JOSEPH LEONARD

Joseph Leonard
170 Waverly Place
646-429-8383
www.josephleonard.com


On this Thursday Annie and I tried a place recommended by Annie's sister Susie.  As Susie said "Girrrlll, you've gotta have one of their drinks"  followed by and the food was . . .
So off we went - west on Christopher Street, where the streets intersect in ways that only occur in the West Village of Manhattan, until we came to Waverly Place.

From the outside the place seems very small but once you become part of the dining room it seems to open up wide.  We sat on the second tier by an open window overlooking a triangle of green on Christopher Street.

Girl - the drinks.  The cocktails are fresh, inventive and hard to choose a single one.  But choose we did and settled on a K'Naan which came with a very nice story about its creation and naming.  It has dark rum, maple syrup and smoked pineapple - 3 of my favorite things.  The smoke flavor was unusual.

We started with appetizer's.  I had deviled eggs on an arugula salad with white anchovy.  The eggs were cooked perfectly with yolks of creamy goodness flavored with just he right amount of dijon mustard to give it a bite but not enough to linger too long.  They were served atop a bed of delicately dressed arugula and halved grape tomatoes.  Annie had 6 of the freshest oysters, from MA. She paired them with a nice spinach and parmesan salad dressed in just the right amount of balsamic and herbs

The smokey pineapple didn't set right with Annie so when I ordered my second K'Naan, she ordered a glass of Rose Cava served in a saucer type champagne glass.  We loved the kitsch of the glass - it so fit the ambiance of the restaurant.  As we sat their sipping our drinks and waiting for our entrees I felt like I was sitting in a restaurant in Grand Case, St Martine. Yes - its that kind of good.

For entree Annie had crispy braised pork hock. It was a pork shank that was so tender it just fell off the bone atop a bed of arugula.

I ordered the skate wing (fish) atop frisee.  It came to the table breaded, as I held my breath and pointed, Andrew the waiter said "rice flour".  I just about squealed in delight - delicious.




We were served a side order of shredded and sautéed brussell sprouts lightly topped with sriracha.  Again delicious.


So we ate past room for dessert once again. Surprise!


I think I want to have dinner here for my birthday.










Bottom line
Dinner with 4 drinks, 3 appetizers, 2 entrees tax and tip $170.00
Would I eat hear again - Definitely
Special feature - The ambiance of the entire establishment is fabulous.
We dined on June 14, 2012