Previously, the dolls had to make stupid parody videos and RuPaul got upset when they made fun of Drag U. Trixie Mattel went home and I’m currently writing this from jail, as I BURNED THIS MOTHERFUCKER TO THE GROUND! [Read more…] about Drag Race RuCap: What is Holding That Dress Up, Agnes?
City Kitchen Elevates The Food Hall Experience To A New Level
We’ve all had experiences at our local malls and the less than fantastic food they have at the food halls that they provide the general public. Many of them are low in price but not exactly pungent when it comes to flavor and value so the savvy foodie like myself is left wondering what else is out there. Well, for the Manhattanite in all of us I found something that you will love in many different ways. This is City Kitchen, which is located inside the super fabulous Row Hotel on 8th Avenue between 44th and 45th Street. Hotel guests and Times Square locals are having the unique opportunity to indulge in some of the city’s most desired and buzzed about food concepts – without having to travel too far to taste them. City Kitchen brings to Row NYC a collection of restaurant trailblazers to continue the evolution that has made this property one of the most exciting to open in Times Square to date.
I was fortunate enough to stay in The Row Hotel before as a review for Manhattan Digest, and was thrilled overall with the incredible art landscape of the room and hotel itself and how it really had a great duality with modern and classic architecture overall. The addition of City Kitchen really is the cherry on top of the already delicious pie the property itself has to offer. City Kitchen is a nostalgic nod to the classic working kitchen and features industrial décor such as white subway tile, marble, reclaimed wood, gingham, and statement Italian glass chandeliers. Fixed steel and turquoise leather stools along the floor-to-ceiling windows provides customers with an unobstructed view of Times Square. The unique brand and personality of the assorted purveyors will be reflected within their own space, making City Kitchen as diverse as the streets of New York.
The fabulous thing about City Kitchen, given that warm weather is upon us, is that a lot of the food that each vendor provides really translates to what we are expecting for the spring and summer seasons. So here is what I would recommend trying at each of the vendors as me and a friend went over the weekend and had a field day with all of them. In the mood for sushi? Try Asuki and check out their Manhattan or Tuna Lover roll. ilili box skews Mediterranean with a variety of really delicious wraps and salads. A good combo would be their Duck Shawarma with their Green Lemonade. The flavor in the Shawarma is an explosion whereas the Green Lemonade has a nice kick of cucumber in it which blends well with the sweetness of the drink itself. Gabriela’s Taqueria is your one stop for all things tacos, tacos and more tacos. Even breakfast ones! Try a classic and go with their steak taco. Simple, cooked well and the perfect bite for your afternoon meal. Kuro Obi is your Ramen headquarters, and a great place to stop by on a rainy day. Try the classic Ramen with pork belly. Just remember the two words- pork belly. Enough said.
Luke’s is renowned for one thing- Lobster Rolls. Just get that, trust me. It was hands down the best lobster roll I have ever had. Pair it with a cold soda, pickle and chips and you are good to go. I have actually reviewed Whitman’s for Manhattan Digest before, so naturally I was pumped to try them out again as they are big on their burgers. The PB&B Burger (Peanut Butter & Bacon). An odd combo at first but when you try it the flavors really blend well together.
Now if you are looking for a quick snack, there are three vendors there that fit that bill as well. Sigmund’s boast a wide array of my favorite snack- pretzels. I would try the truffle cheddar as it is warm and soft on the inside with the truffle cheddar adding a great flavor on the outside. For dessert, Dough is the place to go as they have a great line of doughnuts with unique profiles. The Chocolate Nib was more than enough for me, as it came topped with a ton of delicious chocolate. Want something a little lighter? Try Wooley’s shaved ice, which comes in leche, coffee and green tea and has a bunch of great toppings. A delicious ending to a wonderful experience.
I would recommend trying at least one of these places out as it would fulfill any food palate out there. For more information, check out their official site. Happy eating everyone!
Manhattan Digest’s First Fundraiser A Big Success at Gymbar!
