Before we ski down the slopes of January let’s recap what is still left in December. On December 18th we dine at The Patina Group owned restaurant CUCINA & COMPANY, for a Mediterranean inspired meal. Patina Group owns more than 60 restaurants nationwide including Café Centro, Brasserie and La Fonda Del Sol. We will meet next door at Naples 45 for the cocktail hour. On Christmas day we return to MARSEILLE for a French Christmas dinner. Our menu is confirmed and has changed just slightly from last year and will include starters such as lobster bisque, tuna tartare, mushroom & chestnut risotto, ricotta & truffle tart, burgundy escargot, jumbo lump crab cakes with entrees of-roast beef rib-eye, Hudson Valley heirloom pork, duck breast, Australian lamb chops and pan roasted monkfish and our desserts include buche de noel (yule log cake), gala apple tart, sticky fig pudding and pecan financier (glass of wine and coffee). There is very limited space left for this event and it WILL sell out. Finally, on New Year’s Eve we toast the midnight bubbly at SARABETH’s on Central Park South. We dined here earlier this year with a group of 44 and they have welcomed us back with an incredible 4- course meal with a live Jazz band! There will be bubbly toasts, live jazz music and great company. Sarabeth’s has bent over backwards to make sure we have a great event.
Our January starts off on January 10th with a boozy January jazz brunch at DOCKS SEAFOOD GRILL. We celebrated the 4th of July here with 42 members so why not start our first event of 2016 in a fun atmosphere, with live jazz and lots of drinks? The brunch includes unlimited mimosas and Bloody Mary’s. On January 17th we head to a new restaurant for the group discovered by myself, Zagat’s and the entire Chelsea neighborhood, EOLO. After dining here with my wife, I knew that this would be a perfect fit for our group: comfortable atmosphere with great food!! It was no surprise to me that they were owned by an award winning chef who has cooked in the James Beard Award house! The following week we head to CHEZ JOSPEHINE’S a beautifully elegant French restaurant that is unassuming from the outside, but once you enter you feel like you have entered a 1920’s Parisian speakeasy, with velvet walls, candelabras, chandeliers and a lively piano player. Immediately as you walk in, you wonder how you never discovered this place before! Located in the theatre district and recommended by many members from our group, Chez Josephine has been serving French fare for 30 years. Finally, on Saturday, January 30th we head back to one of our all-time favorite 4-course meals at CELLINI’s, in Midtown. We have been dining at this family owned restaurant for years and they always welcome The Single Gourmet as if we are part of their family.
The following December events are still available for Single Gourmet Members and their guests:
- Cucina & Company- Friday, December 18th,200 Park Avenue @45th- Metlife Bldg, Meet for drinks next door at Naples 45- 6pm optional drinks, 6:45pm dinner, 3-course, gl of wine, coffee, tax/tip. $please call
- Marseille- Christmas Dinner- 630 9th Avenue (Corner 44th Street),Friday, December 25th, RSVP early 3:15pm optional drinks, 4pm Dinner, 3-course dinner, glass of wine, tax & tip- $87 LIMITED SPACE
The following January events are available for Single Gourmet Members and their guests:
Sarabeth’s – New Year’s Eve
40 Central Park South (5th/6th)
Thursday, December, 31st
8:30 optional drinks
9:30 pm dinner
Live jazz band till 12:30am
Midnight bubbly toast
Party favors
$110 RSVP before Christmas
$115 RSVP after Christmas
4-course meal, glass wine, toast, coffee, tax & tip
Toast with us to another wonderful year passed as we celebrate with a live jazz band at Sarabeth’s! We had an exceptional dinner here with 44 members in late May and expect another great turn out so be prepared for a fun night! We will be in their Atrium room in the back with party favors, a midnight toast, 4-course meal and a glass of wine. There is no reason to be anywhere else on New Year’s Eve… unless you are in Spain! Please RSVP early. One of our amazing members, Marianne, will be there to check you in and make sure things run smoothly. NOTE: I will be in Spain after Christmas, so if you just mail a check, I will NOT KNOW that you are going unless your check arrives before the 24th or unless you EMAIL or call me that you are coming. It is best if you call me or email me your reservation early or send a check to arrive before Dec. 24th. After the 24th I will be available by email and phone, but sporadically.
