Where Colin Ate: Chez Fifi, Penny, Kiko
Plus: rumors of an upstairs expansion above 4 Charles …
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.
Spring was in the air (ok, kind of!), friends were in town, and thus your boy got a bit glutenous last week, all in the name of bringing you the most interesting spots—both new and old—in the city. See the standouts below, plus some insider tips (the city’s most serious raw bar? I got you), and a bit of intel on a possible 4 Charles expansion …
Colin
Mắm
📍Lower East Side
🍽️ Vietnamese
I was first introduced to Mắm during the latter part of that first pandemic summer, back when dining outside was the norm. Mắm had a really memorable setup at the time, with small plastic tables and chairs (straight from Vietnam) lining the park across the street from where the restaurant was located (and still is) on Forsyth. On that initial visit, I had no idea what I was in for and was really just going to walk my friend over, say hello to a few friends, and then head out for the meal I was supposed to go to. As the food started coming out, I decided to stay and try a few things as it all looked so amazing. To take a step back, what’s interesting about Mắm is that it is one of the unique places (in the U.S. at least) that bases the whole meal around one main dish. That dish changes depending on the time of year, but there is always only one choice for a classic “main.” During summer, that dish happens to be Bun Dau. Bun Dau is one of the most famous dishes in Vietnamese cuisine, consisting of vermicelli noodles, fried tofu, and all centered around the most fragrant, funky and delicious shrimp paste you can imagine. It is a flavor that I now absolutely crave and I light up as soon as I see it back on the Mắm menu. But, on that first visit, I had no idea what Bun Dau was. Let’s just say that that first bite blew me away. The version at Mắm is a massive plate filled with those noodles, homemade fried tofu, pork belly, blood sausage, intestines, herbs, and cucumbers, all dipped in that magical sauce. The flavor is unlike anything I have ever tasted. Needless to say, I go back to Mắm about as often as I can and love the seasonal change of menu. The other night, I went back with a few friends and the main dish was a classic and delicious brisket pho. The rotating cast of starters is also amazing all year round. On this visit, we had fried tofu with scallions, stuffed snails with pork and lemongrass, fried chicken cartilage (incredible!) and eggplant topped with peanuts with a dipping sauce of egg and garlic. It was an incredibly comforting meal on a cold winter Monday. Mắm is truly a special place and worth the visit, and every subsequent one after that. In fact, by the time you're reading, this pho will be out and Bun Dau will be back — give it a try.
Carnitas Ramirez
📍East Village
🍽️ Mexican
Some of my absolute favorite tacos in the city can be found at Carnitas Ramirez. I know you can find amazing gems in Sunset Park and running around Queens, but for a great local spot CR is hard to beat. I usually find myself there on Saturday mornings with a friend right as they open (12 p.m.) with minimal line to deal with. On my first visit I was blown away with the sheer variety of cuts on the menu and loved the addition of chicharron and the small salsa/pickle bar on the side. My one qualm was the tortilla really didn’t do justice to the rest of the experience. Either way I knew I would be back again soon. By my second or third visit, when the tacos came out, I immediately noticed the change. The tortillas were suddenly soft and bursting with fresh corn flavor, perfectly cradling the fatty meat — I couldn’t have been happier. Plenty of visits have happened since, and I have tried most of the menu, the highlights for me being the lengua (tongue), trompo (snout), cerdo (skin), and surtida (mix of all parts). Each one has their own merits, and I do find it hard to choose, but they are all great choices. Recently, the team has decided to put a torta lunch special on the menu and, although it took me a while to check out, it may be one of the best sandwiches in the city. The carnitas are added to a warm and toasty roll with a skirt of griddled cheese, avocado, onion, jalapeño, and a little bit of mayo. My expectations were high, but they were surpassed. I also recommend adding the pickled onions with oregano to the sandwich for some added brightness that helps bring it to another level.
