Where Colin Ate: Tacos 1986, Perry Street, Comal, Diner
Plus: the hardest reservation to get in the world
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.
When your week starts with meatballs at a classic New York red sauce spot, you know things are going to go well for the next seven days. And they did. I revisited one of my favorite haunts in Williamsburg, ate quail (I love small birds), and stopped by the hot new West Village taco arrival straight from Los Angeles. I’m back at it tonight.
Colin
Rao’s
📍 Harlem
🍽️ Italian
Sunday afternoon, I received a call from a friend offering me their family’s table at Rao’s for the following night. For those not in the know, Rao’s is quite possibly the hardest reservation to get in the world, mostly because the restaurant does not accept reservations from the public. Rao’s operates almost as a private club where guests “own” their tables, and those tables (weekly, monthly, or yearly) get passed down for generations. The restaurant only does a single turn per night, so if you have your reservation, you show up at your convenience and have your table all night. I quickly assembled a fun crew, and we decided to meet up at the restaurant around 6:15 p.m. I had only been there one time before, and could not have been more excited. We walked into an empty dining room with one other person at the bar. Before sitting, we decided to hang at the bar for a bit to take in the scene and have a drink. The walls are filled with pictures of every celebrity imaginable, and the staff is incredibly warm and friendly. By the time we sat, the room was buzzing with people greeting each other like old friends, and everyone was standing around the bar. We were escorted to a 4-top booth along the wall, and Joe, who I imagine is the manager, sat down at the head of the table to explain the menu. Unlike any other restaurant, there is no actual menu at Rao’s; the server just tells you what they have and together you put together the order. My buddy Emmett brought some nice wine from his cellar that we opened at the table, and shortly thereafter, food began to roll in. The food at Rao’s is also better than you’d expect it to be. Is it the best Italian restaurant in the city? I don’t think so, but the food is definitely delicious and the feel of the room cannot be beat. The starters were my favorite dishes of the night. You can’t go wrong with the fried mozzarella served over a pool of their famous sauce. A nice big plate of baked clams. Seafood salad is always a hit and a classic Rao’s staple, but my favorite bite from this course, and maybe of the night, was the fried calamari in spicy sauce. It was slightly spicy and tangy, served with some blistered green peppers over the top. It was a really fantastic dish. For pastas, my favorite was the orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe. Thick-cut sausage with garlic and bitter rabe is really a perfect combination. With the pastas, we also each ordered our own softball-sized meatball, which they’re also famous for. The meatballs are probably the most popular dish on the “menu,” and you see them on every table. For the mains, we went classic with veal parm and the house special lemon chicken. Both solid versions, but the lemon chicken was the better of the two, and a must-order if you have the chance. For dessert, they basically put together a sampler plate for us with delicious cheesecake surrounded by both a regular and a pistachio tartufo. The pistachio was the winner for me, dripping with nostalgia for the fake nutty flavor. Rao’s is an unbelievable experience. I hope to get another chance to go again someday.
Diner
📍 Williamsburg
🍽️ American
Diner was my favorite restaurant in NYC when I moved to Williamsburg for a short while in the late aughts. I opened a restaurant right up the block and went regularly. The whole vibe of the daily changing menu written on the table, the old diner car, all of it just hit every point perfectly. All that being said, for one reason or another, I haven’t been back in probably about a decade. A good friend of mine had just returned to town after about a month away and suggested we go, and I am really glad we did. The night we went was one of the nicest nights of the summer, where the heat and humidity finally died down and AC wasn’t absolutely necessary, so we decided to sit outside in the sun along Broadway. The menu was heavy with bright summer dishes, and I wanted to order almost everything from the small plate portion. We started with the “fries with eyes,” tiny fried spears with lobster mayo for dipping. The spearing came golden brown and had a delicious salty flavor, which was punched up with a lemon on the side. From there, we had a delicious salad of cucumbers and oysters, a fun combo brought together with some fish sauce and acid. The Caesar salad at Diner remains undefeated and is always delicious. We also ordered a cold pasta salad with Jonah crab in a green goddess dressing. The dish of the day for me, though, was the jerk-spiced blowfish tails in an insanely good scotch bonnet butter sauce. We rounded the meal out with a very summer-coded sweet corn risotto topped with truffles that had the perfect cheesy texture and was impossible to stop eating. For dessert, the peach tart with vanilla ice cream was about as good as it gets. Happy I returned to an old favorite to see it still thriving and as good as ever.
