12.21.06
Posted in Brooklyn, Famous Fat Dave's Five Borough Eating Tours, Italian, La Pizza, Posts For Gothamist at 8:48 pm by Administrator
Last week, the New York Times quoted me about the new Grimaldi’s at Aviator as saying, “If it’s true that it’s Patsy Grimaldi doing it, then it’s going to be good.” I meant that. Grimaldi’s on Old Fulton Street is good. I don’t think it’s great. I certainly don’t think it’s worth waiting in line for.
(A fine looking pie in Floyd Bennett field, but it’s the taste that matters)
I took a tour out to the new Patsy’s at Floyd Bennett Field. Generally, I only go places that I’ve been to 1000 times. But I was confident Patsy’s would be good. And my customer’s were up for an expedition. The problem was, it wasn’t true that it’s Patsy Grimaldi doing it. We were met by a couple teenagers behind the counter. And the pizza? Read today’s Gothamist column:
Grimaldi’s At Aviator
Visit Famous Fat Dave for five borough eating tours on which it looks like we WON’T be stopping at Grimaldi’s at Aviator unless it improves a lot
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12.15.06
Posted in BBQ, East Village, Jewish, Manhattan, Meats, Posts For Not For Tourists, Seafood at 7:24 am by Administrator
If your Jewish mother puts the chicken through the deflavorizor, read today’s Not For Tourists Guidebook New York page for renewed hope. Also read it if your Jewish mother cooks a mean brisket like mine does. Go ahead and read it even if you don’t have a Jewish mother at all.
Mara’s Homemade
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12.14.06
Posted in Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens, Italian, La Pizza, Posts For Gothamist at 4:53 pm by Administrator
I’ve got a lot to say about pizza:
Lucali’s
Take a 5 borough pizza tour with Famous Fat Dave
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12.10.06
Posted in Brooklyn, Famous Fat Dave's Five Borough Eating Tours, La Pizza at 7:45 pm by Administrator
$2.50. That’s how much for a slice at the new Patsy Grimaldi’s in Floyd Bennett Field just across the bridge from my beloved Rockaway Beach. At Patsy’s in East Harlem, it’s still $1.50. And even though I haven’t even tried the new Patsy’s slice, the New York Times still felt I’d be good to quote. They’ll tell the world the CIA is running secret prisons in Eastern Europe but they’re too shy to call me “Famous Fat Dave“? Anyway, take a look:
Grimaldi’s At Aviator: “A Pizza Master, Back In The Twirl”
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12.05.06
Posted in Lower East Side, Manhattan, Posts For Not For Tourists at 5:57 am by Administrator
Read today’s Not For Tourists Guidebook NYC page for some unkind words about Lou Dobbs and some kind ones about Anne Saxelby of
Saxelby Cheesemongers.
And while you’re there, check out Friday’s Not For Tourists DC page for a review of the hottest Italian restaurant in Potomac, MD:
Amici Miei
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11.30.06
Posted in Brooklyn, Pickles, Posts For Gothamist, Soul Food at 6:30 pm by Administrator
No matter how you feel about Junior’s cheesecake, you gotta believe you’ll love their fried chicken smothered in barbeque sauce. Visit Gothamist today and read my column on:
Junior’s
Visit FamousFatDaveDotCom for a laugh and an eating tour
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11.21.06
Posted in Cannoli, Sweets at 10:26 pm by Administrator
Yesterday was my 28th birthday. It was sometime around my 14th birthday that I went to visit my brother at Amherst College and went out to eat at an Italian restaurant called Carmelina’s. There, for the first time in my young life, I discovered what cannoli was. Josh and his roommates ordered them, and I watched as the waiter squeezed fresh ricotta from the tube into the waiting shell. I had one bite and I LOVED it. But I didn’t really start eating cannoli seriously until a couple years later at the Giaquinta household of Potomac, Maryland.
Number 28 isn’t really a big deal aside from the fact that it means I survived 27 which Jimi, Janis, Curt, Tupac, Valentino, and a few others didn’t. Still, this birthday is momentous in a way. It marks the 14th year since I first laid eyes on cannoli, meaning that cannoli have been a part of my life for half of its duration. For the rest of my life, I will have known of cannoli for the better part of it.
Little did I know 14 years ago how big a role cannoli would play not only in my life, but in my personality. I’ve been dubbed “The Cannoli Kid” by a real-life Sicilian. I made three separate pilgrimages to Sicily in search of cannoli. And I’ve scoured the five boroughs for true cannoli in my yellow cab. I even found a reason to speak of cannoli in the Village Voice article about me in which I am pictured with a giant pickle in my mouth.
And recently I recieved an incredibly heart-warming email from a reader whose love of cannoli seems to have sprung from my own:
Hi Dave,
I've been a long-time reader of your blog, and have to say I've become
secretly addicted to your reviews. Though I seriously loved your
"three burgers in a day" entry, my favorite has been your cannoli
saga, and it has stuck out as the pinnacle of NYC eating to this
California girl.
Alas, I didn't have the time nor funds to go on your full tour when I
was visiting Manhattan last month, but I did have Rocco's on the top
of my foodie list...though of course...I forgot the address at home.
Dejected, I was convinced I would have to leave the city without
having tasted my first cannoli ever...until lo and behold I stumbled
upon it when I was on a mission to Bleeker St. Records. It was
seriously one of those serendipitous moments where you know you're at
the right place at the right time! Needless to say, the cannoli was
amazing, better than I ever could have imagined it to be: crispy
shell, thick, sweet cream, little pistachios for nuttiness...well, I
don't need to tell you, do I? 
I just wanted to thank you for introducing me to Rocco's, and
consequently, one of the most heavenly foodie experiences of my life
to date. Keep up the great work with blog and your reviews in NFT and
Gothamist, and I hope one day to partake in a Wheels of Steel Tour
myself!
All the best,
Zhaddi
(Zhaddi’s cannoli: she is clearly a better photographer than I am)
That letter warms my heart to no end. It makes me as proud a Sicilian. And it is exactly why I do what I do. If I were a chef, I’d watch with pride as people eat the food I cook them. But I’m just an eater. Thus my satisfaction comes from watching people’s eyes light up when I introduce them to the foods I love.
So yesterday, on an otherwise unimportant 28th birthday, Melissa knew exactly what I would love the most. She sneaked out to Rocco’s on the pretense that she was going to the deli. I had no clue what she was up to. But she came back to surprise me with a black and white, a strawberry shortcake, and TWO beautiful, fresh-made, hand-piped cannoli.
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11.20.06
Posted in Burmese, DC, Posts For Not For Tourists, Southeast Asian at 1:19 am by Administrator
Read today’s Not For Tourists DC Page, and discover a Burmese restaurant with a Palestinian/ Guatemalan/ Irish bartender who serves the strongest vodka tonic in predominantly African-American Silver Spring, Maryland. Oh, and that bartender also happens to be my best friend since 7th grade (but that doesn’t mean that what I wrote about her isn’t true).
Mandalay Restaurant
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