Dylan Prime (Lounge)
62 Laight Street (@ Greenwich)
New York, NY 10013
(212) 334-4783
[map] [subway directions]
Rating: 3.75/5
Notes:
- Burger: Dylan’s patty was one of the best we’ve had in terms of flavor and texture. It’s a nice, meaty, thick patty of lean ground beef generously seasoned with salt and pepper. Every bite was delicious.
- Bun: The sesame encrusted bun wasn’t that flavorful or interesting. Nevertheless, it held the fat sandwich together very nicely and didn’t threaten to fall apart.
- Garnish: The burger comes topped with cheddar and accompanied by an unimpressive slice of tomato, red onion, and a couple of leaves of lettuce. This garnish added little to the overall experience. Disappointing since our visit coincided with the height of fresh tomato season.
- Mess factor: Dylan presents a fat, not messy burger, as long as one can open wide.
- Fries: Light, thin, crispy fries, cooked just right and topped with a hint of salt. The burger comes with a pile of fries, and they are good enough to keep enjoying long after the sandwich disappears.
- Price: $12 – includes the cheddar, fries, and garnish.
- Bordeaux: A 2000 Cotes de Bourg from Chateau Tayac that the waitress was more enthusiastic about than we were. This starts as a decent wine, very leggy, pretty dry and heavy enough on the tannins to elicit a pucker. Some breathing time improved the overall experience; we could eventually pick up hints of cherry or berry along with oak.
- Atmosphere: You could definitely take a girl here. In fact, we do this often.
- Overall: It’s safe to say that Dylan Prime is one of our favorite steak houses in the city. It was nice to walk into the lounge on a Friday evening and sit right down at a large booth to enjoy our dinner. This is a very cool room dominated by a sweeping bar backed with liquor bottles that climb to the high ceiling. The lanterns hanging from long cords overhead and the candles that light the back bar lend to a subdued atmosphere. The pop hits of the 80’s and 90’s playing in the background might threaten this atmosphere, but the volume is kept in check so that Glass Tiger tune won’t impair your conversation all that much.
It’s impossible not to recommend this place. However, the overall experience of Dylan is best paired with one of their mouth-watering steaks and enough of their delicious sides or fondues to make you feel like you’ve eaten like a king for a week. So, have a drink in the lounge, then adjourn to the restaurant for a proper meal.
June 25th, 2006
Petite Abeille
(multiple locations)
401 East 20th Street (at First Avenue)
New York, NY 10010
(212) 727-1505
[map] [subway directions]
Rating: 3.75/5
Notes:
- Burger: The great thing about this burger is that it comes with a nice, thin slice of pancetta, which offers all the benefits of bacon with the texture and intensity of cured meat. In fact, it was the pancetta that originally got our attention when we glanced at the menu in front of their West Broadway location. It went great with blue cheese and it really makes a standout hamburger out of an otherwise average patty.
- Bun: An effective white-bread bun; it held up to the juicy burger.
- Garnish: The tomatoes actually tasted good and the red onions were sliced nice and thin. The lettuce came as a little salad of mixed greens that presumably you could put on top of your burger. In reality, the lettuce lacked crunchiness and therefore didn’t make for a great garnish. The burger also came with “special sauce” but despite our best efforts, we couldn’t distinguish it beyond the mayonnaise. It probably wasn’t ketchup & mayonnaise and it definitely wasn’t thousand island dressing. Perhaps they should have served it with the fries (see below).
- Mess factor: The best of both worlds here — a nice, juicy burger with no mess.
- Fries: Since this is a Belgian restaurant, we were looking forward to the fries and, perhaps, some interesting mayonnaise. The fries were Belgian style, a bit thicker than the shoestring variety we are so fond of. Unfortunately, these were a bit on the soggy side. The lemony mayonnaise that accompanied the fries was shortly replaced with ketchup which was not enough to help bring them back to life. The .25 points that keep Petite Abeille away from a 4-point rating were lost soley on the sad tale of these fries.
- Price: $12
- Bordeaux: 2001 Chateau Cadillac. A drinkable wine, but nothing special. We should have known as much when selecting a wine that carries the namesake of either a General Motors brand or the founder of Detroit (we’re not really sure what the vintner was going for here).
- Atmosphere: You could take a girl there.
- Overall: When you walk into Petite Abeille, the newness of the space and the cookie cutter bistro decor makes it feel a little like a chain restaurant, which it is, albeit local. We chose the location on the Stuytown/Peter Cooper Village corridor — a neighborhood enjoyably devoid of any hipness*. The restaurant was humming with business, mostly locals out for dinner on one of the first nice nights of spring. The outdoor tables on 20th Street were full, as was most of the restaurant inside. Generally, we don’t comment on service, but the staff was attentive and jovial amidst all the buzz of a busy spring evening. We had a drinkable bottle of wine, a great hamburger, and we walked away feeling like we could recommend this place to anyone who isn’t 100% adamant about good fries. N.B. We’re willing to give the fries a second chance at “Moules à go go”, Petite Abeille’s all you can eat mussel night on Wednesdays.
* We harbor no ill will toward the far-east 20’s, in fact, J.P. is ready to look for an apartment there. This is a move that will do nothing but reduce whatever charm or hipness this neighborhood has going for it. So for that, we apologise in advance.
April 4th, 2006