I Heart NY
The best laid plans of pizza and wine will not go astray. Things are coming together. It is a mere 6 days and ticking until 26 of our staff heads to the Big Apple and the itinerary is set.
There is something that is different about New York than other cities. It’s palpable. Maybe it’s the history, maybe it’s the scale, but I think it’s something truly ineffable, that is unique for each person. But something about NYC makes you feel wistful and engaged, hopeful and nostalgic simultaneously. Falling in love, walking down the street, the constant discovery you are faced with on a moment to moment basis wether it be people you meet, or the dérives you find yourself on, all take on this weight of significance. I don’t know why, but I feel it every time I’m there and I hear it in the way former New Yorkers that work at Home Slice talk about their lives in The City.
Monday, we are headed to Lombardi’s, the oldest pizzeria in Manhattan. Among other things, their clam pie is ridiculously delicious. At Lombardi’s we will be joined by Scott Wiener, who has taken his passion for pizza to the next level. He has made pizza his mission and essentially gives pizza tours around NYC, full of great info, history, and of course yummy slices. Lombardi’s has become a tradition as our first meal on our trip and they are always so accommodating.
Afer that, we will take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. We’ve made a pact this year not to end our first night with karaoke, which we have done for the last two years. Beer + excitement + karaoke + last call at 4 AM= the perfect night of fun (if tomorrow never came). Although, I for one, will be sad to miss Joseph’s impassioned rendition of ‘Sister Christian.’
Tuesday, we play Slices Roulette, a game in which we all scurry to the great slice joints of Manhattan and converge in a park to share and critique the great and varied slices. Then we head to Kesté (which translates to “This is it”) for Neapolitan pizza. Then we head to Brooklyn to eat at Roberta’s. A young but proven pizzeria. They have a rooftop garden and a radio studio! Radical!
Wednesday we go on a city-wide scavenger hunt. Each team gets assigned a neighborhood and is given a suggested list of places to go to, and also to discover, on their own, the great places that make their neighborhood unique. After that, we head to Po in Brooklyn, which was initially started by Mario Batali. The reviews are phenomenal, both from publications and friends, and I for one never burn out eating Italian food, so I am stoked.
Thursday we head to Maffei’s for regular and Sicilian slices and then on to the Shake Shack. I know what you must be thinking. No, Shake Shack is not a pizza shop; it has burgers, dogs, and shakes. But it has a line around the block ALL THE TIME. As we are about to embark on a take-out business(open 7 days a week), we really wanted our peeps to see a place that is simple, quality, with friendly service and for us to understand from the other side of the fence something that is good and truly worth the wait. And shakes are the shit. Drinkable ice cream, yo! After that we head to the San Gennaro festival for the cannoli eating contest.
Marathon eating in NYC, courtesy of Home Slice Pizza. Rock!
Happy Happy Fun Book Art: Hall and Oates
Great works from our customers! Enjoy!
Hand hug!
I don’t know what the Konami special code has to do with Hall and Oates, but I’ll take it!
Blog Envy: Seth Mazow’s Year of the Pizza
Every fall, Home Slice hosts a Carnival O’ Pizza. We have games for kids, performances, a raffle, a dunking booth, contests of all kinds, and pizza of course. And prizes! Prizes galore! We have a pizza tossing contest where pizzaiolos from Austin and beyond compete to throw the fastest and largest pies. We have a pizza eating contest, which has been won by the same person three years running. AND we have a contest of will and endurance called “Hands on an Eggplant Sub.” Contestants place their hands on an eggplant sub and the last hand standing, wins. The first year we did it, it went 13 hours, we actually called it a draw because we had no idea it would go so long. We had no contingency plan for it going past 4 am when the last of our employees were gone for the day. So, the second year we planned for an overnighter and it went 27 hours! It was not a pretty sight.
Which brings us to last year’s winner, Seth Mazow. In a hot 7 hours, Seth was crowned. The rumor going around is that the gal he was up against forgot what she was doing (?) and took her hand off (?). Consequently, Seth won free pizza for a year, and he created a fantastic blog about his year eating pizza aptly titled Year of the Pizza.
Maybe Seth will be defending his title this year? Eh?
Home Slice’s guide to eats and fun in NYC
New York, NY. No business can survive in such a dense and vibrant city without being at least pretty good. You can walk into a tiny corner store with a little buffet and be pleasantly surprised by the fare. Constant discovery is one of the great things about NYC, for visitors and locals alike. We go there each September, and a few of us have lived there. We have compiled a list of places we love, and are still adding to it. And please, please share with us some of your favorite NYC destinations!
