Month: April 2020

Coronavirus Coffee NYC

 

It’s not my usual Coffee. Getting a coffee from a neighborhood Korean Deli and drinking out on the street, usually in one of my nearby little local parks in Greenwich Village and Soho, in the great city of New York. No it’s not my usual coffee, which for the past 37 years is daily at one of my favorite local cafes, and never ever at Starbucks, no fucking way. It’s got to be at nice small independent cafe, no chain joints for me. I did have my daily espresso ro cappuccino for exactly 30 years at my beloved Caffe Dante on Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village, and yes oddly enough, it was for exactly 30 years, from June of 1985 when I came back from my first trip to Italy, to the sad day in 2015 when my pal Mario Flotta (from Avelino, Italy) sold the 100 year old Italian Caffe to some Australian guy who bought the name along with the lease and whatever else it entailed to take over the place, and then proceeded to turn my beloved caffe into a expensive high-priced trendite cocktail lounge, which it has been for the past 4 years. 
 
Yes I started going to Caffe Dante soon after I came back from Italy in the Summer of 1985. I myself am of Italian (Sicilian) ancestry and I made my first of many trips back to the mother-land, Italy and fell in love with the many rituals and authentic ways of Italian coffee, Italian Food and Wine and the whole Italian lifestyle and I was looking for the most authentic places (restaurants, shops, and caffes) to get pasta, espresso, cappuccino, gelato, Prosciutto, Parmigano, and such, and when it came the most authentic espresso and an Italian Caffe to get it at, Caffe Dante on Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village was the undisputed champ. So I started going to Caffe Dante for espresso and cappuccino, and it would turn out that I went there almost every single day for my Italian Coffee fix for exactly 30 years, until Mario sold the place and I could no longer go. The about 1992 my girlfriend Dante (yes her name was Dante) discovered a new place on Sullivan Street in Soho called Once Upon a Tart, and I started going there as well, but of course, not stopping to go to Dante which I went to every single day. Yous see the thing is that, on days that I don’t work, I will make at least 2 and sometimes 3 cafe stops in a single day, and though I’d have my first coffe of the day at Dante, after I went back home, had my lunch and then went back out for my second cup, it was usually to the Tart as anyone who was a regular would call it, and I was one. In fact, I was a regular from the day they opened in 1992, until the day they sadly closed, quite incidentally in 2015 as well. So I lost 2 cafes in one dreadful year. 
 
I had already started going to have coffee once a week, usually on Sunday to the lounge inside the Marlton Hotel on West 8th Street in Greenwich Village, and I was doing this for about 3 or 4 years in that dreadful year of 2015 when I lost my two favorite cafes. So Caffe Dante and Once Upon a Tart both happen to come upon bad times, and they just weren’t making enough money by the time 2015 rolled around, and they both ended up closing shop. So my two beloved cafes both closed, now what was I to do. I’m a cafe freak, and I gotta have my coffee and it has to be at a nice relaxing, comfortable cafe where they don’t play and shitty crap rap music or anything like that. They’ve got to have good cofffe3, a nice ambiance, friendly service, and it can’t be a chain place like Starbucks, “no fucking way!”






 
 
 
Porto Rico Coffee Importers and Roasters
 
Since 1906
 
Best Place to Buy ground or whole roast coffee beans in all  of New York.
 
 

 

 My Beloved CAFFE DANTE
 
Macdougal Street
 
New York, NY
 
 
 
 
Me and Mario Flotta
 
The Day That DANTE Closed
 
2015
 
 
 
The Day that The TART Closed
 
Me (L) with Jerome, the Owner of ONCE UPON a TART
 
Chris Nominee and John Kenny
 
Sullivan Street
 
Soho, NY
 
2015
 
Screenshot2020-03-21at5.18.38PM
CORONAVIRUS COOKING RECIPES
The BADASS COOKBOOK
CHILI – SOUPS – PASTA
MEATLOAF – TACOS – BURRITOS
FRIED CHICKEN & More ..
 

