michael Webster asked:


Food, Wine, Cocktails, Beer and Fun what else is there? That’s how many relate to the Ocean Brewing Company restaurant/pub it is a casual local dining establishment featuring friendly service, attentive and  super knowlege of the menu by our pleasant waiter, Julio. They have high-quality, moderately priced food, and a distinctive selection of micro brewed specialty beer and enhanced by an extensive wine list featuring great imported Italian, California, and other European wines served in a comfortable and entertaining atmosphere.

  The Ocean Brewing Company is one of Laguna Beach’s favorite gathering place for fun featuring over 30 hand crafted beers and other beverages in a state-of-the-art micro brewery.   Get there early, before 9:00 pm for the best seats, any day of the week before the entertainment starts and young crowds gather.  Many tourist and locals alike consider the place to be their neighborhood Italian Restaurant pub featuring home baked bread, hand stretched pizzas and traditional Italian food made from scratch.   The Ocean Brewing Company restaurant/pub Serves authentic, Italian cuisine in a non-contemporary setting. The menu features traditional items such as pizza, pasta and a great selection of appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches and for the more serious connoisseur they have main dinner entrees and specials. People watching, sidewalk patio dining is also available.

After 9:00 PM nightly live entertainment prevails. According to head bartender Giovanni, who loves dazzling the crowd with specialty drinks. Choose from a full array of luscious concoctions, or ask the bar-keep to surprise you with something new. Their soon to be famous, “dirty martini”, will wake up your taste buds with a zesty dash of vinegar.

For dinner hours, come discover the premium quality Grilled Flat Iron Steak chief Aurelio creates, which I had and found it very tasty. Or try what Peggy had the Wild Coho Salmon griddle seared and served over a curried risotto. For after hours quick and good food they provide great sandwiches which include choice of soup, house salad or shoestring potatoes. But for their best effort you should try one of their many delightful handmade pizza’s that they are best know for and don’t forget their pasta. Many of their entrees and signature side dishes are enhanced by full flavor rubs and marinades.    Current owner and operator Robin Chang acquired the establishment just recently from former owner Jonathan Thomas, who had a run in with city hall, who claimed that he was in violation of his city permit and that the loud music being played for the dancing club patrons was disturbing residents. It was pointed out at the hearings to the commissioners that other Laguna Beach clubs made just as much noise and they do have near by residents but the brewery is located in a commercial zone and no residents are close by. Since the new owner has taken over things seem to be much better and the city planning commission’s 6 month reprieve is nearly up and it looks like the new management is complying and cooler heads are prevailing. Many locals do patronize the brewery and would **** to see any major changes. Sally Walker a 28 year old Lagunan said,” my friends and I have been coming here and enjoying Ocean Avenue “pub” and we hope it will remain as it is”.  Michael Harvey 33 another local says,” we like things as they are. We think it is better for locals to party here at home in Laguna than risking the dangerous drives by having to travel out of town. Most of my friend feel much safer right here at home.”

ROSS

Gael Greene asked:


zz/ Bloomingdale Road: First Tastings

Bloomingdale Road

The menu is designed for the table to share,” our waiter at the new Bloomingdale Road

announces.

I look at the list of “snacks” just above “small plates and sandwiches” and “soup and salads.” “How many smoked deviled eggs on the plate?” I ask.

“Three,” he says.

“But we’re four.”

“You can always get two orders,” he responds.

“I don’t need six eggs.”

“Well, they’re big and you can cut them in half.”

“But then I’ll have six halves. How about the suckling pig meatballs?”

“Three,” he says grinning. “I could just bring you four anyway.”

“Bring us four and charge for the extra meatball,” I instruct. “And we’ll have four chowder shots too.”

This is not just another lineup of comfort food. It’s playpen time. It’s the homey and weirdo hour. We have chicken lollipops-Buffalo with blue cheese fondue. Country ham is roasted with Coca-Cola. Everyday fries? Not here. Smoked fries, Old Bay fries and bone marrow fries. The tuna ribs are chili and honey glazed. Country-fried quail comes with biscuits and gravy. This unquenchable exuberance and desperate need to fry up something not yet invented might be inspired by how many restaurants are in countdown phase all over town (especially Fatty Crab and Tom Valenti’s West Branch, imminent not far away on Broadway – which was once called Bloomingdale Road).

I wouldn’t be going into all this today if I hadn’t actually liked some of Chef Ed Witt’s dishes since, I must confess, I accidentally barged into Bloomingdale Road on its first night, thinking it had opened a week earlier. And I wasn’t the only trigger happy Upper West Sider piling in the door as if starved. The duplex, bar and sidewalk tables are jammed with yuppies and yippies, seniors and younglings in startling juxtaposition.

