cob until the very last second. And the onion rings? Best I've ever had-- and I've had quite a few in my lifetime! The breading was soft, chewy, and flavorful without overpowering the onions. I gave ABF quite a few bites of this.

Sweet, savory, crunchy, so so so so good. Birthday-dinner-worthy!

ABF's meal was the NY strip steak with chicory salad (sorry for the blurriness). The steak was also perfectly cooked (medium), but we both thought the chicory was too bitter for us. Nice balance to the rich steak, but too bitter for our pansy palates.

We also got two sides: a creamy polenta with gorgonzola cheese and walnuts, and a potato gratin with Gruyère (one of my favorite cheeses!). ABF loves polenta, I'm fairly lukewarm on it (I don't normally care for the texture). However, this polenta was so creamy that I actually liked it, and I think ABF would have preferred the mealier version.

The potato gratin was sublime, however. Perfectly creamy, tangy, and putting comfort food at an all new level. Had I been at home, I would have scraped every last morsel off the plate.

At this point, I ordered another cocktail-- the Mai Tai (sticking with the rum-based options). This was nice, but was much sweeter than the Keynote Peach. If I had it to do over again, I'd go for another Keynote Peach. Liquid summer!

We could have stopped there. We probably should have stopped there. But it was my birthday, dammit! And birthdays call for- nay-- demand-- dessert!

There were lots of intriguing options, but I finally settled on the blueberry pie with sour cream ice cream. ABF's not a fan of sour cream (what? I know!), but he shared the dish with me. The ice cream was very tart, but creamy. The crust was flawless and the berries were tasty, but there was a whole lotta lemon in this pie, a bit too much for me. I'm kind of a Maine blueberry pie purist. A hint of citrus is good, but more than that and you lose me. Don't get me wrong-- I still cleaned the plate, but if I go back, I'm going to try something different.

Service was refereshingly friendly, the food was top-notch, and there were so many other interesting items on the menu that we may not be able to wait for another birthday to return!

Union Square Café
21 E 16th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 243-4020

Happy Birthday, ABF!

ABF's birthday falls right in the middle of January, when it's usually cold and dreary and bitter outside. I wanted to find a warm, welcoming spot where we could celebrate his birthday, eat delicious food, and just have a great time.

Mediterranean food is a favorite of both of ours, so when I found Kellari Taverna was close by and offering a killer Restaurant week menu, I moved it to the top of my list. When my coworker, C, raved about their food, it rocketed up to #1.

Restaurant Week is a great time to try places you might not normally splurge on (set courses for 24.07 at lunch and $35 for dinner), but the truth about RW is that many restaurants offer some of their cheaper dishes (and often in much smaller portions) and you don't always get a broad representation of their offerings. Kellari is the polar opposite. What an impressive selection!

Perhaps just as impressive is Kellari's wine list, full of wines from Greece and elsewhere. We went along with one gentleman's recommendation for a full-bodied red: this Lion d'Or Cabernet Sauvignon from Macedonia. It was a bit sweet-tasting at first, but it was just lovely and delicious. I'm going to look for this on my next trip to the wine store.

Their house bread was a tangy sourdough and I immediately devoured two pieces, alternately slathering them with the house hummus (complimentary along with olives and radishes) or dipping them in the house olive oil (tangy but not too bitter). Our second batch was so full of rosemary that I passed on it.

ABF's appetizer was the smoked trout with a farro & arugula salad. It was tasty, and the arugula salad was a nice complement, but it was about to get schooled by the awesomeness of MY appetizer.

I chose the scallops with pomegranate risotto. Deeeelicious. Forget it! ABF took one bite and had a rare case of order envy (usually it's the other way around with us)! This was creamy, tangy, tart, and so delicious. The pomegranate juice gave the rice a deep purple color and just a touch of sweetness.

For his entrée, ABF ordered the beef tenderloin. That surprised me--I thought he would go for their signature grilled fish, but he was in a red meat mood. Also surprising? How delectable and tender said loin was! For a place that focuses on fish, they sure do make a tasty tenderloin, too! It came with Brussels sprouts and sliced red grapes--I still loathe the sprouts, but when put together with the melty beef and the tart grapes, it all went together quite deliciously.

My entrée was the grilled lavraki, a Mediterranean sea bass that you may also know as branzino, and it was out of this world. They serve it whole and deboned. To call it succulent seems insufficient. I didn't even spritz any lemon juice on this. The capers, tender fish, and fresh parsley were just meant to be together...and meant to end up in my belly. Well played, Kellari, well played.

Kellari's Restaurant Week menu is three courses, and my dessert pick was for the chocolate pyramid. It was the densest, richest, most intense little chocolate pyramid.

It came with a mastiche ice cream, but I did not care for the flavor at all. It was too ... off-putting. We did a quick google and apparently mastiche comes from the mastic (root for the word 'masticate' I love words #nerdalert) tree in Greece. It tasted a bit plasticky to me, though it did have a borderline minty flavor to it, but ABF enjoyed it. The hazelnut pirouline (stick-shaped cookie) was divine. I only gave ABF a little bite of that. ;)

What ABF enjoyed even more, however, was his dessert: walnut cake with fig gelato. You heard me: fig gelato. Wow. The walnut cake was fine, but when you draped it in the velvety scoop of fig gelato, forget it.

I said something along the lines of "It's like a fig died and went to heaven IN MY MOUTH." Imagine the best part of a fruity Fig Newton, now turned into a creamy, cold, delicious cloud. Le sigh.

So long story short, we'd go back for the scallops, the grilled fish, the beef, and the gelato. Oh yes, and the wine! Oh, and the homemade bread! You get the idea. I think we just added a new restaurant to our "Favorites" list. If you're looking for a delicious meal, excellent service every step of the way, and an extensively impressive Restaurant Week menu. Go now while the deals are still ablaze!

Kellari Taverna
19 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 221-0144

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