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“Let Me Tell You” is a series of columns from our expert editors about NYC living, including the best things to do, where to eat and drink, and what to see at the theater. They publish each Wednesday so you’re hearing from us each week. Last month, Food & Drink Editor and Critic Amber Sutherland-Namako argued that all the good cocktails already exist.
Each year’s end asks a lot. Not only does it accelerate the anticipation of what’s ahead, it also invites a look at what’s in the rearview.
In a blast through the past of food and drink in 2022, the burgeoning martini trend that I wrote about last fall came into view all around town, to-go cocktails returned to the boroughs, the “drink of summer” discourse trickled on, the MTA collaborated on a sandwich for some reason, Rockefeller Center entered its nth month of promise as a dining destination, a good, old fashioned steakhouse beef was rekindled and a talk show host had to send his breakfast back in Manhattan. And that just cracks the surface.
Some of our longer restaurant and bar-related reads might have missed your click over the last few hundred days, as egg yolk omelet recipes swirled, word of Dirty Shirleys spread, and Negroni sbagliato with prosecco explainers came and went. All that stuff was fast fun, and the stories collected here endure, and are presented with a wish that your 2023 is filled with laughs, snacks and booze-of-your-choice carafes.
Will 2022 be the breakthrough year for meat grown in a laboratory?
“’In some years past, it was right to call it science fiction, because it hadn’t yet been done,’” says Josh Tetrick. “’Right now, in Singapore, people are buying this, and eating it, and saying it tastes like chicken.’” (The FDA continued incremental advancements toward clearing lab-grown meat for sale in the United States since this story was published in January.)
Speakeasy-themed bars are booming once again in NYC
“You may have heard whispers about a few new bar openings lately. One19 opened in October. Then came Venice Bar, Saint Tuesday, Sei Less, UnPublished at Serafina in the Sky and Dom. What do they all have in common? They all hark back to the speakeasies of yore.”
All the restaurant reviews
These are not all of the eating and drinking establishments I visited this year, but they are all of the new openings that were ready to be fêted—or considered with some caution. This collection also contains hints of what will appear on next week’s list of the best restaurants of 2022.
Let me tell you—all the good cocktails already exist
“Every combination in the world’s been done to death by now. You couldn’t possibly have made anything new.”
The Instagram Thing: A bar bathroom that really shines
The Instagram Thing is an occasional column spotlighting things you’ll want to Instagram. This edition features the sparkly bathroom at Nothing Really Matters; one of NYC’s few bars adjacent to the subway system underground.