Where Colin Ate: Quique Crudo, Gertie, Chubby Fish, Welton's Tiny Bakeshop
Plus: probably the best banana pudding in Nashville.
Colin Camac (aka @resyguynyc) leads restaurant partnerships at Blackbird and 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.
I had another really big few weeks of travel, hitting both Nashville and Charleston for work. I hit some old favorites in Charleston and got invited to check out one of the largest whiskey selections I have ever seen at an undisclosed location in Nashville. In between, I had some really amazing meals in NYC, hit my favorite traveling pop-up restaurant twice for two very different experiences, and shared a meal with one of the most talked-about chefs in the country at their restaurant.
New York/New Jersey
I Cavallini
📍Williamsburg
🍽️ Italian
I hadn’t been to I Cavallini since pretty early on, but after hanging out with a bunch of the team in Chicago a few weeks back, I made it my business to check it back out now that it has had some time to settle in. Both of my previous meals were really good, but this last one was the best of the bunch. Starting with a really fun melon-and-lardo skewer, leading into a perfectly restrained sardine w/ butter and tomato, which may have been my dish of the night. Well-grilled tripe paired nicely with spicy arugula was another confident plate that hit the spot. We finished off with what may be one of my favorite chicken dishes in the city, roasted and topped with slow-cooked garlic and jus.
Quique Crudo
📍West Village
🍽️ Mexican
It had been over a year since my last visit to Quique Crudo, the follow-up seafood-focused restaurant from Chef Cosme of Casa Enrique in LIC. My friend Lala (Put It In My Mouth Podcast) and an old friend of hers from LA joined me as a walk-in on the first steamy day of the heat wave. Coming inside from the inferno, all we wanted to do was eat amazing seafood, and we could not have found a better place. Top to bottom, an almost perfect meal. We started with the aguachile negro, which was a whole, live scallop in a deep soy & maggi chili sauce, an immediate highlight. The tostada de pulpo y camaron came next, which may be my favorite dish here. Caesar salad here is a must-order and possibly the best version I have ever had. Finally, the seared scallops with the chorizo, potatoes, and cashews are another great dish to round out the meal. Don’t miss the cheese ice cream for dessert, covered in honey.
Blackbird Presents Bacchanal @ Gertie
📍Prospect Heights
🍽️ Modern diner
When we had the opportunity to bring industry favorite Bacchanal from New Orleans to Gertie for the holiday weekend, we jumped at it, hosting a BBQ and some live music in the backyard. The event felt incredibly similar to the actual Bacchanal experience, and the shrimp the team brought in from down south were fantastic. A really fun event for a good cause, with a portion of each ticket sold going to the Independent Restaurant Coalition.
Rolo Dairy Bar and Superiority Burger @ Bread & Salt
📍Jersey City, New Jersey
🍽️ Pizza
Rolo Dairy Bar has been my favorite pop-up to follow recently. During the summer, they drag their 1950s trailer to breweries and parking lots all over, from Upstate NY to Jersey. For this pop-up, they collaborated with Superiority Burger and Bread & Salt, this time leaving the trailer behind, as they were all working out of the storefront. For this one, Rolo was making Italian-style Jersey hot dogs, several thousand-calorie bombs that are made with 2 fried hot dogs in a half moon of “pizza bread” topped with mustard, fried potatoes, onions & peppers. They were gloriously gluttonous and delicious all at once. The star of the show for me, though, was finally trying the insanely good pizza at Bread & Salt, charred and salty in the best way possible.
Ghost Hawk Brewery
📍Clifton, New Jersey
🍽️ Brewery
I ventured back out to Jersey again for a burger pop-up in the parking lot of Ghost Hawk Brewery. This time serving only burgers and ice cream, I decided to get the whole menu. While waiting for my burger, I highly recommend walking across the street for a few of the famous “rippers” from Rutt’s Hut served with their famous relish. The burger may have been one of the best I have had in a while, tavern style with a thick slice of seasoned onion on a kaiser bun. The meat was deeply flavored and had all the intense beefiness I want in a big burger. For the ice cream, I got a mix of all three flavors, overflowing from the small Dixie cup. A really fun mix of almond and licorice ice creams with some black cherry water ice.
