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Décor in the "home of the grilled cheese sandwich" is pleasant and simple: wooden tables and chairs in muted greens, oranges, and yellows; the mother and daughter at the next table looked very much at ease. My Florentine melt ($6.75) had a little class, too: spinach, roasted garlic, mushrooms, and jack cheese with olive oil on black olive bread. Love the grill marks.
Say Cheese!
649 Ninth Ave. (45th-46th Sts.)
212-265-8840
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Largely a takeout and delivery joint, with seating for maybe 20. The burger deluxe ($4.25) featured a big, juicy patty and sauteed onions on a toasted sesame bun, with iceberg and tomato on the side; shoestring fries were good, too. For the road, a vanilla shake (about 20 fl. oz.; $3.20 for the extra-thick version) really hit the spot.
Jumbo Hamburger Place
274 West 145th St. (Frederick Douglass-Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvds.)
212-491-5444
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Unremarkable grocery, which I would have walked right by except for the sale poster in the window promoting Tang (21.1 oz.; $3.79). Astronauts aren't part of the marketing campaign anymore; mix with water, though, and it's the same tart orange drink as in the Gemini days.
148 Food Market
3596 Broadway (at 148th St.)
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A serving of tabouli ($6.29 per pound) was a cold, fresh blend of parsley, tomato, bulgur wheat, and onion; might have used a little more lemon juice. A rectangular baklava ($1.50) was dry, and the sprinkling of crushed pistachios tasted stale and somewhat bitter.
Samad's
2867 Broadway (111th-112th Sts.)
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Late Friday evening — after Sue, Kathi, Gil, and his nephew Dave had listened to the Alloy Orchestra accompany the original, silent Phantom of the Opera — the Minnow restaurant and this less formal neighbor had run out of lobster rolls. I might have followed Sue's lead and ordered the well-stuffed oyster po' boy ($9.50); instead I chose a seafood salad ($15), which offered little from the sea except for squid, though beets and olives were welcome. Good to find Victory pilsner on tap (draft pint; $5). Fries, included with most entrees, were large and mushy.
Bar Minnow
444 9th St. (at Seventh Ave.), Brooklyn
718-832-5500
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This newly opened Guyanese bakery not far from Eastern Parkway also offers a nice spread at the steam table, an interesting selection of drinks in the refrigerator case, and plenty of seats, too. Currant rolls and coconut rolls are just $1 each; also available are those larger, Caribbean-style tamarind balls, as well as "tennis rolls," which (I later learned) are famous for their sweet, lemony taste. Today I just picked up a sugar cake ($1), a not-too-sweet coconut macaroon more than three inches across and half as high.
Rum Cake Factory
882 Franklin Ave. (President-Carroll Sts.), Brooklyn
718-771-0717
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(This venue is closed.) Really just a limited steam table, a little bakery case, and a few seats. A currant roll ($1.25) was like a doughier, drier version of strudels, intermittently studded with dark berries.
Tha Fam's Restaurant
781 Franklin Ave. (Lincoln Pl.-St. John's Pl.), Brooklyn
718-735-3768
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I bought my "roast beef classic" ($5.95) off the rack. Watercress, beefsteak tomatoes, sliced onion, and horseradish all sounded good; today, though, I just didn't have time to wait for a sandwich made from scratch (which doesn't seem to be common here in any event). "Beefsteak" shouldn't mean that the tomatoes are sliced thicker than the layer of roast beef.
Fluffy's Cafe & Bakery
855 Seventh Ave. (54th-55th Sts.)
212-247-0234
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Assertively kitschy décor fills the bar-lounge up front, where I sat for a snack with my friend Mike; in back there's a small dining room and a large patio. An orange-cheese quesadilla with salsa ($5) and overfried calamari ($8) made for passable bar food. Pleasant service; nice place for a drink.
Bleu
803 West 187th St. (Fort Washington-Pinehurst Aves.)
212-928-6006
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(This post is based on a visit to the bakery's now-closed location on West 181st St., in Manhattan.) The long bakery display up front is the attention-getter here; the deli counter in back, with seating for about 25, didn't seem so inviting. Torn between choices of linzer cookies and hamentashen, I set both aside in favor of a flaky, prune-filled horseshoe pastry encrusted with granulated sugar ($1.25).
Gruenebaum's Bakery
5663 Riverdale Ave. (at West 258th St.), Riverdale, Bronx
718-432-4779
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Thank you!
