Being that I live in California, I have a strong opin­ion that the pizza in the state sucks. So, when I went to New York City, I just took it for granted that there was no way on Earth that New York Pizza would let me down in any way. Boy, was I ever wrong.….

Enter Danny's Pizzeria, tonight's choice for din­ner. This place was a few blocks away from the loft I was stay­ing in and right next to the entrance where I caught the L every­day. They deliver around the neigh­bor­hood via bicy­cle and seemed to be a decent choice for stay­ing home food.

The pizza arrived and I ran down­stairs to pay and pickup. I handed over the cash, told the deliv­ery guy to keep the change and ran back up stairs to dig in. The moment I took the first bite, I knew that this was going to be a dis­ap­point­ing night. The pizza wasn't hor­ri­ble, but it def­i­nitely was not my idea of good New York Pizza. I wouldn't rec­om­mend to any­one, whether in Brooklyn or trav­el­ing from abroad, that they bother with this pizze­ria. It def­i­nitely does not do jus­tice to Brooklyn or New York in any way, but if you still dare give it a try, the address is below.

Danny's Pizzeria is located @ 241 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn, NY on the NE cor­ner of Montrose and Bushwick. Phone: (718) 381-1669. There is also a loca­tion @ 176 Graham Ave which is two blocks away on the east side of Graham/Ave of Puerto Rico.
Phone (718) 302-0226.

Today's lunch choice was a place that I'd antic­i­pated for some time. Balthazar is a pop­u­lar SoHo Bistro that is bustling at 2pm in the after­noon. The place was filled to the walls and a wait for just two peo­ple was 30-45 min­utes. Luckily, as usual, the bar is first come first serve.

There was deli­cious bread being served, thanks to the Balthazar bak­ery right next door, and the menu items are rel­a­tively pricey but well worth it. I had the plea­sure of order­ing a deli­cious cheese­burger which was cooked to medium well per­fec­tion and served with a tasty slice of Gruyère.

The cheese­burger and fries were deli­cious. The bar­tender, Olivier, was a cheer­ful French gen­tle­man and remarked on the food of his coun­try and expressed their love of Nutella.

Overall, I think Balthazar is a won­der­ful restau­rant that I'd love to eat at again and again. The food is deli­cious. Just make sure you are will­ing to wait a while for a seat or plan ahead and make reser­va­tions. Either way, it is well worth the wait and I rec­om­mend to all that live in New York City and those from abroad.

Balthazar is located @ 80 Spring St, New York, NY. Phone: (212) 965-1414

Hours: Mon-Thu 7:30am-1am , Fri 7:30am-2am, Sat 8am-2am, Sun 8am-12am

Yesterday's lunch choice was a mat­ter of loca­tion. I had to be at the Ed Sullivan Theater at 2pm to pick up my ticket for The Late Show and I didn't leave the apart­ment until after noon, I think. After stand­ing in line being ush­ered inside to tell a mil­lion peo­ple what my name was and which list I was on, I had said ticket in hand. It was 2:30pm and I needed to be back at 3:30pm to line up and be seated.

So, I spot Europa Café, which is directly across the street from the the­ater entrance and fig­ure, why not? The prices there are not fru­gal, but they also aren't very expen­sive. I decided to go with the Copenhagen Zesto, which is 730 calo­ries of rel­a­tive bland­ness. I don't know what fla­vor it was miss­ing, but there was one that didn't make it in time enough for roll call that day.

There are sev­eral items there that look really great and appe­tiz­ing but I guess that I just picked the wrong one. In any case, Europa Café served it's pur­pose and allowed me to get back across the street in a timely mat­ter. I'd eat there again if in the same exact sit­u­a­tion or if I was just pass­ing buy and needed a quick bite.

The Europa Café I ate at is located at 1700 Broadway on the cor­ner of Broadway and 53rd. The store hours are Monday - Friday: 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM and closed on weekends