Where Colin Ate: Ariari, Smithereens, S&P, F&F
Plus: in search of the perfect yakitori
Colin Camac (aka @resyguynyc) is officially Blackbird’s “Strategic Sales Lead,” and unofficially is our resident insider’s insider. He is out, on the town seven nights a week, sniffing out the city’s best joints, skateboard in one hand, martini in the other.
One thing I said last week—which is something I’ve thought for a long time, but was reminded of when I felt like a new(ish) spot had really found its groove—is that a restaurant’s guests always determine the kind of place it’s going to be. Think of it like the interpretation of art: a restaurant stops being an owner’s restaurant once they open it to the world — the public decides what it should be. You’ve got to meet a joint halfway, and vice versa. You, the diner, are part of the energy of the room, and critical to the experience itself!
Anyway, here are a few places in which I did just that, and you should, too.
Colin
S&P
📍Flatiron
🍽️ Diner
S&P has quite the legacy to live up to. The lunch counter first opened in 1928 before being sold to Monus Eisenberg and renamed Eisenberg’s the next year. The counter was run by the Eisenberg family until 1979. It changed hands a few more times over the years, keeping the name Eisenberg’s until 2022 when the team from Court St. Grocers took over and turned it into its best version yet. The name change happened due to the last owner keeping the rights to the Eisenberg’s name, hoping to still squeeze some life out of the brand via licensing. The menu has changed a bit as well, pretty much exclusively upgraded for the better. My history with the space started around 2007 when I was helping to consult on the wine list for a restaurant my chef/partner was working on in the area (anyone remember the short lived Borough Food & Drink? Didn’t think so … ). As I was finding myself in Flatiron a few days a week back then, I stumbled into Eisenberg’s for a quick bite. I was told the tuna melt was the thing to get and it didn’t disappoint! It was a laid-back spot, never too busy, and felt like the kind of place that was built for regulars. Once the Court St. people took control, I knew it was finally in the right hands, and I couldn’t wait to go back. My absolute favorite thing on the menu currently is the “Mel Brooks,” a sandwich layered with thick-cut house roasted turkey, Russian dressing, mustard, coleslaw, and a single slice of corned beef on rye. It is an amazing sandwich. The menu is full of hits and you almost can’t go wrong. The tuna melt is still a great version and keeps the exact same style as the original I first tried in ‘07. While not really my personal favorite tuna melt style as I prefer open faced with the cheese quickly melted on top so the tuna can still be cold, this is still a classic, cooked in the sandwich press. We also ordered a patty melt, the Plattsburgh (chili dog with onions and mustard) on a toasted New England style bun, matzo ball soup, and some really solid latkes. I can quite honestly say it was the best brunch I’ve had in a while. One of my favorite parts still being that the counter is run on an honor system for payment, meaning when you finish up, you just walk to the register and tell them what you ordered. Some things never change and some things change for the better. S&P is an absolute gem, go during the week to avoid the lines.
F&F Restaurant and Bar
📍Carroll Gardens
🍽️ Pizza
Since it opened, F&F has been one of my favorite slice shops in NYC. I think their pizza is about as close to perfect as it gets, and their clam slice is transcendent. Needless to say, when I found out they were turning Franks Wine Bar into a full service F&F, I couldn’t have been more excited. Full disclosure, I’ve known the Franks for years now and think it’s amazing what they have accomplished, from TV shows to olive oil and their iconic restaurant. Whatever they do it’s always fully their own. The Franks are just cool, and their success couldn’t have happened to nicer guys. Frankies Spuntino is an absolute machine and has been a consistent neighborhood staple for 20 years now. From what I have seen so far, F&F Restaurant is the perfect compliment to it. As the story goes, when they decided to open a pizza spot they decided to call a few friends to help them work through the dough and get some tips on how to make the best pizza possible. In true Frank’s fashion, the friends they called happened to be Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco) and Chad Roberson (Tartine), and I believe local legend Dan Richer (Razza) helped out with a few tweaks along the way as well. The results speak for themselves and now the pizza has moved next door and been given a showcase to be part of a more fully formed dinner experience. While the pizza is great, the team has put equal love into the rest of the menu as well. For this visit, we started with the perfectly balanced winter salad dressed in Frankies oil, and we were offered some of the Calabrian chili oil on the side to add in as needed. As I mentioned in a previous post, a must get dish is the local squid, dressed in its ink and stuffed with ink-soaked breadcrumbs. It’s fantastic! Another amazing addition is the calzone, stuffed with wild boar and ricotta. The meaty flavor of the boar perfectly balanced out with the creamy ricotta is a real classic combo. For the pizzas, they are slightly smaller than at the slice shop and thus more suited to order a few and share with some friends. I again ordered the Calamari Luigi, which is unique as well as insanely good. I will definitely be returning soon though to try more of the menu and a clam pie.
