Top 10 Restaurants in Hoboken

okay, so after living in and around the area on and off for a few years, I have to admit that the better restaurants survive in Hoboken. here are the top 10...

The Dining Room at Anthony David's

www.anthonydavids.com

111 Tenth Street at Bloomfield St.

Brass Rail
http://www.thebrassrailnj.com/they have a great wine list and i've had some solid dinners here.

LUAhttp://www.luarestaurant.com/
1300 Sinatra Drive North, Hoboken, NJ
hands down, this is at the top of the list. I don't think I've ever had anything there that I didn't like. though the place is a little loud the few evenings I've been there, the Sangria is consistently the best I've ever had.  Normally before my second glass, I know that calling a cab is a good idea.

Empanada Trio & Hummus Platter

Charrito'shttp://www.loscharritos.com/
best Mexican I've ever had. If you bring some good red table wine they also make a killer sangria. These pictures unfortunately don't do it justice.



Court Street
http://www.courtstreet.com/This place has some salads I really dig and when you go there for lunch on the weekends, the Irish Soda Bread is something you will never get tired of.

Maxwell's
http://www.maxwellsnj.com/i had an awesome cosmo there on a saturday night.
they also have a solid menu of things they make really well & their shows rock and it's an intimate venue. What's not to love?

La Isla
http://www.laislarestaurant.com/probably the best Cuban in NJ.

7 Star Pizza
they have the best pizza.
forget about all that nonsense about other places having gi-normous slices.


Qudobamexican grill
If you don't eat the whole burrito in one sitting, you will thank yourself in the morning.


The Madison Bar & Grill
http://www.madisonbarandgrill.com/This place has some top notch steaks and salads. I've spent a New Years dinner here. I've never had a dish here that I didn't love.
Their $25 jazz brunch is awesome too!! Viva creme brulee french toast!

Margherita's
The best Italian in town.

Cucharamama

malibu
when i missed dinner because i was working late while in college, this place always saved me from major cranky tyraids. they have great pancakes, coffee (much love to Lacas), and hamburgers.

Tokugawa Sushi
1120 Washington Street

BYOB what more can I say asesome seaweed salad, awesome sweetheart dumplings, new favorite sushi place in Hoboken...
If you weren't counting, there were actually 12! Ha! I'll update with pictures if I come across them...

Need Some Hope

Life's been to insanely busy to really write anything these days. I've seen a couple of great shows. A few CDs that have been on repeat include Delta Spirit's Ode To Sunshine, which is an AWESOME CD! And Josh Rouse's Subtitulo ..both of which I'm psyched that they are so good because it's been such a long time since I've been able to listen to a whole CD from start to end over and over (and over). I saw Delta Spirit open for Dr. Dogg at the Maxwell's a few weeks ago and they brought down the house so to speak. It was amazing. When I was at the show I couldn't help but comment how I felt like I was in a room full of mountain people; but I don't want to bucket the whole room into one category because I do admit that I think I also saw a fisherman, a hunter, and a blacksmith in the mix. So it was to no surprise that the liner notes in the CD said:

Recorded in a cabin.

So I've been addicted to this wine from Australia - Hope. I've had a lot of Hope these past few weeks. A new wine store down my block was sampling a few bottles and this was one of them. So what if I have a problem? I'm beginning to think I need help. What ever happened to the corporate limit? Wasn't it 2 drinks?

My boss came to town a few weeks ago and after a dinner with the team [after a few drinks] I vaguely remember dessert. In fact, the next day my boss commented to me that we went over what the average per person rate was, as to which I responded:

Me: How did we go over? Didn't we only do the $22/person package?
Boss: You forgot the incidentals.
Me: What incidentals?
Boss: The Merlot?
Me: The Merlot??
Boss: You DON'T remember the Merlot??
Me: OOOH! The Merlot? Yeah...(I did remember, it was pretty good...)
Boss: Yeah! After your second glass you started talking to Matt in Spanish!
Me: I don't even know Spanish.
Boss: Well you were also to the waiter in Spanish and you two were having a conversation.

So folks, looks like I know Spanish. There's Hope for me yet.

So a new favorite restaurant as of recent is the much admired and respected Cuba, where we ate more than we should but, nevertheless, the Oxtail was excellent as well as the Sangria. Think of a home cooked meal. Think Martino's up a few notches and less heavy (i.e. not an evident amount of oil and butter).

I also saw a reunion tour of Superdrag a few weeks ago at the Filmore (formerly known as our beloved Irving Plaza). That was a way awesome show as well and was one of those shows that got me listening to all their songs again.

Another satisfying meal was on a biz trip up to the evar-exciting Rochester where I stayed at the Marriott. By the time we got there (we drove) we were so drained that we ate at the hotel restaurant, which is not a bad thing since it is known for being really good anyway.

I has some filet - medium rare and boy did they do me right!

