An 'Affaire' to Remember on Avenue B

    Affaire is one of those transporting destination restaurants where you find yourself walking down Avenue B in the East Village and the next thing you know you're out through the looking glass and in a bistro in Paris oozing with sex appeal. The menu is primarily French bistro classics with a few updated takes on classics. Favorites include their Mussels with frites, Steak Au Poivre, Frites with chevre (goat cheese) sauce, and for something with a twist, "Buffalo" Frog Legs.Lobster Risotto is high on the top of my list to try on my next visit. 

    I was lucky enough to attend an event hosted by Affaire's affable Andrew Krauss and the sweet Sasha Cox (the entire staff was great). We had a good crew comprised of NearSay staff, bloggers, a sports photographer and a mixologist extraordinaire and had the pleasure of watching Affaire's Executive Chef Edgar Navarrete work his magic making mussels over the fire.It's always a pleasure watching a pro, be it an athlete, artist or chef in action doing their craft while making it look effortless. And watching him cook the mussels was a lot of fun, almost as much as eating them – almost. We were also sopping up the chevre cheese and pesto atop the frites.

    Affaire has a nice, roomy L-shaped bar when you enter; it's well stocked with a nice selection of wines. Their specialty drink menu is geared towards the ladies (fruity, topped with Champagne etc) yet they equally make a nice solid classic stiff drink. If you're lucky, the lovely Nicole will be shaking and mixing them for you. The dining room has wooden tables, one very large lampshade and chandeliers to set the mood. To continue your evening Affaire has multiple subterranean lounges which if I had to pick one word to describe them would be sultry. They are done up with brick walls, dark wood, gold ceilings, banquettes, couches (a raised chaise that got all our imaginations going), and plenty of nooks and cranies for quiet conversation and if things go well some canoodling. Affaire is definitely a place to, at the very least, fall in love with, if not ending up falling head over heels with your date.

    For you "cunning linguists" out there, the word affaire is often maligned as an illicit relationship of a sexual nature when in fact the actual definition of the word is "a matter to attend to, an event or happening" which comes from the Anglo-French a faire "to do"

    To make the mussels, if I remember correctly, heat up some oil, add chopped shallots, then the mussels followed by chopped garlic (add in after the shallots and on top of the mussels so you do not burn the garlic), add white wine, a bit of butter (butchers thumb) salt, pepper and top with chopped parsley. Once the mussels start opening turn down the flame so they don't overcook. Add bacon, beer and some cream to make Grand Mere style or add cream and curry if that's your thing.
Affaire: 50 Ave. B, at E. 4th St.

Garlic Pizza Bar: Do We Have a New Sherrif in Town?

    While making my way in the pouring rain in my neighborhood to pick up some provisions for the week, I needed some sustenance (fridge was a bit bare). I had a few of my usual places in mind till I remembered seeing a new pizza place on Second Avenue and decided to give it a whirl. While Murray Hill may not be lacking in places that provide pizza, Garlic Pizza Bar turned out to be a very welcome edition.

    I scanned up and down their long pizza bar trying to decide from among all the tasty looking choices on display before me. I decided to go healthy with a Grandma slice topped with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil followed by an almost, but not quite as healthy meat slice covered with pepperoni and very tasty ground sausage on a pie slice. What makes and breaks a good slice (in New York I take it for granted they get the crust right) is the use of good quality ingredients (fresh mozzarella and veggies, good quality meats, etc.) and their sauce. Garlic nailed their sauce. It was the first thing that hit me when I tasted the Grandma slice. It was the quality of the ground sausage versus what you usually get that really stood out on the meat slice.

    Garlic Pizza Bar has a full menu including regular, Sicilian, and Grandma (cut square, but thin and usually without cheese) pies, with 18 choices in toppings, appetizers, entrees, pastas and salads. They do have broccoli rabe on the menu (i.e. with sausage or chicken under appetizers) but it's not on the pizza toppings list. Here's hoping they will do a broccoli rabe and sausage pie.