Below is a list of the place’s we’ve been as a group:
Lombardi’s
32 Spring St.
(212) 941-7994
Lombardi’s was the first pizzeria in the United States, founded in 1905 in Little Italy, Manhattan. It is alway’s our first dinner and continues to be the overall staff favorite. I haven’t had Pepe’s clam pie, but I think I can safely say that Lombardi’s is one of the best.
Grimaldi’s
19 Old Fulton Street
Brooklyn
718-858-4300
One of the last pizzeria’s to still have a coal fired oven, which burns at 800 degrees, Grimaldi’s has some of the most amazing crust in all of NYC. There is usually a line around the block, but don’t be discouraged at the sight of it, pizzas cook so fast, and the service is quick with no frills, they getcha in and getcha out with a belly full of great pizza.
John’s
302 E 12th St.
(212) 475-9531
Open for over 100 years, this place does the classics and does them right. Huge portions, a million candles, wine. And you’re off!
Katz’s
205 E Houston
Only a deli started in 1888 can be this huge! It’s kind of chaotic. You get a ticket and are shuffled down the line, you confusedly order from the wrong person, who is flabbergasted the you didn’t know you were supposed to order the waffle from that guy down there, and end up miraculously sitting at a formica table with your food. And don’t even think of losing that little ticket. They have bouncers and they won’t let you leave without it. You probably should sew it on your skin. But, dang girl, that pastrami just made your day.
Max
51 Ave B
Beautifully tender handmade gnocchi and squid ink pasta. Absolutely delicious food. Great, rustic but classy, yet not too classy, atmosphere.
Mike’s Deli
2344 Arthur Ave.
The Bronx
Located in the last true Little Italy of NYC, this place is the real fricking deal. A group of old men up front smoking cigars and playing dominos. Men yelling to each other behind the deli counter in Italian. Sopressata and mozzarella and baby-sized sandwiches. Not sandwiches for babies, sandwiches the size of a baby. You get to the front of the line and hear “Whaddaya want?! You better figure it quick out because these people behind ya look hungry!” You can go to the cafe across the street to get an espresso and Mike’s mom will sing opera while you sip. If you’re looking for the true Italian American experience and you don’t go here, you’re burnin’ money.
Bamonte’s
32 Withers St
Brooklyn
Like Mike’s Deli, it’s so old school Italian you keep thinking you see Tony Soprano out of the corner of your eye. No kidding, the guy in the corner looks like Tony Soprano. It’s the place with massive gilt mirrors, a million brass chandeliers, mauve walls, and huge, round family-sized tables with old men with napkins tucked into their collars.The appetizer for one of the eggplant rollatini is enough to feed a whole Californian family. And you know what? They’ve never tasted anything that good.
L&B Spumoni Gardens
2725 86th St.
Brooklyn
Spumoni Gardens was founded by Ludovico Barbati in 1939 and has been family owned and operated from the beginning. Generations later… the Italian Ices and Spumoni Grandpa sold off his horse drawn wagon are still the same. They serve great Sicilian slices and wonderful subs. Picnic tables under a red, white and green awning. It’s a great place to stop before heading to the boardwalk.
Patsy’s
2287 1st Ave
Located in East Harlem. As much as I’d love to comment on the food at Patsy’s, the espresso drinking contest between Jess and Adrian(Jess won with 7 double shots in under an hour) and the drunken race around the block for a dollar has eclipsed my memory of this place. Sorry.
Frankies Spuntino
457 Court Street
Brooklyn
Remember when you were a kid, and you had tons of flying dreams? Adults rarely have them. If you do you’re lucky. Even if you haven’t had one in 30 years, you remember what they feel like. This meal felt like that. We were at two long tables with our own dedicated bartender and server in a private brick building with one glass wall facing the tree-lined courtyard sparkling with lights. The food, the service, and the atmosphere were dreamy.
Check out some other places we’ve checked out individually and love!:
Coney Island
Amusment Park and beach
1208 Surf Ave, Brooklyn
(718)372-5159
Words can’t begin to describe the coolness of Coney Island. A very unique place. You have to go yourself. Guaranteed great time! Sadly the rides are only open on weekends in September. Take the D, Q N or F train to Stillwell Avenue (last stop). This takes about 45 minutes from midtown Manhattan. Coney Island has been bought out by shady developers, so historic Astroland Park will become condos, still there are plenty of reasons still to visit.
