Champagne Celebration
We skipped our New Year's eve celebration in favor of keeping Cora company in case the fireworks startled her. We need not have worried. We all watched the ball come down in Times Square and slept peacefully through the rest of the night.So, when My Beloved read about $20.09 (get it?) lobster dinners at the Hotel Mac, it seemed a fine time to have our celebration just a few days late.
We started with a split of French champagne to accompany our lobster dinners and, because it was a Friday, they were having a half-price special, bringing the price of a $38 split to a reasonable $19 or so. This is nice champagne, too, round and soft with zillions of tiny bubbles to tickle ones fancy.
The Hotel Mac seems to specialize in the kind of nostalgic dishes that I remember from the '50s and early '60s. It's a great place for steaks, chops and "surf and turf" style eating, except the vegetables are always perfectly cooked, something I don't recall from my salad days.
My Beloved notes that his escargot on mushroom caps were among the best he had ever tasted; I'm a little squeamish about snails but I can attest to the excellence of the ocean of butter they were cooked in, strongly laced with minced garlic and fresh chopped herbs. Dipping their nicely sour French bread into the butter was more than enough appetizer for me.
Our lobster tails were broiled and served on top of the shells, accompanied by green beans with shallots and mashed potatoes that had been lightly fried so they were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Drawn butter - that's what it's really all about, right? - with a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice and you have a New Year's feast fit for a king.
This special continues this weekend both Saturday and Sunday (although the champagne won't be half price), so if you're in the area, on a budget and looking for a sumptuous dinner, I can recommend the Hotel Mac.
posted by Zoomie at
9:02 AM
9 Comments:
Never heard of Drawn Butter, but professor google leads me to believe it's clarified butter, like Ghee? Is this so?
Did you go across the street to the Baltic and do a little dancing?
Fun! Delicious and affordable are a winning combo.
Happy New Year!
Morgan, I believe ghee is cooked for longer so it tastes nutty - drawn butter is just melted and clarified.
Chilebrown, sadly, the Baltic has become a pub-style restaurant and the few times we've eaten there, the food was really nasty.
Kitt, Happy New Year to you, too.
Hotel Mac looks like a find! And what a nice deal!
Anna, I expect you've tried it once or twice, since you dine out so often but it's not a vegetarian paradise, even though the veggies are well prepared. :-)
I absolutely love the escargots there. Wish I had known about this deal sooner. Instead I'm heading to Le Cheval tonight.
Butter -- butter, butter, butter. Yes!
Happy 2009, and may prices everywhere continue to be modified for our economy (and then we can afford Champagne, too!)
Kailyn, I've seen several "specials" from them recently - you might check out their website and see if any of the upcoming events, like the Whisky Dinner, are appealing to you.
Kudzu, amen to both the butter and the lower prices for champagne. As Napolean said, "In victory, we enjoy it and in defeat, we need it!" Happy New Year to you, too!
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