    Garlic has a nice and immaculately clean Indoor dining area and even a little backyard/outdoor space that will work whether you go with your gal or guy, friends or family. They also have plasma screens playing sports against the back wall to check the games while grabbing a bite. This is an old school place with all your red sauce joint favorites. It tastes like it belongs in the SoHo area on the outskirts of Little Italy or in Brooklyn. Luckily for my neighbors and I it's in Murray Hill.
Garlic Pizza Bar: 629 34th St., at 2nd Ave.

Night-Out: Dances with Vice/Aquagrill

    In the immortal words of Monty Python: "and now for something completely different."
I recently attended Dances with Vice: Shanghai Foxtrot at Le Poisson Rouge. The space is a fairly good size with plenty of tables and bar space. The drinks were well made even though the size of the glasses varied during the show. They do have a full menu but only one item was ordered at our table. It was a spicy tuna roll and I don't believe it was quite the best they ever had. Again, not fair to judge by one item and if you're starving at least food is an

    The show's theme was a nightclub in 1930's Shanghai, which at the time was known as the "Paris of the East." I expected it to be primarily a Burlesque act with some song and dance but it turned out to be the opposite. Most of the show was a "Torch-Singer" singing Chinese hits from the '30s backed up by a jazz band. In addition to that, two couples came out to tango. There was an old school Burlesque feather dance (lots of feathers, not much else aside from some covering of the naughties – that is what they called lady-parts back then right?) and also a very good tap-dancer. The show was entertaining. Just my group all expected something a bit more risque.

    From there we strolled on over to Aquagrill for some tasty seafood. Aquagrill has been a mainstay in SoHo for many years now and is one of the cities top seafood restaurants. If you've been here before, it's still great. If you have yet to dine here, put it on your list if your idea of a diet is a seafood diet.

    Aquagrill has a spectacular selection of oysters from both coasts to choose from and the staff is well versed in what distinguishes one from the other. I really wish I could remember the name of the half-dozen to started with, but I can't. It was from the West coast, thin lipped, decent sized and delicious (please note we were told it could take up to 50 minutes to get them...they came within 20 and worst comes to worst they would have made a great desert).

    The other starters our table enjoyed included a sea bass roll special that was pretty tasty, a nice version of Manhattan clam chowder (remember that's the tomato based version vs the cream based from New England) and one of the better tuna tartares I've had in awhile. It was spicy, topped with fish roe I believe was from the belly.

    For main courses, a couple of us went with the branzino, the whole fish. Being a fish from the Mediterranean, I've usually had it in Italian restaurants served with flavors from the region. At Aquagrill, they did it with Asian flavors via a sesame vinaigrette, bok choy and a cucumber salad. I love branzino and this tasty version was a nice change of pace. A little known fact: great seafood restaurants always have great steaks to keep carnivores in the party happy. Our carnivore was rather happy with his steak. The star of the show went to the Truffle Crusted Cod (which made the truffle loving lady quite happy) that came with wild mushroom ravioli along with roasted hen of the wood mushrooms and spinach in a – drum roll please – truffle mushroom sauce. It was earthy, rich and oh so yummy.

    On Saturday nights for dessert, Aquagrill offers aside from the usual suspects, souffles. We gave the chocolate and the lemon a whirl. I'm not a big souffle kinda guy, but they were light, airy, and quite good. To go with the meal, Aquagrill has a nice wine selection and some interesting cocktails, for example the Jalapeno Quencher – chilled Kettle One vodka, pomegranate liquor, jalapeno, lime and cranberry juice, shaken not stirred of course. Fellow heat-seekers please note: they left some seeds in the pepper. If you were looking for hot, you got it.

Le Poisson Rouge: 158 Bleecker St., bet. Thompson & Sullivan Sts.
Aquagrill: 210 Spring St., at 6th Ave.