Kurt's Flatiron Faves - Casa Mono

Some celebrities are infamous for satisfying much more than their wanderlust during their travels. You hear stories of illegitimate children springing up in town after town, suspiciously nine or so months after they’ve passed through the area. There is even evidence that suggests that Genghis Khan is the aggressive ancestor of over 16 million people in Asia today.

Mario Batali is about as far as you can get from Genghis Khan,  but he has something in common with these “prolific” celebrities. It seems to me that everywhere Mario goes, it’s not long before there’s a new restaurant popping up somewhere, inspired by that recent visit. His redwood of a restaurant family tree is unique in that they are all SO GOOD.  It’s difficult to maintain a standard as high as Mario does with what seems like hundreds of restaurants under his purview. He’s got an immense litter of Italian restaurants that seem to proliferate like rabbits.

Casa Mono, my Flatiron Fave this week, is the result of his travels through Spain and his partnership with Joe Bastianich. The Iberian peninsula is famous for its many culinary jewels, particularly jamón ibérico, a special type of ham made from at least 75% black Iberian pig. To digress a little, did you know that the finest of this type of ham is made from a pig that is fed exclusively on acorns?  Amazingly, this all acorn diet means that the fatty flecks in this cured ham is oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat, which is just about the best type of fat you can eat. Basically it's a cholesterol-lowering cured meat. That's the miracle of pure food, of knowing where your food comes from and what it's made of.

Of course, great ham does not an amazing restaurant make. It never hurts though. My favorite dish there is an incredible frisée salad with crisped ham. It was light, fresh, and crunchy, and somehow didn’t suffer from the blandness that afflicts a lot of trendy frisée dishes. It’s another testament to Mario and his staff’s dedication to keeping things simple and delicious.

View Beecher's and Casa Mono in a larger map

We’re nearing the end of the Flatiron Faves tour. There are only a couple more spots to go. Are there neighborhood places that you think I’ve missed? What do you think of the ones I’ve written about so far? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you!

Kurt's Flatiron Faves - Gramercy Tavern

A while ago I found myself touring New York with Seattle culinary legend, Tom Douglas. Tom and I have known each other for a while and I was sure that he would have a laundry list of restaurants in New York that he would want to visit. A creative mogul like Tom would certainly need to visit new places and old favorites for inspiration and nostalgia alike. I was mistaken. There was one place he said he needed to go: Gramercy Tavern.

I don’t blame him.

It’s the granddaddy of Flatiron restaurants. It may be the second of Danny Meyer’s places, but you could easily argue it’s his flagship restaurant. You can sense its prestige from the moment you walk in, but then everything shifts when you’re greeted by the staff. Gracious and unassuming, they don’t make you feel like you’re necessarily walking into one of the top rated restaurants in New York City (which, of course, you are). The food is unmistakably gourmet, well executed cuisine, but all the dishes seem to stem from old favorites and trusty stand-bys. From the door to dessert, that’s Gramercy Tavern to me. Everything looks pretty fancy, but at the heart of it all is comfort and great hospitality.

Next week we’ll cross Park Avenue to check out my next Flatiron Fave, Mario Batali’s Casa Mono!

View Beecher's and Gramercy Tavern in a larger map

Kurt's Flatiron Faves - Intro

Wow. What an amazing month of July it's been!
Beecher's New York opened at 900 Broadway on June 24th and it has been CRAZY in the best possible way. I was really excited to see it open, but I could not have imagined how wonderfully welcoming and enthusiastic New York would be. I could hardly have asked for more.
As most of you know, I've been in New York for a while now and I've had plenty of time to explore the city, especially the Flatiron neighborhood surrounding BCNY (our short-hand for Beecher's Cheese New York).
I've had such a great time working and playing here, I thought I'd take a blog post (or several) highlighting my favorite nearby places, sort of our super-neighbors.
That's how I got the idea of doing a series on Kurt's Flatiron Faves.  Over the next couple months, I'll do a little post at the end of each week about one of these local spots. Expect a little history, a recommendation or two and some photos. As I go along, I'll build a map so you can see where all my favorites are in reference to Beecher's (which I'm sure will be everyone's starting point).

You can always come back to this post to see where we've been so far. Like an evolving table of contents!

1) The John Dory
2) No. 7 Sub
3) Calexico Cart
4) Shake Shack
5) Eataly
6) Almond
7) Veritas
8) Gramercy Tavern
9) Casa Mono
10) Union Square Greenmarket 11) ABC Kitchen with Jean-Georges	View Kurt's Flatiron Faves in a larger map