NYC Dining: Insieme

Insieme
152 W 51st / 777 7th Avenue (In the Michel Angelo Hotel)
212-582-1310

Web Site: http://www.restaurantinsieme.com/

Menu (Click for PDF File)

I don’t frequently do a lot of high-end restaurant meals — I’m more of the ethnic restaurant type or in the mid-range when I choose to dine out. But that doesn’t stop me from appreciating them, or at least following the high-end restaurant scene. One restaurant that has gotten my attention recently is Insieme, the brainchild of the very talented restaurant team of Marco Canora (formerly of Craft and Gramercy Tavern) and Paul Grieco (also of Gramercy Tavern) who also own another of my favorite restaurants, Hearth.

So when I heard that it was going to be opening up, I jumped at the chance to eat there, even if it was going to be rough around the edges its first several weeks or months of operation. Rachel, Spamwise and I headed over there last night and had an exceptional meal.

Look out Babbo and L’Impero… There’s a new kid in town. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

OTB In Depth: In the Gramercy Tavern Kitchen with Chef Michael Anthony

Gramercy Tavern
42 E 20th St, New York, NY
(212) 477-0777

Web Site: http://www.gramercytavern.com

Gramercy Tavern is one of my favorite New York City restaurants — its warm, inviting atmosphere combines the very best of casual dining with a cuisine that often exceeds its 3-star cousins. Many well-known chefs from all over the city — and all over the country — have sharpened and perfected their cooking and hospitality skills here before heading out on their own and opening their own restaurants. It exists as something of an enigma in the New York restaurant scene, both a place for locals just to “go out and eat” with a very approachable and comforting Tavern menu and convivial bar atmosphere, and also as a destination restaurant with its gorgeous wood-accented dining rooms and fine dining menu. Back in February of 2006, the restaurant began a makeover in the form of a new Executive Chef, Michael Anthony, previously of the highly acclaimed Blue Hill and Blue Hill Stone Barns restaurants that he started with his former partner, Dan Barber. Known for his use of local and sustainable cuisine and his patronage of the New York Greenmarkets, his laser focus on quality and bringing out the best in top quality ingredients has renewed a place for Gramercy Tavern in the very top of the New York restaurant food chain.

Click on the Photo Collage above to see a Hi-Resolution tour of Gramercy Tavern’s Kitchen.

Click here to listen to my conversation with Chef Michael Anthony in the kitchen of Gramercy Tavern.

Click on the photo collage above to see a Hi-Resolution slide show of the tasting menu Rachel and I were served at Gramercy Tavern.

Click here to hear Chef Michael Anthony describe the dishes.

 

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below to read more about Gramercy Tavern’s dishes.