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Visiting New York to see Luna Luna at The Shed in Hudson Yards, miss_chance and I wanted a good but unpretentious dinner. This was an opportunity to have better Indian food than you can get in Boston and we picked a likely-looking place: Patiala on 34th at 9th. The menu is quite extensive and everything we had was a delight -- this was long enough ago that I don't actually recall the standouts, but I took a lot of notes on their Daal Makhani which I will be applying to my own recipe. It has been a while since I've had that kind of learning experience as a diner and cook and I imagine there are many more such learning experiences available there.

Patiala Indian Grill
371 W 34th St (just east of 9th Ave)
New York, NY 10001
+1.212.564.2974

M-F 1100-1600 and 1700-2030
Sa-Su 1100-2030

Walk-in only and that was not a problem at 7:45 on a Wednesday night, though their other location a block or so away does take reservations.

Looking for a nice meal in Venice last year, miss_chance and I called several Michelin-listed restaurants and this was the one at which we could get a table (and in general, it didn't seem like getting a table here would be terribly hard). They were not good about dietary restrictions but the food was excellent and not nearly as expensive as one might expect a meal this nice to be -- we were out of there for less than €150 including wine. And, it's around the corner from the fabulous Teatro Italia supermarket.

I've had two conversations in the last week with people planning travel to Venice and in each case I had to hunt around on my phone to find the info for this place. So:

La Colombina
Cannaregio 1828 (Vaporetto: San Marcuola)
30131 Venezia VE, Italy
Reservations available by email at info@ristorantelacolombina.eu
+39 041 522 2616
Fri-Tue 1230-1430 (but check first, they have occasional other lunch closings as well)
Thu-Tue 1900-2200

In May 2018, on my way home from Madison WI, I spent the night in Milwaukee and had dinner at a nice looking dinner spot. They had a wide variety of pie and I had the cherry. It was the best pie I have ever had in my life, which is saying quite a lot.

The incredible thing is that it was probably not even the best pie they serve.

I posted to Facebook about this and my family were all indignant that the crown did not go to my aunt Linda's cherry pie. But I've never actually had her pie, so it's no insult to her that it's not the best I've had.

Nonetheless, her daughter considered her family honor to be on the line and issued a bake-off challenge. I figured I'd bring pie home with me the next time I passed through Milwaukee. That was going to be May 2020, but then it wasn't.

I'm starting to figure out plans for a rescheduled bake-off. With pie from Honeypie. If Linda's pie really is better it will be glorious.

Honeypie Cafe
2569 S Kinnickinnic Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53207
(414) 489-7437
Wed-Mon 0900-2100

Tse Wei Lim blogs that to be a regular at a restaurant, you have to live near it. This is in a context of creating community, and how some restaurants do it and some don't, and how there are kinds of welcoming that can only be done by a community and not by the restaurant itself.

I certainly agree about what it is to be welcomed into a restaurant. It also takes openness on the part of the diner, but I still vividly recall being welcomed by the community at the New Sheridan Chop House in Telluride, CO over a decade ago. This was largely customers, but also most of them were workers at other restaurants, that being the chief industry in Telluride in the summertime, and they were clearly friends and peers with the Sheridan's bartender. I've similarly been welcomed by the regulars at other bars and diners across the country.

But I don't think I buy that you have to live nearby. Certainly it's not sufficient. For over a year I lived about as close to Christopher's in Porter Square as you could live, and ate there several nights a week, but I was never a regular either in the sense of being part of a welcoming community of patrons there or by other measures such as getting to know any of the staff or having a standing order. I was certainly a regular by any measure at Emma's Pizza (now sadly closed) in Kendall Square, three miles from my house. And there was a while there when I'd have called myself a regular at a little Korean breakfast place in Gaithersburg, Maryland, some 450 miles from my house. Yes, that's because nosebeepbear lives nearby, but she doesn't (and couldn't afford to) live in the tony mixed-use development for which the Gazebo Cafe was, all too briefly, part of the curated restaurant list in the way that Tse Wei describes in his post.

Visiting the Beacon/Newburgh area, miss_chance and I stopped in at Tito Santana hoping for delicious tacos. Those they had, but they also had six different kinds of empanadas, none of which had cheese in them (as some of my readers know, I can't eat dairy with antibiotic residue in it).

Over two visits I had three different kinds, and the brisket was a particular star. The pulled pork was also excellent and the beef empanada was OK but not as amazing as the brisket. miss_chance reports that the grilled fish taco was excellent, and much better than the catfish taco. They had Culture Pop sodas which were new to me but very tasty, and a nice cold brew coffee.

