Sunday, March 04, 2007
I love going to hidden or secret bars and restaurants in the city. It's like the movie Swingers: it's cool to go to one of these places because it means you know how to find them.
Some favorite (somewhat secret) places are:
The Back Room
Angel's Share
East Side Co
Last Wednesday I had dinner at Kuma Inn, a Thai tapas restaurant in LES. There's no sign; you walk through an random door, up some stairs, and down a hall. Food was excellent. But we had to wait 45 minutes for a table with no reservation.
Thursday was amazing.
Had dinner at La Esquina. From the outside, La Esquina is a little taco stand. There are a few tables, and service from the sidewalk through the window. If you walk inside, go through the door marked "Employees Only", down the stairs, through the kitchen, passed a coat check, and you end up in a beautiful underground Mexican restaurant.
La Esquina is a celebrity hotspot. Great food and margaritas. highly recommended. You won't be let in (even to the bar) without reservations.
After that we went to Milk and Honey. This is as secret as it gets. The location is a secret (though you can figure it out by searching online). The phone number is also a secret, and it changes every few months. You can only get in if you have a reservation, so if you don't know their current number, forget about it.
I got the number from Jason and called them earlier in the day. The voicemail message said to text them my reservation request. I sent them an SMS and got a response a few hours later confirming. We arrived at around 9pm and found the door with the address on it. We rang a bunch of door bells, stared into the camera above us, and eventually we were buzzed in.
The place is tiny and not particularly nice. But the cocktails are really amazing. You just tell the bartender what kind of drinks you like and he'll make some random concoction. I had a great whisky sour type drink, made with egg whites and everything.
Milk and Honey only seats about 20 people so if their info was public they would be packed with a line outside every night. By changing their phone number constantly they limit how many people can find them. Instead of letting in the first 20 people who show up each night, they let in 20 people who are resourceful enough to find their number. I love it.
Some favorite (somewhat secret) places are:
The Back Room
Angel's Share
East Side Co
Last Wednesday I had dinner at Kuma Inn, a Thai tapas restaurant in LES. There's no sign; you walk through an random door, up some stairs, and down a hall. Food was excellent. But we had to wait 45 minutes for a table with no reservation.
Thursday was amazing.
Had dinner at La Esquina. From the outside, La Esquina is a little taco stand. There are a few tables, and service from the sidewalk through the window. If you walk inside, go through the door marked "Employees Only", down the stairs, through the kitchen, passed a coat check, and you end up in a beautiful underground Mexican restaurant.
La Esquina is a celebrity hotspot. Great food and margaritas. highly recommended. You won't be let in (even to the bar) without reservations.
After that we went to Milk and Honey. This is as secret as it gets. The location is a secret (though you can figure it out by searching online). The phone number is also a secret, and it changes every few months. You can only get in if you have a reservation, so if you don't know their current number, forget about it.
I got the number from Jason and called them earlier in the day. The voicemail message said to text them my reservation request. I sent them an SMS and got a response a few hours later confirming. We arrived at around 9pm and found the door with the address on it. We rang a bunch of door bells, stared into the camera above us, and eventually we were buzzed in.
The place is tiny and not particularly nice. But the cocktails are really amazing. You just tell the bartender what kind of drinks you like and he'll make some random concoction. I had a great whisky sour type drink, made with egg whites and everything.
Milk and Honey only seats about 20 people so if their info was public they would be packed with a line outside every night. By changing their phone number constantly they limit how many people can find them. Instead of letting in the first 20 people who show up each night, they let in 20 people who are resourceful enough to find their number. I love it.