Munch on Mozzarella on Madison in Manhattan

by Tom Johansmeyer on

One of the frustrations of Madison Avenue in midtown is that there isn’t much to eat. You have to dash down a side street to get a quick bite, which leaves you craning your neck at every intersection to see if it’s worth taking a few steps off your path for a chance to fill your stomach with something you want. After a while, you just give up and walk into the first restaurant you see after your will has been decimated.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The next time your trudging up Madison from one luxury retailer to the next (and there are many, so many), duck into the Atrium at the IBM building on the corner of E. 56th Street, and skip street food in favor of mozzarella. Obika, a mozzarella bar, is made for cheese fiends, with a wide range of alternatives, not to mention meat tastings and pastas that you can add to your meal if, for some strange reason, mozzarella isn’t enough.

When you order, cautions the New York Daily News, don’t let appearances deceive you:

There were three mozzes atop a bed of spinach on the tasting plate. It didn’t look like a lot, sitting there, but wound up being more than enough for the two of us. We agreed, though, that had the cheeses-and us-been joined by a little wine, we probably would have mopped up every dairy-oozing morsel.

If you are addicted to cheese, you can carry the theme straight through dessert, with a ricotta mousse, topped with pine nuts and honey. I can tell you that the taste is unbeatable – and that the dish is incredibly heavy. As small as it looks, share it.

The drawbacks are present but not sufficient to ruin the experience. Writes the Daily News of Obika‘s atrium location:

The ceilings are high and the atmosphere nil. The bathrooms are down an escalator, around the corner from some Trumpean joint or other. And, worst of all worsts-and I can only assume that this is due to its location-Obika doesn’t have a liquor license. Their location in Kuwait City does, but not Manhattan. Cheese without wine? That’s just wrong.

The location’s ideal, though, when you’re hauling full shopping bags to your next credit card-melting store and need a break for a taste of attainable luxury.

Tip this waitress or she’ll kill you

by Tom Johansmeyer on

There are two types of waitress you want to tip. The first will climb onto your lap for an extra $20 while the DJ pushes the sounds of Whitesnake through the speakers, and she’ll earn every dime of it. The other, however, is far more dangerous. She won’t take your money, but she will take your life.

When you enter a North Korean restaurant in Siem Reap, Cambodia, notes The Chosun Ilbo, be careful.

North Korean women dream of becoming waitresses, and the job is only available to those who come from the right families, according to Open Radio for North Korea:

“The waitress probably comes from a privileged background,” said a North Korean defector who used to work as a performer in the North. “Only women from good family backgrounds are given the chance to work abroad.”

The opportunity to work abroad is a rare privilege in this reclusive state. Of course, candidates have to come from politically reliable families, but there are other criteria, including the ability to dance and play a musical instrument and a university degree. Most important, however, is that waitressing is for hotties only. If you’ve been smacked around by the “ugly stick,” you probably won’t be allowed to carry a tray.

Oh, and you need to qualify for a license to kill. Open Radio for North Korea also noted that some of the waitresses are spies.

So, there are two women you don’t want to stiff in this world: a stripper and a North Korean waitress. Wait, maybe you do …


[Via @LiberateLaura, photo by permanently scatterbrained via Flickr]

A tale of two brunches: Two of Chicago’s finest brunches

by Grant Martin on

Here in Chicago we take our brunches seriously — perhaps because our winter nights are long and we need something to shake the cobwebs of sleep from our weekends, or perhaps because we just need a good hangover cure. From Lincoln Park to Bucktown to Pilsen each neighborhood has its favorite haunt, Midwest sized stacks of French toast heaped on top of hashbrowns and bacon in a mountain of carbohydrate bliss.

The downtown hotel scene has done well at tapping into and emulating the thriving city brunch scene. Two of our favorites are only a stone’s throw away from the Magnificent Mile, making them well-accessible to locals, visitors and tourists alike.

Mercat a la Planxa (638 S. Michigan Ave), part of Marriott’s Blackstone Hotel, hosts an excellent Spanish-inspired brunch on Saturday and Sunday mornings featuring a dazzling array of paella, tapas and sangria. Rolled across a sprawling, high ceilinged ballroom (pictured above,) the mood at Mercat is hip, laid back and inexpensive; one can get in and out of the restaurant for between $20 and $30 per person.

Just up the street in the Park Hyatt (800 N. Michigan Ave), NoMi‘s brunch is more of a high minded affair. With a main dining room that gazes over the Watertower square, the selection, service and dress code are nothing short of opulent. Custom ordered sushi or garden rolls from the in-house Japanese chefs? No problem. Hand cut roast from the carving station? They’ve got that too.

Sunday brunch at Nomi will run up to $55 per person with Saturday brunch an a la carte affair. For a real treat try NoMi on Mother’s Day, when a multi-course, no-holds-barred brunch will set you back over $100 each.

