A New Chain On The Block

Breaking News Chain of Food Fans.

A new chain is opening near Repub head quarters on 47th Street. I was walking to the subway yesterday and saw the signs that Famous Dave's BBQ is opening up. I went to this place in Jersey once. It was pretty good. Places like Wildwood BBQ are way better, but Wildwood is not a chain. I can see myself hanging out at Famous Dave's afterwork with Chrissy and Teddy, maybe getting a marg and then getting some BBQ grub, hollah. It will be fun. No more Langan's for us, only Famous Dave's now. Perhaps my boy and fellow BU alum Billy O will join us!!

Fig & Olive - A Fine Establishment

Do not worry, I suck so much at my New Years Resolutions that I will no longer bore you with them at all anymore. Instead, I will share with you the glorious restaurant that I have been dining at frequently with some of my favorite ladies.....Fig & Olive.

Fig & Olive is a chain, with three locations in NY. One on the Upper East Side, one in midtown -hollah midtown and one in the meatpacking district, right near my girl Whitney's office (DVF).

I have been to the midtown and meatpacking locations and both have a very upscale, yet comfortable vibe. The food here is Mediterranean with, you guessed it, an emphasis on olive oil.

To start your meal you get bread and a trio of oil for dipping. They told us where they were from but I was not paying attention, I am pretty sure I heard Spain for one of them so I of course decided that was my favorite. The first time I went I was with Brookie Cookie and Jordy Wordy. The queen of Garden City(which is a chain mecca) was a bit late so Cookie and I thought it would be best to polish off a bottle of red before our little lacrosse star arrived. I love seeing Cookie drink like me, reminds me of why I love her so much.

Now this place really had Jordy written all over it. Kinda of like Talbots. I bet she was shocked that I liked it so much. She thinks I only like places like Cheesecake Factory or McDonalds. She is wrong. Fig & Olive is so a Rori place.

To start our meal we got a trio of crosstinis. I loved them!! My two favorites were the mushroom one and the shrimp and avocado one. We also got this fabulous zucchini carpaccio. It was light and delicious. It was probably my favorite thing we ordered. I bet the girls probably wanted something like the tuna carpaccio, but too bad, Rori does not eat tuna. I let them get some cheeses, I was not allowing tuna as well. Another dish we ordered that was a real home run (I am excited for baseball to start so I am already using baseball terms) was the eggplant & sundried tomato. It was just extremely tasty. I know I said I would not talk about my New Years Resolutions but you can probably see that this place is pretty healthy and you could keep your New Years Oprah Resolutions here.

The second time I went I brought Jennifer and Nina. I just knew they would like it as much as I did. To switch things up a bit I decided to order a bottle of Savignon Blanc. We never drink that kind but the description sounded wonderful and it was! I never pick a good bottle so I was giddy with glee that I finally did. With these girls we ordered the crostinis again and the chicken samosas. Our waiter, who sucked big time, recommended them. They were just Ok. For entrees, Jen got a salad (no shock there) but it looked really good and was a nice, big portion. I made Nina share the mushroom pasta dish with me and it was awesome!!! I saw other people eating it the first time I was here and I was drooling so I decided that my hetero must share it with me.
I really think this is a great place to go with your girlfriends for good wine and good fun! I do not see it as a place for dudes but that is just my opinion. I see a lot of potential for this place and can see it expanding to cities like Boston and LA in no time.

Healthy Chaining 101

Since we are really only a week into the New Year I am going to continue to focus on my Oprah Winfrey New Year, New You resolutions. Umm she picked the president so I am going to take her advice. I know I have already fallen off the wagon a few times but everytime you fall, you just have to pick yourself up and try again. Therefore I am dedicating this posting to some of my picks for the most healthy eating options at chain restaurants.

(these are in no particular order)

1) Applebee's Weight Watcher Entrees. I think Applebee's is just alright but if you want a good, healthy meal at a chain restaurant that is more than a simple salad with dressing on the side, this is the place to go. Some real standouts on the menu are the Chili-Lime Chicken Salad that has chicken, spinach, reduced fat mozzarella's cheese, and some veggies. Others are the Garlic Herb Chicken, Cajun Lime Tilapia (daddy would eat that), Italian Chicken & Portobellow Sandwich ( I would get that without the mushrooms). Also some of the salads, like my favorite Oriental Chicken Salad can be made healthy with grilled chicken and subbing a lower calorie dressing.