Somewhere along the hustle and bustle, we also paid some guy on the street $5 to write us a poem. Can't say you do that everyday, but if he ever published it into a book, at least we can say we have an original!

Other than all that, nothing too new and nothing too exciting. I'll leave you with a picture that I really like. The kids were really hyper at this shoot. I would wear these socks to work if it wouldn't be such a career killer. Maybe I could use the cold weather as an excuse...I'm not a fan of the 80s fashion comeback, but I'd do these legwarmers...

Blue Ribbon Sushi

Blue Ribbon Sushi
119 Sullivan Street
212-343-0404

nuff said.

Annie Leibovitz

On Sunday my Father had planned on stopping by to help install some things for me, but he ended up cancelling. This gave me the perfect opportunity to catch the Annie Leibovitz exhibit Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005, which has a book of the same title, at the Brooklyn Museum.

By the time I got there, it was a little past 3pm, but the line was out the door and around the premisis. After an hour and a half, we reached the ticket counter and finally made our way in. Annie Leibovitz is probably my favorite photographer because she does it all and she doesn't conform herself to one style, they say "her pictures are almost as varied as her subjects." She mostly does portraits and I love taking people's portraits.

Anyway, her exhibit was awesome! I can't remember a time where I went to an exhibit and had to stop and read all the signs. I don't know what it is.

Afterwards we went into Tribeca and found the best Latin Bistro EVAR, Ideya! They bring you out a basket of banana chips that were awesome and salsa that was awesome. I ordered the Costillas de Reyes (braised beef short ribs, roasted sweet potato, beet salad, orange gravy) and that was the best beef short ribs EVAR! (Although the one I had at Knickerbocker was awesome too!) Ivan had the Chuleta Rellena, which is
cornbread & chorizo stuffed grilled pork chop, apple-tomato slaw, sherry wine sauce. How can you go wrong with that combo! I found my new favorite restaurant! You have to try this place!

We also tried the Sangria Blanco and the Sangria Roja, and thee Banana Tres Leches Cake (Latin sponge cake made with three milks, banana cream sauce) and the Ideya Flan.

I need to plan a trip back here....EGW dinner? Brunch of the month?

My camera battery failed to recharge (*grrr*) and I didn't get any pictures except those I posted to my mobile blog, but better than nothing! :)

Happy Holidays!

Hey Everyone! I know I owe a bunch of people a bunch of phone calls so sorry about all that! I just wanted to send out a quick message of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope that everyone is doing well! I am so exhausted from this weekend, which included a Russian restaurant - Kabaret, a trip out to PA to visit family, and a trip back to NYC for more family fun.

I also went back to the favorite Argentinian Caracas Arepa Bar with Carl and Ivan followed by The Fab Faux show at Webster Hall, where they played the White Album from cover to cover.

Awesome.

BEST PAELLA EVAR!

I can't seem to stop raving about this. This is hands down, the BEST PAELLA EVAR!

If you're in Ft. Lauderdale, go to Brio Mediterranean Bistro on Las Ola...
I also posted a review on City Search.

bob, bubble, & beatles

I was waiting to get some pictures from a friend before I posted this week.

Friday I had off and I visited a friend in Hoboken who was working. We went to a local coffee shop and relaxed and caught up. It was nice to be able to have some time to catch up with friends who you'd otherwise not see on a normal week. She also gave me a book that she was the publishing editor for. It must be so satisfying to have your name on a piece of work that you had a hand in producing. That's so cool!

On my way back home I ran into Ivan, Sof, and Adam who were maliciously loitering around in the street. They were hungry and we all ended up going (back) down to Charritos in Hoboken. The food there is so dangerously good.

After my class I visited my family to join them for lunch. Visiting home reminds me of how much I missed my family's cooking and it left me craving for real food for the rest of the week. :-)

On Sunday we had a performance at the Jersey City Museum. Ivan was playing Bob Dylan's Ballad of a Thin Man and his guitar teacher and myself were accompanying him.

We were the last act in the last show, so you can say that we were headlining the headlining show. =) Ivan's friend came over to take these pictures and help us move all the equipment and just to see the performance. Ivan's sister and her friend also came to see the show.

Ideally we wanted to hang out with everyone afterwards to celebrate, but we had a salsa class in Hoboken that we had to get ready for afterwards (after fixing the neighbor's air conditioner). The class was a private 1x1 lesson and before us there was a couple learning to do a ballroom dance for their wedding that was the following weekend. That was their last lesson of 4 lessons and they had their dance down. The salsa class was a lot of fun too and the girl who helped out the instructor was a girl I knew back from our college days as well as the days when we use to drive down to the group lessons, which stopped after the accident. Private lessons are a little more than group lessons but they progress much faster and you get more out of it because of new people who'd join the class every week.