This past Saturday night, Manhattan Digest held its first fundraiser at the best gay bar in New York City- Gym Sportsbar in Chelsea. The event itself was held from 7-9 PM in the basement part of Gymbar, and included great giveaways like T-Shirts, Dog Tags and Trial Memberships from Scruff App. The room was packed throughout with not only friends of mine and fans of the website but a ton of great people who came down and got in on the bidding action & donating for a great cause. A month of hard work, promotion, donations and all of that paid off and the event was a huge success not only for the website but for raising money for cancer research and patient care.
A big thank you to the following people and organizations as they helped tremendously to make the night a big success. Rick Schmutzler, co-owner of Gym Sportsbar, for letting us have the event at your fabulous establishment and Serge Sturbois for being a fantastic and amicable bartender throughout the night and helping all of our participants out with a smile. Thank you to my best friend in the world Nixon Saget who stepped it up ten fold and worked the front desk, encouraged people to donate and helped collect the donations throughout the two hours. You are an amazing guy and friend and I really do appreciate what you did. Thirdly, my buddy (and amazing photographer) Steve Alb for his amazing photography he took throughout the night. Definitely give him a shout for your next event you are having, worth it!
I would also love to thank the following companies and organizations who generously donated an item(s) for people to bid on. We raised hundreds of dollars for this event with more coming in the next couple of days, and the general response from the people who showed up for the event was gleeful & excitement when they saw what they could bid on for a good cause-
Blue & Black Apothecary in Carroll Gardens
Ugg/Deckers Outdoor Corporation
Upstairs at The Kimberly Hotel
We will be doing another fundraiser hopefully in the next month or two, with more fab prizes you can bid on for another great cause… to be determined! Thanks again to everyone who came and participated!!
Why “Looking” Was Canceled… Regardless of Ratings
Ladies and Gentleman, it is a sad day that the only gay series on pay television (or television) has officially come to an end. This week, it was revealed that the HBO series “Looking” would not be returning for a season three for reasons unspecified by the network itself. They did however reveal plans to wrap the show up in an upcoming TV movie where we will hopefully find out if Patrick’s haircut made him act like an adult and not a pre-pubescent girl, if Eddie & Agustin hopefully go the distance and how many Chickens Dom sold from his window. Whereas this show did have some strong points to it, there were too many negative ones (in my opinion) that led to its demise.
Strong points as to why it could’ve been saved-
It’s the only gay show on television where the characters aren’t supporting roles or competing for a Drag Race title (no shade). As far as television has come, we really have never had the opportunity outside of a select few (Queer As Folk, The L Word) where gays have had the entire perimeter of a show about them. Its insane to think that in 2015 this is actually true, and like it or not, that is why a lot of us watched “Looking”. For all the issues that I saw it have, it remained the only show on television today like it and was met with quite a bit of anticipation, criticism and much more when it premiered in early 2014. Gay characters on television have always been the supporting cast members (Modern Family, Glee, Orange Is The New Black, etc) and in rare cases have been the focal point with a mainly straight supporting cast (Transparent, The McCarthy’s even). HBO and “Looking” had the prime chance to change that and really did a great job in bringing together the LGBT audience to sound off on the show and their own viewpoints. Positive or negative, it really made people talk about a gay show like this for the first time in years. With the emergence of social media, our voices are louder and larger than the days where TLW and QAF were on, so this was the opportunity to have them heard front and center and boy did they ever.
With the exception of “The Comeback”, HBO has always done an amazing job at its cinematography for the shows it produces. I exclude “The Comeback” because it is shot reality style minus the last scene of season 2. “Girls” is shot beautifully in showing New York City in a different amount of locations, and the same thing goes for “Looking”. As cheesy as it sounds, “Looking” kind of inspired me to want to visit San Francisco even more than I did beforehand as the way it was shot really was quite eye-catching. They captured the city and its essence without being stereotypical and shooting in tourist friendly spots like the Golden Gate Bridge for an example. If you remember, people said the same thing about “Sex And The City” as the city really was its 5th character and brought the show to life in ways the characters necessarily couldn’t. As “Looking” tended to be normal and boring at times, the way it was shot never was, and that is something worth noting.
