French Mastery...

DB Bistro Moderne

55 West 44th Street

New York, NY 10036

www.dbbistro.com/nyc/‎ 

My girlfriend's dad had to go to New York in December for a meeting with the travel agents that sell his hotel. We used it as an excuse to visit New York and go see him for the weekend. We hung out with him the entire time which was nice, and we got to do some of the touristy things people do in New York around Christmas time, so that was nice as well. We got up there on Saturday morning, after spending an hour getting from one side of the Lincoln tunnel to the other, and we headed out to lunch immediately. One of my girlfriend’s managers had told her about a place called DB Bistro Moderne in Manhattan not too far from our hotel, so we headed down to check it out. As we approached the door, her father told us that he had been there before, and we all had a laugh as we walked inside. As it turns out it is his sales manger’s favorite restaurant in Manhattan to take clients to.

It is a French bistro style restaurant. The chef is actually very well known in New York. His name had come up a few times while doing some restaurant research, so I knew we would be in for a treat, especially since we don’t get to eat French food very often. I ordered a cup of potato leek soup and the crispy duck confit. 

They brought us out a basket of bread that had some croissants and savory breads in it, which was a great way to start our meal out since we were all ravenous. The croissants were flaky and buttery as they should be, and luckily put a hold on our hunger for a moment while we waited for the rest of our meal to arrive.

The potato and leek soup was heavenly. It was rich and creamy, the texture of which I had never experienced before. It was incredibly smooth, and the flavor was out of this world. It disappeared quickly.

I was super excited when the crispy duck confit came out. I had had duck confit before in various dishes, but I had never actually had a full confited leg before. The skin was a wonderfully crispy, simply cracking at the touch of my fork, and the meat was succulent and tender. The sweet and sour duck jus underneath was out of this world. It was salty yet ever so slightly sweet, with layers of flavor in each and every taste. I devoured the duck confit and sat back and sighed in the satisfaction of being full. 

DB Bistro Modern gets three and half pints from me. The only thing holding it back really was the price point, but then again I know I was a little out of my element because it was New York and things are expected to be a bit more expensive there. The food was spectacular, the service was just ok, but the ambiance was great. I would definitely return, and you should check it out too if you get the chance. Cheers!

One of Philly's Best Italian...

Tre Scalini

1915 East Passyunk Avenue

Philadelphia, PA 19148

trescaliniphiladelphia.com/‎ 

It was my cousin-in-law's birthday in December and he wanted to take his parents to a nice dinner while they were in town, so he consulted the list of the greatest Italian restaurants in Philadelphia according to Philadelphia Magazine's recent Italian food issue. From that list he chose Tre Scalini, a great little place in South Philadelphia, run by the same chef since 1994. The chef puts her own spin on the Italian classics, and she's been doing it for quite some time. There were 10 of us for dinner, so we ordered a bunch of things, and the restaurant served them family style for us. We ordered two different salads, an arugula salad with pecans and a white crumbly cheese, and a classic Caesar salad topped with anchovies. 

Next up was a plate of eggplant parmigiana and mussels in white wine and garlic. The eggplant parm was some of the thinnest and most delicious I have ever tasted. The exterior was slightly crunchy, and it was topped with some very delicious sauce and mozzarella cheese. The mussels were very tasty as well, but they were pretty small. I have had some pretty good mussels before, and they were much bigger and meatier than these. I wouldn't order them again simply because of the size, but they flavor was definitely there. 

For the pasta courses we indulged in the specialties of the house, house made tagliatelle with truffle oil and porcinis, house made lobster ravioli, and house made squid ink tagliatelle with crabmeat and marinara sauce. All three of them were incredible. I was particularly blown away by the lobster ravioli. They were amazingly tender, filled with creamy and savory lobster filling, and topped with a creamy cheese sauce. I could have devoured the entire plate and more. The tagliatelle dishes were really notable as well. You could truly taste the freshness of the pasta in both of them.

Last up, we shared an order of the chicken parmigiana. It was nice and thin, just like the eggplant parm, and it was just as tender and flavorful. You can never go wrong with chicken parm in my opinion, but this was one of the better kinds I have had. I prefer it best with a crunchier exterior, but overall the flavor was quite delicious. 

A cool thing about the restaurant was that they let us bring our own cake for dessert and they cut up the cake and served it to us. I thought that was really decent of them.

Tre Scalini is definitely worth of the three pint rating. They do some pretty spot on food. I don’t know what the price point of the meal was because my uncle treated us, but the flavor and preparation of the food was on point. The service was great, and like I said they were extremely hospitable about us bringing our own cake for dessert. I would definitely go back to Tre Scalini for a meal, because I know it would be fantastic. Give it a try! Cheers!

Pizza Pizza....

Pizzeria Stella

420 South 2nd Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.pizzeriastella.net/‎ 

I had my eyes on Pizzeria Stella for some time. Everything on the menu looked fantastic and they have a pretty good beer selection to go right along with that rocking food menu. I was really excited when my girlfriend moved just down the street, and I had a Stephen Starr gift card to use, so we headed over one Friday night for a great meal. They don’t take reservations, so we put in our name and grabbed a seat at the bar. No sooner had we sat at the bar and ordered a round of beers, when we were called by the hostess and escorted to our table. While looking at the menu, I was in my infamous moment of indecision, because they had so many amazing pizzas to choose from. My girlfriend and I decided to order two and just take home whatever we didn’t eat because we weren’t sure how big the pizzas were. We ordered a red and a white pizza, as well as an arancini for an appetizer. 

I first fell in love with arancinis at Spasso's in Old City, but this was my second venture with them. These particular arancinis were delicious, but the breading on the outside was not as good in my opinion. They were a smoother texture, clearly because they used a different form of breadcrumbs, or none at all for that matter. I preferred them with the more rustic texture offered up at Spasso's when they were fried with panko breadcrumbs on the outside. The filling was very rich and creamy, as you would expect it to be from risotto. 

I was so excited for the pizzas we had ordered. We had decided on the lamb pizza with scarmoza, oregano, and slow cooked lamb shank, and the piccante pizza topped with capicola, crushed red pepper, aged provolone and san marzano tomatoes. Both were truly fantastic pizzas. It all began with the crust. It was slightly charred in spots, leaving it bubbly and crunchy in most spots. Then came the toppings; incredibly delicious and tender lamb, salty and creamy scarmoza cheese, paper thin spicy capicola--mounds of it, perfectly aged provolone cheese with just the right amount of bite, and the always delicious and flavorful san marzano tomatoes. These pizzas were phenomenal, but they were also extremely filling. We only got about halfway through each one and wrapped the rest up to take home with us. 

Since the two of us always feel the need to satisfy our sweet tooth a little bit, we indulged in their homemade gelato, apparently a secret family recipe of the chef. The two flavors that we ordered were mascarpone and Nutella. Both were really very tasty, but I was pretty partial to the Nutella. Both were super creamy, and both had really intense flavor working for them, but I have been obsessed with Nutella for quite some time, so I finished it off rather quickly. It worked out well because my girlfriend preferred the mascarpone. Neither was a bad choice by any means. 

Three and a half pints of beer for Pizzeria Stella. You definitely don’t have to be the most fancy  place in the world to rate well on my list. All you have to do is commit to what you are doing and execute it well, and Pizzeria Stella does just that. They nail it with the pizzas, they nail it with the beer, and the service and ambiance is pretty fantastic as well. Definitely give it a chance... you won't be disappointed! Cheers!