Penny
📍East Village
🍽️ Seafood
For the much anticipated follow up to Claud, their really delicious European-style bistro, Chef Joshua Pinsky and Chase Sinzer must’ve simply … looked up. The duo opened Penny directly above their first restaurant in a long narrow space on East 10th St. Penny is limited on space with mostly bar seating and has a very small kitchen towards the back of the space with a raw bar running almost the length of the dining room. This is an example of letting the space dictate what your restaurant should be and executing it brilliantly. I had friends visiting from Miami, and we’d already packed our week with an agenda of some heavy food, so I was trying to think of the perfect place for a lighter-style meal. Penny felt like the right move. The wine list by Sinzer and crew always has plenty of fun stuff that pairs well with the seafood-focused menu, like the Lukas Tscheppe Weissburgunder (pinot blanc) that we ordered to get the ball rolling. For food, we started with the incredible housemade bread with butter and anchovies, which is in my opinion one of the best versions of this simple dish I've ever had. The “Ice Box +” (oysters /countnecks/shrimp/mussels/crudo/razor clams/live scallop), which I think you need to get some version of if you dine here. I don’t know of another restaurant in the city putting as much attention into their raw bar preparations with so much success. Some served au natural, others already dressed, and with each one better than the next. The scallop and razor clams were particularly good on this visit. The star for me though is their shrimp cocktail, which somehow tastes like the shrimpiest version of shrimp and dipped in a wonderfully garlicky aioli (not a fan of cocktail sauce) that makes it a great bite. The kitchen was nice enough to send us out the wedge salad covered in some grated mimolette cheese adding a toasty and salty note that actually was the perfect pairing with our wine. A new addition to the menu, which we tried for the first time, was a seafood sausage with beans (and I believe a little bit of squash) bursting with flavor that reminded me of lobster and kept me going back for more. The best dish of the night though, and a must order for every table, was the stuffed squid served in pairs over a small pool of harissa. The squid was cooked just right and stuffed with a blend of tuna and swiss chard, which added some depth and complexity to the seemingly simple looking dish. Penny is such a fun place to dine with a small menu of all hits.
Kiko
📍Hudson Square
🍽️ Asian American
With friends in town for La Paulée, I knew last week was going to be a big one. My visiting friends had not been here for at least a year, and since their last visit two of their best friends had opened restaurants in NYC, so naturally we needed to hit them both up … in one night. We started the evening at Kiko, a really beautiful new restaurant in West Soho (the area they keep trying to rename Hudson Square). For my fellow old(ish) folks reading, the restaurant is located next door to Sway (remember Morrissey night, anyone?) in the former longtime home of Giorgione. We arrived at 5 p.m. to a roaring fireplace that warmly lit the entrance, instantly making the room feel great. Both the wine and cocktail lists are great here so definitely come thirsty. I always start with the Kiko Martini, a blend of gin, sake, yuzu, and sea lettuce that goes perfectly with the raw preparations in the first part of the menu. Ordering light(ish) was the plan, and we started with one of the best dishes of the night, a dungeness crab picked, served in its shell over rice with spicy crab fat mayo, avocado slices, and nori on the side as a DIY handroll situation. The mayo brought the crab flavor to a whole new level, making it a really fun bite. We next received two gifts from the kitchen in both the sardine toast (my favorite type of toast) and sweet potato croquettes, flavored with Japanese curry and topped with little piles of shaved mimolette cheese (two nights in a row with the mimolette, not mad). One of the best things on the menu here for me is hidden in the salad section: the chicory and red cabbage salad. To me it is as close to a perfect salad as you can get, crispy and crunchy with dukkah and a tahini lime dressing that coats each bite. We finished off with the lobster crispy rice which is deceptive sounding as it comes as more of a tahdig-like rice with fresh lobster over the top as well as Thai chili and basil before being covered in a silky red curry. As no meal can end without a dessert, we moved back to the front room fire and shared a small rhubarb tart while planning what to do until our 10 p.m. reservation on the UES …
Chez Fifi
📍Upper East Side
🍽️ French
After shepherding the crew to a few of my favorite bars in the neighborhood (Sip & Guzzle, Dear Strangers) we headed uptown and arrived at Chez Fifi for our late reservation. Here is where the night gets a little fuzzy, but stay with me for the ride. We started in the upstairs lounge for a round of martinis because it felt like a room that you need to drink martinis in. About halfway through the drink we were ushered back downstairs to the large table in the back and met some new friends (including one of the restaurant’s owners) to dine as a group of five in what felt like the best seats in the house. I don’t believe anyone actually ordered but shortly after great wine started flowing and the first bites began to arrive. First up was radishes in butter and a wonderful scallop served in its shell topped with caviar and bottarga. That was followed by a delicious charcuterie plate with jamón, Marcona almonds, olives, and a thick slab of their foie, which reminded me of L’Ami Louis (where I coincidentally met these friends in the first place a few years back!). The deviled crab came next, as well as what I believe was an off menu special of lobster pasta — both were phenomenal. The main event was a steak frites (with mayo and more caviar) au poivre and a perfectly cooked chicken topped with black truffles and—I believe—a foie jus. While both were tasty, I found myself continuously going back for more chicken, and it was the first thing I thought about the following morning. The one-two punch of Kiko and Chez Fifi made for a fun and decadent night, and I highly recommend both spots, just maybe space them out a bit better than we did.
