Marathon Eating in NYC

With meals at Txikito, Hearth, and Café Sabarsky.

Hey everyone,

I’m back in NYC! If you’re wondering why I’ve been going to NY so much it’s because Craig’s here editing a movie and part of the deal is he has an apartment in Chelsea and my attitude is: “If there’s a place to stay in NY for free, let’s take advantage!” Also: I really like Craig.

This weekend was the NYC marathon and our friend Toby was running in it. He gave me his badge number so I could track him on an app; so we made our way up to the Upper East Side yesterday and spent some time, while Toby was running, at The Guggenheim to see the Alex Katz exhibit curated by our friend Kath.

It’s such a wonderful show: the paintings progress from his early work (including a portrait he did of his mother when he was seventeen) to gigantic canvases featuring friends and family, including his wife Ada. Plus: if you bring your kids, there’s an interactive portion at the very top (you get to doodle on paper provided by the Gugg). If you find most art inaccessible, this stuff isn’t pretentious: it’s a delight to look at.

When we left the museum, we turned on the tracking app and realized we still had some time to kill before Toby ran past, so we went to my favorite place in New York: Café Sabarsky at the Neue Museum for some linzertorte.

The room is half of the reason to go — it’s part of the old Estée Lauder mansion. The other reason to go is the wonderful cake and pastry on offer; the linzertorte was pretty much the perfect embodiment of the form: nutty pastry, just the right amount of jam, and unsweetened whipped cream on the side.

We must’ve gotten so caught up in our torte, we forgot to check the app… and we missed Toby! Sorry, Toby. (“Blame it on the torteeeee… ya ya.” - Milli Vanilli.) But we did get to cheer on the other runners:

Craig got emotional there at the end of the race — this was the final stretch, probably mile 25 for most of these races — and the looks on everyone’s faces were so ebullient and triumphant, it was hard not to get moved.

But you’re not here for marathon pictures, you’re here for the food!

On Saturday night, we met up with our friends Chris and Cem at the newly reopened Txikito for a Basque-inspired feast:

Chris loves having his picture taken.

There was so much wonderful food, so I’ll just stick to the highlights. This was some a gorgeous dish of marinated peppers that looked like it should be hanging in a museum:

And this one featured fried artichokes covered in Spanish ham:

The cod was olive oil-poached and came with poblano-padron peppers:

And the “morros” featured beef cheeks and jowls in a terrine:

We also had the Conchillo special: crispy suckling pig with tximixturri.

If you live in NY, you have to get yourself to Txikito. It’s on fire right now: not literally, but food-wise!

Last night we had to visit our favorite NY spot, Hearth, in the East Village. We met up with our pals Mark and Diana who are trying to get us to move back to NY. Will they succeed?

Everything was wonderful as always, but my olive maccheroni with duck ragu brought tears to my eyes. A dream bowl of pasta.

And the dessert you see at the top of this post was their chocolate hazelnut mousse bar: not to be missed!

Another very filling week of eating in NY… and I still have another week to go.

Now for some links:

• NYT launches its Thanksgiving pie feature (NYT);

• Not to be beat, Grub Street launches their Thanksgiving pie feature (Grub Street);

• Con artist Anna Delvey is launching a dinner series during her house arrest. Who in their right mind would give this woman money? I bet a lot of people will (Eater NY);

• A pumpkin gnocchi recipe that looks quite good (The Guardian);

• Eater NY highlights some of Gael Greene’s best reviews after her death last week at age 88 (Eater NY).

That’s all for today, folks!

In case you missed it, on Thursday I wrote a tribute to Julie Powell in my Thursday newsletter. Be sure to become a paid subscriber so you don’t miss the next one.

Until Thursday….

Your friend,

Adam