As mentioned in my previous post, after the Dewar’s tasting, we needed food, desperately. So we went across the street to Colicchio and Sons.
They told us to grab seats at the bar and people should be getting up any minute. We hovered for about 5 minutes before feeling like we were just being plain rude… so I pulled out the iPhone and did some OpenTable-ing for the neighborhood.
When I saw Cookshop (on 10th Ave and 20th Street) had a reservation open for 4 just 20 minutes later, we were out of there. (Though we all vowed to return)
We took the 5 minute walk and were seated immediately.
This place just felt good inside. Like someone put in a enough effort to make it feel special without making it feel overdone or uninviting. Unfortunately, it was horribly dark. Forget taking pictures… we could hardly read the menus! (Apologies in advance for the overly dark pictures).
Even though we had just sipped our way through the scotch tasting, we ordered some more drinks to keep the buzz going. We all had a good laugh when we realized that the locations that we had just learned about at the tasting were listed right on our menu.
We went for mixers, however…
We started with pizza. Description sounded good…
Upskirt was decent…. but it was just okay.
The highlight was the gnocchi. It was a special that night and included veal meatballs and brussels sprouts. It was so perfectly pillowy. We all mentioned how much we enjoyed this dish.
Lori ordered what sounded a like a humble dish of eggplant parm. But when it came out, not only was the portion HUGE, but it was delicious.
Kevin ordered the “Lamb Three Ways.” It was good… but not fantastic.
Mike chose the porchetta, and he was nice enough to share some crispy cracklin’s with the table. And we were all thankful for that! It was delicious.
I got the duck with lentils and squash. I enjoyed the squash very much, and the duck was pretty good (though I wish the skin was a little crispier).
We were absolutely game for dessert.
Lori chose the Chocolate-Raspberry Sundae. I am not a big sundae person at a restaurant, simply because I always prefer baked goods unless I’m going to an ice cream store specifically. Lori seemed to agree and said this was just okay. Nothing special.
Mike and I both chose the Saigon Cinnamon-Pistachio pudding with a chocolate cookie, salted whipped cream & candied sicilian pistachios. It sounded PERFECT. But I found it lacking in flavor… I could hardly taste the pistachio. Lori LOVED it, however, which is pretty funny since she did NOT like the Milk Bar ice cream with a similar flavor profile and I LOVED it.
Overall, I thought Cookshop was delicious. I think this is the kind of place I would prefer for brunch, however, dinner was very good. I highly recommend the gnocchi!
Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10
For Lori’s full review, check it out here!