Bergen Bagel
Bagel Shop
473 Bergen St, Brooklyn
(718)789-7600
Best Bagel in the World according to Philly Phil.
Koassar’s Bialy’s
Bagel Shop
367 Grand St
(877)4-BIALYS
“Are you fucking kidding me?” says Phil Korshak. Accodring to Zagats, “Kossar’s Bialys, (is) a place customers call a Lower East Side landmark. If you’ve never tried a bialy, you should try these when you’re ready to graduate from bagels. People say this so-called “must stop” shop is unchanged by modern technology. And customers add that Kossar’s epitomizes what New York used to be about – a store doing one thing and doing it best. On a scale from 1 to 30, Kossar’s gets a 28 for quality and taste…”
Economy Candy
Candy Shop
108 Rivington St
(212) 254-1531
Economy Candy is pure over-the-top New York, a font of variety and abundance that would leave Willy Wonka weeping in his cocoa. Open Mon-Fri,Sun 9am-6pm
Classic Coffee Shop
Diner
56 Hester St
(212) 941-0643
Family owned for 30 years. Everything here is under $5. Try a real NY Egg Cream because we’re about to get a soda fountain on South Congress and Home Slice would like to serve them.
Bemelmans Bar
Bar
35 E. 76th St
212-744-1600
Nowhere is the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie more palpable than in this bastion of old-fashioned romance. Whether you’re falling in love or getting over it, settle into a leather banquette, order something strong and simple and let the piano player do the work. Murals of frolicking animals painted by bar namesake and former Carlyle Hotel resident Ludwig Bemelmans offer a whimsical counterpoint to what might otherwise be suffocating sophistication (and they repay a close viewing—can you spot the armed rabbit stalking its brethren?).
Cozy Soup and Burger
Diner
739 Broadway
(212)477-5566
So many places in Texas call themselves a “diner”, but this is what a diner is in NY. Notice the huge menu where you can get eggs burgers, fried shrimp and spaghetti. The split pea soup was the bomb when we lived here. Jen was blacklisted from getting delivery…ask her why.
The Doughnut Plant
Donut Shop
379 Grand
(212)505-3700
All natural ingredients. Touted as the best doughnuts ever by people like Martha Stewart, New York Magazine, Time-Out Magazine and Emeril Lagasse.
Il Laboratoria Del Gelato
Gelato
95 Orchard St
(212)343-9922
150 irresistible gelatos and sorbets, all handmade on the premises, in small batches, from locally sourced seasonal ingredients. A small café with a blue tiled floor and white banquettes offers a place to sit and watch the whole operation—or just indulge.
Gray’s Papaya
Hot Dogs
402 Sixth Ave
212-260-3532
Legendary Hot Dogs and cheap too! The best of the Papaya Posse, Gray’s, griddles the tastiest, snappiest $1.25 dog in town. No less a connoisseur of scrap meats than Mario Batali is a fan. The jury is out, though, on the mysterious Papaya drink.
Nathan’s famous Hot Dogs
Hot Dogs
Corner of Surf Ave and Stillwell Ave, Brooklyn
You can’t call yourself a hot Dog aficionado without having eaten a Nathans hot dog at coney island.
Faicco’s Pork Store
Italian Grocer
260 Bleeker
(212)243-1974
Faicco’s is a real butcher shop. The sausage, pork shoulder, tripe, and pig skin are here cut the old-fashioned way, by hand from whole pigs. The sausage – hot or sweet, with or without garlic, cheese, fennel or parsley.
Ferdinando’s Focacceria
Italian Grocer
151 Union St, Brooklyn
(718) 855-1545
Nearly a century old, this antique focacceria is proof that Sicilians landed in Brooklyn at the same time as Neapolitans.
Di Paolo’s
Italian Grocer
200 Grand St
(212)226-1033
You know those old Italian ladies that make such great food…this is their secret. This is where they get their ingredients for those delectable dishes. Di Palo’s has the most fabulous selection of Italian cheeses, meats (salami, prosciutto, and sausage heaven), olive oil, pasta, sauces, and olives. It’s still a family owned business and the service is friendly and top-notch.
Joes Dairy
Italian Grocer
156 Sullivan St
(212) 677-8780
Joe’s Dairy is one of those places that transports you back in time when you walk in. A true neighborhood institution, Joe’s has been run for the past twenty five years or so by Anthony Campanelli, who took over the business from Joe Aiello. During that time, Joe’s has been making what is arguably some of the city’s best mozzarella by hand.