You want to know what happens next of course. Let’s not kid ourselves. As much as this show drove me crazy, I would like to see the conclusion of what happened in the finale- in particular the Eddie/Agustin relationship progressing. Note how I didn’t say Kevin & Patrick? More of that to come later. I think the best part of season two was the former of those two relationships, as Eddie (Daniel Franzese) really did an amazing job at pulling Agustin (Frankie J. Alvarez) out of his narrow minded, self absorbed & depressed shell he was in and find that there is a good person inside of all that jadedness. Seeing that bears on television are there but not portrayed the way Daniel did, I was happy to see his addition in season 2 and how their relationship would’ve progressed. Dom wasn’t necessarily a big part of season 2, but I did love Doris & Malik (more to come as well) and would’ve liked to have seen how they progressed too. I know HBO is giving them a movie of sorts to conclude things, but they have said this before. So I’m not holding my breath on that until their is an official release date.
Why It’s Canceled (In My Opinion)-
Please keep in mind that this has been my opinion on the show and how I have seen it. The main point in my opinion is this- the length of time. I am pretty sure it is HBO’s decision and not “Looking’s” creators who determine this, however this sort of a show screams for character development. This couldn’t have been true for this particular season, where the Kevin/Patrick relationship dominated the 25 minutes per episode allotted time amount and the supporting cast barely got a word in edgewise when it comes to their development. The focus of Dom’s maturity from cater-waiter to restaraunt owner when the series ended didn’t develop the way it should’ve, especially with the relationship between him and his best friend Doris. Doris, played brilliantly by Lauren Weedman, deserved way more screen time, in particular with her relationship with Malik. The basis of their relationship relied on both of them telling Dom how much they were in love, yet you never saw them and their relationship issues outside of that. Seeing as the lack of diversity on the show has been a bit prevalent over the course of two seasons, this would’ve been a nice counterpoint to that point in showing what is rarely seen on television- an interracial relationship and its normal issues that everyone else goes through.
Same can be said about Agustin/Eddie. When you introduce a Poz character on the series, and you briefly chatter about the issues of his disease and PrEP, it doesn’t do justice for people who either live with it or are in a serodiscordant relationship. The Halloween Party episode is a clear example of that, as it becomes a discussion for under a minute then goes back into Patrick’s ridiculous shenanigans about being drunk, somewhat single and absolutely stupid. That was the entire season, why not focus on something important and controversial in the gay community that is such a relevant topic as opposed to something we’ve seen all season long? I felt like the show had ample opportunities to really go there when it came to big topics in the gay world and failed on that because of the focus of one storyline.
I feel with Patrick & Kevin you either loved them, or hated them. I’ll take the latter. Not because of Kevin, because of Patrick. This is why the show had its issues is the way that Patrick was written. Jonathan Groff, for as talented as he is, really made the protagonist character of Patrick quite unlikable, frustrating and insanely unbearable throughout. I am aware that main characters have the tendency to do that, yet main characters also have a way to make you root for them even with their mistakes. I never once rooted for Patrick at all throughout the course of two seasons. The way his character came about was like a 21 year old moving from Nowheresville, Alabama to San Francisco and being the fresh face in town. Not a 30 year old who is vastly uneducated and scared of things like AIDS tests, uncut men, douching and a ton of other things that seem to be pretty common for someone his age, no matter where your geographical standpoint is. His incessant whining and frustration with “why doesn’t the world/Richie/Kevin/friends get me” type thing was infuriating at times, especially with the series finale. He had an annoying aspect about making everything about him, most notably the episode where Doris’ father died. Sidenote- was I the only one who thought these three guys would never be friends in real life? I did.
I get how people have said that the fight they had in the finale was realistic in many ways, but his character really rode the pathetic train with his inability to understand that Kevin cheats and prefers open relationships. You know, the one you got into after one episode? Another flaw in the show- how the f do you move in with someone after declaring being together in one episode? If they knew there was a shot of this being a series finale, a good way to intro it would’ve been “Six Months Later” and then reality would’ve been a bit more realistic. It moved at the speed of light for most of it, which made it a bit unnatural with how the characters moved along.
This is just my take on it. Would love to know what yours is.
Stars will Convene to Honor the Late Polly Bergen
Stage and screen actors will gather this Thursday, March 26th at Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre to honor the late Polly Bergen, who passed away on September 20th, 2014.
