It took me a while to warm up to DBGB’s room: It can feel a bit cavernous and cold. But once you start in on chef Daniel Boulud’s reengineered burgers and sausages and assorted versions of bistro/American greatest hits—and get absorbed in all the celebrity-chef-donated copper cookware lining the walls—suddenly all is warm and luscious and [...]

Sometimes the only thing that will do is a griddled Venezuelan corn cake smeared with salty white cheese, or with sweet plantains and avocado, or with grilled chorizo and jalapenos. These aren’t those flabby street-fest arepas. At Caracas Arepa Bar, they’re expertly [...]

A pizza and a glass of wine at Lil’ Frankie’s bar is the definition of low-maintenance East Village dining, if “dining” is the right word for this kind of easy, visceral wish fulfillment. The pizzas here aren’t making grand claims to Neapolitan authenticity or oldest-coal-oven-in-New-York or whatever, but they’re satisfyingly bubbling, charred pies with substance and style and [...]