Hungry at the MOMA? Check out Cafe 2

Cafe 2 at the MOMA
11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY

Food is always a top priority when we're visiting New York. Even when we were perusing the Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA, food was completely and 100 percent on my mind. Thankfully we were able to squeeze into MOMA's Cafe 2, which serves up variety of fresh, delicious Italian food.

The most reasonably priced of all the MOMA restaurants, Cafe 2 holds a pleasant Italian surprise. We arrived for lunch to discover that the cafe dishes up a wide array of tasty, fresh Italian foods, including antipasti, tramezzini, panini, cured meats, pasta, cheese, salads and soups. The space is large and airy, designed with a modern, minimalist Danish bent. Guests order and pay at the large room-length glass food counter, which displays almost all the menu items, before being seated and served at large communal tables.

A trio of bruschetta

Looking for a lighter meal, the hubs and I ordered a trio of bruschetta - 1) cured tuna, black olives and lemon; 2) mozzarella di bufala and olive tapenade; 3) lemon chickpea hummus and prosciutto.

Panini

He also ordered a panini filled with ricotta and pesto. The food was good. It was Italian through and through - simple, high-quality ingredients dished up in a clean, low-maintenance manner. We were highly impressed and very pleased - Executive Chef Lynn Bound definitely nailed the spirit of Italian food correct with her offerings. The next time we visit the MOMA, you'll find us hanging out along the window counters, glasses of Pinot Grigio in hand.

The cafe is only available to museum visitors. Reservations not accepted - Cafe 2 is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Sunday Brunch at Lyon Hall

Lyon Hall
1020 N. Highland St., Arlington, VA

Last month I faced a dilemma. Mother's Day was coming and I needed a place that a) served delicious food; b) was in Arlington/Alexandria; c) took reservations. After scouring OpenTable, I decided to give Lyon Hall a try. We had eaten dinner at Lyon Hall when the place first opened, and found their French/German offerings to be very good. But would their brunch live up to the hype?

Squash, spinach and eggs served atop sourdough bread

The short answer - yes. It was delicious. Our server promised that the Squash Poached Eggs was a light dish - but she must have been joking. A plate arrived, steaming with cubes of roasted butternut squash, sauteed mushrooms, spinach and two lightly poached eggs all covered in a sage/brown butter hollandaise sauce. After plowing through the veggies and protein, it was nearly impossible to eat the 2-inch thick slab of toasted sourdough bread lurking underneath. And yes, the bread soaked up the yolk (perfectly cooked) and the rich twist on hollandaise, so it was delicious. I was just so full. 

The only miss of the meal was the starter of Four Fresh Doughnuts. I am not a big donut fan, and these were just "meh" (if you're looking for good donuts, hit up the Doughnut Plant in NYC). I also was not a fan of their coffee - I say skip the Counter Culture brand and use illy instead. 

Brunch at the Chesapeake Room

The Chesapeake Room
501 8th St. SE, Washington, DC

Located just a few blocks from the Eastern Market Metro, the Chesapeake room is done up in Colonial blue, brown leather banquettes, marble and mahogany. While the interior is nice, the biggest draw is definitely its great outdoor patio. Located on the sidewalk level, the patio boasts comfy armchairs scattered among dark wood tables and slowly turning ceiling fans. We had reservations, but at 11 am on a Sunday morning, the restaurant didn't seem too crowded yet.

Airy patio at the Chesapeake Room

The Chesapeake room offers their own interpretation of Eggs Benedict - two poached eggs served atop lump blue crab meat, with fried green tomatoes taking the place of English muffins. No Hollandaise sauce; instead, the egg yolk is pierced and allowed to spill out over the delicious egg/crab/friend green tomato mixture.

I've had plenty of Eggs Benedicts served atop crab cakes, but this was somehow lighter - the fried green tomatoes were far less "cakey" than crab cakes tend to be. The flaked lump crab meat added the perfect amount of "Chesapeake" to the dish. Although home fries were meant to accompany the dish, I swapped mine out for bacon. Well, I use "swapped" loosely since I was charged $4 for the bacon. That was disappointing.

So ... it was good. It wasn't amazing, but it was decent. Would I come back? Perhaps, if I was already heading to Eastern Market or over in that area. But I wouldn't make a special trip out there.