Herring Fest @ Aquavit
📍Midtown
🍽️ Scandanavian/Nordic
Herring Fest at Aquavit is one of my absolute favorite yearly traditions. Every July, just as the new catch of Holland herring makes its hyperseasonal debut, Aquavit offers its herring lunch for a week-long celebration of this wonderfully oily fish. The meal starts with a herring bar featuring an all-you-can-eat assortment of herring in various marinades and sauces, followed by a few small bites with herring as the star. You then absolutely must get the add-on Holland herring, which may be one of my favorite dishes in the city; a fully filleted herring covered in brown butter, cubes of cheddar, red onion, and trout roe over a dab of sour cream. It is pure insanity for oily fish lovers.
Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi
📍Upper West Side
🍽️ Afro-Caribbean
One of the most surprising meals I had happened at the very last minute when I had plans to meet my friend for dinner on a Friday night. We had been going back and forth all week about where to go when Tatiana was brought up. I offered to text a friend who worked there earlier in the week to see if there was any room, but we decided not to bother for a prime spot. The night before, with still no plans on the books, my friend texted me back to say we had a reservation and would be dining with the chef himself. I had met Kwame several times at events, especially over the last few weeks, but this was definitely more personal. We ended up having a great meal and even better conversation. We hit all of the favorites, but my favorite bites of the night were an off-menu crab rangoon egg roll topped with a huge dollop of caviar as well as the chicken with white sauce and an off-menu ribeye that was perfectly cooked. Such a fun night, and always great to learn about the people behind the food.
Charleston
Chubby Fish
📍Cannonborough
🍽️ Seafood
In town for a few quick meetings, I had to hit one of the best restaurants around. My colleagues and I were able to sneak our way into Chubby Fish for an absolutely insane feast on my first night in town. We hit a bunch of the classic bites up front: caviar sandwich, perfectly shucked oysters as well as the grilled curry ones, but when I saw the whole tuna collar on the menu, we knew what had to be done. We ordered the smaller of the two sizes, which was more than enough for the 3 of us, served with sushi rice, nori, and several sauces; we had a blast scraping the fatty morsels from the bone. One of the absolute best dishes around; always order the collar!
OK Donna
📍North Central
🍽️ Italian
On my last night in town, I met up with my good friends Dave & Tina from Kwei Fei and Beautiful South for a post-shift meal at OK Donna. It's a really fun new Italian spot with a dark, fun vibe. I really loved the super classic lasagna, grilled oysters, ribs, and a great chocolate mousse. It was the perfect spot to meet up with some old friends and eat way too much food.
Little Jack’s Tavern
📍Upper King
🍽️ American Tavern
Little Jack’s Tavern is one of my favorite places in the world to pull up a seat at the bar. Even with my fairly infrequent visits, the bartender recognizes me and remembers my drink (Maria is the best)! I usually make it my last stop out of town, downing martinis, a burger, and maybe some shrimp cocktail while wasting time before the airport, but on this visit I grabbed a midday snack on the day before my early morning flight. The burger lives up to the hype and the room is as classic as it gets.
Welton’s Tiny Bakeshop
📍Cannonborough
🍽️ Bakery
I had a quick meeting with the team at Welton’s Tiny Bakeshop while in town. Fresh off their Beard finalist distinction, I was really excited to check it out. As it so happened, they had one of my favorite sandwiches in the world, a muffuletta, sitting behind the counter. While all the pastries I tried were great (cookie & lavender kouign amann), I was thinking about that sandwich for days after.
Nashville
Kisser
📍East Nashville
🍽️ Japanese
Directly off the plane, with bags in hand, I took a car to Kisser. Kisser is a cozy Japanese-style lunch counter that came highly recommended. Open since 2023, it was a James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist, and I quickly found out why. I started with a crab onigiri, perfectly seasoned and filled with sweet crab meat. Following the onigiri, I tried the egg salad sando, a staple in Japanese convenience stores, that was fancied up with bright pops of ikura (salmon roe) for a nice salty punch. They also serve a delicious pork katsu sando, but my favorite was the hamachi kama, or yellowtail collar, which was perfect.
