Gramercy Tavern

It was absolutely freezing in NYC last night, and I can't imagine a place I would have rather been than at Gramercy Tavern. The front room is bathed in warm candle light, groupings of fresh flowers and fruit, American antiques, and people who are obviously enjoying themselves with great food and conversation. There were no reservations open that night (a good sign), so we had a 30 minute wait around 9:30. We chose to sit in the tavern and not do any of the prix fixe options (I guess otherwise you get to sit in the more glamorous white tablecloth area in the back)... we wanted to be more casual anyways. We sat by the brick oven and all the cheese options which I loved.

I started out with the portabella tart which was really good. It didn't really need the pastry dough so much, but the mushroom was great, and I devouerd the goat cheese that came with it. Next, I had an absolutely to die for stuffed meatball with onions and potato puree. This was melt in your mouth fantastic and the onions were incredibly sweet and delicious. My friend got the bacon-wrapped trout which was disappointing compared to what I got, so he ate half of my dish. We ended the meal by sharing two desserts: blackberry struesel (blackberries are my favorite so I had to go with that), and the chocolate zucchini cake. I'm not really a chocolate person so I couldn't really care one way or the other about the cake, but Ioved the pistachio ice cream that came with it. The struesel was awesome. YUM. It was all very reasonably priced too. I was expecting to pay much more. Most of the entrees were under $20 and the appetizers hovered around $10.

It was a great dining experience, and I loved what I ordered. The customer service was awesome, and the atmosphere was the perfect remedy for the blustery cold night. I can't tell you how much I didn't want to leave the warmth of the dining room and venture back out to the chilling temperatures and gale force wind gusts. Gramercy Tavern is a must.

Gramercy Tavern: 20th btwn Park and Broadway