Docks- Boozy Brunch and Jazz Band
Sunday, January 10th
633 3rd Avenue @ 40th Street
11:30 meet at the bar, 12:15-2:15pm seating
$50-Entrée, Unlimited Coffee, Juice, tax & tip
Unlimited Blood Mary’s/ Mimosas at the table
Our first event in 2016 after a long vacation to Spain should involve a lot of jazz, a great atmosphere, a great menu and a lot of drinks, so when I heard that Docks, would offer us a jazz brunch with unlimited mimosas and Bloody Mary’s, I booked it. Choose an entrée such as eggs benedict with Canadian bacon, Irish smoked salmon, Dock’s crab cake benedict, asparagus & mushroom omelet, New England omelet with Maine jumbo lump crab meat, banana foster French toast, Maine lobster hash bowl, Scottish smoked salmon platter and other brunch items. We had 42 dine here on July 4th to a spectacular dinner event so let’s return to what one member calls, “a fantastic jazz brunch.” Zagat rated for their “reliable fish, professional servers and a high-octane social scene.” Please note: the only drinks included in this meal and that are unlimited at the table, include coffee, juices, mimosas and Bloody Mary’s! All other drinks are pay as you go, (i.e. wine, beer, soft drinks, cocktails are not included). Let’s kick off 2016 on a fun note!
Eolo- Seasonal Sicilian Kitchen
190 7th Avenue (@21st Street)
Sunday, January 17th
5:00 optional drinks, 6:00 dinner
$77 3- course, gl wine, tax /tip
Award winning chef/owner Melissa Muller Daka, opened Eolo (God who rules the wind) in 2010 as a “love letter to Sicily”, where she spent summers working in her grandmother’s restaurant. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute, Columbia University’s Culinary Anthropology program, a James Beard House Invited Chef and voted by her peers as a Best Chef in America (less than 1% of chefs win this award), Melissa’s love and devotion towards her Italian roots shines in her 23 rated Zagat restaurant. At Eolo, food is thought to be a source of great pleasure as well as an insight into the culture of Sicily. In a warm and relaxed setting, Eolo serves Sicilian-inspired contemporary fare in a comfortable setting with on-point staff, whose deep-rooted Italian manager happens to be a close friend. The menu will not be the traditional Italian we are accustomed to, but more Sicilian home-style with interesting dishes that will be new to your palate.
Chez Josephine
414 West 42nd St (Btw 9th and 10th Ave)
Sunday, Jan 24th (limited to 30 members)
5:30 optional drinks, 6:15pm dinner
$78 3- course, glass wine, coffee, tax and tip
Zagat rated saying, “they hit the high notes at this old-style Parisian boite featuring French Bistro fare, colorful boudoir decor and a pianist tinkling the ivories.” If you have never been to Chez Josephine’s, you have missed out on trip right into Paris. 4.5 stars on Opentable they write, “The last of its kind near 42nd Street, Chez Josephine is a neighborhood gem founded in 1986 by Jean-Claude Baker as a tribute to legendary Josephine Baker. This Parisian bistro offers live piano music and a tantalizing menu in an intimate setting of red velvet walls, a cavalcade of chandeliers and a blue-tin ceiling. Chez Josephine draws a crowd unlike any other in New York as food critic Bryan Miller noted when he wrote: “The dining room is a confluence of the famous and the fashionable, the infamous and unsung, and indeed you feel the magic of Chez Josephine.” A TripAdvisor “Certificate of Excellence,” winner and ranked by them in the top 2% of all NYC restaurants. Our menu is French inspired with escargot, French onion soup and Belgium endive salad to start, trout amandine, steak frites and coq a vin as entrees finished off with delicious French desserts.
