Wednesday, December 17, 2014

A16

A16 sounds like the name of a fighter jet, or maybe a highway in Europe (because it is), but it's also a pretty fancy restaurant located where Garibaldi/Marzano/Hudson used to be. Their main thing is wood oven cooked pizza, but they also have other entrees. 

This review features special guests: Anna, Christa, and Peter. Thanks for joining us, guys!  


Margherita pizza. Standard yummy pizza, but nothing that blew anyone away. One great thing about all the pizzas at A16 is that they bring them to the table un-sliced, but they come with a pair of pizza scissors that allow you to cut whatever size piece you want. Other restaurants, take note, pizza scissors are the future.


Brussel sprouts seem to be the new it-vegetable at fancy restaurants. These were among the tops. Favorite dish of the night for most of us. They were crispy and lemony. So good.

Funghi pizza (with proscuitto). Kind of sad there was no sauce on this pizza, but it was very good. Observe the pizza scissors in action. Just look at them, slicing wherever they wanna slice without a care in the world.

Bean and veggie soup with croutons. Hearty and warm for a cold night. We were convinced there was a lamb base to this, but the rich flavor was somehow constructed entirely from veggies!

Lamb sugo pasta with cannellini beans. These pastas were pretty gummy. Some of us thought they were like the Twizzlers of pasta and didn't like them. Others of us (mostly Briana) thought they were the Twizzlers of pasta and liked them a lot. The lamb flavor was a little overpowering. This time the lamb flavor was from actual lamb.

A dinner for one. Anna (our vegan friend) had this pizza with marinara sauce topped with arugula and her cocktail: the bronze horseman. This restaurant might not be super vegan-friendly, but it looked like Anna enjoyed herself. She said the cocktail was good, but on the sweet side.

A16 is a lovely restaurant with great food. It's a big place, but it still manages to seem cozy. The staff is super friendly. We've eaten here a few times before this review, and we'll definitely come back when we are in the mood for a cozy restaurant with great food and wine, fun cocktails, and unusually shaped pizza slices.

We give A16... A4 sabuys!







Next stop Homespun Cafe. Bourbon and Beef!

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Pucquio

Pacquiao Pucquio serves "contemporary peruvian street food" and is located where Guest Chef used to be. The first time we tried to eat at Picachu Pucquio, it was too crowded. We showed up with a party of five, and no reservation. They had a full house, and we didn't wanna wait for our lives to be over, so had to go eat somewhere else. This time we were the only customers in the whole place. We really lucked out. 

There's a weird thing that happens when you're the only customers at a restaurant. It can sometimes be awkward, but other times you can end up bro-ing down with the staff in a special way. We had a lovely time chatting with our waiter Scott, and meeting the chef, Carlos. In fact, in a first ever for B2B, our waiter actually gave us each a big hug as we were leaving. Aww. 

Full disclosure: Since we ended up getting so familiar with our waiter and chef, we did end up telling them about this blog. We may have received some special treatment (and definitely a free dessert) because of our well deserved status as jet-setting taste-makers. So this review may be somewhat biased. We don't care. 

They start you off with these addictive lightly fried corn and plantains. We ate 'em all.

This salad had a particularly herby dressing, very tart with lots of delicious cumin. The ring of olive oil around the edge was buttery and flavorful. Super thin slices of persimmon were not too sweet, just right.

WINNER!! Lamb on pureed pumpkin with some amazing sauce and dots of onion sauce. This was so tasty it was unreal.

Cebiche De Pescado (comes with the fried corn stuff, other corn, pickled onions ((bonus for steve)) and pumpkin jam). Very bright and limey, in the best way. The pumpkin jam when eaten with the fish gives a whole new experience to the cebiche.

These guys were so sweet!

WTF!? Tiny cups of cumber and fennel sorbet, each topped with a little prosecco. They make their sorbet in house and it's delightful. The cucumber one almost tasted like a perfectly ripe honeydew melon... Steve ate that one. The bubbles and sharpness of the prosecco was so great with the sweet sorbet, we are definitely going to try a poor man's version of this at home.

We had such a fun experience eating here and meeting these people that we are giving __ 5 sabuys! Bonus sabuy for the best playlist at any restaurant.









Next stop A16!