Matchbook Dining/Mother of Pearl

LK and I are lucky to have  great group of friends. Our group is made up of 5 other couples, and the majority of us go back 5-7 years. Over the years, we have had countless nights out together, celebrating birthdays and other holidays. We have started taking group weekend vacations together, calling them "couples retreat." At our couples retreat last summer, we came up with the name "Sisterwives and Brotherboys." No clue why, but it stuck!

One night, the sisterwives and I went out for a Girls Night Out! I picked Mother of Pearl to be our first spot. I have been to other restaurants/bars that restaurateur Ravi DeRossi has, and they all have a really strong beverage program - Death & Co., Cienfuegos, Mayahuel, and The Bourgeois Pig (RIP).

The restaurant was beautiful - it is a tiki restaurant, but not kitchsy. When you step inside, you feel like you are in the South Pacific. We all ordered tiki drinks (a bunch of us definitely got the Shark Eye, which is served in a shark's mouth glass), and a few items to share:
-tuna poke
-spring rolls
-kahlua pork belly
-pineapple fried rice

Everything was good, not amazing, which I have found to be the case with these fancy Polynesian-themed restaurants. Case in point: The Hurricane Club, which is defunct. As a matter of fact, now that I am looking at Mother of Pearl's website, all of their food seems to be vegetarian/vegan now, so they completely changed the concept of the restaurant?!

With a few drinks in us, we took a horrendously expensive cab ride to the Lower East Side, and spent the rest of the night dancing and drinking at the "Bulgarian bar" (Mehanata). Unfortunately, no one took vodka shots in the ice room. Next time!

Matchbook verdict: Some of this works for me and some of it doesn't. I love the nautilus shell, which is what produces the beautiful mother of pearl material. I like that only the address is listed on the front of the matchbook. All of the DeRossi restaurants/bars have store fronts that are a little mysterious and not obvious looking, so this fit right in. What I don't like is the actual color of the matchbook. Given that it is a Polynesian-style place, I think that a use of a more bright or pastel green would have worked better, like King Tai Bar's matchbooks.

-GK

Matchbook Dining/Jack's Wife Freda

Jack's Wife Freda is one of our go-to lunch places for a team lunch. It is super trendy and you'll see a million bloggers Instagram their avocado toast. I have never actually used the Instagram app that my coworker downloaded to my phone, but I do love a piece of avocado toast (or avosmash as I have seen bloggers call it).

Over my visits there, I've enjoyed:
-eggs benny (their words, not mine)

-Mediterranean breakfast (reminds me of every breakfast I've ever loved in Israel)

-grilled haloumi
-smoked salmon and avocado toast

All very tasty, somewhat healthy (?), and extremely trendy!

Matchbook verdict: Adorable. I love the hand-drawn picture of the woman on the front, and I love that the back is fun as well (I hate when matchbooks are blank on the back). Added bonus: the pun!

-GK

Matchbook Dining/Macao Trading Co.

Macao Trading Co. was a restaurant that LK took me for my 27th birthday. It is an Asian-fusion, Portugese/Chinese restaurant in TriBeCa that I had heard about through work. I notice that when it comes to my birthday, I have learned towards Asian-fusion restaurants (Buddakan for my 25th birthday, Gyu-Kaku for my 24th birthday, Yakiniku West for my 22nd birthday, TAO for my 21st birthday, and Asia de Cuba for my 18th birthday).

Macao Trading was the first birthday that Lee and I celebrated while living together, sot it felt pretty special. To be honest I can't even remember what we ordered besides the mushroom & truffle croquettes, and we definitely got 2 orders of them.

Matchbook verdict: Reflects the feeling of the restaurant perfectly and are very unusual looking. On the outside, they kind of look like a toy, but the lovely women on the inside look like a painting and are a surprise when you open them! I love how on the back they say, "Do hold in hand after lighting."

-GK

Matchbook Dining/Café de la Esquina

LK and I came here for a Friday Happy Hour double date! Café de la Esquina is the Williamsburg counterpart to La Esquina, NoLita taqueria/teqila bar/lounge. Café De La Esquina is pretty neat because it looks like a bus from the outside, a diner from the inside, and has a huge patio in the back! 

My friend (one of my fellow Matchbook League gal) and I enjoyed a few drinks outside as we waited for our dates. We all enjoyed quite a few margaritas, and a ton of tacos. My go-to choices are always al pastor (spiced pork and pineapple) and fish (usually snapper, tilapia, halibut or any white flaky fish), and these did not disappoint!

It was a great night with friends in one of our favorite areas in Brooklyn. Check it out for some great grub in an interesting setting!  

Matchbook verdict: Fun and colorful. They look like the Mexican Lucha Libre wrestling masks! These are by far one of my favorite matchbooks, and always a great conversation piece when people see them in my apartment. 