Smithereens
📍East Village
🍽️ Seafood
Smithereens is the classic example of watching a restaurant really level up from one early visit to the next. Opening restaurants is really hard. You can plan all you want, but until the guests start walking through the door it’s hard to know what your place really is. Sometimes it becomes something wildly different from what you expected. The point is, once you release a restaurant into the world you lose control over how it will be perceived. In this case, I think Smithereens knows exactly what it wants to be, but in most cases it takes a moment to find that confident groove of a good spot. At any rate, this was my second visit to Smithereens and the food and experience felt so much more dialed in than early on. The talent behind the restaurant is undeniable, with backgrounds from Momofuku Ko, Claud, and the former chef of Fradei (my previous favorite restaurant that not enough people were talking about), so I knew the experience would quickly catch up to my expectations. The menu opens with two “bread” courses, the first being a wonderful anadama with a really earthy, toasty flavor paired with seaweed butter (I had to order a second round of this on my first visit because it was that good). The second bread course was a large buckwheat pancake similar to a crispy crêpe, draped over a smoked fish salad that is an homage to Neptune Oyster Bar in Boston, which happens to be one of my favorite seafood restaurants. I always love a dish that plays with both warm and cold temperatures, and the pancake definitely hit the spot for me. Those dishes were definitely highlights on my first visit, and I was glad to see I liked them just as much this time. The first bite of leeks with cheddar and hazelnuts in an absolutely perfect vinaigrette was when I realized that this place was firing on all cylinders. That feeling was only reinforced by a special of fluke fin (or engawa, for the Japanese food fans used to seeing this at their favorite sushi restaurants). It was simply cooked over binchōtan (Japanese charcoal) and dressed in a seafood garum and scallions. Still, my favorite dish of the meal had to be the beans, perfectly cooked with shrimp, squid, and a bit of uni on top. It had the flavor of the sea, and was one of the better bites I have had in a bit. The desserts were really fun and avant-garde, highlighted by candied seaweed with licorice and citron, but Smithereens can also play the classics, like a delicious apple cider donut. Bonus: the all-white wine list leans heavy into riesling and is quirky and fun.
Ariari
📍East Village
🍽️ Korean
Ariari is a Busan-focused restaurant in the East Village. Busan is a port city in the southern part of Korea specializing in seafood. Ariari is also one of the few downtown restaurants from Hand Hospitality, the group behind many of the best Korean spots in NYC, importing chefs and concepts alike, changing the landscape of Korean food in a relatively short period of time. They are the “guy behind the guy,” if you will, and it is a pretty safe bet that when you go to one of their restaurants you are going to have a really tasty experience. I have been here several times and was excited to be able to score a 7 p.m. two-top on an early weeknight as the restaurant is really small and usually pretty busy. A friend and I strolled into a bustling little dining room that was the former original home of Oiji, another great Korean restaurant that has since found a new home uptown. Ariari’s menu is fairly seafood-focused, with several meat options as well to fill everything out. I tend to stick to the raw preparations as I think they are a real strength of the menu. When you first sit down, every table is gifted an addicting kimchi salad bursting with cabbage and apples that is a great way to kick off the meal. Both raw dishes that start the menu, the Mak Hwe and Scallop Gimbap, are—for me—must-order dishes. The scallop dish in particular, arriving with crisp nori, chungyang mayo, apple kimchi, and seasoned rice, may be my favorite dish here. We also added on a mini tray of uni and sweet shrimp straight from Japan that was a perfect addition to my little DIY nori wraps. Another really great dish is the seafood butter gui with shrimp, baby scallops cooked in a kelp butter and served with a few small pita triangles. The baby scallops burst with umami and briny flavor — they really made the dish for me. Don’t skip the seafood pancake either, which is as good a version as I’ve had.