Guss’s Pickles
Italian Grocer
85-87 Orchard St
(212)334-3616
The inspiration behind the lead character in “Crossing Delancey.” An old world Pickle shop. Only NY would have a pickle shop.
Veniero’s Italian bakery
Italian Grocer
342 E 11th St
(212) 674-7070
East Village “Italian pastry heaven” old world italian bakery. Open Mon-Thu,Sun 8am-12am
Staton Island Ferry
Landmark
Take the downtown 1 train (red line) to South Ferry Exit and follow the signs.
A must do. The Ferry leaves every half hour. It’s a 25 minute (50 min rt) ride & provides spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty & Lower Manhattan. Fare for pedestrians is free. It runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Whitehall Terminal is within a short walking distance from the 1, 9, 4, 5, N, R subway lines.
Reading Room of the New York Public Library
Landmark
Fifth Ave and 42nd St
(212) 930-0830
Humanities and Social Sciences Library. A landmark with unbelievable architecture and prominence. Amazing gift shop too. You have to go to the reading room to get the points.
Roosevelt Island Tram
Landmark
59th Street and Second Ave
Roosevelt Island, formerly known as Welfare Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City . I’m sure the island itself is cool but the Tram is really the cool part. It is $2.
Empire State Building
Landmark
350 Fifth Ave
The Empire State Building is a 102-story sky scraper. It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in until the construction of the World Trade Center. It is now once again the tallest building in New York, after the destruction of the World Trade Center.
MoMA
Museum
44 W 53rd St
(212) 767-1050
Museum of Modern Art. If you ever need inspiration this is one place you will find it. Beware, you can spend hours and hours and not even know it.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Museum
108 Orchard St
(212)431-0233
Reservations recommended 11-5:30pm. The heart of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is its landmark tenement building, home to 7,000 people from 20 nations between 1863 and 1935. Visitors to the Museum tour the cramped living spaces and learn about the lives of past residents: a German Jewish family (1870s), an Eastern European Orthodox Jewish family (1918), and an Italian Catholic family (1930s). The Tenement building can only be viewed by guided tour ($9 for adults, $7 for students/seniors). For tours and times, visit www.tenement.org/tours.html.
Central Park
Park
Between 59th st. and 110th st. (N and S)
and Between 5th ave Central Park west (E and W)
843 acres or 6% of Manhattan’s total acreage, including: 150 acres in 7 waterbodies, 250 acres of lawns, 136 acres of woodlands, 26,000 trees including 1,700 American Elms. BEAUTIFUL! Also, Modonna jogs here when she’s not in England.
Patsy’s Pizzeria
Restaurant
2287-91 First Ave
(212)534-9783
East Harlem lost its best Italian restaurant, Andy’s Colonial, last year. Not uncoincidentally, Patsy’s expanded its menu to include such southern Italian soul food as eggplant rolatini, cavatelli with broccoli rabe, and an unusually good pasta fagioli soup. Dine in the afternoon and see burly locals run in and out, their trucks idling outside, in your own private episode of The Sopranos.
Babbo
Restaurant
110 Waverly Pl
(212)777-0303
Terri’s favorite restaurant. Right around the corner from one of the places Terri and Jen lived. Another Mario Batali restaurant. You do need a reservation.
Franny’s
Restaurant
295 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn
(718)230-0221
Another Mom and Pop, neighborhood joint. This hopping little Italian restaurant has the vibe of Home Slice. It too subscibes to the philosophy; Simple is the best. Less is more. This brooklyn gem is also environmentally responsible, supporting only sustainable, local and/or organic producers. Great Pizza, Pasta, Wines and more.
Freeman’s
Restaurant
at the end of Freeman’s Alley, off Rivington
Our second year, I was sitting on the balcony of my room talking on the phone with a friend, who was a New Yorker, and asked him what his favorite restaurant in all the city was. Freeman’s, he said, and my empty phone gaze was quite literally trained on the place itself. It is exactly at the end of the alley directly across from the hotel we stay at. If that’s not Santa de Comida knocking with a battering ram! I hung up, an went directly there. This place is masculine and timeless. Not for those sensitive to the plight of furry things, the high ceilinged walls of cracked and stained plaster are peppered with taxidermy. One of the best burgers I have ever had, hands down. They serve rustic, simply prepared dishes like a lamb stew with root vegetables and potato-herb dumplings.
