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“Little Town” in Hoboken- The Path to Deliciousness

Little Town, Hoboken, Manhattan Digest — Credit to: Examiner

As great as the endless variety of restaurants are in Manhattan and the five boroughs, sometimes you have go to outside the grain and see what else is out there in the foodie world that I love so much. I have spent quite a bit of time recently in Hoboken, New Jersey for a multitude of reasons. My best friend from college lives there now and I find it to be very up and coming when it comes to the food and bar scene, and wanted to experiment a bit more and see what was out there. Luckily for me, I found the gold mine in terms of taste & hospitality in the restaurant Little Town, which is located right on the water in Hoboken. When I was granted access to cover it with my best friend, we purposefully starved ourselves that morning just so we had our game faces on when it came to what we were about to eat. Touchdown indeed.

Little Town, a restaurant that has only been opened for a short period of time, is actually known a bit more on a national scale due to its exposure on Bravo’s wildly successful “The Real Housewives Of New Jersey” which chronicles part owners Albie & Chris Manzo opening up the restaurant with the advice from matriarch Caroline. Since those episodes aired Little Town has done a complete 180 and is now fully furnished, spacious and a wonderful atmosphere.

As mentioned earlier, part of what makes a great dining experience that much better is the hospitality, and it shows in executive chef Jordan Andino. I got to know him throughout the meal and developed such an appreciation for his hard work getting to where he is now. He was raised on Toronto, Canada and began a love for cooking at a young age and kept that tenacity going throughout his adulthood by training himself with world renowned chefs from Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller. After graduating from Cornell University’s Hotel School of Administration, he developed himself as a star in the culinary world by running a multitude of restaurants and even recently appearing on The Food Network’s “Chopped” where he made it all the way to the dessert round. Now he runs both the New Jersey Little Town location as well as the one in Union Square as well as another restaurant called Side Bar. Something that I respect more than anything is that just like my mother with her culinary career he wasn’t classically trained and got himself where he needed to be on his own. Also, my friend enjoyed how cute he was which is always a plus 🙂

Now onto the freaking food, which was amazing. Jordan gave us quite the variety of food that he makes, from appetizers to brunch to lunch to quite possibly the most filling and delicious dessert I have ever had. Some of the standouts to me were the “Manzo Balls” (tee hee), which came with a couple of Crostini’s for dipping in the warm and flavorful tomato sauce that accompanied said balls. Great flavor on both and a delicious way to start things off. Another appetizer that he presented us that me and my friend really enjoyed were the Little Town Rice Balls, which were stuffed with New Jersey Taylor Ham and Cheese and was complimented with a yummy hollandaise sauce.

You can’t go wrong with wings, you really freaking can’t! So hands down my favorite meal of all that Jordan presented at Little Town was their “Garbage Wings” which are flavored with a homemade hot sauce, barbeque sauce and fresh garlic with blue cheese crumbles. Had just the perfect mix of sweet and spicy that worked well with both mine and my friends palate. He also unveiled two burgers, one that is very popular at Little Town already which is the “Boss Burger” and a new addition to the spring menu which is their “Salmon Burger”. I had a preference for the Boss Burger, which had melted fontina cheese and caramelized onions where my friend preferred the Salmon due to its flavor and texture.

We finished off with quite the decadent dessert, Fried Oreo Neapolitan. Basically a Fried Oreo sandwich that had three different ice creams in the middle (Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry). I mean the Fried Oreo alone was just scrumptious but when you add the cooling flavors of ice cream on top of it made it that much better. Honestly, it was a 10/10 experience for me and my friend and I cannot wait to hop on the PATH again soon to try out more of his delicious creations.

Next time you are in the Hoboken area please stop by Little Town and try it for yourself. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. For more information on Little Town and Chef Jordan Andino, check out their sites. Happy Eating.

Shaky Premise Weighs Down Thicker Than Water

by Michael Tyminski

Thicker Than Water: Sunday at 9 Eastern on Bravo

Over the last quarter of a century, there has been a particular and increasing fascination in the lives of the extremely wealthy. This can initially be traced back to Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Robin Leach’s original ode to people with way more money to burn than most people will see in a lifetime. From there, MTV unleashed Cribs, it’s own ode to celebrity housing. Few networks, however, have truly used this formula like Bravo, with it’s multiple Real Housewives shows and it’s newest show, Thicker Than Water, which debuted Sunday night.

Thicker Than Water follows the Tankard family as they go through their daily life. The family tree starts with patriarch Ben and matriarch Jewel, whom made their money through Ben’s gospel jazz empire, Jewel’s evangelism, and both of their numerous side gigs. Together with their four kids (leading to the Tankards referring to themselves as the “black Brady Bunch”), they work to not only better their own lives (they make no secret that their good life was somehow god’s plan) but the lives of others. However, tensions can flare as the whole family (including Brooklyn’s daughter and Benji’s wife) live under one roof and the Ben’s tight rule.

As advertised, Bravo tried to market Thicker Than Water using the family flaunting their wealth as a primary hook. The show itself opens this way, and quite frankly it does more harm than good, as the family justifying buying themselves a new jet and new high-end luxury vehicles ends off coming off both super conceited and cartoonish. Furthermore, it strikes a weird chord as Benji’s justification of the new Benz harkens back awkwardly to prior televangelism scandals (notably Jim Bakker’s).

