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Monday, January 25

.Dinner on the Pirate Ship

Last Thursday, Tory and I had dinner at Schwa.


There's not a lot to be said about Schwa that hasn't been raved about already. Just check out their Yelp page. It's impossible to get reservations, there are no waiters, you must bring your own bottle (and don't forget one for the kitchen, too), and you'll enthuse about your dining experience to all your friends for long afterward.

Apparently, there's only one time anyone is ever disappointed, which is when they're upset that they can't get in.

I stumbled across Schwa while checking weekend activities on Metromix a few weeks ago. Here's the review. It was all a neat story until I read that it was impossible to get in, and for some odd reason I decided to give it a try. Maybe it was the exclusivity, maybe I wanted to prove to myself I could accomplish the impossible. Whatever the reason, I prepared myself to undergo a fairly lengthy seige of their answering machine to get reservations (a least until I lost interest).

It took me about a month of leaving messages and trading callbacks, but I was able to get a reservation more easily than I initially expected. Having read about other peoples experiences at the outset, I was actually surprised it wasn't more difficult than it actually was to get in; then again my professional life requires me to have a certain amount of persistence.

Once the reservation was booked, we arranged for a sitter, I picked up a bottle of wine, and off we went. I'm glad we had the experience. I enjoy the Food Channel, and I've sent Tory to all of Mario Batali's restaurants in New York, but I've never been to one of those types of restaurants myself until my visit to Schwa.


The food has been described elsewhere extensively, and by better gastronomists than I, but it's not possible to experience the quail egg ravioli and then remain silent about it. The chef brings you an individual, half dollar size ravioli on a small plate; it's filled with quail egg and floating in black butter and truffle oil. He tells you pop the whole thing in your mouth and eat it all at once. And when you do, it's probably the richest morsel you will ever consume. Undoubtably there are those who would argue whether sex is better.

We'll have to try to get in again sometime. If we're lucky enough to be able to get reservations a second time. And this time I'll know to bring a good single malt for the chefs.

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