Afterwards we went back home to change and then went back down to Sinatra Park to see a show that was rescheduled due to rain last Thursday. The band was called Bubble and they were doing the whole Abbey Road and A Hard Days Night album. They were excellent! We bought their album of original music too. Apparently last year they did the whole White Album. That must have been great too...it was probably the best Beatles performance I've seen.

I realized that the next best thing to seeing a concert in New York, is see a concert with New York as its backdrop. It's even better when the band's musicians are pro and the music is awesome...it leaves me with such a satisfied feeling...

Afterwards we went to The Brass Rail to do a little celebrating for our show earlier in the day. We both had one of the specials, tilapia, and a really good bottle of wine. Ivan said if was the best weekend of his life and I agreed. It was a lot of fun, especially since the show went really well!

Here is a clip of Bubble doing Carry That Weight (it may only work in IE), if you listen real carefully you can get an idea of how beautiful the strings sound (!!!) :

I will try to post a video from the show when I get a chance!

Memorial Day Weekend

The weeks just seem to fly by and the weekends go even faster. Most of the time it was a blur and if it weren't for all the pictures I take and receipts in my wallet, I probably would forget most of what happened. We started our weekend early on Friday.

We played music at home and went into the city to run some errands. What those errands were, I don't remember exactly, but I do remember buying some 120mm film for one of my cameras - Ivan's request. Oh, and we also bought Home Movies Season 4! I found a Tower Records credit receipt from 2001 and they let me use it, so that's always a good thing.

We saw another bike protest and NYC cops were purposely blocking the bike path. I saw one giving a ticket to someone without a helmet, but I didn't understand why they'd block the bike paths in several places though. A lot of the bicyclists were yelling, "Stop blocking the bicycle path!" and then they all started chanting something but I couldn't make out what it was.

We eventually ended up at Gonzalez y Gonzalez, where we shared a pitcher of pink Sangria and some appetizers. We sat at the bar afterwards to watch the end of the Mets game and walked back home. Before we hit the Path we stopped by a Wine store and got a German Rielsing, which I've recently gotten hooked on.

On Saturday I met my parents at Churrascaria Plataforma by Time Square in the later afternoon. It was a place that I trudged across Manhattan during the Transit Strike last December to get both our parents Rodizio gift certificates for Christmas. My parents never used them so I figured I'd use this opportunity to get them out of the old neighborhood and try something new (finally!). My dad, being the meat-eater that he is, tried practically everything! =) The bread on the table tasted like a Pan de Yuca and it was so warm! We had a pitcher of Sangria, and I would definitly go there just to hang out at the bar with some Sangria and some dessert.

For dessert, I had a flourless chocolate cake. It was in the shape of a pyramid and it was delicious! The coffee was great and that's always a major plus! When we left they had put some sushi out, so I think the buffet area changes during the course of the day. The sushi did look really good, but I was so stuffed at that point.

Saturday my hunny told me to reserve the whole day for him. =) We went to Time Sq. and walked through the Time Sq. festival. We got some elephant ears and coffee and walked by some Spiderman filming that was going on. Then we went to Rockefellar to see the Top of the Rock! He surprised me with tickets he bought ahead of time! The views from up there were amazing! I brought my medium format camera and took some pictures with that. Ivan took a bunch of pictures of me taking pictures, which explained why he was lurking behind me a bunch of times...hehehe... We also bought the pictures that the people were taking at various places. As soon as they would take the picture, they'd give us this ticket and the picture would already be sent to the place downstairs where they were printing them out. That was a pretty cool thing.

Then we walked up to Central Park and did the Walking Tour of Central Park and ended up by the American Museum of Natural History, where he had purchased a package for us to see a few films! A surprise again! We are both fans of documentaries, and national geographic, etc. so it was something we both enjoyed. One of them was about Cosmic Collisions and how the earth formed. Some of the timelines they mentioned seemed new to me, I wonder if they were results of more recent space research. They said it took the moon about a week to form. Hmmm. The other movie we saw was at the IMAX and it was about the Galapagos island. That one was pretty awesome too.

Then we went back home to rest up a little before going out to dinner. We went to Knickerbocker Bar and Grill. If you've been in the village, you've probably seen it..it's on the same block as BBQ but on the other corner. If ever there existed a place that made steak to melt in your mouth, this was it. (the DSA said I said that 8 times this week, but I'll say it every time...). We both had the braised short-ribs and...oh my goodness...SO GOOD! Since it was a celebratory day, I tried the Churros. We also had a bottle of wine that was EXCELLENT!! Hopefully, our walking burned some of that off though.

When we got back to Hoboken, Adam met up with us near the Path. (Thanks Adam!) And he brought me another bottle of wine, Riesling. We didn't end up drinking it, but probably later on this week. I think at that point we had already drank so much.