However, when the show stops being about rich people and starts being about a family dealing with family issues, the show begins to shine. This is especially notable as the show remained surprisingly tear-free for a show that appears on Bravo’s Sunday lineup, instead focusing on the little things: Cyrene’s prom, Brooklyn’s minithon, and Ben’s heavy-handedness. It’s when things become mundane that everyone feels less stilted (except for wife Jewel, who has a relentless devotion to the show’s main premise) and this breathing room makes for a surprisingly light reality show.

From the technical perspective, Thicker Than Water vindicates itself especially well in the way it’s put together. The show definitely takes a lighter hand on the cut-ins, often using them to illuminate what the various family members must be muttering to themselves after conversations with each other. An added bonus is that it makes much of the show’s exposition come off so much more seamlessly, as Brooklyn’s sordid past comes out during a date where her blind date mentions his interest in bad girls.

The Final Verdict: On a network that prefers its’ reality soapy and wine-soaked, Thicker Than Water is a light, breezy, and refreshing change of pace. Weirdly enough, however, it also seems to be the sort of show that will become much better the more it becomes a show about nothing, as the show always stumbles the second it starts laying the prosperity-theology on thick. I’d wait and see on this: if Thicker Than Water ends up being a story about a family who happens to have an obscene amount of money, it could be onto something, but if it ends up turning into a show about the flaunting of wealth the show will have squandered any promise it has.

Dina Manzo Confirms Return to Sixth Season of ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey’

by Blair Kaplan

Dina Manzo is proving she is as thick as thieves with Bravo after announcing her comeback to the sixth season of the network’s hit reality series, The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

“Well, I guess the (hairless) cat’s out of the bag,” Manzo tweeted, on Tuesday, Oct. 29. (Manzo has a hairless cat.) “Yes, I’m back. Unlike the past, this time it felt ‘right.’ See you on Bravo, my friends. xo.”

Speculation has escalated each season, that Manzo, who appeared on the first two seasons of the show, would return. However, the speculation rapidly increased amid rumors that Manzo’s estranged sister, Caroline Manzo, would not be returning next season, as it appears that Dina does not wish to be on the show with her sister. Caroline confirmed the rumors that she will not be back after five seasons on the series:

“Over the past few years my outlook on the show has changed from something I couldn’t wait to show my future grandchildren to something I hope my future grandchildren never see,” she wrote on her bravotv.com blog.

Although she is saying farewell to her Housewives cast-mates, Caroline will not be parting ways with the Bravo Network. Manzo and her family are taping a spinoff, Manzo’d with Children, a show focusing only on her family: Caroline, her husband Al, their three children and Caroline’s sister Frannie.

Along with the addition of Dina, it is also rumored that three new women, twin sisters Nicole and Teresa Napolitano and their friend Amber Marchese, will be joining the show. The network has yet to confirm the new cast members.

Tamra’s OC Wedding Is Middling at Best, Vapid at Worst

by Michael Tyminski

Tamra’s OC Wedding: Mondays at 8 p.m. Eastern on Bravo

Happy Labor Day everyone! We are in September, which means tons of new TV around the corner (most of it hits around the middle of the month). Tonight we get the first show that could be plausibly called “new fall TV”, and it’s in the form of a spin-off of the series that has it’s long tentacles fully wrapped around Bravo TV.

Tonight marks the debut of Tamra’s OC Wedding. It follows Tamra Barney, one of the Real Housewives (Orange County edition) as she prepares for her upcoming nupitals to Eddie Judge. Presumably, like other similar spin-off series, this show will take us from engagement to wedding and will find at least six quality hours of looking for dresses, photographers, honeymoon destinations, wild relationship threatening bachelor parties, and of course, the big day at the end.

So, does the long elaborate process that comes with planning a wedding turn into compelling TV? Well luckily, Tamra tries to squeeze a level of grandiosity in such a short time frame (five weeks) that it feels like the Iron Chef of wedding planning. Luckily, her planner Diane Valentine is game for a ridiculously extravagant wedding. Needless to say, Eddie’s cries for simplicity will fall plaintively (though when you consider it’s his second and her third wedding, he kinda has a point).

While the dynamic that occurs between Tamra and Eddie works, it also ends up exposing the sheer vapidity of Tamra’s cause for the most elaborate wedding ever. This is particularly notable whenever a price tag comes up, showing Tamra’s desire for $2,500 wedding cakes, $100 hand delivered invitations with glasses of champagne, and an anticipated expenditure of $60,000 for food. Conversely, when a story from Heather’s bachelorette party ends up , it was amazing to see Eddie try to carve out some space to screw up later that night.

Needless to say, when Eddie tangentially screws up that night (someone buys him a lap dance, during which he commits the capital offense of being aroused while being ground up on), we see a total role reversal, with Tamra going berserk (because the takeaway of this whole show is that the wedding is to be entirely about her and not a partnership) and flipping out at Sapphire’s (the aforementioned strip club).