Beer, Bourbon, BBQ Festival at National Harbor

http://www.beerandbourbon.com/national-harbor/show-info

On Saturday, June 18, Spoon and Fork DC is heading to the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival at National Harbor. Billed as "60 beers, 40 bourbons and lots of BBQ," the day centers around eating lots, drinking lots, and enjoying an afternoon in the great outdoors.

Interested? Check out the link above!

Pinkberry yogurt goodness!

This is how I spent my afternoon ... 

A relaxed dive bar in Miami offers up pretty decent food

Blue Parrot Bar and Grill
801 South Bayshore Drive, Miami, FL

Trying to find the Blue Parrot is something of an adventure. You can't get to it by walking down from the bridge, nor can you walk around the parking lot. Instead, you have to walk though the Four Ambassadors apartment building lobby. It's a little weird, but it's worth it when you're on the hunt for a relaxed dive bar with decent, yet inexpensive food.

Sitting right on the river, Blue Parrot has the feel of an outdoor neighborhood beach bar. There are plastic tables, squeeze bottles of condiments, and paper napkins that blew off our laps in the breeze. We were a little apprehensive at first, but reassured by the 83% approval rating on Urbanspoon.

For an outdoor dive bar with a beachy feel, the Blue Parrot offered a pretty good meal

Blue Parrot offers a small but commendable beer list (Stella Artois, Bitburger, Franziskaner Dark Hefeweizen), and a basic American menu. A large, brightly colored Greek salad filled with soft cubes of feta sets you back $7.95; a 12-oz. hamburger with fries $6.95. Aside from offering a nice break from our previous triple-digit dinners, the food was surprisingly good. A friend's Caprese Salad was loaded with antipasto meats, rich slices of red, sweating tomatoes, and 1/2"-thick slabs of mozzarella.

It was a Sunday night so the bar was pretty quiet after the regulars cleared out. Service was fine; the bartender/server was polite and put up with the demands of our six-person table. The place closed down at 11 pm, which was a bummer (we wanted to keep drinking the cheap yet delicious beer!). Overall, it was great. I would definitely go back during the day to catch some rays, enjoy some cheap grub, and increase my happiness with some German suds.

Daniel Boulud dishes up the best duck confit I have ever had ...

db Bistro Moderne Miami
JW Marriott Marquis / 255 Biscayne Boulevard Way, Miami, FL

When it came time to make dinner reservations for Miami, I knew one thing - that I was going to eat at Daniel Boulud's db Bistro Moderne even if I had to go it alone. Thankfully our foodie friends were onboard with the decision, so we commanded a table for six.

The bar area of db Bistro Moderne

Almost immediately, bread arrived - warm hunks of sourdough and cool cheese puffs that blended croissant flakiness with Gruyere and pepper, offering up a peppery bite that lingered well after swallowing.

We started with the Grand Plateau de Fruits de Mer ($85), a silver tiered tower of oysters, clams, shrimp, mussels, crab, tuna tartare, ceviche and lobster on ice. It was breathtaking - an orgy of seafood on ice, accompanied by a trio of dipping sauces - cocktail sauce, pesto mayonnaise and a horseradish blend.

While I had been eyeing the $32 Original db Burger - sirloin filled with braised short ribs, foie gras and black truffle, served on a parmesan bun with pommes frites - I decided to go with the Duck Confit ($33). A better decision had never been made.

The Persimmon Room

The duck arrived, glistening and crispy, bedded on green creamed spinach and accompanied by mushroom fricasse with the earthiness of sauce forestiere. Four quarter-sized discs of potato danced around the plate; pan fried in duck fat, these four little potato discs melted in the mouth. Every bite was an ocean of flavor, a rich melding of tongue and duck fat. The duck skin was perfectly crisped, and I had to restrain myself from picking up the leg and sucking the skin off the bone. The meat itself was so tender that I just had to poke it with a fork to have it drop off the bone. Heaven.


The hubs thoroughly enjoyed his Moules a L'Indienne The largest serving of mussels that I have ever seen arrived in an enormous bowl, bathed in a vadouvan curry broth with cilantro and white wine. The dish was accompanied by a garlic naan that the hubs said was only good - not fantastic. But he raved about the mussels, which were all big-bellied and fat.

We didn't order drinks, though our friends had a nice Cabernet that they were pleased with. Overall, the meal was outstanding. The service was excellent. The decor was Miami chic, and we had a great time.