so the other night night, my best gal and i ate at Bamonte's, which is right around the corner from my place in Billburg. It's an incredibly old establishment that's been around since 1900 in the same exact location and now it's being run by the 4th generation of the Bamonte family. The place is so old school, like ollldddd school. Many of the tuxedoed waiters have been there for 30+ years, and I can't imagine the stories that have to tell. From my understanding, the place used to have service a lot of mafioso's back in the day, and as you sit at your table you just feel like you are a background player in some Scorcese film or some bad shit is about to go down...Lost City has a good lil review on it...The place is really an institution. 

My building is located right around the corner from Bamonte's and it's only 8 months old (well, it was a warehouse for decades before it was converted into luxe apt's), but seeing all of the gentrification in the area, it amazes me that a family run establishment like this has survived for such a long time. Restaurants in New York have an very low success rate (something like 1 in 10 make it past a year), and Bamonte's has been around for 109 years. Madness!

When anyone asks me what my fave restaurant in the city is, I automatically say Republic. It's 100% reliable, the food is always stellar, the service is fast as hell, and the food is cheap. I've taken friends there, my parents loved it, and it's the go-to place for my gorgeous friend Lauren and I to go whenever we want to catch up. What never ceases to amazing me though is that the place has been open for 10 years (which is a bit of an anomaly in restaurants, so you can imagine how I feel about Bamonte's!), and it's always PACKED. Everytime Lauren and I go there, the place is filled to the walls with diners, and we usually will go at like 6:30 or 7 on a Wednesday or mid-week. It's just a testament to how good it is, and if you have something that works, you stick to the formula. I would hate to see Republic or Bamonte's succumb to this horrid economy like so many others are doing these days. As much as I am a foodie and I love new places, I believe it's establishments like these that are really the heart of the New York culinary scene. Places you know that you can always go to, feel welcomed, and always leave with a full belly and a smile on your face