If I’d hated every bite I would have left the place to expire of terminal silliness and possibly come back eventually if it rallied, just to be fair. But the fabulous chowder shooters (not exactly drinkable in their shot glass – we had to ask for spoons), the sensational smoked fries with not-too-much cheddar and the Road Food Warrior’s whole wheat fettuccine with spicy shrimp, grilled squash and marjoram actually live up to Witt’s resume – Rubicon in San Francisco, Restaurant Daniel, Il Buco and the ambitious but doomed Varietal.

We’re all wild about the brioche baked in a tin can – “Watch out,” says the waiter, leaving a small ramekin of herb-black-pepper-honey doused butter. “That’s really hot.” Yoicks! I discover he’s not kidding as I try to pull the puffed-up top free from its baking tin, a lawsuit in a can in this litigious town. “Want more bread?” the runner asks. Even devout carbophobes want more. A second pouf comes in a burning hot ramekin (easier to extract without injury). “I’ll leave this used butter because we’re running short,” says the runner, the same guy who assures us the chowder shots are “chicken.” On the first night it’s almost amusing. (Even Sarah was amusing for 24 hours.) And the ancho-dusted scallops with corn and wild mushrooms are small but good (at least our fussy friend is impressed and her husband attacks the trout on chunks of potato slathered with horseradish cream with unabashed gusto).

The teeny suckling pig meatballs are lost in a smother of chipotle tomato sauce and not worth saving anyway. Mac and cheese Witt style is witless – macaroni cheese soup. It comes with a tripartite dish alongside sporting the crunchiest croutons I’ve ever tasted, bits of bacon and minced jalapeno. “You can run your macaroni over the condiments,” we are instructed. No. No. No. Impossible. (But save the croutons. They’re marvelous.) I’m not sure if it was something my grass-fed cow ate but the barely chewable strip steak smells and tastes spoiled. Still, those fries. The kitchen has them mastered. Well, I hope. Who knows what day 2 will bring?

More crowds, says Proprietor Jeremy Wladis, who knows the neighborhood’s consuming fervor from his two other ventures, Nonna (Columbus and 85th) and Campo (Broadway at 112th Street). But even he is reeling with the demand, walk-ins and reservations, “We fed 200 last night. We’re completely booked for the weekend.” And yes, the menu is still evolving. “We’ve been tasting the food for two months,” he confides, “but it’s one thing to do cedar roasted sockeye salmon for five tasters and another when every table is jammed. Some of our dishes are controversial. One table hates it. The next table loves it. You don’t know what to do.”

At six o’clock on the house’s fourth night Wladis just got handed the sixth version of the menu. I hope they’ll realize how mean it is to the middle-aged among us to have type that small and palest gray. “Order whatever you want me to eat,” our friend Harvey pleaded. “I can’t read the menu.” My guy passed him the flashlight.

Syrupy sweet apricot and bourbon glaze on brioche does not mean “bread pudding” in my book. And I probably should not have ordered peanut butter and jelly tart with marshmallow ice cream, although, like Elvis, I was once addicted to peanut butter and bacon with banana. I guess I’ve tossed that monkey off my back. This is my neighborhood after all. We’ll be back.

2398 Broadway near 88th Street 212 674 7400

Apiary:

Like a privileged first child in an ambitious family with excellent connections, Apiary has a top of the line nursery – slick modern design by partner Ligne Rosset, starring whimsical trompe l’oeil sconces and the company’s own sleekly squared side chairs upholstered in deep jewel colors – garnet, amethyst, graphite, cat’s eye, or shall I say, beet, eggplant, braised veal and chocolate. Managing partner Jenny Moon left Korea at 15 for this destiny – an American education, a degree in finance from Cornell’s hotel and restaurant school, then risk arbitrage on Wall Street, and finally, following her real passion to Restaurant Daniel’s skybox as Boulud’s executive assistant, finally, a stop at Eighty One, even while hatching Apiary.

With Moon as managing partner, Neil Manacle, Bobby Flay’s sidekick of sixteen years, at the stove and Cellar consultant Nick Mautone lining up the bottles (heavy duty alternative action in New York state labels and micro brews), Apiary brings remarkably good bones to the creeping gentrification of Third Avenue below 10th Street.

Should you be a local newbie freeholder just strolling by, the illuminated metal twists in the front window – a designer light fixture suggesting radioactive tulips – would surely stop you. But tonight, on my first tasting with friends, I see fork-tongued foodie first nighters ganged up at the bare black tables have left few spots free for curious walkins. Chatter gets magnified under the low ceiling. It will be noisy when the nomadic screamers move in but tonight, we can lean in and hear at least half of what we’re saying.