Bergen’s six decade career included numerous Emmy Award nominations for Desperate Housewives, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. She took home the coveted prize in 1957 for The Helen Morgan Story. The Tennessee native starred on Broadway in the 2001 revival of Sondheim’s Follies and earned a Tony nod for her performance. A year later, she returned to the Great White Way opposite Mark Hamill in Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks.
To view her boldly defiant turn as Carlotta Campion from Follies, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sDtBzOhyc
Stars scheduled to speak and/or appear include: Christine Andreas, Harry Belafonte, Arlene Dahl, Raul Esparza, Michael Feinstein, Chris Matthews, Phyllis Newman, Kelli O’Hara and others.
The event will be held from 3-4:30 PM ET and a limited number of tickets will be made available to the public on the day of the event.
Alex Guarnaschelli’s Butter Lights Up Midtown
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years you should know who Alex Guarnaschelli is. One of the most popular chefs on television today, she rose to fame on the mega-popular Food Network show “Chopped” and has also participated in other big shows on the network such as “Alex’s Day Off” and “The Next Iron Chef” in which she won a little while back. Poised but stern, she has done a phenomenal job not only on screen but also in her successful restaurant business, most notably her restaurant Butter. Butter, which opened over a year ago and coincidentally is right across the street from my office, has received rave reviews from fans and critics alike since its inception and is a place that I have been dying to review since I heard word of it opening that close to me. So when I was granted access to try out one of my favorite chef’s, I was giddy with anticipation and scooped up a good friend of mine to see what all the fuss was about.
Although the entrance to Butter is on the main level, the actual restaurant is held downstairs in a spacious and warm setting that is felt throughout. Although the crowd was mainly business types (although that could have been because of the hour we went) it looks to be opened to much more than that including dinner & drinks with your friends and an overall friendly atmosphere. Before our meal began we met with chef Michael Jenkins, who has had a relationship with Alex for over ten years now. Both of them have spearheaded the fantastic and modern menu, which is seasonal throughout the year.
The menu itself is quite impressive with its inventive take on what many people consider to be classic dishes. A lot of them have flavor depth built inside, which really is the showing of a great chef as opposed to making something that I have tasted at a zillion other restaurants before. Case and point- their Peas & Carrots Ravioli. Something as simple as two everyday vegetables stuffed inside a warm ravioli with fresh apple mint, ruby chard and aged pecorino yet when all is put together in one bite is truly spectacular. The flavor is amazing, and the dish itself is served as an appetizer but can also be ordered as an entree. I am one to never turn down shrimp, especially if they are jumbo. So another great starter for me and my friend was the Jumbo Florida Shrimp with a lemon bergamote mayonnaise & toasted coriander. In my life I never tried shrimp with a specific type of mayonnaise on top, but the lemon bergamote really added a great amount of flavor to the oversized shrimp. Of all the appetizers that we tried the one that I would highly recommend more than anything is the Homemade Ricotta Crostini with crispy brussel sprouts and aged balsamic. As someone who has grown into loving the taste of brussel sprouts, I thought it was simply divine how they were able to get such a sharp crisp on them which paired beautifully with the ricotta and balsamic. A perfect bite to start your meal.
For their large plates, or entrees, the menu itself is a great reminder of how the warmer weather is coming as a lot of these dishes have a Spring-esque vibe to them. I was served their Grilled Double-Cut Pork Chop with a Collard-Green sauerkraut and spicy pickled mustard seed. The side that I chose to pair with the pork chop was the Gnocchi Mac N Cheese. Absolutely delicious on all ends. The pork chop and Sauerkraut are a great duo and the Gnocchi blended really well with the Mac N Cheese to the point where I forgot I was actually eating Gnocchi. Really amazing. My friend opted for the Roasted All Natural Chicken Breast with sautéed sunchokes, black truffle butter, aged sherry. Perfectly cooked chicken and great sides to go along with. We didn’t have this but something that Michael recommended trying is their Charred White Cloud Califlower, which is a vegetarian dish served as a large entree. He raved about this so I wanted to put this in for people who want to opt for something a bit lighter and not so meat-heavy. To finish your meal off, you can go southern and have their Raspberry Beignet’s or a great classic with a twist in their Frozen Toasted Marshmallow Mallomar. Both are a great end to a fantastic meal.