Gino’s Italiana Cuisine
Restaurant
780 Lexington Ave # 1
(212)758-4466
Weird cash only place just north of Bloomingdales, kind of old school fancy and some famous clientele. Any pasta with Gino’s sauce and a great Gino’s chopped salad.
Lupa
Restaurant
170 Thompson St
212.982.5089
Down-home Roman trattoria and not just for Mario Batali’s celebration of odd animal parts and Italian delicatessen, or for partner Joe Bastianich’s bid to bring depth and finesse to a casual Village joint’s wine service.
Umberto’s
Restaurant
386 Broome Street
(212)431-7545
Where mafioso, Crazy Joe Gallo, was gunned to his death on April 7, 1972. Apparently the only place anyone should really eat in little Italy anymore. Known for fresh seafood dishes. Frequented by celebrities such as Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorcese, Michael Douglass and Bette Midler open 11;00-4:00am 7 days a week.
Totonno’s
Restaurant
1524 Neptune Ave, Brooklyn
(718)372-8606
“Only God Makes Better Pizza,” Zagat. Still standing, Totonno’s is the oldest continuously operating pizzeria in the U.S. Run by the same family. They still use the finest tomatoes imported from Italy, handmade mozzarella cheese, and dough which is made daily.
Peasant
Restaurant
194 Elizabeth St
(212)965-9511
Late-night haunt for food scholars seeking the essence of roasted eggplant, say, or perfectly oval pizza bianca, or crackly, wood-cooked sardines. The food is served at crowded oak tables, in piping hot terra-cotta pots, and the feeling you always get, late in the evening, when the ovens are roaring, is of taking part in a communal, mildly bacchanalian, gourmet event. http://www.peasantnyc.com
Emilio’s Balotto
Restaurant
55 East Houston St
(212)274-8881
If Little Italy had good restaurants, they’d be like this. Though the front room has been romantically renovated, the kitchen still cooks up the same congenial mix of northern and southern food as before. Go senatorial with a roast rack of lamb, or dine like a plebeian on broccoli rabe and sausages.
Juniors
Restaurant
386 Flatbush Avenue Extension at Dekalb Avenue, Brooklyn
(718)852-5257
In 1950, restaurant Founder Harry Rosen and Master Baker Eigel Peterson, created and produced what is now known as the World’s second Most Fabulous Cheesecake (next to Home Slice’s). The recipe has been part of the Rosen family for three generations.
John’s Pizzeria
Restaurant
278 Bleeker St
(212)243-1680
Don’t even think of going to any of the other Johnny-come-lately branches of this august Greenwich Village institution—only the original turns out superlative thin-crust pies. Order the voluminous salad, dressed with red-wine vinaigrette, and ponder why the menu insists on listing every possible combination of pizza toppings.
Mama Louisa’s Hero Shop
Restaurant
609 New York Avenue, Brooklyn
(718)773-7785
This anomaly two blocks north of Kings County Hospital is a serious Italian kitchen embedded in a rural general store. Over the counter vault such delights as a roast-beef hero bathed in mushroom gravy, rigatoni bolognese, rock lobster marinara, and artichoke Parmesan, among other culinary phenomena.
Una Pizza Napoletana
Restaurant
349 E 12th St
(212)477-9950
Una Pizza is a completely unusual place run by a guy, Anthony Mangieri, who, depending on your point of view, is either a pizza visionary or a crazy man. He makes pizza in the Neapolitan fashion, and that’s all he serves. Only 4 choices–the Marina, Margherita, Bianca and Filetti– The pizzas are served in only one size, a 12-inch diameter, and they are not cut. Mangieri also uses only the best ingredients: San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, pure flour, EV olive oil, Sicilian sea salt, fresh chopped garlic.
Ecco
Restaurant
124 Chambers St
(212)227-7074
Becomes a piano bar on weekend nights. A little bit fancier old school atmosphere than Bamontes. “Old-world charm, an excellent seasonal antipasto, and classically prepared pastas, veal chops, Italian bouillabaisse, and osso buco. Very cozy narrow booths line the east wall, and tile floors take you back to the Gilded Age….”