Lining up slices of sensational heirloom tomatoes on a thick toasted crostini with feta and arugula doesn’t make for easy bites of crostini but all the parts are delicious, as is the saltiness of Serrano ham played against the sweetness of fresh roasted peaches with shaved goat cheese in a mustardy sherry vinaigrette. But calamari are lost in too thick breading. Summer slaw piled on crab cake distracts from the simplicity of perfect crab. Agreed, the cake looks good, like Sarah the Warrior, with its cabbagey updo. Steamed mussels with sausage in a citrus broth is classic. And there is an elegant purity in giant prawns and sea scallops with cannelloni beans in a tangy shellfish broth. I’m discounting the failure to send out sauce spoons to a serving crew still in boot camp. While we wait for silverware I can scoop up a bit of these citric pools with mussel shells.

I can’t say that quite juicy smoked paprika dusted pork tenderloin or the chimichurri marinated hanger steak are flawed. It’s just that we had sensationally feisty hanger steak the night before at Morandi and the memory makes this version seem quite ordinary. Of course, I’m not surprised that a chef come of age in Flay’s aura overdoes on sweetness. And after all, this is Apiary. Personally, I **** honey as well as fruit vinegars in my vinaigrette. And I’m not going to be happy with sweet’n’sour fruit sauce tainting my spice crusted lamb. A side of spicy eggplant comes cold. That’s a surprise.

Blueberry compote turns out to be sticky purple streaks alongside goat cheesecake with lavender honey (yes, I **** lavender too). But the chocolate cashew tart with cashew ice cream is a hit and the vanilla ice cream on the peach crisp is just perfect. Not sweet at all.

Now how did that happen?

Though I’m betting East Villagers will be thrown by prices that would seem blissful in midtown, I’m not going to judge a chef with these credentials on just one dinner. It’s never easy to leave home and a protected adolesence. I want to believe that the man who Flay thinks is good enough to run his kitchens will grow into his own.

60 Third Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets. 212 254 0888



BENNY

Shawn Shelton asked:


Hawaii Honolulu is popular because of many reasons. People from various countries love to visit these places, because of the culture, and the sports and the happening lives of the people who live here. The best part of these places are the night life of these places, the more deep is the night, the more lively these places become. The people here party all the night, and there party usually ends up in the morning. People, who come to visit these places from other parts of the world, feel mesmerized with the rich and colourful cultures of Hawaii and Honolulu.

Today, Hawaii Honolulu is considered as one of the happening places amongst the world, and with this opportunity different bars and restaurants are trying their luck in this place every day. The travellers, the party lovers, the food lovers everyone love to visit this place, because it has everything which can attract them. The best attraction is the Honolulu Hawaii Restaurant Microbrewery Hawaii. Here the customer can drink, eat and party all at the same time. The interiors of these places never fail to attract the visitors, and if you visit once you will visit again for sure. Because, Honolulu Hawaii is famous for its night life, you can find happy hour sports bar Honolulu Microbrewery Hawaii. If you think it’s just another dining and drinking place, then you are guessing it wrong big time.

In different Hawaii Bars and Restaurants Microbrewery and Hawaii Happy Hour Sports Bar Microbrewery you can find a wide range of delicious food, and attractive range of drinks. In these restaurants, weekend is usually the most crowded time. It may sometimes take a lot of time from your schedule, but in the end when you will taste the food, all complains will be gone for sure. And no matter how long you need to, you may end up reserving a lunch or dinner table for the next day, because you know this variety and quality of foods can deserve another visit of yours. Here you can get, Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken, Blackened Ahi and Shrimp, shrimp and Egg Pad Thai, Furikake Crusted Fresh Island fish along with a delicious dessert menu that includes with tiramisu, cheesecake and Banana bread pudding. But if you feel these are enough, then hold on, because the star attractions of these places are the handcrafted designer beer which will surely attract you. If you are a first timer, you can find small sample glasses for your help, so that you can choose the best for you.

Hawaii Honolulu is famous for there scenic beauty too. It gives you a different sensation while sitting in front of the sea, the breezes are swiping your hair, and you are relaxing with chilled beer. Not only for your family, these restaurants have all the facilities and arrangements so that they can anytime arrange an official cocktail party, with whatever menu you want from the Hawaiian delicacies. You can find a lot of brew pub who can arrange wine and other drinks for such parties. So from now on, you can enjoy your official tour with your family, and your destination will be same, Honolulu and Hawaii.



CHRYSTAL