About Gael Greene
Photo: Steven Richter
In her role as restaurant critic of New York Magazine (1968 to January 2002) Detroit-born Gael Greene helped change the way New Yorkers (and many Americans) think about food.
"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ice Cream But Were Too Fat To Ask," "The Mafia Guide to Dining Out." and " Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen" were early pieces. In more recent years her annual roundup of New York City's dining favorites, Ask Gael, was a gourmand's collectible for many years and she continues to write a weekly Ask Gael column for NYM. Earlier she worked at the New York Post.
As co-founder with James Beard and a continuing force behind Citymeals-on-Wheels as board chair, Ms. Greene has made a significant impact on the city of New York. Citymeals, the largest public/private partnership in the country, has raised $200 million in its twenty-six-year history to help feed the city's frail elderly shut-ins.
Ms. Greene's memoir, "Insatiable, Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess" was published April, 2006. Earlier non-fiction books include "Delicious Sex, A Gourmet Guide for Women and the Men Who Want to Love Them Better" and "BITE: A New York Restaurant Strategy." Her two novels Blue skies, No Candy" and "Doctor Love" were NY Times best sellers.
Gael Greene
Articles used with permission of Gael Greene, Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Steven Richter's photographs may not be used without permission.
Gael Greene's New York City Restaurant Reviews and more....
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Five Napkin Burgers: A Prelude to Paris
Chef D'Amico's mythic burgers come with amazing fries.
Photo: Steven Richter
Now that 5 Napkin Burger has moved into the space that was Jezebel's for most of two eras, restaurant mogul Simon Oren and chef partner Andy D'Amico have their own little Monopoly game going on Ninth Avenue: Marseille on the corner of 44th, this new pop burger joint on 45th, and Nizza (Italian for Nice) in between. Not bad for Oren, who arrived in town from Israel in the early nineties not exactly loaded. All tile and glass and bare tables (Jezebel left not a string of fringe), the new place can work itself up into a din but I wouldn't call it torture (not even under the Geneva convention), though you don't have to be a card-carrying PETA member to be put off by meat hooks overhead invoking ominous slaughterhouse images.
In my crowd, rumors of a great burger demand attention. So just when a woman with reasonable priorities would have been packing for two weeks in Paris, I am tucked into a tufted leatherette booth, sipping a reasonable mango mai tai, and scanning the menu, a kind of comfort food melting pot, that makes me wonder if someone is doing fieldwork in the ethnic terrain at Brooklyn Diner. Chicken soup with noodles and a matzah ball? No kidding. And quite respectable. That could be turmeric providing the yellow, but it sure tastes like genuine chicken fat and the globe in the middle is almost delicate. The Szechuan chicken salad makes the Brooklyn Diner link doubly suspicious - not its uptown equal, but fine. A BLT salad suffers from a too-early tomato, pedestrian bacon and over-sweet dressing so it will be perfect for all those who think that's what a BLT salad ought to be. I'd like smaller chunks and some beans in my pork chunk chili. You'll find Vietnamese summer roll, mussels and endive steamed in ale, crab Louis, California rainbow roll, lamb kofta burger, pasta primavera and barbecued lamb ribs on this something-to-please-everyone roll call. Bring your persnickety five-year old, your burger snob, your ossified uncle, a beer maven. The list of draft beers, ales and large format bottles is like a long day's journey into hops. Sly Fox anyone? Oatmeal Stout? Albino Python? I never drink beer. Just reading the names gave me a thrill. (Non-alcoholic beer is the one esoteric choice overlooked.)
But we came for the five napkin classic - a burger that won its linen at Nice Matin - and it's worth the trip (granted, we live rather near), ten ounces, juicy and rare, with comté cheese, marvelous caramelized onions and exceptionally crisp fries. Let's call it three-and-a-half napkins, aw…maybe even four. I love the cheddar-bacon burger too. The soft bun would be better toasted. And alas, the tuna burger is having an off night (barely surviving a tough weekend, I suspect). The genial server strikes it from the bill and offers the light version of New York cheesecake as a gift. Smart guy. His tip just gained a little weight. The strawberry rhubarb streusel pie, though overchilled and too sweet, is still a smile on a summer night. I think that was me finishing it.
630 9th Avenue at 45th Street, NYC 212-757-2277
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