Brick Oven Gallery
Restaurant
33 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn
(718)963-0200
Voted best pizza by the NY Press, this brick oven joint boasts that its brick oven is 112 years old. Maybe this is true, but to be honest all we really care about is the pizza and it is pretty darn good. Atmosphere is classic Brooklyn, wood paneling and all, and perfect for a cozy dinner. Italian entrees with often homemade pasta are a nice added bonus. David Wofford says THIS is the best Pizza in N.Y.
H & M
Shopping
558 Broadway, to name one
All over the city. Ladies…worth the stop. Imagine a better “Forever 21” (Men’s clothes too). Please don’t go to an Old Navy in NY unless you lose your flip flops.
Barney’s
Shopping
660 Madison Avenue
Raymond can tell you all about Barney’s
Ben’s Pizza
Slice
177 Spring St
(212) 966-4494
Ben’s is famous for its terrific Sicilian-style pizza (in big squares with lots of sweet tomato sauce and cheese). They have a killer neopolitan slice too.
Driggs Pizza
Slice
558 Driggs ave.
(718)782-4826
In Williamsburg is excellent classic NY pizza.
House of Pizza and Calzone
Slice
132 Union St, Brooklyn
(718)624-9107
Everything starts with the crisp, perfectly browned crust, because the pizza wranglers are experts at this half-century-old Red Hook institution. And the closing of the latticini just down the street has not diminished the slice’s splendor. Or go wild with the unusual deep-fried calzone, oozing ham and ricotta.
DiFara
Slice
1424 Ave J, Brooklyn
(718)258-1367
Domenico DeMarco has been elevated to sainthood by the city’s favorite foodie website (chowhound.com), and devotees dote on his every move as he fiddles with each pie, shaking on cheeses and artistically arranging the elements, shredding fresh mozzarella and cutting fresh basil onto each pie. Sometimes his artichoke slice is “on,” sometimes not, but the enjoyment of watching him work is reason enough to make a Midwood sojourn.
Famous Ray’s on 11th
Slice
465 E 11th St
(212)243-2253
Famous corner N.Y. Slice place. Sarah Ulfik’s favorite. Open until 3:00am mondays then 4:00 am tu-th, then 5:00am. In college, Jen had a job across the street at public school P.S. 41. If you ever think Home Slice has crowded working conditions, ask to use the bathroom at this place and take a picture.
Rosario’s
Slice
173 Orchard St
(212)777-9813
Classic, delicious, corner slice place. Phil says, “best slice in the city…try the eggplant.”
Joe’s Pizza
Slice
7 Carmine Street
(212)366-1182
Killer Slice.
Field Trip! Live Oak Brewery tour.
We recently had a tour at Live Oak Brewery, the only beer we carry that’s made here in Austin. Steve Anderson, the head brewer at Live Oak, was nice enough to accommodate Jessica and and I on a weekday and dropped a staggering amount of science on us!
I kept feeling like I should’ve been taking notes. In hindsight, I should have.
Before I get into the tour, a word on our beer list from one of the owners, Joseph Strickland, “The goal of the beer list is like making a great mix tape: you need some quiet/loud, some power ballads, some weird meandering shit, some ironic stuff but it all has to flow well together, woven into an overall vibe, which for our beer list means they all have to complement the pie in some way.” Nicely put, which is why we don’t have tons of beers, or many of the commonly popular beers. We aren’t trying to ruffle anyone’s feathers by not carrying their favorite beer, just as with the wines, the beers were chosen to compliment our food.
Live Oak is a small brewery located on Austin’s east side. Their year round brews are the Pilz, styled after the original Czech pilsner, Big Bark Amber Lager, a smooth Vienna style lager, and the Pale Ale. Their seasonal brews are HefeWeizen (spring/summer), Oaktoberfest (fall), and Liberation Ale (winter). You can tell by the sparkle in Mr. Anderson’s eyes as he talks about enzymes and temperatures, or, actually, any of the employees you talk to, that there is a deep passion for the craft in the folks at Live Oak. They LOVE beer. And consequently, as he points out, they have to, since they specialize in making lager beers. Lagers have a substantially longer brewing process, taking 4 to 6 weeks in most cases. A brewery could easily turn out 4 times the amount of beer in that time if they brewed ales exclusively, and make more money. But that is not the end all for these folks.
Neither of us having ever been to a brewery, or having an inkling about the beer making process, we were like kids in an alcoholic candy store.