2) Panera - I know this place has some fattening sandwiches, soups and salads, but they also have some very healthy ones. If you are smart about what you order you can have a delicious meal and still make Oprah proud. There are tons of low fat soups like the new Tortilla Chicken Soup. I have tried it and it was delicious!!! My personal favorite soup there is the French Onion. If you say not too much cheese and croutons, you can save a lot of calories. Also their salads are pretty healthy and extremely delicious. My favorites are the Orchard Harvest (it has cherries!!), Asian Sesame Chicken and (seasonal) Strawberry Poppyseed. I was just looking at the calorie counts on the sandwiches, those are kinda high to I guess avoid those unless it is like turkey which I don't like so I can not recommend.

3) Cheesecake Factory - What, how can the Cheesecake Factory be healthy??? It is not really, but they do have a weigh management salad menu that is pretty decent. My pick is of course the Asian Chicken Salad.

4) Pret A Manager - I know I have spoken about this many times before but they have tons of great sandwiches, salads and soups that will not make you unable to fit into your favorite black wool Brooks Brothers skirt.

5) The Seafood Chains - Red Lobster, Legal Seafood, etc. Everyone knows I am not a huge seafood fan but if you got a Red Lobster it is not that hard to work healthy. What I would do is just get grilled shrimp on a bed of rice or a plain baked potato. It would try to avoid the bread but I know me and I would eat the bread, especially the garlic cheese biscuits. Oprah would too so it is Ok.

So that is my list for now. If you have any advice, please share. Notice I have nothing about drink restrictions on this list. That would be lame.

The Best Chain Moments of 2008

Happy 2009! I am very excited for the New Year. I have a lot of resolutions and so far I have not been able to keep any of them. One of my most important resolutions (besides losing weight, drinking less, not having an attitude, not associating with anyone that looks like Seth Rogen and running more) is blogging more often. I have this dream of the Food Network or Travel Channel contacting me after reading my blog and offering me my own show where I travel to different chains across the world and sample all of the delicious food. Essentially it is the blog, but in a TV show. I watch that Anthony Bourdain show and the dude has a total attitude and gets all excited about sucking the fat out of a shrimp head. Really hot shot, there is no way that is good. Freakin eat an awesome chicken parm hero, that is good. Fat out of a shrimp head, not good. Anyway, I digress. I am pleased to present to you, my picks for the best chain restaurant moments of 2008. Drum Roll please...........

5) The opening of Sinigual in midtown Manhattan. This is a great addition to midtown. I ate here with ex-boss just a few days before he quit and then had a lovely meal here once with my family. It was one of the only times King Brett was happy with one of my food choices.

4) Discovering my love of Pret a Manger. I do not really like anything French besides fries, the architecture and half of Jen Roy, but I love Pret a Manger. It is awesome that right across from my office I can run and get a delicious sandwich and soup for under 500 calories (this will fit in very well on my New Years Resolutions).

3) Exploring the chains of LA. Oh LA, how I love thee. At first I was daunted by your traffic, smog and girly men, but now I get it. You rock, the weather, palm trees, abundance of D list spottings and array of chains make you one of my favorite cities. I was able to discover new gems like Katsuya and Urth Cafe as well as indulge in some of my old favorites like Baja Fresh, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and In n Out Burger.

2) Bennihana. What a fun, delicious place and in 2008 I finally tried it. My only wish was that I tried it sooner.

1) McDonalds in Spain. This was actually the only time I had McDonalds this year. Can you believe it, I only ate at my favorite restaurant once this year, I must have will power. I can still taste the wonderful chicken nuggets and french fries I enjoyed after wandering the streets of Madrid. I would do anything to go back there!

So there it is, the best chain moments of 2008. If you have some you think I may have forgotten, please feel free to write about them.