March Madnes: Bad Time In The Old Town

Hey folks. Dinner tonight was some really awful Chicken with Black Bean Sauce from No.1 Chinese Restaurant on Avenue U here in Brooklyn. Trust me. This was God awful. It did have chicken and black beans, but it didn't resemble or taste like any version I've had before. Maybe they hired the chef's from Top Chef. Maybe I really got Chicken Picatta!


Lunch today also brought some bad news, my favorite Buffalo wing joint in Manhattan, Pluck U has closed its Ninth Avenue location. I can't say I didn't see it coming. The prices were rising, the portions getting smaller and the place getting dirtier and emptier each time I infrequently visited this year.

I wound up getting a burger at Lucky's Famous Burger on West 52nd Street. (No website that I can find, but here's the Menupages listing.) Lucky's bills itself as "the best hamburger in NYC," or some equally grandiose claim. Let me tell you they ain't even close. They're exactly the same as all the other places serving Sysco's "hand formed" burgers and fries. Hell, they're not even grilled!



I will give them this, the food portions are large and relatively cheap for Manhattan. Nine dollars bought me a 7 oz cheese burger topped with ketchup, mustard (Where the hell are we? Southern Jersey?) pickles, lettuce, tomato and Swiss Cheese, a very large portion of crinkle cut fries and a 20 oz fountain soda with free refill. It was presented beautifully with the burger half wrapped in foil. The counter staff was very congenial if slow.

Would I go back? Maybe, but probably not. It's OK, nothing to write home about and there's too many other good burger places in the neighborhood.


And as long as I'm on my soapbox, what the hell happened to Trump Tower?

I had a chance to stop into it's atrium today. My God, how it's fallen. I remember the heady days of the 1980's when it first opened; 6 floors of some of the most exclusive shopping in New York City. It was the place to be seen.

Now, it's a shoe store, a Starbucks, a souvenir shop, a bar and a grill. It's really an embarrassment to "The Donald." If I was "The Donald," I'd make the resurrection of Trump Tower's atrium the next season of The Apprentice. (Don, if you use that idea, I won't charge you. Consider it my gift to the people of NYC.)

Enough of this negativity, let me leave you with a random barbecue link. After all this site is about BBQ, right? Check out the Naked Pig BBQ Company.