The Little Owl

...is a cozy little restuarant in NYC's West Village located at 90 Bedford Street.

I had the Bacon Cheeseburger with Gus' pickle and special fries ($16). The burger was very juicy and the fries spicy!

Lowcountry

...is located in NYC's Greenwich Village at 142 West 10th Street and features Carolina fare.

"M", "S" and I started with fried pickles with Green Goddess dressing ($5). These sweet pickle discs were perfectly fried in cornmeal and the dressing gave them a little zing.

"M" had the skirt steak with creamed brussel sprouts ($22) , "S" had the baby back ribs with pimento macaroni salad ($19) and I had the fried chicken biscuit with gravy ($17). We also shared an order of mac n cheese with bacon and jalapeno ($9).

"S" said her ribs were oversauced, but liked the pimento macaroni salad.

"M" was very happy with her medium rare steak and brussel sprouts.

My fried chicken was not crispy, but it was a juicy chicken breast and the biscuit was good. We all liked the mac n cheese.

We shared the apple pear cobbler with ginger ice cream ($8) for dessert. The homemade ice cream was a unanimous hit!

Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts Pop Up

To celebrate the new Martha Stewart Pies & Tarts cookbook there was a pop-up store at 93 Greenwich Avenue in NYC's Greenwich Village. The store was open the weekend of March 26-27 and sold autograped copies of the book. In addition with the purchase of copy customers received a free mini pie. Otherwise, these mini pies were on sale for $3. I tried the poppy seed lemon curd and the coconut cream.

Joy Burger Bar

...is another burger restaurant that just opened in NYC's Greenwich Village at 361 Sixth Avenue.

When you order you select the burger size (I ordered a midi 5 oz for $4.75), cheese (American) free toppings (lettuce, tomato and bbq sauce) and/or extra toppings (none). You also specify how you would like your burger cooked.

I also ordered a side of batatas (sweet potato chips served with maply syrup) for $3.25 and a bottle of black cherry soda ($2.25).

The burger was good and very juicy, but the batatas were soggy.

Joy Burger Bar also offers non-burger sandwiches, wraps and salads.

Insomnia Cookies

What's better on a cold winter's day than fresh, warm from the oven cookies?

That's the theme of Insomnia Cookies in NYC's Greenwich Village at 50 W. 8th Street. They offer several different varieties and keep them in a warm oven so the cookies are warm when served.

I tried two regular cookies ($1 each) - peanut butter and white chocolate macadamia and a deluxe cookie ($2.25) - s'mores. The cookies were warm, but a bit thin and very sweet.

p.s. They also offer milk to go with those cookies.

Chop Tank

"E", "J" and I enjoyed a wonderful 3 course prix-fixe dinner at Chop Tank located in NYC's Greenwich Village at 308 Bleecker Street. Also included was a wine tasting with each course.

Each table was served a basket of home made Old Bay potato chips - very addictive.

"E" and I decided to have the white wines and "J" had the red wines.

"E" started with the shrimp taco while "J" and I both had the fried oysters - crisp on the outside and very moist on the inside.

"J" had the fried chicken - which was several pieces of chicken coated with extra crunchy batter.

"E" and I both had the lump crab cake entree.

For dessert "E" had 2 scoops of the homemade cinnamon ice cream and "J" had 2 scoops of homemade vanilla ice cream. I had the Smith Island layer cake - 10 layers of vanilla cake with chocolate frosting - excellent!

The food and service was excellent, but the restaurant was quite noisy.

Jane

...located at 100 West Houston Street in NYC's Greenwich Village has daily specials. On Mondays they offer fried chicken and a beer for only $15. This is indeed a bargain.

"M" and I had the Pumpkin Ale with our fried chicken - three large pieces of chicken with a fluffy biscuit and grilled corn on the cob. The chicken was extremely crispy (which is my personal preference), flavorful and juicy. It was still juicy reheated the next day as leftovers.

We even had a little room to squeeze in a toasted almond cake with caramelized bananas and butterscotch sauce and a dollop of whipped cream ($8).

The other daily specials sound good and worth trying as well.

Francois Payard Bakery

I was so anxious to try Francois Payard's new bakery/cafe when it opened in NYC's Greenwich Village that this is probably the most disappointing posts I have published.

It's a great space with a little retail shop in the front. Then the cases of appetizing sandwiches and desserts. And the chef/owner himself showed up during my visit (that's him standind near the front door).

I tried a hot chocolate ($4) which was standard. And a Croque Monsieur ($7.50) - french ham, gruyere cheese with bechamel on white Pullman bread. It was okay, but premade and reheated which took 15 minutes.

I was most disappointed with the macarons. First of all, I ordered a S'mores and Pumpkin to go. When I returned home I found that I didn't receive what I ordered and the flavors were so tepid I wasn't sure what the first macaron flavor was supposed to be. If it was S'mores then I didn't taste the chocolate nor the marshmallow. The second macaron must have been espresso because it tasted like bitter coffee and the outer shell was hard and brittle. This is the first time that I have not finished macaron and actually threw it away.