IT'S NEW YEAR'S EVE

If you've noticed that time stamp on my posts you'll realize that today is New Year's eve. Tom and I are celebrating by doing nothing at home. We've just gotten back from a whirlwind trip in NY, and are recouping. Tom's spent the entire day playing video games while I've cooked and surfed the internet. But of course, this finally gives me the opportunity to catch up on my blog, especially for all you complainers - and you know who you are.

And speaking of NY, you should all know that I take our trips to NY as an opportunity to stuff myself silly. I make reservations months in advance and basically end up planning our trip around what meals we'll be eating. After spending Xmas with Tom's family, we spent two days in Manhattan just shopping and eating. Rather than staying with friends like we normally do, we found it easier just to book a hotel. I got a really good deal via Priceline, and though the hotel wasn't anything spectacular, it was truly worth it for it's location - smack in the middle of midtown and blocks from major shopping and the Time Warner Center.

When I figured out how close we'd be staying to the Time Warner Center, I knew we'd be spending lots of quality time there, and sure enough, after checking into our hotel, it was the first place we headed for lunch. Now though the original Bouchon Bakery is an hour's drive from us, and we go everytime we're in Napa, I still wanted to visit the one in the Time Warner Center. A lot of people had said it's a little hard to find, due to the massive, kinda mislead "Samsung" sign that heads right over it. But knowing that was what I'd be looking for, I looked straight up and headed to the third floor where we found the cafe. Here's a shot of it....

So in Napa, you can't sit a a full service restaurant like the location in NY. You can get take out sandwiches, but there's no seating area. In contrast, the NY location has a cafe, along with a mini bar and off to the side, you can get take out if you want (serving many of the same items that are on the cafe menu). Though it was almost 2pm, the place was packed, but Tom and I decided to wait it out and were seated in about 20 minutes.

Now as you can see form the photo, the location is kinda weird. It's basically a space carved from the middle of the mall. It's pretty tight and not a great place for a large party. When we were seated, we were handed menus, which was filled with sandwiches and salads.

After ordering, we were served the typical Bouchon epi baguette. And though it was good, it was kinda chewy and not as crusty as a really great baguette. And not as great as the ones we get in Napa.

I ended up ordering a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup - a perfect lunch on a cold day (and lots of people around agreed with me - I saw them ordering the same thing). The grilled cheese was perfectly grilled- look how that got it all brown and crunchy all over, and it was filled with gruyere - may favorite cheese. The tomato soup was also really great. Lots of tomato soups tend to be kinda watery and salty, but this one was perfectly balance and yummy.

Meanwhile Tom got a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Though he did enjoy it, he would've preferred it not toasted. I also picked at his salad, since the one thing I was lacking from my meal was a bit of green.

Overall, the food was really great, which is what we've come to expect from Thomas Keller restaurants. The setting is a bit noisy and hectic (it is in a mall after all), and the service was efficient, though not pleasant. That was the one weird thing, since service at Keller places tends to be quite good, but really, I felt for the servers there. They were dealing with a tremendous numbers of people, many of them tourists. And though this place wasn't cheap, it wasn't really expensive, either. So they had to continually turn tables to really earn tips. I can see why they wouldn't want to keep people lingering over their meals. I also liked the fact that this Bouchon Bakery had a seating area - something I think the Napa location could certainly use.