The first night on my second trip to New York in a month. Weird how things go sometimes…never been to New York, then I go twice in a month. This time my first night I was flying solo, so I opted to just run upstairs to the restaurant on the roof of the hotel I was staying in, Club Quarters, opposite the Rockefeller Center. A rather odd place, I still don’t have it figured out in my head as to what it really is. Is it a hotel? Is it a private Club? Is it a timeshare? Is it private residencies? I am sure someone knows, just not me. All I know is that I stayed there for 3 nights, it was very comfortable but lacking in certain regular hotel amenities, the cable TV was down, you check in via a computer not a person & there are no instructions anywhere as to how anything works. For a start you’d never find it if you didn’t know it was there. It’s clearly not a full-service hotel & clearly there are people who live there. But what that makes it, I really don’t know.
When I walked into the restaurant (which IS private – members & “hotel” guests only) it was completely empty. And I mean empty. Not a soul was in there. Hmmm. Maybe “Members Only” isn’t the best business plan? Anyway, I was warmly greeted by a charming (if over-made-up) more mature woman who showed me to the table by the window in the very far corner. Given that the restaurant was completely empty, this seemed a rather odd decision. Then I noticed that there was actually a private reception out on the deck & that my table was positioned right by the window over-looking said deck. As I went to sit with my back to the throng the hostess said, “Oh why don’t you sit facing the deck? There are a lot of eligible singles out there you know”.
Madam. I may be single, but that does not mean that I spend every (or any) waking moment trying to find a life partner, a spouse, a date or even someone to get laid with. Mercy. I just wanted to eat a nice meal before doing some work & going to sleep. Sleep, madam, sleep. As I said, this place was all rather odd.
The menu was simple & very limited. I ordered a spinach salad, which turned out to be a tasty if rather ordinary spinach salad, and followed that up with Roast Chicken. The bread rolls were delicious & the butter was real. Consequently, I ate far too many. Sometimes you just have to make the most of a good thing :-)
Now I have to tell you about the Roast Chicken. It was some of the best Roast Chicken I have ever had. It was spectacularly well cooked, moist, juicy, incredibly flavourful. Just perfect. It was the simplest of meals but so perfectly cooked I could have eaten that every night for a week & been utterly content. The jus (I can’t call it ‘gravy’ it was just too good) was phenomenal. I can’t actually remember when I last ate roast chicken that moved me like this one. {UPDATE: I have since had a comparably memorable chicken, fantastically roasted by Alisen at her home. Alisen, I know I told you at the time, but your roast chicken seriously rocked. I wish I had photographed it. Duane is a lucky, lucky man.}
Perfectly roasted chicken, potato puree & green beans
The Roast Chicken was SOoooooooooo good
The plate wasn’t huge, but the food so good I was completely satisfied. I even decided against dessert on the basis that I wanted to keep that roast chicken yumminess in my mouth for as long as possible. I took the slowest-elevator-in-the-universe back to my room. Work was a breeze with such a happy mouth & content belly. And I slept like a baby.
An entirely memorable meal. Still an entirely odd establishment.
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