All good things come to an end As many of you know, this Newyorkavore is leaving the Big Apple for Beantown. Yep. I’m heading back to my hometown of Boston as of tomorrow (hurricane permitting). I really can’t think of a more fitting venue to have enjoyed my last big fabulous New York meal than the very soon-to-shutter legend in its own time M. Wells in Queens. It has all the trappings of a covetable New York restaurant experience: a glowing Times review, just a handful of sought-after seats, a line of eager foodies waiting anxiously around the block, fun waitstaff, and of course, innovative, magical, beautiful food that makes you feel amazing and special just for eating it. So what if we had to wait outside without any guarantee of getting in, or that they ran out of seats and we had to stand and eat, or that it was out in Queens… all the pain-in-the-ass-ness was worth it, much like so much of what this city has given to me.

As for my bloggerdom, it will live on in some form or another. Probably with a new name to fit my new life and with expanded interests including but not limited to food and cooking. It’s been an amazing seven years living and eating in the city, and a delicious three years blogging about it.  See you up north & xo.

Because you can’t have a burger for lunch everyday Souen Macrobiotic has been doling out seaweed-studded fresh vegetable dishes since the early ’70s. I hear they closed their delightfully cheesily decorated Union Square location for an overhaul, which kinda bums me out. The Soho location and East Village Organic Ramen resto are still open, ensuring neurotics, repentant indulgers and conscientious adventurous eaters will be able to get their fix in the interim.

Check out this interview I did with CafeMom about my fridge!

Pulling together a last-minute dinner plan. Which should I choose: Txikito, Yerba Buena or Co.? Thoughts?

The food at George Mendes’ haute Portuguese Aldea was, how you say, resplendent. A perfect nice-night-out spot indeed. It’s pretty hard to get a reservation, but we got lucky with a walk-in…Oh, and I heard that this Sunday at 6pm, they’re hosting a 4-course “Greatest Hits Night” with Dinner With The Band Chef Sam Mason, with pre-dinner canapés by Mendes ($110). Call 212-675-7223 to book your reservations (if there are any left…)

stuff I’ve been eating lately:

Lil’ Frankie’s, Takahachi, The V-Spot, The Redhead & Spice Market

As a person who always seems to want to eat around 4pm, locavore Mediterranean fave il Buco’s new late-afternoon menu (4–6pm) is a godsend. That, plus the fact that they’re hosting their third-annual Earth Day fundraiser, makes giving them your dining dollars a no-brainer. Monday, April 19 through Saturday, April 24, save 20% on your late-lunch bill, and Il Buco will donate the difference to the Amazon Rainforest via the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Same thing goes for regular lunch (noon–4pm), except it’s 15% off/to the cause.

Last night’s dinner party for Purple magazine went down at Paul Sevigny and Nur Khan’s just-opened resto Kenmare (at 98 Kenmare & Centre St.) Chef Joey Campanaro of Little Owl/Market Table fame let me in the kitchen after the mad rush died down. The dining room is beautifully lit and the basement feels like a Mediterranean (to match the food?) hideaway with white plaster coves. And don’t get me started on the sexy 80s bathrooms. Great party place fer sher.

Winter Restaurant Week has been extended through Feb 28—that’s nearly three more weeks to dine like a king on an assistant’s salary. Yes!

I said I’d wait a month for Choptank, the Chesapeake Bay inflicted hotspot, to cool down, and well, I ran out of patience. They had me right away with cool cocktails, complimentary Old Bay dusted chips with homemade crab dip, and staffers as passionate about the famed seasoning as I am. The oysters were as sweet on the half-shell (mmm briny Cape Cod Wellfleets) as they were fried up in the Po’ Boy. And the crab cake: a humungo puck of lumpy crabby perfection. Appetizing, eh?

Choptank, 308-310 Bleecker at Grove, 212-675-2009

My name is Angela and I’m a recovering pizza hater…OK I never really hated it but was abnormally ambivalent during my college years in Boston. The only time I could get into it was after a few too many, usually at Hi Fi or Little Stevie’s. I didn’t have regular access to Santarpio’s nor do I remember Upper Crust being a thing yet. I was more into wings anyway.

Things have changed. I have a pizza connoisseur for a boyf and I live in New York, where I’m surrounded by classics like Grimaldi’s and Di Fara and newcomers like Franny’s and Motorino. So now I end up eating a lot of pizza and now I am rightfully obsessed.

a special mushroom pie at Otto. Click to see more to-die-for pies I’ve tried in recent times…

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