MB FoodFan

  What’s the first word that comes to your mind when someone says Las Vegas?  Nope!  It’s not gambling!  For me, it’s FOOD!  The restaurants in Vegas are nearly unparalleled!  Whether you’re on Strip at a fancy casino hotel, or off Strip at a little hole-in-the-wall known only by locals, you’re sure to find some absolutely phenomenal food! I’m very lucky to have quite a few friends who live in Las Vegas - some born and raised there, others transplanted.  But they’ve all been instrumental in turning me on to eateries I might never have known without them.  In this particular blog entry, I’ll write about the ones of which I had already known - these on-Strip restaurants may have been a little pricier and more celebrated, but the fare was still mind-blowingly good! This trip, I got off to a roaring start, when my lovely friend Rhiannon and I decided to have my first night’s meal at Superfrico, in the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino.  Described as ...

  Heed the mystical power and beauty of the Mermaid!! On one of my long, daily walks, I ran across a little restaurant under construction in New York’s Greenwich Village.  It was to be The Mermaid Inn Oyster Bar.  I was intrigued!  Soon after, I heard a terrific critique of the place from a good friend, so I knew I had to try it out.  One night, fairly recently, my husband Vincent had an unexpected day off from work, so we decided to have dinner out.  I suggested The Mermaid Inn.  While making reservations, we discovered that there were actually two other locations that I hadn’t known about!  Their Chelsea outpost was happily within walking distance from our home!  With our reservation in place, we were both excited to try something new! The Mermaid Inn opened originally in the East Village in 2003.  While that location is no longer around, they have since opened three others - Chelsea, Greenwich Village and Times Square.  They’re n...

  Tiny bites of heaven!!  That’s the best way I know how to describe the deliciously sweet confections sold by this wonderful little bakery on Sullivan Street in New York’s SoHo district.   Founder and Executive Chef Mariana Viera opened Brigadeiro in 2014.  I had heard of the bakery on a popular TV show, and decided to search them out during one of my daily walks.  Finding the shop turned out to be easy.  Getting out of there without loading up on fabulous baked treats turned out to be a little more difficult!  There were different flavors of the tiny Brigadeiros; essentially bonbons made of sweetened condensed milk, butter, egg yolk, a pinch of salt, flavoring elements like cocoa, banana, guava, coconut or other variations…and magic!  There were also cakes - some conventional and others in plastic “cake jars” made for easy transport…and eating!  There were cookie bars, little bread rolls, jars of Dulce de Leche and more!  I literally w...

 Chef Wylie Dufresne has a new restaurant in New York’s Flatiron District, and it’s a winner, in my opinion!  Stretch Pizza, on Park Ave South, between 24th and 25th Streets, is a small space (seating 66) with a clean, casual vibe, and most importantly, terrific food! Dufresne, who took up pizza making during the pandemic, originally began this venture as a pop-up, while vowing he’d eventually open a new brick & mortar pizza restaurant.  And while Dufresne is best known for his molecular gastronomy, the menu at Stretch is more like “real people” food.  You won’t find any of his famous aerated foie gras or eggs with edible “eggshells” as my husband and I found at his former Lower East Side establishment, WD-50, which we were only able to enjoy once.  What you will find are some excellent signature cocktails, delicious, playful appetizers, tasty, perfectly baked 12-ish inch pizzas - some with more conventional toppings and others with more offbeat ones, and ev...