Pearl Bar & Dining

(Bellevue, WA) — Never having spent quality time in Seattle, we relied on OpenTable and the opinions of friends for meal recommendations (as well as a healthy dose of Google research). Our first night would actually be in Bellevue, essentially across the bay from Seattle proper. We found a swanky place that was highly rated, called Pearl Bar & Dining. After taking the hotel shuttle downtown, we spent a good 15 minutes just trying to locate it! It is tucked between the mall and the Westin hotel, just around the block from the unfortunately named/located Earl’s Bar & Restaurant. Dazed and confused, we entered the dark interior, not quite sure what to expect...

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Virgil's Real Barbecue

(New York, NY) — After a disappointing breakfast, we are looking forward to our final meal in Manhattan: lunch at Virgil’s Real Barbecue. We pack up our suitcases and check out, hanging around the hotel to watch all the Times Square activity from 8 floors up, until it’s time to claim our OpenTable reservation. A couple blocks away is a glass-doored entrance with grungy-looking banners on construction scaffolding. It looks like a down-home ‘cue shack in Atlanta, somehow transplanted to New York. With some trepidation, we enter...

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Aspen Social Club

(New York, NY) — Our final day in Manhattan is September 11. We have a plane to catch later in the afternoon, and we’re not quite sure what traffic will be like, considering the ramped up security throughout the city, so we line up reservations for breakfast early at nearby Aspen Social Club. Other than the info on OpenTable, we don’t know much about the place, though reviews seem generally positive...

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Birreria

(New York, NY) — Last March, during our springtime visit to Manhattan, we decided to explore Eataly, Mario Batali’s recently opened Italian market in the Flatiron district near Madison Square Park. Unfortunately, it was a less than thrilling experience on a Sunday afternoon, as we battled a throng of people crammed into the hot space. We lunched elsewhere that day, but we knew we’d return when the planned rooftop beer garden finally opened. That day finally came and we planned our Saturday lunch at Birreria...

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The Lamb's Club

(New York, NY) — Despite our tradition of eating (well, mostly) two meals a day on the weekends, we could not resist the lure of The Lamb’s Club for an early breakfast on Saturday. We’ve enjoyed watching Chef Geoffrey Zakarian on Chopped and were curious to discover his style of cooking. The alarm clock seemed to go off earlier than anticipated, but we gamely threw on clothes and strolled a few blocks from our hotel to feed our curiosity...

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db Bistro Moderne

(New York, NY) — For our first night in Manhattan, we had lined up a usual restaurant on OpenTable weeks in advance. Only days before we departed, however, an opportunity arose for a unique dining experience at Daniel Boulud’s db Bistro Moderne, featuring traditional French cuisine interpreted through the flavors of the American market. We immediately canceled the previous reservation and, on a mild, warm night, walk the couple blocks from our hotel in Times Square to see what db has in store...

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