On this week’s podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss recent tasting adventures as the holidays approach. 

Pat went to Pete’s Tavern near Union Square in Manhattan, which decks itself out in Christmas regalia every year. She went early with friends to beat the crowds and enjoyed well-made fish & chips while her friends had burgers and nachos. The festive décor and negronis made up for the pouring rain.

On another day, Pat and her friends went to Mermaid Inn’s Times Square location, which has an “amazing” happy hour from 4-5:30 p.m. every day. That includes $12 cocktails and a bunch of appetizers, highlighted by particularly good oysters. 

Bret went to the 30th anniversary celebration of Virgil’s, also in Times Square. It’s a barbecue restaurant run by the same people who operate neighboring Italian-American landmark Carmine’s. Both are among those rare places in Midtown Manhattan where you can usually show up with a large crowd and get a table, and also eat your fill for a reasonable price.

A guest at the celebration was Shaw-naé Dixon of Shaw-naé’s House on Staten Island, who served her Savage Fries, which are fries topped with braised oxtail, four cheese mac & cheese and collard greens. Bret recommended that highly.

Bret also shared an interview with Chris and Megan Curren, who operate Graceful Ordinary, a restaurant in St. Charles, Illinois, that opened at the tail-end of the pandemic and serves satisfying and slightly cheffed-up food from its wood-burning hearth.

Give a listen.