Burger & Barrel and Venieros Pastry

Manhattan is really a miserable place to live, so when I really hate it, I go to a really chic restaurant so I feel like I'm living in a romantic comedy.

At Burger & Barrel, I got beef tartare, which is raw ground beef mixed with various condiments. This was really good; the seasoning was very simple and didn't overwhelm the meat. The beef itself was very rich, so the escarole, capers, and pickled radish balanced it very well.

Is it weird to get so excited about toasted bread? I feel like most restaurants can't get toasted bread right; it's usually too thin and flimsy, or not charred enough. However, the toasted bread that came with this was so perfect. It's the perfect dense texture, charred, and buttered.

I also got duck lasagna. The edges of the noodles were really crispy, which was pretty interesting. Although the duck was very tender, the dish was just very bland. Although there's tomato sauce underneath, the lasagna itself is filled with very basic bechamel sauce (basically white cream sauce), which really masks the flavor of the duck. The only time I actually tasted the duck was when I burped 20 minutes later.

I'm really starting to wonder if I can get good truffle fries anywhere in New York. I've had some pretty incredible truffle fries (like at Umami Burger), but this one was just plain fries with three drops of truffle oil sprinkled on top. Once you eat through the top layer, the truffle essence is gone.

I was getting pretty sad towards the middle of the meal (yes, food can make me sad) so I decided not to stay for dessert. Instead, I went to my favorite pastry shop, Venieros in East Village.

Venieros has the most fantastic pastries and cakes. I got tiramisu cake, which is a big wedge of chocolate cream with small chunks of cake in it. It's just a delicious, fatty dessert that's not too heavy and always makes me happy.

The best part of being 21 is being able to drink alcohol mixed with coffee in a public place. I ordered Bailey's Irish Cream coffee, which is exactly what it sounds like. Bailey's itself tastes like chocolate milk, so this just tastes like an alcoholic mocha, which is never a bad thing.

Burger & Barrel
25 W Houston St
http://www.burgerandbarrel.com/

Venieros Pasticceria
342 E 11th St
http://www.venierospastry.com/