-GK 



Matchbook Fail/Saxon + Parole

For our second monthly Matchbook League Dinner (since The Spotted Pig was a great success), we decided to go to a some bars in the Bowery neighborhood, and then grab dinner a few blocks uptown. We settled on Saxon + Parole for a drink since both of us had wanted to check it out. I had also been wanting to try it since LK and I had decided to cancel our reservation there last minute in January to go to dinner at Hecho en Dumbo, which was a matchbook fail!

We got there around 5:30 and ordered drinks. I had the Cup O' Punch: facundo eximo rum, applejack, roasted pumpkin, maple, milk, hojicha tea, nutmeg. It tasted like boozy tea-infused maple syrup. 

We decided to pay and see if the hostess stand had any matchbooks. Unfortunately, the hostess said they no longer carry them!

Since we were near the The Bowery Hotel and have seen their cool matchbooks, we decided to walk there and check it out. We went to the bar which looked like a rich person's living room, with lots of dark paneled wood, fireplaces, and velvet couches. There were a bunch of business men having drinks together and we felt very out of place. We beelined it to the exit and left.

Finally, I remembered that we were near Café Standard and that they have cool matchbooks. We decided to try there. It was so crowded there that we could not even get in. We failed, 0/3, and decided to drown our sorrows at Han Dynasty. On the way, we are pretty sure we ran into Bernie Sanders. We passed a man with white hair and glasses, and my friend whispered that he resembled Bernie. I guess I was feeling bold from my boozy bunch, and I somewhat loudly said, Bernie! He turned around! We will never know for sure.

At Han Dynasty, we ordered our usual:
-Dan Dan noodles
-spicy crispy cucumber (spicy and sweet, and go perfectly with the noodles)
-Mapo tofu with ground pork (OMG spiciest thing ever)
-cumin chicken (its nice and crispy and comes with crunchy peppers and onions)

There was so much food, because we have to get a taste of everything. I am really looking forward to my leftovers!

Below are what the matches look like online. The Standard Café one is adorable because they are all miniature, and the The Bowery Hotel matchbooks are straight up regal. I unfortunately wasn't able to find a source for Saxon + Parole matchbooks, but they look just like the restaurant's logo, with the two horses facing each other. So cute!

-GK

From Matchbook Collector

From matchgirl100

Matchbook Dining/Little Park

Little Park was a restaurant that I enjoyed with coworkers to celebrate a successful end of year! I was excited to try this restaurant out because I love Andrew Carmellini restaurants and had a great meal at The Dutch a little while prior.

We did a tasting menu, which was great way to sample everything! We enjoyed:
-kohlrabi with pomegranate, hazelnut, roasted garlic *
-beetroot tartare with horseradish, rye smoked trout roe
-salt baked carrots
-campanelle pasta with mushroom bolognese *
-carrot risotto with orange, coriander, feta
-baked oysters with smoked tomato butter
-scallops with herbed crust and celery root *
-hanger steak with tokyo turnip, sesame, crisped rice *
-goats milk cheesecake **

I gave a star to the things I enjoyed the most. The kohlrabi was spiralized into a cold salad. It was extremely refreshing and almost juicy (?). One of the members on my team while eating it, exclaimed "This is delicious! What is this string?" so we had a good laugh there. The campanelle pasta with mushroom bolognese was hearty and rich, but not heavy. Scallops are always a win in my book, and these were cooked perfectly, with a slightly crunchy herbed crust. The hanger steak with cooked on the rare side (which I love), and served with crisped rice that reminds me of the crispy rice at Momoya. Finally, the cheesecake. I love anything to do with goat milk (I was so sad when Victory Garden closed - their goat milk soft serve ice cream was amazing), and it gave a nice tang to the super creamy cheesecake!

I was feeling shy about asking if they had matches. My coworker asked for me, and I was surprised that they not only had matchbooks, but boxes of toothpicks. Double win!

Matchbook verdict: I love the lower-case font and the navy blue of the box that match the navy blue match tips. The graphics are great with the coupe cocktail glasses. I wasn't sure why the restaurant name wasn't on the box, and instead it read "evening bar," but I found out that this is for the bar within their restaurant called Evening Bar. So that's where all our wonderful cocktails were coming from! The toothpicks were an added plus and complement the matchbook perfectly. I love the narrow lower-case script, the light blue background, and the floral that is whimsical and not Grandma-like. Wins all around!

-GK

Matchbook Dining/Quality Eats

I went to Quality Eats for a team lunch during NYC's Restaurant Week to celebrate a new person on my team. I work with a bunch of foodies and for several years now, we have enjoyed many great meals together during Restaurant Week! I choose Quality Eats for several reasons - their Restaurant Week menu looks great (some RW menus are terrible), they are pretty close to my office, my team is a bunch of carnivores, and they have cute matchbooks!

