Where Colin Ate: Bar Bianchi, Sip & Guzzle, Chez Ma Tante, Santo Taco
Do Hobbits eat ‘second dinners?' Because I do...
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.
Another week, another one-man movable feast [this report is technically from meals enjoyed two weeks ago, so look for a special Sunday edition recounting last week’s escapades]. Summer is here, and the city is clearing out and making room for sweaty Gothamites. I went on a snack crawl with an old friend, tucked into an amazing pillowy pasta, and smashed a smashing smash burger.
Colin
Sip & Guzzle
📍Greenwich Village
🍽️ Japanese
Sip & Guzzle made a splash last year when it opened to a ton of fanfare from international bartenders Steve Scheider and Shingo Gokan. The dual concept bar sports the more casual Guzzle upstairs, with the Japanese-style lounge Sip downstairs. I’ve made a habit of stopping by quite often as I am always in the neighborhood and sidling up to the upstairs bar for martinis and every once in a while, usually late, slipping into the downstairs cocktail den to check out what's new on the menu and maybe try a late-night snack. Food for both bars comes from Chef Mike Bagale (Alinea, Next), an accomplished chef in his own right who prepares some of the most interesting bar food around with mochi Cheeto fries, Szechuan spiced “electric chicken”, cigar-like volcano rolls, and Wagyu sandos. On this night, after another unfortunate burger at a new place downtown, I was stoked to see a brand-new Smashburger on the late-night menu and ordered it, trying to right the wrongs from earlier in the day. It hit the spot perfectly and is one of the better smashes in town. I definitely recommend checking it out.
Chez Ma Tante
📍Brooklyn
🍽️ American/European
I hadn’t eaten at Chez Ma Tante since it reopened after a prolonged period of closure due to structural issues with its building. I found myself in Greenpoint for work and decided to check back in on the place for an early dinner. While their brunch and pancakes still (deservedly) deserve a ton of hype, I'm happy to say that dinner was just as good as ever. Both my friend and I were starving and overjoyed to see how quickly our first dish, chicken liver pâté, emerged from the kitchen to get us started. The pâté was served in a small bowl, topped with flaky salt, bread, and accompanied by a pile of gherkins on the side. I have always found all of the pates to be strong points here, and this one was no different. We followed that with a garlicky and anchovy-forward Caesar salad covered in large shavings of parmesan cheese, which really hit the spot. After the salad, a new dish was added to the menu: perfectly cooked Cornish hen (I love the little birds), served whole in a jus with hot mustard and ramps, with roasted cloves of garlic draped over the top. It was as delicious as it was fun to eat. The last dish was a happy accident that turned into an amazing version of fish and chips when we ordered the side of chips and aioli (non-negotiable here), as well as the dorade, which, surprisingly, was a nicely fried fillet that came with an amazing dill-forward fennel salad and crème fraîche. Together, they were perfect and a great way to end the meal. This place is still firing on all cylinders, and I can’t wait to come back.
Santi
📍Midtown
🍽️ Italian
After recommending that my brother and sister-in-law check out Santi this week, I decided to give it a shot myself after they came back with rave reviews. Santi marks the full-circle return of Chef Michael White to NYC, in the space that previously housed Alto, which he originally opened with Chris Cannon in 2010. While I never got to try it in that incarnation, I was always a longtime fan of Marea, so I was excited to check out his newest spot. The restaurant is incredibly unassuming, almost hidden from the street with very little signage. A friend and I were in midtown after an event, and after nearly walking right by the entrance, we decided to grab a seat at the bar. The restaurant was very moodily lit in a really elegant way. The staff was welcoming, and the service was really on point. The menu looked full of hits, and even though we were looking for a fairly small meal (by my standards), there were too many great options not to indulge at least a little. The bread course was fantastic, reminding me of the original Marea bread service. I opted for both a deliciously oily focaccia and sourdough, and it came with both salted olive oil and a puck of butter, the restaurant’s name written across it. We began with a unique sardine dish featuring summer squash, buttermilk, and sourdough crisps. I don’t believe in the old “don’t mix fish and cheese” rule, and this dish proved it with the creaminess of the buttermilk playing nicely with the balance of the sardine, squash, and what I believe was ricotta salata shaved over the top. Next up was the warm seafood salad, which I was most excited to try, and it definitely lived up to expectations. Warm shrimp, octopus, scallops, and cuttlefish cut into bite-sized chunks and mixed with tomato conserva, olives, frisee, and basil—it’s a dish I’ll be craving for a while. While in season, I’ll rarely pass up soft-shell crab, and we were kindly rewarded with a perfectly fried version topped with ramp aioli, accompanied by pickled ramps and a herby tarragon sauce called pomodoro verde. Following the apps, we finished off with a selection of two pastas. We started with a predictably delicious orecchiette with blue crab and sea urchin that was really well balanced with the briny urchin and sweet crab mixed with the ear-shaped pasta. My favorite, however, was the fiocchetti, beautiful little purse-like pouches filled with Robiola cheese with sugar snap peas in a light herbal broth with a bit more salty cheese shaved over the top. It was a truly great dish at a restaurant that is still somewhat under the radar. I highly recommend checking it out during the dregs of Summer as midtown empties.
