Bouley Test Kitchen, NYC

The buzzer to the test kitchen

The Bouley Test Kitchen, aka Bouley TK, in TriBeca is a grand loft space that offers cooking classes and that can be rented for events, like product previews, which is what I was there for (for DeLonghi and Kenwood).

Slate wall; the writing is the original menu from Bouley restaurant

There's a full state-of-the-art kitchen, obviously, but also a library of 8,000 cookbooks, a 200-foot-long slate wall, and a full bathroom suite with shower. There's also a funky metal fish sculpture.

Shower

Fish sculpture

Tons of hanging copper pots & pans

The library and handcrafted Nautilus speakers

Fort Greene in the Rain

I took a little field trip tonight to one of Brooklyn's finest, Fort Greene. Even in the rain, the broad leafy streets lined with brownstones are movie-set-worthy. We popped into a tiny gem of a restaurant that I hadn't heard of, Lulu & Po, and proceeded to have a delicious meal of small but shareable plates: chicken liver & pancetta paté with hearty grilled bread, seared Alaskan salmon with corn and lemon cream, sugar snap peas with house made cultured butter (heavenly), and grilled pizza dough with a side of whipped ricotta and pesto. We sat at the bar, which was cozy and where we were well taken care of. Designwise, the setting is noteworthy, too. Concrete and metal surfaces are warmed up by a wood (I think pine) ceiling and the occasional red bar stool or dining chair. One wall is entirely blank save for an oversize, off-center rooster--it looks like a tattoo (this is Brooklyn, after all). You can leave your own temporary tattoo in the restroom: a chalkboard wall begs to be scribbled on with the chunky sticks of chalk provided in a metal pail. Ligaya Mishan wrote in her New York Times review of Lulu & Po, "No one does industrial-cozy chic like Brooklyn," and she's right, at least with this space (her piece has good pics, too). The one drawback is that it's almost unpleasantly loud--bad acoustics coupled with loud music. If the music could just be turned down a notch, it would make all the difference.

Star Table at Blue Note