Noz Market
📍Upper East Side
🍽️ Japanese
There are few things I like more than a fancy lunch. I know that’s a weird thing to say for someone who rarely eats lunch, but I feel like a long leisurely meal in the middle of the day is one of life’s great pleasures. Now a sushi lunch, while certainly not the long lazy kind, still scratches the same itch for me as something luxurious during the day. One of my favorites for this is Noz Market which is connected to 2 Michelin Star Sushi Noz on the UES. The selection of fish is some of the best you can get, and at $90 to start it feels like a steal (at least in the crazy NYC sushi scene). Of course you always end up ordering more, plus a few handrolls at the end, but the skill displayed here for an omakase at this price point is truly unmatched. They only do lunch Friday-Sunday, and it’s definitely worth the trip up to the UES to check it out if you’re craving amazing sushi and have the time.
Quick hits …
4 Charles Prime Rib
📍West Village
🍽️ Steakhouse
As I have written about my love for 4 Charles already, there isn’t too much more to say, but I will reiterate an earlier note: the best way to get in here (or any hot spot) is to always say “yes.” 5 p.m. bar seat on a Wednesday? Yes! 10 p.m. two-top on a Sunday? Yes! As I do have a longstanding relationship with the 4 Charles team (this comes from saying “yes” often, it doesn’t happen by magic), I reached out to see if I could get in with a friend and their dad who was in town and really wanted to go. This was with about six days notice and looking for a 4-top on the early side, so I tempered the group’s expectations. To my surprise, the 4 Charles team made it happen and asked if 4 p.m. on a Tuesday would work. As per my motto, if someone does you a favor, always say yes. Make it happen if you want to go badly enough and then you can start building your relationship. Anyway, some stuff we tried on this visit that is not part of my normal order but also fantastic was the king crab legs, already pre-shucked for minimal effort and served with some clarified butter, as well as a beautiful cooked dover sole. Always a great meal and an even better time!
Hot tip: it also looks as if their long rumored upstairs is going to open soon. Unsure if it will be for private parties or normal service (or both!), but there may be some extra space in the notoriously tiny restaurant shortly.
Roberta’s Penn
📍Penn District
🍽️ Pizza
I was invited to the Rangers game last week and we were looking for a great spot for a convenient quick meal before the game. Naturally, the newest Roberta’s located above R Slice came to mind. We braved the downpour and showed up at 6:30 p.m. and were lucky enough to grab a table to eat before the opening whistle. I had never been to this location before but was excited to give it a go. As we were a bit crunched for time we focused mainly on a few pizzas so that we could get in and out as fast as possible. We started with the housemade bread and stracciatella. The bread came puffed up and piping hot and the cold, olive-oil topped cheese was the perfect compliment. Of the pizzas, the margherita is a classic and done better than most versions in town with the bright sweetness and acidity of the sauce really shining through. The showstopper, though, was a pizza that was described as a “new, old pizza” and really blew us all away. The pizza was called the Waingro and was topped with crumbled up meatballs, onions, and a blend of cheeses that all played nicely together. It was one of the better pizzas I have had in a while. Bonus: by using Blackbird Pay, we didn’t have to wait for a bill (we simply said goodnight to the server and left) and made it just in time for the start of the game.