Strange Delight
📍Brooklyn
🍽️ New Orleans
My buddy Jaeki Cho from Righteous Eats was doing a special at Strange Delight as part of their “Live Laugh Loaf” early week rotating sandwich collab for charity and he hit me up to swing through and try his loaf. I hadn’t been to Strange Delight since they opened so this was a great chance to swing by solo and have a small bite. All of the sandwiches sprang from the minds of guest chefs or influencers, executed (and perfected) by the very capable hands of Chef Ham and his team on their housemade milk bread. I sat at the back bar and ordered a bracingly cold 50/50 to pair with the raw oysters I got to start. I also decided to order a new dish from the menu I hadn’t seen on my previous visit, which was a som tam made with mirliton, which is a chayote squash in southern Louisiana. I ordered it with the addition of shrimp, and it was truly fantastic, with all the salty, spicy, and sour Thai flavors coming through to make it incredibly addictive. A real highlight dish that I hope will stay on the menu. For Jaeki’s sandwich, he was inspired by a recent trip to Istanbul, where he saw this sandwich everywhere, served as a wrap. The sandwich consisted of roasted mackerel, red onion salad, tahini, sumac, cucumbers, and pomegranate molasses and was really great. Something about it tasted nostalgic, and it was another thing I had a hard time putting down. I need to go back with a larger group and try some more of the newer dishes, as it’s fun to see how this place has evolved.
Quick hits, Pop-ups & New openings
Minetta Tavern
📍Greenwich Village
🍽️ French
On Memorial Day, every part of me just wanted a hot dog, but I abstained (unfortunately) and laid pretty low during the afternoon before meeting a good friend from LA for a “one to the other” dinner. With it being both a Monday and a holiday, the choices were slimmer than usual, and we decided to meet at Minetta Tavern and see what happened from there. Within moments of walking through the door, the team had me at a bar seat with a chilled martini in hand. I didn’t feel like going for the whole steak and burger thing, so we decided we’d eat light and head to another spot afterwards. We decided to go with the steak tartare and moules frites, both dishes I had never previously ordered here and were worth checking out. The tartare was finely chopped and leaned more towards an Italian beef carpaccio flavor profile, topped with a perfectly boiled quail egg and shaved parmesan. The moules frites were great; the mussels were swimming in a creamy broth, just screaming to be invaded by the fries.
Massara
📍Flatiron District
🍽️ Italian
After our “light” bites at Minetta, we made our way to Flatiron because we were both looking for pasta, and Massara seemed like a fun choice. I hadn’t been in a while, but I have had great meals here in the past and was pumped to come back for a snack. We had no wait at all and were quickly seated at the downstairs bar as a walk-in on the later side. Unfortunately, they were out of their “pizzettes,” which, in my opinion, are a must-order, but they still had all of the pasta available. My go-to order is always the candele served with something like a 3-day ragu genovese, and it is one of my favorite pastas in NYC. The other pasta we ordered was a simple and delicious paccheri pomodoro. Bright with a wonderfully acidic and sweet tomato sauce, the large, tubular pasta was a perfectly textured bite. We finished the night with a delicious Baba Rum and a torta di ricotta e pistachio.
Santo Taco
📍Nolita
🍽️ Mexican
One of the most hyped new openings of the week comes from a seasoned restaurateur in a fairly iconic space. Santo Taco opened last week in the former upstairs taco counter portion of the original La Esquina and is a solo venture from Santiago Perez, who also founded Cosme, Atla, and Esse, among others. The tacos are Mexico City-style and are a great new addition to the city’s emerging taco scene. All tacos come on house-made corn tortillas and are served with a bright avocado salsa. They can be customized using the salsa bar on the side, which offers a variety of other salsas, as well as pickled onions and chicharrones. Santo specializes in a trompo steak taco, shaved thin from the spit, which is layered with both NY strip and sirloin cuts, giving it a really beefy flavor. My other highlight was the carnitas taco, which is another one of the better versions of the pork dish you can find in the city. Definitely worth checking this place out.
Bar Bianchi
📍East Village
🍽️ Italian
Popped into the new Bar Bianchi from scenery hitmaker Jon Neidich (Le Dive, Deux Chats, Lucy’s, The Nines) to meet a friend for a drink. The Milan-style spritz bar had a fairly raucous scene on Saturday night, with a makeshift screen showing the unfortunate Knicks game. The place is a serious upgrade from the previous spot in this space and looks like another great spot for a few drinks on the east side. I had a really good martini, and we ordered some fried calamari and a delicious plate of anchovies with bread and butter. A perfect pairing all around!
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