With Easter right around the corner, Butter will be serving up some delicious and scrumptious meals for Brunch that morning and afternoon to satisfy your midday cravings. Whether you are looking forward to sipping on a tangy mimosa, or taking that first bite of mouthwatering blackberry French toast, Butter Midtown’s prix fixed Easter Brunch menu and beautiful garden patio offer the perfect ambiance to enjoy Easter Sunday with loved ones. The special menu is also offering brunch favorites with a twist like a Burrata Quiche with oven-roasted tomatoes, wild mushrooms and aged Balsamic and a House Cured Bacon Omelette with fava beans and Challerhocker cheese. Sounds absolutely delicious to me and should be checked out.
For more information on Butter, check out their official website and Twitter. Happy eating everyone!
Manhattan Digest Fundraiser March 28th At Gym Sportsbar!
After two years of being in business, I am happy to announce that Manhattan Digest will be throwing its first ever fundraiser this coming Saturday night at Gym Sportsbar in Chelsea! Gym Sportsbar is a great location to hold an event like this as it has a great and lively atmosphere, friendly staff, variety of music and is spacious in size. The fundraiser will be held from 7-9 PM in their basement downstairs, and a portion of the proceeds will be going to cancer research and patient care which I am very proud of. This site has been a labor of love for such a long time and the fact that we are finally able to throw an event like this is truly spectacular so I am hoping that many of you are able to attend. If you aren’t able to attend, I am including special instructions below on how you can donate outside the event.
For the event itself, we have over 20 incredible & fantastic prizes for you to bid on! A $20 donation gets you 10 tickets, $40 gets you 25 and $60 gets you 50. Happy to accept more than that for donations as these prizes are items you truly want to win! For the gay men and ladies out there, we will also be having two hunks from Adonis Lounge there to help out with raising money and hopefully blood pressure so that is something to look out for as well! Also on hand will be a bunch of fantastic swag from Scruff App including T-Shirts and 1 month premium memberships that will be handed out throughout the night! Take a look at the amazing prizes you can bid on this Saturday night!
The 414 Hotel- One Free Night
$100 Gift Card to Amazon
3 Month Membership to Crunch Gym
2 pairs of Ugg Slippers- one for men, one for women
$100 gift card to Haru Sushi with amenities
Three one-year Business Memberships to Out Professionals
$50 Gift Card to the Jolly Monk
$50 Gift Card to New York Beer Company
$50 Gift Card to the House Of Brews
Custom cake for up to 10 people for H Bake Shop
Cooper’s Craft & Kitchen Chelsea- $50 Gift Card
The Guerlain Spa at The Waldorf Astoria- 50 Minute Massage Gift Certificate
Blue & Black Apothecary- Haircut & Facial Service
Upstairs- Brunch For Two
Original Nintendo In Its Case- Top Shelf Premium
A Dinner for two at Kenta in Melville, Long Island
Two free admission tickets with complimentary drinks to Buffboyz
Haircut & Shave at Best Barber in Hell’s Kitchen
$25 Giftcard to The Hard Rock Cafe In Times Square with Amenities
A great line of Fleshjacks
2 Tickets to Hustlaball New York
Looks like it is shaping up to be a fantastic night and I truly hope all of you can make it! If you cannot make it but would love to donate and win a prize, or even donate, please reach out to me directly- [email protected] or [email protected] and I will give you details on how you can donate.
Look forward to seeing everyone there on Saturday night!
Drag Race RuCap: Green is the Color of F**K THIS S**T
Last week, Jasmine Masters went home. Afterwards, everyone talks about how it’s sooo quiet backstage and NOW Miss Fame speaks up about how she hated the pop the corns joke. Everyone takes their beards off. Insert Aaron Schlock joke here. [Read more…] about Drag Race RuCap: Green is the Color of F**K THIS S**T
Rocco Steele Wins Top Honors at the 2015 Hookie Awards
The 2015 Hookie Awards went down this past Friday night at BPM inside The Out Hotel on 42nd Street. It is true in some cases when you say third time’s a charm, and seeing as this was my third Hookie award show that I went to I can truly say that this was the case as this one I had the most fun at. Probably because I have interviewed most of these intelligent and sexy men, and knew what I was getting myself into (puns galore). Regardless of the fact that the shitty weather was keeping us from half naked men and water cooler awards like Best Cock and Best Boyfriend Fantasy, the room was packed to see the who’s who in the Rentboy world as well as some bonus amenities that I will get to later. This event was also live streamed for this first time on the web so you could enjoy the debauchery and excitement at home in your boxers with those sticky stains on them. Ew.
