As a father of two young girls, I have finally reached an important milestone.   Gone are the days of having to wolf down a meal in order to carry a misbehaving child out of a restaurant so that my wife can finish her meal in peace.  Gone are the days of children going under the table to antagonize their siblings.  Gone are the days of asking my daughters, “Do you want a cheeseburger, mac and cheese, or chicken fingers?”

Now my children want the grown up  menu.  These kids want to go to the restaurants that serve grilled artichokes with garlic aioli and roasted pork belly.  We still have to remind them to chew with their mouth’s closed and to place their napkins on their laps after being served.  But most importantly they are respectful of those who serve us our food.

Now I can travel and not have to worry about childcare while I go out and dine.  The girls can now join us in exploring great restaurants.

With that being said I planned a trip and we went to New York City.

The following represents my list of restaurants that we visited and enjoyed.

Reservations Required – Drop everything and start calling.

DBGB Kitchen and Bar

Cool place to get some excellent beers and gourmet sausages.  This is a smart casual restaurant that has great pots and pans on display donated by some of the best chefs in the city.

Les Halles

The classic French bistro made famous by Anthony Bourdain.  This is a great place to get some straightforward French food like steak and frites.

Momofuku Restaurants – can’t go wrong with any of these restaurants.  Straightforward and good.

Ma’ Peche

Noodle Bar

Ssam Bar

Otto’s

A fun family restaurant.  The entrance is like an Italian railroad station and when your table is ready the train departure board shows your name.  Great little pizzas, simple pastas, and great cured meats.

Peter Luger Steakhouse

The classic New York Steakhouse where you can only get a steak medium rare.  A steak for two can feed a family of four.  Make sure sure to get the house bacon and leave room for dessert, which they serve with a big bowl of freshly made, whipped cream.

No Reservations Accepted

John’s Brickhouse Pizza

Great sit down pizza joint in Greenwich Village.

The Spotted Pig

I love this place.  Every neighborhood should have this type of Gastro Pub.  Good food and good people.

La Esquina

Decent tacos.  Not as good as Los Angeles but it does the trick.

Patzeria Pizza

If you’re hustling to get to a Broadway show and it’s too late for a sit down dinner.  Try this pizza stand in the heart of the theater district.  This place hits the spot.  Get yourself a big slice of pizza and make sure to tip the boys.

Vosges Chocolate

When you find yourself shopping around Soho and you need a little bit of pickup, drop into Vosges Chocolate for a great bite of gourmet chocolate or drink.

For a complete list of my favorite restaurants in New York City check out my Google Map.  Get lost in New York and access via your smart phone for the nearest good eats.
View SimpleFoodie New York Restaurants in a larger map.

The Lindy and Grundy Sausages in the refrigerator have been beckoning me all week.  So with a little free time today I decided to grill up the Spicy Pork with Kimchee Sausage and the Mexican Chorizo.

I sparked up the mesquite and grilled them with some Cuban bolillos from Porto’s in Glendale, Ca.

No quite a Choripan but still a delicious combination.

To go on the side I made a Tomato and Red Onion Salad.

After grilling them up I sliced the sausage in half length wise and placed it inside of the bolillo.

Then I placed some salad on top making sure to spoon in some extra vinaigrette.

This was a killer sandwich with every bite.

First the crunch of the bread.

Then the taste of the vinaigrette soaked into the bread.

Then the spicy warm deliciousness of the sausage to be followed with the cool taste of tomatoes.

What a great way to start the long weekend.

It was a Friday afternoon and while browsing my Twitter  feed I came across a post from Lindy and Grundy.   They’re a new butcher shop in Los Angeles that sells local, pastured and organic meat.  I first became acquainted with them when I saw their name on the Cochon 555 website and then later running around the event helping out with the butcher competition and serving as judges for the competition.

On Twitter they posted:

Beef ‘n bacon grind makes the BEST burger you’ll ever have!! Top it off with Farmstead original blue cheese, caramelized onions & arugala!