Quick hits, Pop-ups & New openings
Comal
📍 LES
🍽️ Mexican
Comal is a new Mexico City-style restaurant in the former home of Gem on Forsyth in the LES. I had been hearing about it a lot recently and couldn’t wait to check it out. The menu reads about as well as any menu I’ve seen recently and makes you want to order all of it, so we did. Highlights of the meal were the cobia aguachile, which came in an addictive sauce made from kimchi, and was a great twist that paired well with the mild fish. The lobster covered in peaches and perfectly in-season tomatoes was another standout. From the mains, we ordered the pulpo, chicken, and wagyu skirt asada, and would definitely order all three again. The steak in particular was fantastically prepared, simply served with onions, salsa, and a side of tortillas; it was really great. The desserts were both fantastic: a soft serve twist and a really tasty chocolate tart with a sour cream-like dollop on top.
Dell’anima
📍 West Village
🍽️ Italian
Last weekend, I finally stopped by the new location of Dell’anima. This is now the third different location for this little restaurant that could. Back in ‘07, when they opened the original location in what is now Arthur & Sons, I was still running the original location of Fatty Crab around the corner. My chef and I walked in on their first night of business for some late-night pasta—they were open late every night back then—and we all became fast friends. Years later, the former CDC Andrew Whitney took over the space, and they moved to the newly opened and now closed Gotham Market West food hall. Once the market closed, they moved yet again, this time back home to the West Village in the former space of longtime lobster roll stalwart Pearl Oyster Bar on Cornelia Street. The menu is still playing all the hits, and it was really nice to have the opportunity to eat this food again. I was dining solo and stuck to a few of the old favorites, ordering the quail, served over a sweet corn salad with tomato chutney. As my love of small birds is well documented, it was a must-order for me. I also went with the first pasta that I ever ate there, which is still on the menu, a really solid tagliatelle bolognese made with the tried and true meatball blend of veal, beef, and pork. It was hearty and meaty, tasting just how I remembered.
Perry Street
📍 West Village
🍽️ American
Stopped in with a few friends from the neighborhood for a quick bite at Perry Street, which is a really solid neighborhood spot that you don’t hear about enough. We didn’t get a huge meal here, but swinging by for a few martinis and a burger or fried chicken during sunset is such a nice move. It’s rare to see a restaurant of this caliber that you can usually get into on short notice, but it’s great to still have these places. Next time you’re walking down the West Side, pop in and grab a drink; you’ll be happy you did.
Tacos 1986
📍 West Village
🍽️ Mexican
As I am sure, based on the lines, everyone has heard, Tacos 1986 from LA has recently opened up in the West Village. It is part of a much larger project from Jeff Bell and the PDT team and will soon be attached to Mixteca, an agave bar, and a downstairs, more high-end bar called Kees, opening a bit later. I popped in on my way home for an adobada quesadilla and am happy to report it was just as good as the ones in LA. Excited to follow along as the rest of the venue progresses.
Raf’s
📍 Noho
🍽️ European
I had another work lunch at Raf’s last week. It is so nice to have a solid place so close to the office. The room feels really great during the day, and you can usually walk right in. I prefer to sit up front by the window, but our party of six was too big, so we were in the bar area instead. I try to go pretty light for lunch, so we just ordered a bunch of stuff for the table and I picked around. The one thing that I feel like is always slept on here is how good the pastas are. From my first meal here, it was the thing that always stuck out for me and keeps me coming back. For this meal, we ordered all three, and they were fantastic. My favorite is the rigatoni with pork ragu and spring onions, perfectly cooked and topped with bianco sardo cheese. The mafaldine with sungolds, guanciale, and topped with ricotta is a great seasonal option, and the always excellent spaghetti and bottarga rounded them all out.
Can Tacos 1996 downstairs bar revive the Mexican + karaoke of west village circa 2015!? I forget the name…