Tito Santana Taqueria
142 Main St
Beacon, NY 12508
(845) 765-2350
open daily 1100-2100

When miss_chance and I were in Flagstaff on our honeymoon not quite fifteen years ago, we thought it had a certain something... you know what I mean. Like Austin, or Boulder, it's a cultural oasis. I don't even remember what we found -- a used bookstore, perhaps, or a neat breakfast spot -- that made us like it so much, but this is one of those places in which a bohemian coffeehouse like Macy's simply has to exist. It didn't take very long to find it, and once I did I got a lovely grilled cheese (Havarti on homemade whole wheat, made on a panini press), and a hearty vegetable stew (it's all vegetarian here, natch, but the food doesn't suffer). The chai is fantastic. There's an enormous coffee roaster in the middle of the seating area, and a sign saying "coffee roasted daily", and a delicious smell pervading the whole place. The only flaw is there don't seem to be any outlets near the bar seating along the windows, so anyone with a computer has to take a table. But at least the tables near the outlets are 2-tops instead of 4.

Macy's European Coffee
14 South Beaver Street (about a block from the Amtrak station)
Flagstaff, AZ
(928) 774-2243
macyscoffee.net
Open daily 0600-2000 (this is not written down *anywhere*, not even in the cafe itself, but the barista answered with confidence so I think it's trustworthy)

Rachel Mello has been nominated for the Boston Phoenix's "Best Artist"!

Arisia has been nominated for the Boston Phoenix's "Best Nerd Gathering"!

(ETA:) Journeyman has been nominated for the Boston Phoenix's "Best New Restaurant"!

You know what to do...

Last night, miss_chance arranged dinner for six at Love and Butter in honor of infinitehotel's birthday. This was a brilliant idea for a host of reasons and a complete surprise to infinitehotel, who knew that there were such things as underground restaurants in the world but not that there were any around here. The chefs are exceptional and neither miss_chance nor I can think of a meal we've ever had that was better.

The menus on the web are incomplete: there are amuses-bouche and intermezzi and breads and supernumerary desserts and extensive wine suggestions (it's bring your own). Last night's meal ran with a tomato theme to amazing effect, which gave an awareness of the meal as a complete work as opposed to a collection of dishes.

An underground restaurant can be adventurous, and serving a set menu means the small dishes can get the attention they deserve. But what's really amazing about a place like this is that the menu can be a collaboration, worked out in the weeks before the meal, between the chefs and the diners. This works because the restaurant is small enough that this can be a single conversation, and because there are so few seatings.

Love and Butter
Address redacted
Seatings by arrangement, but usually Saturday at 7:30pm

Don't be fooled by the name: Mama's Fish House has class. This is the class that the big resorts shoot for and miss. Our first tip-off was the free valet parking. Then it was the complimentary umbrellas in case of rain on the short walk from the valet stand to the maitre d's hut. The gorgeous sunset beach view through a coconut grove. And the food -- oh, the food! Each day's menu describes which fisherman caught each of the fish selections, where, and on what boat. Good tuna is everywhere in Hawaii, but really fresh Mahi-Mahi is hard to find, and Mama's has it. The sauces are interesting without being distracting. The local produce is varied and delicious, and the ti-wrapped island pig that came with my Pua Me Hua Hana was wonderfully succulent. miss_chance's Ahi was perfect, seared an eighth of an inch deep on the outside, and deep red and buttery smooth on the inside, with a delicious but not overwhelming pepper crust. Dessert was likewise excellent. If you've gone to all the trouble of going to Maui, do not miss this restaurant.

Mama's Fish House
799 Poho Place (about a mile east of town on the Hana Highway)
Paia, HI 96779
(808) 579-8488
www.mamasfishhouse.com

Brunch this morning at The Neighborhood reminded me of the best omelettes I've ever had. Made in a Hamilton Beach milkshake mixer, these four-egg omelettes are poured on top of their fillings, giving the fillings time to acquire a lovely roasty buttery flavor while still being fresh and delicious, and without overcooking the incredibly light, fluffy eggs. Oh, and they have incredible waffles too. Don't be put off by the line; you'll be seated before you know it.

Camellia Grill
626 S Carrollton Ave (on the trolley line, right after the turn)
New Orleans, LA 70118-1094
+1.504.866.9573
Sun-Thu 0900-0100
Fri-Sat 0700-0300
Cash only