“This one tastes like banana!” -Jessica, about the HefeWeizen
So, very very simply, this is what we learned: You start with 55 lb bags of malted barley from the Czech Republic, then you crush em up, but not too much, then they go into a big thingie called a 
mash tun where they get mixed in with hot water which breaks the starches in the malt down to sugary water. Right before the liquid is moved on from the mash tun, it’s heated up really hot to kill the enzymes that convert the starches to sugar. Then the sugary water gets drained through the “false bottom” which basically strains out the grains from the liquid.
Then the liquid, called “wort,” goes into the brew kettle where hops are added and they are boiled together. The hops are flowers that are used as the bittering agent in the beer. People talk a lot about the hops in beer, but water and malted barley are the biggest ingredients. Hops are just the squeaky wheel. If you’ve ever had an IPA or a true pilsner(i.e. Pilsner Urquell as opposed to Budweiser), that’s the bitter, hoppy flavor. 
Anyway, after that, my handle on the facts got a little fuzzy. There is only so much new science I can hold in my head at once. But, I’m pretty sure the hopped liquid gets spun inside the brew kettle so all the residual proteins and grain matter settle into a neat little pile on the bottom of the vessel, then goes through a magic cooling machine and into a big vessel where the yeast is added. In this vessel, the real fermenting action happens.
When the fermentation is done, you have beer. That doesn’t mean the beer is done, but it is technically beer. Lager, for instance, is stored for weeks at a cold temperature before it’s ready to be served.
Steve is extremely knowledgeable not only about the brewing process, but about the history of beer as well. He patiently answered all our newbie questions (is beer in green bottles supposed to taste like that?). By the end of the tour, we were ready to start our own brewery. It seems perfect; a job that combines math and science, grains and flowers, textures and smells, bubbles, no computers in sight, tall German men named Hans, and an end product you can stand behind and celebrate. A glamourous majority of the job, as Steve kindly informed us, is being on your knees and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. And then a pint of cleaning. Sterility between batches is of utmost importance to ensure quality and consistency of product. Another reason to love your craft; lots of sweat and hardwork, little glamour, but with the satisfaction that you’ve been getting people laid since since 1997.
Live Oak does tours on Saturdays at noon and they last about and hour to an hour and a half, you just have to call ahead to give them a heads up and let them know the size of your group. I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve never been to a brewery. There’s a great local brewery right in your backyard, take advantage of it and live a little!
Jenn’s Shout Out: The Daily Juice Cafe
The Daily Juice Café at 4500 Duval Street is my new jam. It’s the cream in my coffee, the chocolate chip in my cookie, the dreidle in my Jewish holiday. I want to put it on a raw, vegan, gluten-free, organic, living mixtape, blast it from my car stereo, and end world hunger. Because it could. It really could.
From juice to coconut bbq to raw chocolate, each item on the deliberately select and well-balanced menu is hand-picked with your five flavor centers in mind. The Thai Noodle Bowl is my favorite so far: organic, spiralized yam and daikon noodles with red bell pepper, sunflower sprouts, radish, coconut strips, and cilantro, all tossed in a creamy almond-ginger sauce. Yum! Not only does this dish (and everything else on the menu) satisfy every textural and temporal craving you could possibly have, it looks pretty, too. Real pretty. Daily Juice understands that eating is an experience and they have mastered the visual element with care and attention to detail. The love that goes in to each delicately placed morsel is unmistakable and is guaranteed to make your day better.
So, do something good for yourself. Go out and support your local food radicals, the rare ones who refuse to sacrifice quality for profit, and make the world a better place. One heavenly bite at a time.
(by Jenn)
Shout Out: The Good Knight
It’s 10:30 on a Thursday night. You’ve come to after a 5 hour Weeds marathon when you were only going to watch a few minutes before doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and going to return that fan to Target. Crap. You’ve been so entranced, you’re butt is numb, and now you’re hungry and the only restaurants open past 11, you don’t wan to go to. In fact, you feel so guilty about not doing laundry and all the other stuff you had planned to have done before you go out of town on Saturday, that all you really want to do is have a delicious drink to numb the guilt.
(Or something like that.)
Do I have the place for you! I almost don’t want to tell people about my favorite places, so I can love them and hug them and squeeze them and call them George all by myself, but this place is too great for me to be selfish.