Cellini
65 East 54th (Madison and Park)
Saturday, January 30th
6:45pm optional drinks, 7:45pm Dinner
$75- 4-course dinner, gl wine, coffee, t&t
An old favorite of the group and according to Zagat, “a sure bet Italian” we will be treated like family by Lello’s son, Dino. Our 4-course dinner will be as great as always with a first course choice between 3 different salads, second course of pasta with eggplant and fresh buffalo mozzarella, and our main course choices between veal scaloppini, chicken madeira and the fish of the day, ending with a medley combination of desserts (apple tart, black forest cake, and Ricotta cheese cake). You will be taken right into Tuscany with the farmhouse atmosphere and Italian inspired made from scratch meal. We are never disappointed after dining here, thus our returns year after year, after year.
NYC Winter Wine Festival
PlayStation Theater (former Best Buy Theater)
1515 Broadway at W. 44th St at 3pm
Saturday, February 6th
3pm-6pm Session
Meet me at 2:45pm at Junior’s Cheesecake around the
corner on 45th between Broadway and 8th)
Live Jazz Music featuring Alex Bugnon
RSVP Early- Space Limited/ no refunds
$77 250 wines, souvenir glass, plenty of hors d’oeuvres
From the same group that brought us the North Fork Wine Crush and the Brooklyn Wine Crush Events, New York Wine Events is transforming Times Square’s PlayStation Theater into an indoor vineyard. Attendees will taste world class wine, delicious hors d’oeuvres and artisanal treats. Participating wine distributors source their selections from the world’s finest grape growing regions in France, Italy, Spain, South Africa, California, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Japan, Austria and Germany. Join us along with 500 other wine aficionados as we celebrate a winter Saturday by tasting lots of wine and lots of food. We are excited to have award winning jazz pianist Alex Bugnon performing at this year’s NYC Winter Wine Festival! Alex’s first album, Love Season, catapulted the virtual unknown to prominence and set him on his musical course. The album rocketed to number 2 on the R&B charts and was nominated for best jazz album at the Soul Train Awards. When Alex released his second album, Head Over Heels, it became a chart topper cementing his position as a radio and fan favorite on the R&B and smooth jazz circuit, earning him Black Radio Exclusive’s Best New Artist Award. The event will feature over 250 wines, and plenty of food. We will meet 15 minutes earlier at Junior’s Cheesecake around the corner at 45th off Broadway towards 8th.
To reserve at any or all the events please go to our website and view our dashboard event calendar or call us at (646-825-0268), email us at aaron@thesinglegourmet.net or mail checks with events chosen to:
The Single Gourmet, c/o Aaron Lefkowitz, 69 west 9th Street Apartment #6A, New York, NY 10011
- Cucina & Company- Patina Group Friday, Dec 18th 6:00pm $please call______
- Marseille- French Christmas-RSVP NOW Friday, Dec 25th 3:30pm $87____________
- Sarabeth’s Jazz Band New Year’s- 4-courses Thurs, Dec 31st 8:30-12:30 $115 $110 before Christmas
- Docks Seafood Grill- Boozy Jazz Brunch Sunday, Jan 10th 11:30am $50____________
- Eolo- Sicilian Classic, 23 Zagat Sunday, Jan 17th 5:00 pm $77 ____________
- Chez Josephine- Parisian/Live Piano Sunday, Jan 24th 5:30 pm $78 ____________
- Cellini- Dino’s Classic Tuscany Italian Saturday Jan 30th 6:45 p $75_____________
- NYC Winter Wine Festival- 250 Wines Saturday- Feb 6th 2:45pm $77_____________
- West Side Steak House- Save The Date Sunday- Feb 7th 5:30pm $82 _____________
- Nashville & Memphis- Memorial Week Friday- Wednesday $TBD ____________
Name: __________________________________________
Check _____or CC Number_______________________Expiration ________ZIP__________
Phone number____________________ email __________________
Signature______________________________I understand these events /deposits are non-refundable