Torien
📍Noho
🍽️ Japanese
While dining at one of my favorite restaurants in Paris (Le Rigmarole), the question came up during the skewer section of the meal of why we rarely eat yakitori in NYC. It’s a good question, as I have always enjoyed yakitori, but it is rarely something I think of when figuring out where to dine. It may be the fact that, unlike in Japan, yakitori in New York is an experience rather than the casual meal it is meant to be. Sure, Japan has its yakitori temples where masters work and are booked out months in advance, but the general skill of an izakaya chef in Tokyo can put out some incredible bites as well in a much more casual atmosphere. In NYC it feels like you have to either go big or be disappointed. I have gone to several izakaya-style restaurants in town and have found a skewer or two that I’ve enjoyed, but tasting the difference at a place like Torien changes your perception of how awesome chicken can be. Of all the known top spots in the city, I think Torien may be my favorite, that being said the others all have their merits as well. The reason I like Torien, though, is that the meal is very yakitori focused. A lot of the other spots integrate other cooked or raw appetizers and dishes and I feel like you get the most straightforward yakitori experience here. There are a few dishes such as a dumpling course in a thick broth, Japanese sweet potato, and a wonderful chicken ramen on my last visit that round out the experience, but most of the meal is based around chicken parts. In my admittedly limited experience, this is what I am looking for. I also make sure to ask before the meal gets going if there are any off-menu items or rare bits that can be added on. Many places have some fun things that can’t be included in the normal menu based on limited availability, so it is always a good move to ask. On this visit my favorite bites were the tsukune (meatball) with egg yolk to dip, the knee bone, which was an add-on, and the hatsu (heart). My favorite bite of the night, however, was the nankotsu, or cartilage, which comes from the chest area of the chicken. The skewer mixes both perfectly tender meat with the slightly crunchy texture of the cartilage for a really unique experience. We had a great meal and one that has me on the hunt for my next yakitori experience sooner than later.
Quick hits …
Casa Carmen
📍Tribeca + Flatiron
🍽️ Mexican
Casa Carmen has two locations in NYC and pays homage to the owner’s grandmother, Carmen Ramirez Degollado, who owns a group with 18 restaurants in Mexico City, the oldest having opened in 1972. I have only been to the Tribeca restaurant, but there is another, newer location in Flatiron as well. Over a few visits I can confirm that this is a really great neighborhood Mexican restaurant. Prices are in line with NYC and the space is really great looking. They also have dishes rarely seen around the city, which got my friend from Mexico very excited to join me to check it out. Some of the highlights for this meal included panuchos yucatecos, which was cochinita pibil on a slightly thicker corn tortilla with pickled onion and habanero, amazing chile relleno in a tomato salsa, as well as enmoladas with mole xico and chicken that has all the depth you are looking for in a mole dish. Bonus points for a very good mezcal selection and solid margarita.
it's unfortunate that yakitori has gone upscale in NYC. it used to be the cheap choice for downtown heads until prob right before pre-pandy / pre-dimes sq. or we just need to hit up the authentic yakitori joints that the midtown japanese businessmen go to.