Measure in deliciousness
Not your boss's quarterly recap
Last week, as I was updating the “Q1 recap” slides at work, my mind started drifting from the red-yellow-greens of our progress-to-goals. I started thinking about all the other ways we could measure a quarter of the year. It was really very Rent of me, to consider the value of time in miles traveled, books read, spa days, club nights, or dinners out... Maybe I just needed some delicious daydreaming to help me wade through the sea of business metrics, but I found myself mentally cataloguing my favorite meals of the past few months, ranking the winning dishes in place of OKRs.
The end of Q1 also coincided, of course, with the fifth anniversary of the COVID lockdowns. I promise this is not a COVID post, but thinking about dinners got me thinking about restaurants, and how much I love them, and remembering how much I longed for them five years ago. I am still grateful to have restaurants back, and I promise never to take them for granted again. So, this is a post about restaurants, and specifically my two favorite New York restaurant experiences of Q1 2025.
There were a lot of great meals to choose from. We spent a long weekend in Miami that included both fancy jello shots served in dragon fruit peels, and a French-Cuban tasting menu featuring gigantic smoked oysters. A charming Scandinavian restaurant and a trattoria with a dessert cart both opened within walking distance of my apartment. But the meals that really stood out were the ones that most reminded me of why restaurants are so rad.
It’s not just about the tasty food. My dad has always described me as a “good eater” - and it’s true! I love a wide range of food, from fine dining to food trucks, and I love cooking. Deliciousness is one of the most tangible ways to enjoy life, and a great restaurant heightens the whole experience around eating. It takes something that’s literally a survival necessity, and gives you the choice to make it a pleasure. Eating in a lovingly designed restaurant - with the right vibe, menu, and service - slows down time the way travel does. It’s the simplest way to bring a little celebration into an otherwise average day.
The best restaurants surprise you. They bring something new, whimsical, or simply better in terms of food, service, atmosphere, or more likely some combination of the three. I’ll always remember the way the staff of Eleven Madison Park perfectly timed every moment, including bringing me the umbrella I’d totally forgotten about right as we got up to leave. It felt like mind reading! Or more recently, finding that an elevated, Caribbean spiced crab rangoon was right at home on the menu at Tatiana, the hottest restaurant in the city. At its best, the restaurant experience invites you to engage with the world, taste the zeitgeist, feed off the energy of the crowd in the room, and yet find comfort and intimacy at the exact same time. These are necessary human spaces!
And so, with love, my Q1 culinary highlights:
Crown Shy (rediscovered)
I first tried Crown Shy soon after it opened in 2019, and I enjoyed it enough to go back again fairly quickly, but it slipped from my mind during COVID - along with most of Manhattan, if we’re being honest. I remembered it as a special occasion spot, a bit too expensive to go to without a reason. But the whimsical highlights of the menu stuck with me, too: a simultaneously savory and refreshing cocktail that led with just enough cherry tomato flavor and a bit of spice; the impossibly fluffy bread that accompanied the smoothest ‘nduja-topped hummus. From the beginning, this place had a unique point of view.
One snowy Saturday evening this February, we found ourselves in Tribeca and without a dinner plan. The afternoon birthday party we were attending would be winding down, and we wanted to take advantage of being out and about and unscheduled. What better way to create an occasion than a last minute reservation? By the time we left the party, the snow had escalated to full Winter Wonderland mode, so we glided our way down to Wall St through quiet streets. (New York is never quieter than in the snow). Entering Crown Shy felt like stepping through the wardrobe. The restaurant is accessed through the lobby of a big old FiDi skyscraper, and it hits you with Art Deco opulence, even as the buzzing bar and neon-lit entryway feel modern and approachable. Nineties hip-hop vibrated through the room as we passed our damp coats off to coat check. The vibes are fancy, but not stuffy, and somehow the FiDi of it all actually adds a retro-futuristic coolness.
Great news: The tomato cocktail - “The Radicle” - is still on the menu and just as delicious as ever (the ‘nduja hummus is there, too!). The biggest surprise of the night, though, was the sticky toffee pudding for two. I’m not usually excited by desserts, but this was truly special. Both decadent and homey in its cast iron skillet, the dreamy, melty cake was topped with apple sorbet that tasted uncannily of fresh apples, and brightened up my whole day. A special occasion indeed!
Claud (unexpectedly)
When it was time for the first team outing at my new job, our resident oenophile suggested Claud, a celebrated wine bar in the East Village. I had read the glowing reviews (#38 on the NY Times Top 100), but I was doubtful that I would fall in love with this place the way every critic seemed to. I’m not much of a wine drinker, so I tend to be skeptical of wine-forward restaurants, where my perception is that the food can be an afterthought, and that portions and prices are almost never in balance.
I am here to say, once again, that I was wrong. Not only about Claud, but the more I’ve thought about it, I think I've been too quick to judge wine bars generally. Yes, many such establishments earn the reputation for a steep dollar-per-bite, but in my experience, those bites are often memorable. Yes, the plates can be small, but I often prefer the appetizers to the mains anyway, and it’s more interesting to try several different dishes. When you think about a wine bar as basically a glorified appetizer hour, the concept gets more fun. Until I visited Claud, I hadn’t noticed how much I’d enjoyed several wine bars in recent memory. I’ve been scheming another visit to Place de Fêtes since ordering practically the whole menu with a friend last summer; Bar Birba’s chillest of neighborhood vibes totally snuck up on me with how much I liked it.
So anyway, I should have known what I was in for with Claud, but my goodness was it yummy. The bread! Seriously, you could go just for the bread, which they make in house and bring to the table for free, like the old days. This menu is full of sneaky sleeper bangers, dishes whose simple descriptions belie their complex flavors. The cabbage with vadouvan butter is both charred and melty. The chicken liver agnolotti are joyfully plump little pouches of savory richness. An afterthought only for me, the wine was also perfectly recommended by our server, who nailed the assignment to find a lighter red that would charm all six of us and not make our Finance team pass out the next day.
We ended the meal with the decidedly not sneaky, much Instagrammed chocolate cake. Billed as “for two” (I’m sensing a trend), it was so large that the group of us had trouble finishing it. By that time in the night, we were eating more as friends than new colleagues. What a treat to discover that I’d joined a team of like-minded restaurant people, who make lists of places to try together, order everything for the table, and don’t count a picky eater in the bunch. I’m hopeful that Claud will prove to be our first great dinner of many.