I started off my evening before the show at a pre-party with some of my favorite guys in the industry like Neil AKA Erotic Hypno, Jesse Jackman and Dirk Caber as well as a new friend that I met, Duncan Black. I also got to hang with my Buffboyz buddy Jeffrey Watchman who let me in on some pretty awesome news that I will be writing about soon (think naked guys. Wait, this article already makes you think about that. Just look at Jeffrey’s photos for reference and stay tuned). After the pre-party we waltzed into the show itself where I hung out with my new favorite person (and fellow chicken finger lover) Dewitt from Manhunt who is just as cute in real life as he is in his photos. His shorts he was wearing left little to the imagination, which would’ve been a disappointment if he wore more. The award show itself was hosted by Rupaul’s Drag Race legend Alaska Thunderfuck and by comedian Brad Loekle, who pretty much stated throughout the award show that he is a grateful size queen who would bottom for the majority of the audience with a smile on his face. The reference he made about Boomer Bank’s huge cock and Dora The Explorer was probably the funniest joke of the night. Kudos to him. Alaska seemed to be feeling her oats for the most part however I thought her jokes could’ve been a little bit better as Brad seemed to be carrying the entire show. Needless to say they both did a great job in keeping the event going seamlessly and in a timely fashion.
Onto the winners. I love Rocco Steele as he has been a great friend of mine for almost a year now. The fact that he even doubted winning Mister International 2015 was something that I giggled at as this was his Julianne Moore “Still Alice” moment. He was a shoo-in from the moment he was nominated so naturally I was ecstatic that he won that and another pivotal award… Best Cock. 2015 really was his year and the fact that he continues to be humble in a community that has a bit of arrogance is really what makes him such an incredibly awesome person. I am beyond proud of him for what he has done since I first interviewed him last July.
Boomer Banks won a unique award that Rentboy presents for Best Style, which didn’t seem like much of a stretch as I have seen his get ups in person as they are quite spectacular. He should’ve won for Best Pornstar or tied that with Rocco, but it is what it is. Something that I was quite happy to see this year as I am a bear/cub was that the people who won this year (tie) actually represent that community. The winners were Ted Byrns & Will Foster, and I couldn’t be happier that they represented us at The Hookies. Totally rad. Whereas I didn’t agree with some of the winners at the actual event (not naming names here but I did shake my head a couple of times) the ones that did win were genuinely happy and that’s really all that matters at the end of the day.
Side notes from the event:
I felt like I was one of the few people who actually knew who Stoya was. She is one of the biggest female performers out there, drop dead gorgeous and I loved that someone from her realm of porn was repping for the gays at ours.
The biggest shock of the evening wasn’t exactly the winners or anything that happened on stage. It was quite possibly the most handsome man I have ever laid my eyes on Colby Jansen being in attendance. He was there to present Best Bear/Cub (nice) and couldn’t have been nicer or better to look at. Colby, I’m ready to interview you… pick the location. I’m so open. 🙂
One of the nicest people that i met that night was hairy ginger & Best Twink winner Shameless Seamus, who was visiting New York for the first time by way of Nashville. Adorable and sweet in person, he has a thing for older bears (He’s 22 and I’m 28. Daddy age is coming). So naturally I want him to visit again so we can explore his “older bear” thang.
I was so happy to see Seth Fornea be one of the trophy boys at the ceremony as I have happily interviewed him in the past. However, his counterpart who goes by the name of “Ricky” was on a lot of people’s lips that night. Not literally, but chatting wise. If he really decides to go the distance in this arena he could be the next big thing. Cuz boy oh boy was he fun to look at (and chat with later on that night at Attic).