A pleasant surprise is the considerable restraint used on many of the production aspects of the reality show playbook. It’s tracking shots are used judiciously, it doesn’t seem fluffed to death, and any manipulative editing feels considerably less noticeable. Unfortunately, much to Bravo’s fiercest attempts otherwise, I felt much more likely to sympathize with Eddie at every turn over the very egocentric rantings of Tamra.

The Final Verdict: At it’s best, it can be light, empty, entertainment, but unfortunately Tamra’s OC Wedding often feels vapid and convoluted. As much as it tries to play Eddie as an affable antagonist, at no turn are you convinced that Tamra’s trials are the fault of anyone but herself, whether it’s blowing the budget or feeling the need to know what nasty lap dance her fiancee is receiving. While it’s no worse than many of it’s contemporaries, that doesn’t necessarily make it good. Check it out if you’re really into Real Housewives style drivel, otherwise skip it– there’s enough on Monday nights now that it’s the fall.

This Reviewer Could Use Some Therapy after Watching L.A. Shrinks.

by Michael Tyminski

L.A. Shrinks: 9 p.m. Mondays, Bravo

I don’t often review reality shows for a number of reasons: namely the lack of “writing” and “acting” gives me very little objective thread to justify my opinion, and outside of the premise there isn’t very much to objectively judge on when it comes to the genre. However, with March providing a fairly thin slate of new shows, and the bulk of those new shows being reality, I guess I’ll take what I can get, with tonight’s show likely being the low point in terms of premieres this month.

My original impressions of this show and the implications thereof make me cringe. In particular, the idea of having a fly on the wall camera in a psychologists office bothers me, as people are now releasing their innermost fears, issues, and traumas in front of a camera (and let’s be real, being watched has never changed human behavior, right?). These visits are then wrapped around while the show deals with the real traumas of it’s star psychologists, which seems to imply that the show is going to trivialize the issues of people with real mental health issues for the significantly less problematic issues of the doctors themselves.

So…did my worst fears come true? Within five minutes it seems like Dr. V. (Venus Nicolino) is mining her patients for comedy, taking a catty tack to not only her patients in general, but seemingly making light of her Michael and Georgie (her two patients’) sex issues in confessional scenes. The implications are made worse when she snap-accepts Michael’s proposal of them recording their sex for the next episode without checking in with Georgie. Dr. V’s segment of the show seems the most outlandish, due her bouncing all over the emotional Richter scale (from catty to shattered) and in every scene that she’s not giving therapy she’s barely clothed (bikini or underwear) to not clothed in a bathtub and giving vampy looks to her husband when he gives her wine.

The other two therapists seem more down to earth, even if they both can gravitate into peevish about the field (Gregory seems to gripe about both his clients anger, and the fact that he can’t pass gas in the office, while Eris gets annoyed at a client whom can’t get enough sex, stating that three to four times a week is an insanely high amount of sex for a married couple, before dropping a statistic that the average couple has sex twice a week). Needless to say, while their patients do not make matters easier, their peevishness towards these clients whom are on their first session comes off as a little cold and petty.

Furthermore, one gets the vibe that many of the therapy scenes are shot in a studio. Dr. Cason’s office in particular seems to feel like it was shot in a multi-camera layout. Similarly, it seems weird that these handpicked clients happen to hit the exact nerves that the doctors layout in the beginning of the show (Most notably Gregory’s issues with the preparation for his commitment ceremony to Kevin, and Eris’ need to have more sex with her husband).

Finally, all ethical issues aside, this show takes all of the classic manipulative editing one expects from the reality genre and takes them to ludicrous extremes (to the point where certain shots look flat out redone). Similarly, Eris trying to resolve her sex life through a full-blown aphrodisiac dinner so that she can have a child feels completely absurd when you discover that she’s been taking birth control. I get that reality shows are about as “real” as professional wrestling, but would it kill you not to blatantly lie to me? Taking the least simple route makes sense on reality shows with a Deus Ex Machina element like say Survivor, The Amazing Race and (probably the king of making this trope work) The Mole, but less so when you have a show that is about day-to-day life.

The Final Verdict: This show is the Real Housewives of therapy. Our therapists problems seem incredibly manufactured and blown up to give a false equivalency to the problems of their clients’ (whose neuroses admittedly also seem fairly minor and only related to the amount of sex they are having). When the show moves away from the office, the show really objectifies its’ women (Venus seems to be in undress for large segments of the show, and they even sneak in a long shot of Eris wearing nothing but underwear). If you’re into particularly trashy reality television, you’ll probably love this, but if you have any standards whatsoever you’ll probably be as repulsed by this series as I am.

Janeration’s Fashion Show: Knits, Colors, and The Cashmere Touch Collection

by Ryan Shea

Bravo Jane and Anna. Bravo. Timeless, stunning touches of detail, and superb craftsmanship is what Janeration’s Ready-To-Wear hand knitted collection is bringing to the table for 2013. The Cashmere Touch collection is about color, embellishments, leather, textures, crocheting, and above all beautifully executed pieces. [Read more…] about Janeration’s Fashion Show: Knits, Colors, and The Cashmere Touch Collection

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