A Hot Block: Eating My Way Down 7th Street

While on a walk with my dog in the East Village, I discovered a block littered with affordable restaurants whose names I recognized from my 'must try' list. Overly excited, I grabbed every take-out menu and began to plan my attack:

Mission: To eat at every restaurant on my list.
Results: I will report my findings via a new post next Wednesday.
Location: 7th street between 1st avenue and avenue A.
Itinerary: my plan

Tonight: Luke's A new addition to the battle of the lobster rolls, this tiny storefront claims to serve heaps of meat at wholesale prices with the help of the fratboy owner's lobster-hunting father in Maine.

Thursday: Caracas Arepa Bar What is an arepa? One description is a Venezuelan, stuffed, corn muffin. Another - a Latin Sloppy Joe. Well I like corn muffins and I like Sloppy Joe's. I'll let you know if I like arepas next week.

Friday:  Pylos "Rustic Greek Home Cooking". Long since gone are the days where we'd just call it GREEK, but I digress. The space is sleek and the menu arranged in a way that encourages the ordering of many little plates, allowing me to satisfy my cravings for moussaka, stuffed grape leaves, spanikopita, and tzatziki all in one seating. Because there just aren't enough good Greek places in NYC - and no, I'm not moving to Queens.

Saturday: 7A I ate a hungover brunch at 7A many, many moons ago and I was psyched to come across the bustling cafe again. I was a starving college student submitted to student cafeterias, so I fear my review would be stale and partly cloudy. My memory consists of a delicious plate of shrimp and avocado eggs benedict, a spicy bloody mary and a raging headache from my first encounter with mojitos. I'm excited for my second trip and the three other types of egg benedict to chose from - headache notwithstanding.

Sunday: Porchetta. As discussed, Sunday is the day of comfort food, and this Sunday I plan to stuff my face with pig. This place has gotten an absurd amount of press for their porchetta sandwich - a Sullivan St Bakery ciabatta roll stuffed full of their famous pork and made for walking. At $10 a pop, I think I'll get two and share with my trusty walking companion.

TBC'd

- The Heat