Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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January 8, 2015 By cheryl

Ramen Lab (New York): Umami in a Bowl

Ramen Lab

When it’s 20 degrees out (with a windchill of far lower), just about nothing will get me off the couch and out of the house.

Nothing, that is, besides the possibility of excellent ramen.

I’d been reading and hearing about Ramen Lab for months, a little Tokyo-style noodle joint that Sun Noodle, which has been supplying noodles to some of the country’s best ramen joints (Momofuku, Ippudo, etc.), was opening in New York. Two days ago, after much anticipation, Ramen Lab finally threw open its sliver of a door in NoLita.

Would it live up to the hype? I had to find out …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Asian, Comfort Food, Japanese, New York, Noodles, Restaurants, Soup Tagged With: David Chang, Kenshiro Uki, Kikusui Funaguchi, New York City, NoLita, Noodles, Orion Beer, Ramen, Ramen Lab, Sake, Soup, Sun Noodles

April 25, 2011 By cheryl

Colonie: Style Over Substance

Saturday night in Brooklyn Heights and the unthinkable finally happened.

Striking up a conversation at the new restaurant Colonie with a group of people who were kitted out with the glaring symbols of current New York hipster-ness — the plaid shirt, the Bear-like beard, the professorial Mad Men-style glasses — we discovered that they were, as suspected, definitely not of the staid stroller-central that is Brooklyn Heights.

No, this group hailed from Williamsburg, home of the impossibly fashion-forward and often sneering of other lesser neighborhoods. Not only that, they had traveled to Brooklyn Heights because they had heard of Colonie and were curious to check it out — quite possibly marking the first time that a restaurant in my neighborhood has garnered the level of buzz to encourage this type of stunning reverse migration.

The anticipation of Colonie’s opening has been palpable for months. For starters, the restaurant smartly began generating chatter about its plans by raising more than $15,000 on Kickstarter last fall to obtain “sexy kitchen appliances, beautiful pendant lamps, and cool tiles for the wall.” By the time the restaurant finally removed the paper shrouding its glass doors in February, locals (and out of towners) began packing its sleek bar stools right away.

Would it live up to the hype? We were keen to find out …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Brooklyn, New York, Restaurants Tagged With: Alex Sorenson, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Colonie, Elise Rosenberg, Emelie Kihlstrom, French, Kickstarter, Lower East Side, Mas, New York, NoLita, Public, SoHo, Tamer Hamawi

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