Rolf & Daughters
📍Germantown
🍽️ New American
Rolf & Daughters was at the very top of my list of restaurants to try. It already had no shortage of accolades when I met Chef-Owner Philip Krajek in Paris a few years back, but just chatting with him for a few moments solidified it as the spot I had to check out. Dining alone made it a bit tough to try everything, but I started with the housemade bread w/ seaweed butter, which even solo I felt was a must. I followed that with a tomato tonnato salad featuring just-in-season tomatoes covered in tomme, along with a creamy tonnato and crunchy, thinly sliced Hungarian peppers. Using the bread to make little, saucy, tomato bread bites was perfection. The house sausage, filled with parsley and garden greens, was nicely complemented by a single shishito stuffed with sweet, briny razor clams. For mains, I went with classic linguine and clams, topped with little chewy lardons that gave the whole thing a bit of texture. A really fantastic pasta dish. I ended the meal with a bowl of blueberry gelato.
Iggy’s
📍Wedgewood-Houston
🍽️ Italian
Iggy’s was another highly recommended spot that I ended up sneaking into at the last minute with my friend Sydney. The menu here revolves around a nice selection of housemade pastas. We started off with a simple salad and arancini with pork and n’duja sauce. All of the pasta was really well made and cooked perfectly, with my favorites being an agnolotti doppio with ricotta and corn, topped with truffles, and a really great rigatoni bolognese. Their selection of soft-serve desserts also cannot be missed.
Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint
📍Downtown
🍽️ BBQ
I was pointed towards Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint for a taste of some classic Nashville BBQ and snuck in for a quick snack. As I am a big rib guy, I opted for the dry-style ribs, which are a specialty. Dry ribs are smoked, then finished with a dusting of the dry rub. The ribs were nicely seasoned and smoked and definitely worth checking out. I also ordered a small side of pulled pork, which went really nicely with the vinegar-based BBQ sauce on the table.
Arnold’s Country Kitchen
📍The Gulch
🍽️ Southern
One of my absolute favorite meals and experiences of the trip was at Arnold’s Country Kitchen, a classic meat-and-three. A short walk from my hotel, I was one of the first people there on a Tuesday morning. You pass by the daily menu, grab a tray, and fill it with dessert first (banana pudding for me). I went with the daily special of chicken fried chicken, which was a boned chicken thigh fried and topped with country gravy. The meat was still nice and juicy with a crispy crunch under the savory gravy. I paired that with an incredible corn pudding, some white beans, and collard greens. The previously mentioned banana pudding was by far the best I have ever tried, and a must-order if you see it on the table.
The Whiskey House
📍Gaslamp Quarter
🍽️ Pub/steakhouse
I got in touch with an old bar friend named Freddie who now lives in Nashville, and he invited me to one of the coolest places I have ever been. Whiskey House is a private charity that is hidden in plain sight at an undisclosed location in the city; the only way to gain access is by invitation from a trustee or to be invited/host a charity event. The house is home to the largest collection of open bottles of whiskey in the United States and quite possibly the world. All of the whiskey has been donated from private collections or distilleries and is an absolutely overwhelming place to see, as bottles are literally everywhere. I was able to taste a few really fun things and, strangely enough, got to sit in on a gin tasting that was going on during my visit. What an experience!
Bar Roza
📍Downtown
🍽️ Cocktail bar
Freddie from Whiskey House pointed me towards a really unique cocktail bar called Bar Roza, which happened to be co-owned by my old friend Owen Gibbler, whom I knew from his days back in NYC over a decade ago. I was surprised to see him behind the bar and got a chance to catch up a bit to end my last night over a bunch of the amazing cocktails. Only a few weeks old, it really feels like a place doing something different and worth a visit.
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