Monday we kept it low key. We did some cleaning and went to get some fake food and groceries. We bought a watermelon and I made a bunch of watermelon balls. Then Ivan filled it with flovored vodka and rum and we put back all the watermelons inside and let it sit in the fridge to soak. I don't know where that idea came from, but I think Ivan got it from his little sister (ironically, who's underage!! hahaha...go figure!).

Adam came upstairs and he made some Guacamole and brought some chips and crackers. The Guac he made was really good and we broiled some salmon and ate it with Salad. Then, on to the watermelon!

It was all really good and we had so much left over...we were glad we only bought half a melon b/c we almost bough a whole watermelon. So, then we put a lot of watermelon into the blender with some popsicles and made some drinks and watched Home Movies.

NY Culinary Festival

Thursday after the softball game, I came home to U2 and U3 plotting to get pizza and ice cream. As I got settled they entered their journey into the wilderness. Our Director of Suspicious Activity (DSA) was able to secure some evidence of SA in Hoboken. Video awaits. I heated up the oven to warm up the pizza and we just hung out and talked.

Friday - passed out early! Woke up at midnight STARVING! So we headed out to Malibu to have some food and stayed up late watching Conan do some pole dancing. He is SO funny.

Saturday, went into Queens and got caught in traffic on my way back (mental note: summer street fairs in the city = bad bad traffic) so I decided to hang out in NY until it was time to meet up with my friend and his gf who was in from California. It was a really nice day and we went to the New York Culinary Festival. We were actually suppose to see a movie that night but they ended up seeing it the day before, which worked out perfectly because we found out about this and all wanted to go. Lloyd, being a vegetarian, even found some chocolate vegan cake and there was a whole table of vegetarian cuisine.

His girlfriend tried the chips and guacamole. My favorite was the Chocolate Souffle. They were raffling off an Easy Bake Oven - I'm not sure if that's how they made all the souffle cakes, but oh man, I don't think I want to know. My hunny and I split everything we got so that we wouldn't fill up to fast and could try more things. We also tried some of the wine and had some Chicken Quesadillas. All of which were wonderful.

There was fruit sculpting too. They had very detailed sculptings on Cantalopes and watermelon. If you are able to zoom in on those pictures, you'd get a better idea of how much work went into it. Lloyd's gf's favorite was a tea made by Avalon tea bar by Union Square. She had some drink called Genius and I think I'm going to head down there one day to try it out at the store.

At 11pm the Spin Doctors were suppose to play, but we weren't ambitious enough to stay that long nor to come back to see them. We did however catch Nashville Attitude practicing or doing sound check. They were pretty good.

Then we walked around NY by Rockefeller, where there was some Rock Art Exhibit. There were some peculiar art films and other art forms to see.

Probably one of the highlights was this one man dancing with some girl who were working at a radio station. I have great video of that, which I will add later (so check back for it!). Afterwards, we went back into the hood to meet up with Elvia for some more fun.

We hypothesized crashing Sobray's friend's BBQ (he only wanted to be in the blog! You could at least say something!) but instead ended up going to the new Charrito's again. It's just that good my friends.

We sat outside but when the temperature dropped they happily moved us inside where it was toasty warm. I think that all of us are going though summer happy thoughts, since we weren't dressed appropriately for the sudden yet predicted drop in temperature. I love the pitchers they use over there; they're so colorful!

Sunday = shopping! I think I have been meaning to go shopping the whole year. When I went shopping during the holiday season, I didn't really see anything that caught my eye, but at this point I was running out of some necessities. I didn't really get everything I needed to get, but boy did I spend a lot. I didn't even mean to spend that much, it just happened and when I would see things I loved, I didn't even hesitate because I can get pretty picky with this stuff.

Anyway, I still need to get new sneakers. Mine are probably 3 years old and have no soles. Cleats so that I don't mess up my new sneakers and so that I don't go slipping on bases like I did last Thursday where I was clearly safe but slid right off 3rd base because it was raining and there are no more treads on my sneakers, which are kinda gross at this point. Hmm...and new black shoes because my shoes are probably at least 4 years old. I also need new casual shoes because mine are probably 5 years old. Geez, I need to take better care of myself.

So anyway, I ended up buying some things I wanted to wear on my vacation and a bunch of stuff for work; so watch out for the new spring lineup! So then Elvia and I went to the Seaport and ate at Uno's. There was a concert going on outside...a Merengue band and there were SO MANY PEOPLE drinking, dancing, and enjoying the day. We had some drinkie drinks and had some time to rest our feet.

We had some killer flat-bread pizza that was so good, we ended up taking 2 more pies home to U2 and U3 who waited in my car in Hoboken to pick up the goods. Eventually it got so cold we went inside to finish out drinks, pay the bill, and wait for the other pizzas. What a pizza week it was! It was such a nice day, I think all the raining had left the sky really blue and the clouds so fluffy white.