first night in NYC

I am on a trip in NYC with my honey, he on business, me happily tagging along. I joined him last night, arriving after a long flight from tokyo- through toronto to NY...
After arriving in our lovely boutique hotel, The Roger Williams. (more on the RW later) We went to a near by recommended restaurant, Artisanal

Artisanal is a bistro/ cheese shop. And it has truly earned its fame for cheese. They offer a little retail counter, plus on the menu many cheese tasting options, flights and even fondue. YUM. The rest of the menu is lovely focused bistro fare.

I really enjoyed the whole experience.

we started out with a cheese and wine tasting flight. We chose the "Unusual" cheese trio. which included

C H E E S E
Cabecou Schnaps (Goat, France)
Gorwydd Caerphilly (Cow, Wales)
Pecorino Foglie Noce (Sheep, Italy)
W I N E S
Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Domaine L’Erriere 06
Koehler Santa Ynez Valley 05
Chianti Classico LaSala 05

My favorite was the Wales one, and the best wine was the Muscadet.

Then for his main, he had
D U C K B O U R G U I G N O N
A La Grande-Mère & Chestnut Pappardelle

and I chose--
H A N G E R S T E A K F R I T E S (shown above)

The service as nice, though there were too many waiters at our table to know who was OUR waiter... And the host was lovely, he seated us as quickly as he could even though we did not have reservations, and he stopped back to check on us. He made a excellent wine suggestion for me. It was a perfect match for my steak;
Toro Numanthia Termes Dominio de Eguren Tempranillo 05
totally delicious.

The restaurant has a killer wine list and has won a bunch of awards from Wine Spectator. We are even planning on going back, though our time in NYC is short and there are many places we want to go. One point... steak should have been smaller and fries, to give me a shot at having room for dessert. Sadly I was tooooo full.

Fancy Glass Review;

Service 4 fancy glasses






Atmosphere 5 fancy glasses






Food (esp. the cheese) 5 FG






Overall Impression 4 1/2