The Unvegan

Recent Posts

10 Years of Unvegan
A Quick Bite at Burrito Express
Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

‘New York City’

12/9/2013 New York

Frying Hard at Forcella (CLOSED)

Mmm elephant ear.
Mmm elephant ear.

EDIT: This location is closed, but if you still want fried pizza there are other Forcellas to be found.

While in New York, I ended up making my way to Forcella in the East Village to grab some pizza. After all, no trip to New York really counts unless pizza is involved. Forcella’s pizza, though, was much more Italian than New York-style and even that Italian had a twist to it. That twist was a little something called Montanara, which is more than just a combination of the state of Montana and marinara.

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3/12/2013 New York

Off the Marc at Landmarc

Tasty? Yes.
Tasty? Yes.

As New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world, I expect every meal I eat there to give me a heart attack when I see the bill. When this is not the case, I am overjoyed. With those thoughts running through my head, I found myself at Landmarc in TriBeCa for dinner with a bunch of friends. The majority of the menu intrigued me, but seemed a tad pricey. That’s when I saw the Landmarc Hamburger.

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3/7/2013 Brooklyn

To the Point at The Smoke Joint

Insanely beefy ribs.
Insanely beefy ribs.

You know that feeling when a musician you “discovered” finally gets some radio playing time? In the food world, the equivalent is finding out that one of your favorite restaurants was featured on an awesome Travel Channel or Food Network show. I’d like to say this has happened to me before, but certainly it happened to my brother-in-law in New York. While I was visiting in Brooklyn, he took me to his favorite local BBQ place, which had just been featured on Drivers, Drive-Ins and Dives. It’s called The Smoke Joint, and as soon as I entered I felt at home.

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4/6/2010 New York

Real New York at Lombardi’s

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Extra cheesy.

While Artichoke represents the new trendy side of New York pizza, it wasn’t really quite New York style pizza. You know, the kind you have to fold a bit to eat and everyone says tastes better because of the water. Yeah, Artichoke wasn’t that type of place, but Lombardi’s sure was. Apparently Lombardi’s is a pretty big deal and they claim to be the first American pizzeria. It is quite a boast, and apparently it does a good job of filling the seats, but we got there around 3:00 (on the way to Uniqlo of course) and only had to wait about 10 minuted for a table to open up.

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4/1/2010 New York

Tasting the Other Side at Artichoke

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Oh no green.

On stop two of our late-night food binge (after Pommes Frites), we headed to a little pizza shop called Artichoke. Here they specialized in, wait for it, artichoke pizza. Apparently therseI felt uncomfortable just being there, but I was told that this was some of the best pizza in New York. That it quite a claim, and after a stern talking-to, I was convinced to try some of the artichoke pizza, even against my better unvegan instincts.

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3/30/2010 New York

Almost Canadian at Pommes Frites

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Oooh curds.

After a few drinks, our tour guide (aka the girlfriend’s bro) took us to a little hole in the wall called Pommes Frites. Here, they specialized in cones of Belgian fries served with some crazy sauces like Pomegranate Teriyaki Mayo, Irish Curry and more. These seemed all good and well, but I saw something on the menu that tickled my fancy even more: Poutine.

For the uninitiated and un-Canadian, poutine (pronounced pooh-teen) is a gloriously unvegan treat consisting of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. This combination creates something spectacular, yet rarely found south of the Great White North. It had been a long time since I was in Canada and I was with a couple poutine virgins, so we ordered a large one to split for six bucks.

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3/29/2010 New York

Porking Out at DBGB

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Thai sausages. Extra small.

For a fancy little evening on the town in Manhattan, we took a trip to Bowery Street to eat at a swanky place called DBGB. I’m not sure what the entire acronym stands for, but I’m pretty sure the D and one of the Bs are the initials of Daniel Boulud, some big time chef in NYC. We had a big party, so we made reservations beforehand, yet still had to wait a good 15 minutes before our table was ready. In that time, we headed over to the bar, which had a huge mirror on it and a ton of beers listed. One would think that these mirror beers would be the available beers, however, we were told that the mirror was out of date and handed a menu. Too bad, because one of my life goals is to order beer from a mirror and that will have to wait.

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3/24/2010 New York

Attack of the Shake Shack

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Shake Shack? More like rain shack.

On a rainy Friday morning, I arrived in New York City for the first time as a meat blogger with one goal: to eat. Most importantly, I had to eat at the Shake Shack. I had heard much about the Shake Shack from the New York-centric food blog known as Serious Eats, yet there are plenty of good burgers in LA, so I never felt an overriding desire to get a burger at Shake Shack. Then I heard that Shake Shack was run by none other than Danny Meyer, the famous New York restaurateur. More importantly, though, is that Meyer is a fellow alum of Camp Nebagamon, the greatest place in the world (if you don’t believe me, read this). No doubt, his restaurant skills draw upon his experience at Nebagamon and I made sure to get to Shake Shack as early as possible to see what those skills had created.

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