After a day of bargain hunting in downtown Manhattan, IT and I decided to crash DBGB Kitchen and Bar on Bowery (photo above by DBGB).  This new restaurant by Daniel Boulud took the space of CBGB (Country, BlueGrass, Blues) which had a long history in the music scene of NYC.  In its heydays, The Ramones, Blondie, and many punk rock luminaries played there. CBGB hosted the first American gigs by The Police in 1978.  The club’s awning also says OMFUG, sounds dirty, doesn’t it ? (see photo below from CBGB‘s Wikipedia entry).  According to the founder Hilly Kristal, OMFUG stands for Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers; and a gormandizer is a voracious eater of, in this case, music.  I knew about the place but never attended any concerts there.

It was a saturday night.  The restaurant was packed.  Without a reservation, we managed to snatch a table in the bar area (the table was for 4, but had we got a table for 2, it would have been too small to hold what we ordered).  The main dining room is surrounded by shelves of kitchenwares (some used by world famous chefs like Alain Doucasse and local heros – David Chang), and behind the shelves are open kitchen spaces and a fresh seafood serving station heaped with ice.  The bar area is surrounded by a wall of floor-to-ceiling mirrors on which are written today’s specials or etched with culinary quotes by famous people.  I copied a few of the quotes here:

Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.  – Luis Buñuel

It was quite a challenge to make people eat crab ice cream. – Heston Blumenthal

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. – Virginia Woolf

To still be in business after 400 years of celibacy, you know that the Trappists must make damn good beer.  – Patrick Allen

Cooking should be a carefully balanced reflection of all the good things on earth.  – Jean et Pierre Troisgros

Ham and eggs – a day’s work for a chicken, a life time commitment for a pig. – Anonymous

Pictures of our food will be posted tomorrow.