Guy Brighton's New York Guide

Lower East Side Cafes & Tiny Restaurants

Gridskipper has a write up on three recommended tiny cafes and restaurants in the Lower East Side:

Tiny’s Giant Sandwich Shop: "The first of the small fries, Tiny’s caters to the sandwich crowd."

Little Giant: "The people who pay 8 bucks for lunch aren’t the same ones laying down 10 dollars for a watermelon salad or 23 for scallops & summer succotash, by far the best dish on the menu."

Teany’s: "It is amazing such a wet-noodle pop star as Moby could create a warm a place as Teany’s but that’s just what the gnome did."

The Little East Side - Gridskipper

Starbucks LES

Allen & Delancey. Rumor has it, it's actually OK! Link

Balthazar

80 Spring St (& Broadway) - 212 965 1414 - Owned by Keith McNally, Balthazar is the grand sister of Pastis & Schiller's. I've never actually eaten a mean here but what a scene. Busy, buzzy, get a reservation. At night is full of Soho's glamourati during the day it's full of the next generation media moguls making deals and breaking promises.

If you're just visiting for one day or you have some swanky friends coming into town, try Balthazar.

Menu
Other Keith McNally Places

'Snice

'Snice - 45 8th Avenue - 212 645 0310 - I haven't written about this because I wanted to keep it my secret. Now read this: Guy Brighton & Vegetarian Food. Yup, I didn't think they mixed either until I started having lunch / late tea from this new spacious joint on 8th Avenue. No, let's get it straight: when I'm at work on 5th Ave, I crave lunch from 'Snice.

The food is mainly veggie and vegan sandwiches, salads. The crowd is chilled, happy, hip - and probably healthy. Locals and passersby. There's a smattering of laptops but, thank goodness, it's not as scene-y as Doma.

Guy's faves : The Chilli Broth, Tricolor Panini and Roasted Veg Panini.

St Helen's Cafe

150 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (Btwn North Seventh Street & North Eighth Street) 718-302-1197 -The St Helen's Cafe is an off the beaten path small wonder fronted by a a stately glass-and-black-wood facade. Serves ok coffee and tea plus beer and wine, to a crowd that knows it's here. Garden in the back lets the arties chill in the summer heat.

Map

Hours
Daily 9am-11pm

Payment
Cash

Subway
L at Bedford Ave

Halcyon

57 Pearl Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY 11201 - Halcyon used to reside on Brooklyn's Smith Street where you could sit back and relax in this bar/cafe/record shop. Even the vintage furniture you sat on was for sale.

Now they've moved to DUMBO and with only a record and small 'lifestyle goods' offering. But the store's still worth a visit. There's an amazing mural on the brickwork outside and check the funky interior!

Subway: F to York St.

718.260.WAXY (9299)

Site

Pepe Verde

559 Hudson Street (near W11th) - 212 255 2221 - Cheap, cheerful but still classy pasta place for a decent plate of pasta. Serves Panini, insalate, antipasti, paste, contorni and even main courses.

Ideal place to start before visiting a few bars in West Village. But if you can't wait: Pepe Verde has a lunch special for 6.95 between 11 and 4! Does delivery.

Best dish by far is the Penne Spinach & Ricotta w/ Tomato.

Vesuvio Bakery

160 Prince Street - 212 925 8248 - This postcard old school bakery serves up fine cafe dishes 7 days a week 11am to 10pm every day.

It's not the menu of imaginative antipasto, salads, wraps, sandwiches and (Vesuvio Special) Panini, nor the continental breakfast choices, nor the cool old school (1920) interior, nor the fine selection of breads - it's the gang of Italians, who hang outside that makes this a special place to try.

Far far better than the tourist trap opposite with the chairs onto the street!

Bread

20 Spring St between Elizabeth and Mott Sts (212-334-1015) - Really friendly and hip little cafe that won Time Out's 2003 Best Sandwich award. Young arty crowd hang out to enjoy fine food in tight but comfortable cafe. I recomend the prosciutto sandwich or even cosider Italian tuna with mesclun greens, tomatoes, and a piquant lemon dressing on ciabatta!!!

Places to go if you can't wait
Cafe Habana on Spring & Elizabeth

Cafe Habana

17 Prince St (c/o Elizabeth Street) +1 212 625 2001 - This latin / cuban restuaunt is one of the most popular shacks in the neighborhood. Expect a wait for good value food. Perfect for lunch but also worth a try early or late.

If you can't wait, try the take out service next door on Elizabeth (+1 212 626 2002)

Menu

Places to go before or after Cafe Habana
Walk up and down the Nolita streets checking out the boutiques
Look at the fine jewelry made by a local woman on her make shift table displays outside the church yard on Prince

Subway
6 to Spring St; N, R, W to Prince St.

Cubana Cafe

110 Thompson Street (btwn Prince & Spring) 212 966 5366 - Very sweet cuban restaurant with large menu of simple but well made dinners, sandwiches and mojitos.

A perfect get away from the shopping crowd for brunch (after 11.30am) or the kick off for a night around Soho. Decorated just like a Cuban cafe, the staff are friendly and the prices great!

UPDATE: Now in Brooklyn! 275 Smith Street (between Sackett & Degraw) 718 858 3980 !!

Places to go after Cubana Cafe (Day)
Walk around the shops in Soho and then head over to Nolita

Places to go after Cubana Cafe (Evening)
Thom bar at Thompson Hotel
Cafe Noir on Spring & Thompson
The Room on Thompson

Out of the Kitchen

456 Hudson (between Barrow & Morton). Bakery / cafe that makes the best cup cakes in West Village. Yes - sorry to challenge popular belief - even better than the well loved Magnolia!

Check out their cookies too!

Pedros

York Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn - A sort of half bar, half latino diner clinging on the edge of renovating district DUMBO. Don't be put off by the look of this shack for some great (and very cheap) Cuban food.

The restaurant is pretty local; imagine the sort of beach shack in Mexico where you buy sandwiches and drinks for lunch when on your hols, then transport that cafe to a low rise block in Brooklyn with two chaps sitting outside playing loud tunes from the stereo system in their very shiny cars.

The place is divided: on the left is the food counter - on the right is the bar.

I LOVE IT. Try ordering in Spanish.

Places to go after Pedros
Any time of day wander down Water Street
The arty shop at 126 Water Street
The hip bar / restaurant next door to 126 Water Street

Subway
F

Guy's Diary posts about Pedros:
TUESDAY 26th AUGUST : FALLING JAPART

Cafe Doma

7th Ave & Perry - I wonder how many personal stories will recount Cafe Doma on Perry Street in years to come. The French cafe is a chilled hang out where people seem to sit for hours over their books, their lap-tops, their business plans. The place is a buzz with people interviewing and being interviewed.

This is a rare place where people come and talk about their art, writing, to chill and even consider their future Internet 2.0 plans without embarrassment and who knows - with all the positivity flowing around, the ideas may just work this time!

Menu/Details

Where To Go After Cafe Doma
Wander the red-brick streets of West Village east of here along Perry Street.

Guy's Diary posts about Cafe Doma
TUES 6th JAN : CAFE DOMA DOS