That really peaked my curiosity and since I was in the neighborhood I decided to stop by and check out their shop.

What a great shop.  Super clean and bright with an impeccable selection of meats.  So much different from you what you’d expect from your local plastic wrapped supermarket meat cases.  The meat is fresh, vibrant and just beautiful.

I met Amelia Posada aka Shop Mama (total sweetheart) who described to me the Beef’n Bacon Grind.  It is comprised of 50% pork belly and is ground fresh daily.  The grind was impressive so I took home a pound to make some extra special burgers for my family.

I bought some great Kaiser rolls, heirloom tomatoes, and made a balsamic onion relish.

I formed two 1/2-pound patties with no seasoning, it doesn’t need it.

Preheated the oven to 375 degrees and warmed up a cast iron skillet over high heat.

I coated the skillet with two tablespoons of vegetable oil and seared each side of the burgers for 2 minutes.

I then placed the skillet in the oven for 10 minutes to finish cooking.

The burgers were excellent.  Juicy and tender with a great smokey bacon flavor.

I can’t wait till June when they’ll be finish dry aging 6 steers.  Their meat cases will be bursting with some incredible cuts of beef.

Check out Lindy and Grundy at http://lindyandgrundy.com/

10 Hour Pork Should with Cracklings from Mozza

What is Cochon 555?

Cochon –French for Pig.
5 Chefs, 5 Pigs and 5 Winemakers

The event founded by Brady Lowe is on a mission.

Their Mission: Cochon 555 is a one-of-a-kind traveling culinary competition and tasting event–five chefs, five pigs, five wine makers–to promote sustainable farming of heritage breed pigs. Each stop along the ten-city tour offers hard-working local farmers the opportunity to connect with like-minded agriculturalists, renowned chefs and the pork-loving public. Our goal is to help family farms sustain and expand their businesses and to encourage breed diversity. Cochon 555 is the only heritage breed pig culinary competition in the country.

The event was held last night in Downtown Los Angeles at Vibiana’s which used to be the Cathedral of Los Angeles.  This is an old church that has been stripped of all of its religious symbols and served as an appropriate setting for Swinetologists to gather and celebrate the creations of 5 of the best chefs in the city.

Octavio Becerra – Palate Food & Wine
Chad Colby – Mozza
Tim Goodell – Public Kitchen & Bar
Ben Ford – Ford’s Filling Station
Joshua Whigham – The Bazaar

This is an amazing event.   Each chef gets a 175 pound heritage breed pig and they have to prepare it from head to toe with dishes to wow the judges and guests.  The winning chef receives an invitation to the finals held at the Aspen Food and Wine Festival.

The food just didn’t stop coming.   Trying to keep up with the numerous choices was overwhelming.  And just when you think it’s over they roll out two milk fed pigs that have been smoked for 12 hours for what they call the family meal.  Shortly thereafter they bring out trays a light and crispy fried pork skin with a dark chocolate sauce for dipping.  Pure decadence.

The winner for the Los Angeles stop was Chad Colby from Mozza who prepared an incredible Italian inspired menu.

The winner for Los Angeles was Chad Colby from Mozza.

For more information please visit www.cochon555.com

Vibiana's

Chef Ben Ford finishing up the judges plates.

Cochon 555 Founder Brady Lowe

Tim Havidic of – Lindy and Grundy , L.A.

Javier the Butcher from – Rocker Bros Meats, Inglewood, CA

The farmers.

Plates headed to the Judges Table.

Tim Goodell – Public Kitchen & Bar

Public Kitchen & Bar

Graham Piglets

12 Hour Smoked Milk Fed Pork

The Festive Crowd

The Altar of Pork

Chicharrón with Chocolate

Joshua Whigham – The Bazaar, Ben Ford – Ford’s Filling Station, Chad Colby – Mozza, Tim Goodell – Public Kitchen & Bar, & Octavio Becerra – Palate Food & Wine

The Winner -Chad Colby - Mozza