Sinainn
06-11-2008, 04:22 PM
From Black Book. com
On the dawn of a new era in America, musician, birthday boy, and former BlackBook intern Ryan Adams writes in from the road to rave about his favorite Republic.
Today is my birthday, and I am in Europe and a new president has been elected who seems so very dignified and also will have some sleeve-rolling-up to do and some boot-straps to help us with the pulling-up. That being said, I hate birthdays and was glad to be out of the country for mine. I tend to not take myself out to dinner, being one of those single people who needs the counter, that's right, demands it. Veselka was my "go-to" spot for years, but having moved to the West Village and become a vegetarian recently for no real reason other than it made me feel better and made my life as someone who travels for work easier, I settled into a new spot.
I have lived in the city for nearly ten years now, so I suppose if I manage ten more, I will be considered a New Yorker. But my kids, should I ever have children (which will take an act of God as first I would have to find someone either ridiculous enough or foolish enough to have me as a partner) will be New Yorkers through and through. It just never fades for me how the city takes care of the loner. Our restaurants, the good ones, they know we are a lonely bunch all tied together in our concrete glass towered dreams. Culinary even.
That being said, my spot is Republic in Union Square.
It’s a real trip. They have lightning-fast service, always genuinely friendly due to very sweet owners and managers. The music is never too loud (they do a bar scene there, but only after 10:30 p.m., which is very grown-up in my opinion and way past my bed-time).
The menu changes frequently but never strays from a streamlined one-page easy-to-read descriptive hand-held glossy.
The counter space (my spot) is split up between two seated stooled bars (one for drinkers, and one for just folks there to eat ... thank you for that) and also has a nice little area outside to eat if you are an adventurous type who enjoys watching kids skate and taxis honk and people going to and from Brooklyn or wherever ever from the subway stops there in the square. (I don’t eat outside ... ever, myself.)
They have excellent soup with noodles—if you have a head cold, that can knock it right out of you in two days should you choose—and a lot of great cold noodles dishes for the light-hearted. Also they tend to surround their food with fresh vegetables and watercress and things you need but don’t know you need. They even have their own very crafty mixed drink list if you are a drunk (if you are under 29 and live in the city you are probably a drunk).
And best of all, their regular seating is made so that you have plenty of room but also have the chance to elbow up with locals you don’t know in a communal and civil environment with wooden tables big enough to carry about ten or so per table. I like that idea but I am afraid of people, so I tend to never stray from the bar.
I eat at Republic most of all to watch the pots and pans and fryers at work and to listen to the indecipherable loudspeaker system working in their open kitchen, which reminds me so so much of the scene in Blade Runner when Han Solo (Indiana Jones) is first approached by his old crew at the future police station headquarters.
I hope you get a chance to check it out. And if you are lucky, the woman who works there who looks like a real living Nubian goddess with cheekbones and a smile that could break a glass statue with water-covered-living-thing-supporting moon like eyes is still there. She gives the best advice on changing up your mainstay courses if you are a creature of habit like myself.
Thank goodness for our amazing city and all its glorious nooks and crannies.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2543/ryanadamsrepublicsf8.th.jpg (http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ryanadamsrepublicsf8.jpg)http://img530.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)
Go to:
http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/ryan-adams-republic-union-square/4900
On the dawn of a new era in America, musician, birthday boy, and former BlackBook intern Ryan Adams writes in from the road to rave about his favorite Republic.
Today is my birthday, and I am in Europe and a new president has been elected who seems so very dignified and also will have some sleeve-rolling-up to do and some boot-straps to help us with the pulling-up. That being said, I hate birthdays and was glad to be out of the country for mine. I tend to not take myself out to dinner, being one of those single people who needs the counter, that's right, demands it. Veselka was my "go-to" spot for years, but having moved to the West Village and become a vegetarian recently for no real reason other than it made me feel better and made my life as someone who travels for work easier, I settled into a new spot.
I have lived in the city for nearly ten years now, so I suppose if I manage ten more, I will be considered a New Yorker. But my kids, should I ever have children (which will take an act of God as first I would have to find someone either ridiculous enough or foolish enough to have me as a partner) will be New Yorkers through and through. It just never fades for me how the city takes care of the loner. Our restaurants, the good ones, they know we are a lonely bunch all tied together in our concrete glass towered dreams. Culinary even.
That being said, my spot is Republic in Union Square.
It’s a real trip. They have lightning-fast service, always genuinely friendly due to very sweet owners and managers. The music is never too loud (they do a bar scene there, but only after 10:30 p.m., which is very grown-up in my opinion and way past my bed-time).
The menu changes frequently but never strays from a streamlined one-page easy-to-read descriptive hand-held glossy.
The counter space (my spot) is split up between two seated stooled bars (one for drinkers, and one for just folks there to eat ... thank you for that) and also has a nice little area outside to eat if you are an adventurous type who enjoys watching kids skate and taxis honk and people going to and from Brooklyn or wherever ever from the subway stops there in the square. (I don’t eat outside ... ever, myself.)
They have excellent soup with noodles—if you have a head cold, that can knock it right out of you in two days should you choose—and a lot of great cold noodles dishes for the light-hearted. Also they tend to surround their food with fresh vegetables and watercress and things you need but don’t know you need. They even have their own very crafty mixed drink list if you are a drunk (if you are under 29 and live in the city you are probably a drunk).
And best of all, their regular seating is made so that you have plenty of room but also have the chance to elbow up with locals you don’t know in a communal and civil environment with wooden tables big enough to carry about ten or so per table. I like that idea but I am afraid of people, so I tend to never stray from the bar.
I eat at Republic most of all to watch the pots and pans and fryers at work and to listen to the indecipherable loudspeaker system working in their open kitchen, which reminds me so so much of the scene in Blade Runner when Han Solo (Indiana Jones) is first approached by his old crew at the future police station headquarters.
I hope you get a chance to check it out. And if you are lucky, the woman who works there who looks like a real living Nubian goddess with cheekbones and a smile that could break a glass statue with water-covered-living-thing-supporting moon like eyes is still there. She gives the best advice on changing up your mainstay courses if you are a creature of habit like myself.
Thank goodness for our amazing city and all its glorious nooks and crannies.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2543/ryanadamsrepublicsf8.th.jpg (http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ryanadamsrepublicsf8.jpg)http://img530.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)
Go to:
http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/ryan-adams-republic-union-square/4900