I ordered the following for my 3 course meal:
-the crab and avocado salad (I literally just watched the Valentine's Day episode of Mad Men when Betty Draper orders this as room service so it felt inspired)
-patty melt
-s'mores ice cream

We also ordered creamed spinach hush puppies, and baked potato monkey bread. We also knew someone who worked there, so they send us out a ton of additional food! Curly fries, and scalloped sunchokes.

As you know, I am a newbie when it comes to steakhouses. I liked Quality Eats' approach to steak; it was more approachable, and felt less like the traditional, masculine steakhouse! The sides fell a little flat (some of the textures were a little unexpected), but a great meal was had by all, and I would definitely come back, post-Restaurant Week.

Matchbook verdict: Very minimal look, similar to the restaurant aesthetic. I like how the font looks hand drawn. The bow looks like butcher's twine, but looks more whimsical.

-GK

Matchbook Drinking/Employee's Only

The other night I had a girlfriend date night with one of my great friends LK (non-husband LK). We worked together at our first advertising job out of college. We didn't know each other at all, but then both of our seats changed, and we started talking non-stop. Over five years and several jobs later, we have remained extremely close; she was even a bridesmaid in my wedding!

Despite us living across opposite sides of NY/NJ state lines, we get together and have great girlfriend dates. We usually do a movie and dinner, brunch, or pizza and cocktails (my favorite). This time was pizza and cocktails. We always go to Keste in the West Village. It is thin crust Neapolitan pizza with great topping choices. I always get the Tirolese, with fresh mozzarella, speck, porcini cream, white truffle essence, baby zucchini, extra virgin olive oil. YUM.

After we were sufficiently stuffed, we made our way to Employee's Only, a speakeasy-style bar. The bar was packed but we managed to finagle our way to a table. We enjoyed cocktails and dessert, including:
-Fraise Sauvage cocktail: Fords gin shaken with wild strawberries & Tahitian vanilla, finished with prosecco 
-Amelia cocktail: Aylesbury Duck vodka & St. Germain elderflower liqueur Shaken with pureed blackberries & fresh lemon juice
-butterscotch & marscapone cheesecake with sea salt & nut brittle
-chocolate tart with red wine poached apples & spiced creme fraiche  

Come check out Keste and Employee's Only for a date night, either with a close friend or significant other!

Matchbook verdict: Mysterious, unexpected, and subtle, just like the venue. The font is fantastic, and the way that the E and O are positioned looks like a key. This makes sense in my head because I imagine this place to be pretty hard to get into as the night goes on, and you need a metaphorical key to get in!

-GK

Matchbook Dining/The Dutch

Between my Brother JR and I, he has always been the more creative one, while I have always been the more business-minded one. While we were both forced to take 5th and 6th grade band and chorus, I quit as soon as I could. JR went on to join Jazz Band, participate in high school open mic nights and Battle of the Band contests (and won), a capella in college, and finally, The Britpop Choir in Manhattan. The Britpop Choir is an a capella group that focuses on British pop music (think Oasis and Elton Jon). My family has always supported and cheered JR on, and The Britpop Choir has been my favorite musical endeavor that JR has taken on.

JR had a concert in Greenwich Village near my job, so LK and I decided to grab dinner together beforehand. As I've mentioned before, getting dinner in Manhattan together is always a treat, and I suggested we go to The Dutch. I knew that they had matchbooks, and the menu intrigued me. It is a "new American" restaurant (that term to me means that it is fancy and expensive American), and one of Andrew Carmellini's most famous. 

I was happy to see matchbooks on display right at the hostess stand so I didn't have to ask for them and look like a scavenger like I did at The Spotted Pig. They led me to my table, and LK met me a few minutes later. This was the BIGGEST restaurant I have been to in Manhattan (I think). It took up almost a square block!

Together we shared:

-burrata with black truffle and sunflower toast

-fried chicken with honey butter biscuits and slaw

-hanger steak with kimchi fried rice and farm egg

We also received complimentary corn bread and butter to start. I love when restaurants give bread, it is a dying art. 

Not only the restaurant huge, the food was huge portions! More importantly, it was delicious. I love burrata. I will order it every time I see it. The sunflower toast was nice and crispy and a great contrast to the creamy cheese. They are known for their fried chicken, and it did not disappoint. The crust was crunchy and did not fall off when biting into it. Last, the hanger steak was nice and rare, easy to cut/chew, and the kimchi fried rice had a nice punch to it, but wasn't too pungent. 

The meal was definitely pricey for a quick Monday night bite, but everything was extremely tasty and we even had enough leftovers for dinner the next night!  

Matchbook verdict: So thoughtful. I love the meat clever on the back, and the fact that the match tip is the same color as the box! 

-GK