 

 
 
Bleecker Farms / Korean Market
 
One of the places where I get my Coffee these days,
 
during the Coronavirus Flu Pandemic of 2020
 
 
My Coffee from Bleecker Farms
 
Bleecker Street
 
Greenwich Village, New York
 

 

DISINFECTANT & TOILET PAPER
ITALIAN RECIPES for CORONAVIRUS COOKING 
.

 

 

Top Food Delivery Places Greenwich Village New York – Coronavirus Days

Mamoun’s Falafel


Founded in 1971, Mamoun’s has long been one of the best spots in all of New York 
to get great “Cheap Eats.” At just $4 for a falafel that for most is easily enough to fill you up at lunch, an in-between meal or even dinner. And as far as Great Late Night Cheap Eats, Mamoun’s just can’t be beat. I like get a Falafale-Baba (Babaganoush) Combo, at $5 it a inexpensive, fast, tasty meal that I can get anytime I like, as my apartment building is a short two blocks away.

PS … Mamoun’s claims to be the First Place Ever to serve Falafel Sandwiches in New York. We beleive this to be trued, and even if it’s not, they are easily the most famous Falafel Joint in the entire city. No contest!

Joe’s Pizza



Along with Mamoun’s. Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street is another Top List # 1 in all of New York City. Joe’s is well known as New York’s #1 favorite “Best Slice” (Pizza) in all of New York. And in a town that’s known as the undisputed Best Pizza in all of America, and is considered one of the Best Places on God’s Good Earth to get a Slice of Pizza, being known as The Best Slice Joint in the great City of New York is no small feat. 

Yes  Joe’s is a great Cheap Eat and one of the best deals in the city, with a slice going for $3 and two for $6, it’s easily in the parameters of what is considered a “Cheap Eat,” any meal that cost Ten Dollars or less, Joe’s does the trick and you’re cheap cheezy 2nd rate product, you’re getting what most people consider the best (not me) in the whole city.

Footnotes :

1)   Speaking of Cheezy, I’ve got to mention the .99 Cent Slice of Pizza. There are a couple within two blocks of Joe’s. There’s one north on 6th Avenue. A slice of Pizza for .99 cents. It uses cheap “Cheezy” Cheese. Hey it’s just a Buck, and for many two slices of Pizza for $6 is a bit dear, so these .99 cent slice joints do serve their purpose, and that’s to feed the less fortunate who can’t afford the 6 Dollars it would cost to get 2 slices of pizza, they get two for just $2, and for them it makes a Huge Difference. Basta!

2 )   If you notice that when I wrote that, “Most people consider Joe’s the Best Slice in the city (not Me), that is how I feel. It’s not that I don’t think they’re not good, they are. It’s just that I feel that the pizza at Joe’s is very good, even one of the Best, just that it’s not the # 1 single best, there are others. Joe’s pizza is very good, a bit over-rated, and definitely not the single best slice in New York. There are many others just as equally excellent as Joe’s. Basta.



Faicco’s Pork Store

Great Italian Hero Sandwiches and Meatball Parms. A bit expensive, but definitely worth it if you have the cash, I don’t. I could, but I make such great food for far less money, so I’m not going to throw $14 away on a single sandwich, when I can make four sandwiches for the same $14, and it would cost me about $60 to get four sandwiches at Faicco’s. Now don’t get me wrong I love the place. I love buying my  fresh Italian Sausage from them, along with Sopresseta and other Salumi products, tomatoes, pasta, olive oil, and cheese, but I make it myself at home, unlike many others for whom $14 for a sandwich is no problem, Faicco’s is great. They make one of the best Italian Sandwiches (along with Parisi’s) in all of New York City.







SUNDAY SAUCE

RECIPES How to Make SUNDAY SAUCE

ITALIAN GRAVY

BRACIOLE and MEATBALLS

And How to Make a Great ITALIAN SUB SANDWICH

This and More, in SUNDAY SAUCE

WHEN ITALIAN-AMERICANS COOK

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