Completely forgetting I met him at Hustlaball 2015, I was happy to see Bravo Delta make an appearance by way of the never ending winter city of Boston. A nominee that night, I enjoyed our conversations that we had as he is one of the most intelligent men I have met in this biz.
Want to know more about The Hookies? Check out their official site.
Kenta in Melville Blends Modern Asian Cuisine at its Best
As a native Long Islander we fortunately have the reputation of having the best bagels in the world (damn right) but on the flip side of the coin we aren’t necessarily known for our restaurants as a lot of people think all we are is chains. The latter part of that statement couldn’t be more false as there are a ton of amazing local eateries for anyone to divulge in when they visit or live in Long Island. One of these great examples is the brand spanking new Kenta located right on Walt Whitman Road in Melville. Only being opened for about two months, the location is smack dab in the heart of Melville and a short drive away from the famous Walt Whitman Mall which has gone through quite the dramatic improvement in recent years. Kenta is run by brothers Joseph and James Ragonese, the latter is the front of the house guy who has worked with some of Long Island’s best restaurants for years now. Running the kitchen in style is up and coming chef Jason Lee, who definitely left a culinary mark on me and my friend upon our exit.
This is perfect location for many different reasons. It is great for the business area of Melville for your colleagues to get together for some after work drinks or appetizers, yet also has a family friendly atmosphere that you can adapt to as well. It has a relaxed and cool vibe to it that my friend and I dug immediately upon arrival. We knew we were in for a treat ahead.
Now to the food, which was nothing short of spectacular. Kenta provided us with a copious amount of options to try, and needless to say they were all fantastic in one way or another. The Modern Asian Cuisine aspect really was felt throughout the entire meal, as classic met modern in many different ways. So let’s start off with their variety of appetizers. Kenta has both cold and hot appetizers you can try from, which is great balance to begin. For the cold, I would recommend The Tuna Poke as the tuna was sliced fresh and really paired well with the avocado, sriracha, scallion and lime-ginger soy. For the Hot Appetizers, the word Kobe seemed to keep coming up as they prepared the delicious beef in two different ways. One was in meatball form with a sweet glaze, wasabi aioli and a fresh crostini to dip into the latter two. Something that I thought was fantastic about these was that the wasabi was not overpowering. Wasabi itself can be quite a lot to take in for people who are spicy-sensitive yet instead of it taking over your taste buds you are left with a simple amount that tastes really deliciously with the meatball itself. The other way they prepared the Kobe is in a slider with a Kalbi marinade with a spicy garlic aioli. These sliders do not need any ketchup as the marinade does the work for it. Perfect bite. A third bite I would try out before diving into the main courses is the Satay, otherwise known as Chicken Yakitori. The sauce in the Satay was unique in its flavoring and went really well with the chicken itself.
I have had my good share of delicious sushi, however the sushi that we experienced at Kenta was far and beyond fantastic. If you are going to a place like this, it is foolish to avoid getting sushi as they have a ton of classic and special rolls that they provide. Two that I would go with is what they call The Gracious Balance. This delight of a roll consists of deep fried eel, mango, avocado and lemon yuzu on the inside and spicy rock shrimp and scallions on the outside. All of that flavoring put into one really made for eight incredible bites. No soy sauce needed. The other is their Island Roll which consists of coconut shrimp and mango on the inside and grilled kani, wasabi aioli and mango sauce on the outside. Similar eating experience to The Gracious Balance in terms of flavor explosions in your mouth. Highly recommended.
When it comes to the main entrees, it is good to have a side dish like their chicken or pork fried rice to compliment whatever you are eating. It comes with asparagus, scallion and a fried egg on top that adds to the depth of flavor it comes in. As for the main courses, it runs the gamut however I would try their Miso Chilean Sea Bass and Spicy Jumbo Prawns. Different flavors for sure, however the sea bass and prawns were both cooked perfectly with the right amount of spice on both of them. Top notch deliciousness.
Don’t just take my word for it though. If you are ever in the Melville area and need a place to wine, dine and have fun… check out Kenta. Worth the trip in my opinion. Want to know more about Kenta? Check out their official site. Happy eating everyone.