Where to Eat: New York City
Yes, summer is starting to wane. Enjoy those fried seafood shacks and outdoor oyster bars now.
Sometimes I go out by myself and I look across the water. (Someone write that down, could be a good lyric.) And I prefer to do it with something good to eat. Lest you forget this city is surrounded by bodies of water — mostly ones that I wouldn’t enter with an open wound, no offense to the East River — eating with a waterfront view is an easily achievable summer activity. Here are a few places to do just that.
Fried seafood on the Sound
City Island is one of those areas that feels like you’re in a different part of the world entirely. Technically it’s a neighborhood in the Bronx, but spiritually it’s its own state, a 1.5-mile-long island that is sort of Cape Cod-ish. At the very far end of the island is Johnny’s Reef, a fried seafood mecca leaning over the edge of the Long Island Sound that feels like a school cafeteria that’s been untouched since the 70s.
Here’s how it works: Get in the booze line first and then, with a frozen piña colada in hand, head to the food line, order a bunch of fried shrimp, clams and squid, all served with fries and coleslaw. Once you get your big, beige bundle of joy, head outside to one of the blue picnic tables and get into it.
2 City Island Avenue, Bronx
Beachfront pelmeni at the club
My perfect summer day pipeline: Riding the Thunderbolt a handful of times at Coney Island (plus some frozen margaritas), then a stroll on the sand to Tatiana Restaurant in Brighton Beach. Boy, do I adore this place — it’s part beachside Russian restaurant, part live dance performance, part nightclub. You should go on a Saturday night, sit by the beach for a drink, then move inside at 9-ish for dinner and the show. The menu (herring, khachapuri, pelmeni and vareniki) is all perfectly fine, but a means to an end: a Russian dance performance that keeps going and going, followed by a cover band that encourages everyone to abandon their tables for the dance floor.
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