The Good Knight is located on East 6th, at the corner of Attayac, just a few blocks east of I35. They are open until 2 and serve food until 12:00. The interior has a dark taverny feel, with dark wood tables and captains chairs and old family pictures covering the walls. And they are family pictures of The Good Knight’s owners and employees. It’s the kind of place that you walk into and you feel immediately at ease. All the crapola that you feel you have to carry around and worry about is left at the door. You could sit in the upholstered chair in the corner, set your drink on the end table next to the lamp and simply be. You could meet some friends and pick at the flammekueche (rustic flatbread baked with caramelized onions, crème fraiche and applewood-smoked bacon) while you sip on a June Rose (White Seedless Grapes, Basil, Bitters and Hendricks Gin) or a Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat on draft and talk about the trips you want to take together. It’s almost as if you are transported to another era where time goes a little slower (as long as you can part with your iPhone for an hour of uninterrupted analog interaction).
The bartender is a jolly, sincere, and an amazingly talented mixologist whose laugh can be heard above the Friday night din of a packed house. He truly cares about his craft and is always up to make you a custom cocktail. The following things I have had and are stop-you-in-your-tracks-and-moan-all-gross-sounding good:
The meatloaf. Not your mom’s meatloaf. Unless you’re mom is a cook at a 4 star French bistro. Angus meatloaf bacon wrapped with whiskey gravy and mashed new potatoes. Nothing less than an epiphany.
The desserts. Oh the desserts. I don’t even like dessert! The very first thing I had there was the good knight pot de crème chocolate and earl grey custard served with chantilly. The kitchen had just closed, so they were nice enough to serve me that tea cup of wonderfulness that made me clutch it to my chest like Golem and scowl unecessarily at my friend (sorry John) just to make it clear I wasn’t sharing. I am the type of person that when I find something I like, I stick with it, so it took me many months to try the (bruleed!) crustless coconut buttermilk pie with blueberry cardamom compote. I quite literally dream about that pie.
Clearly, I love food, but the cocktails are just as good. The bloody mary is really unique and made with fresh tomato juice, it makes all the difference. I could go on, and on, but I’m pretty sure Home Slice isn’t paying me to write a dissertation on The Good Knight, a shout out will suffice.
Want to WICKED impress someone on a first date, but don’t want to put too much pressure on the date by taking them to someplace fancy and stilted, yet have the quality of service and food and drink? TAKE THEM HERE.
The Cakemaker and the history of Home Slice cheesecake.
Home Slice is well known for our pizza, but our desserts are made with just as much love and care. If you’ve ever had our cheesecake, you know how wild people go for it. I’ve heard so many people say, “I don’t even like cheesecake normally, but this is unbelievable!” There’s a lot of lore surrounding our cheesecake so I recently sat down with Phil, our kitchen manager, to get the real story behind all the mystery.
Let’s take this journey all the way back to 2005, when Home Slice was being born. The owners really wanted to serve NY style cheesecake, but without a viable recipe and someone to make it, they were considering shipping it in from NYC. Ultimately they wanted to serve things freshly made, so back to square one they went. One day, Phil brings in a homemade cheesecake and Eureka! As it so fortuitously turns out, baking is Phil’s passion, among other things. In fact, Phil once employed a drill, duct tape and a 2 dollar whisk to make a cheesecake in the common kitchen of a women’s college to impress a girl. The man does not take dessert making lightly.
Our NY style cheesecake recipe came to Phil via Chicago via Houston. Phil, as a 12 year old boy and a son of New Yorkers, asked a family friend, Nicole Baker, to show him how to make her cheesecake. She treated him with the accountability of an adult and held his cakes, even at that tender and awkward age, up to the standard of her own. And thus the cakemaker was made.
As any true cakemaker will with a recipe, Phil sweated and toiled and whipped and baked and tweaked and zested and made the cake his own. When the cake became a part of Home Slice, the crust was changed from a graham cracker crust to a ricotta cookie dough. It took a lot of trial and error to bake our cake in a pizza oven and now the cake has really come into its own. It’s light and complex on the tongue with flavors of vanilla, cream, and lemon zest. Phil recognizes that food is sentimental, the smells and flavors that remind us of a love or a place or a time in our lives can be a powerful force and he treats his cakemaking with that reverence.
And it get’s better! It was discovered after we started serving our cheesecake that, as impossible to believe that it could be improved upon, the pairing of the cake with our Moscato Di Asti is about as heavenly a dessert experience as you can get. Save room, you will not be disappointed, and you just may be transported to the 7th level of bliss. To Phil, food is entirely sentimental and this cake is meant to be shared.
P.S. If you see Phil in the restaurant, chat him up. He loves to tell stories.
The cakemaker early in his career (above left), Unloading cakes from the pizza oven (above right)