White Collar Travel: Five step to healthier road warrior diets

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Sometimes, it seems like the road warrior‘s diet is relegated to the extremes. When a company executive is in town for a meeting – you’re taking your clients out – it’s hefty steaks, heavy cabernets and always more appetizers than a third-world country could consume in a lifetime. When there’s no occasion to shape the meal, on the other hand, you’re looking at suburban Chinese food illuminated by the glow of your dashboard.

It’s tough to strike a balance while you’re traveling … a problem that’s multiplied when you do it all the time. Fast food factors into at least one meal a day, and often, it will be your only meal. Caffeine (and, in my case, nicotine) replaced countless breakfasts, lunches and dinners back in my consulting days. Weight fluctuations were obvious. I’d usually drop 20 pounds in a month and a half when switching from a travel-intensive project to a local one.

Though the pressures of the job and the claims on time can impede proper nutrition, it isn’t impossible to eat well when you live the life of a wandering white collar warrior. You just have to be smart, plan ahead and commit to keeping yourself healthy.

Here are five ways you can avoid the fast food pits and fattening side-effects of client dinners when living the life of a road warrior:1. Choose an extended-stay hotel when possible
Now, what does this have to do with nutrition? Everything! These hotels have small kitchens, and you can stock the fridge with fruits, vegetables and other healthy snacks. When you get back to your room after 14 hours of meetings and deadlines, reach for an apple instead of a snickers bar (or a mini-bottle of bourbon).

2. Don’t always go for the steak
I know this sounds insane, but steakhouses carry other dead animals … not just cows. Would it kill you to opt for the salmon every now and then? While you’re at it, a salad can be savored; it isn’t something you have to endure.

3. Watch what you drink
Hey, I still enjoy a glass of wine or two with a nice dinner. But, you don’t have to kick off the evening with two martinis and close it with a cognac. At some point, switch to club soda or water. You can drink socially without going overboard.

4. Give up fast food
Or, at least cut back on it. When you have to dine and dash, your options do become limited, and not every city has an array of healthy quick-service dining options. When possible, find an alternative to fast food fare. It may take some work, but you should be able to come up with something.

5. Multitask for an extra meal
Breakfast is the first casualty of life on the road. Whether you’re up early to work or you’re trying to squeeze in a few extra minutes of sleep, the morning meal soon becomes a fantasy. Make time for breakfast. Bring some work down with you, and turn it into productive time. Hell, take your laptop to the table – it’s not like anyone’s eating with you.

Click here for more White Collar Travel

[photo by Steve Zak]

White Collar Travel: A Tale of Two Meals

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Business travelers lead dual lives when they’re on the road. One is nothing short of luxurious, and the other is nothing short of depressing. This isn’t a case of good weeks and bad, and there is little they can do to engineer the frequency of the former over the latter. It all comes down to an uncertain mix of luck and timing. The contrast is most evident in the dining experience. Some meals are grand, while others are eaten from a desk, dashboard or on the corner of the bed.

When clients and your own company’s executives are involved, meals tend to be … ummmm … a tad more upscale. The restaurant is chosen with care, and reservations are made in advance. Usually, attention is paid to where in the restaurant you’ll be sitting, with a private room preferred over a meal with the masses. Several choices are evaluated, and the menus are examined for content rather than cost.

Cocktails tend to come before seating, and wine flows abundantly when the party gets to the table. You’ll go through salads and appetizers (and bottles of wine) before enjoying the entrée that you’ve been thinking about all afternoon. By the time dessert arrives, you’re stuffed … but it just looks so good! There’s always room for something sweet, and you eventually return to your hotel room fully satisfied. You start to think, “I really could get used to this.”You wish all your meals could be that tasty, especially on the nights when you experience the other side of your business travel life.

It’s well past 9 PM, and you’re sitting in a conference room with six of your colleagues. The task of the day is projected onto a screen, and the answers just aren’t flowing. Or, you’re faced with a mammoth amount of work, and a deadline is looming. Someone finally realizes that nobody has eaten since breakfast (or the night before, if you prefer sleep to food) and starts taking orders. Fast food fare eventually materializes in the conference room. The smell is a distraction, since the quarters are tight. As you chomp between clicks on the keyboard, you realize that you aren’t tasting a thing. Rather, you’re just trying to fuel up for what is going to be a long night.

Of course, not every meal is taken at the office. In some cases, you may get out at a reasonable hour. But, you’re eating alone, so you need to make your allotted food cash go as far as possible. Occasionally, you’ll treat yourself to something nice, but on other nights you’ll call for a pizza, prop the box on the desk next to your laptop and munch while sifting through your e-mail with a television show you’ve never had time to watch before blathering on in the background.

This is part of the situation to which the business traveler must adapt, of course. Over time, it becomes part of the grind. You can’t call it a routine, because randomness enters into the picture. You get used to it and learn to look forward to the meals you’ll enjoy most.

Read more White Collar Travel here.