When my friend suggested going to see Terrance McNally’s hilarious play, “It’s Only A Play” at Morningside Theater in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan, I suggested we first dine at my friend and fellow Dame, Yvette Leeper Bueno’s Vinateria, with its Spanish- and Italian-influenced food.

Yvette graciously donated the gift certificate to a Les Dames d’Escoffier raffle, which I won. She warmly welcomed us to her friendly establishment, introducing us to her special people.

I started with an Old Fashioned made with Cooper’s Daughter, a small-batch bourbon finished in black walnut syrup barrels. This distillery is woman-owned and family-operated, also producing its own cooperage and apples. My dining partner had a zero-proof Sweet Serendipity, q refreshing mix of club soda, vanilla, blood orange juice, pink peppercorn and lime.

We decided to share our dishes, beginning with the frisée and beet salad ($16). We asked for gorgonzola cheese instead of the vegan cream cheese listed on the menu, and it was a delicious substitution.

Next, we swooned over the delicious but unusual cioppino, a seafood stew with a rich, white-wine-enhanced, creamy tomato-based sauce in place of a traditional garlic broth. It included clams, mussels, prawns and squid. We savored every drop of this dish with the accompanying bread ($38).

After that, we shared the house-made mafalde pasta with a short rib ragu ($26), gorgonzola, pine nuts, sundried tomatoes and kale.


For dessert, we indulged in an affogato, which is vanilla ice cream drowned in espresso. We chose decaf for this treat ($13).

I highly recommend a trip to Harlem for Vinateria.

Vinateria
Harlem
211 Frederick Douglass Boulevard
New York, NY 10026
(212) 662-8462
vinaterianyc.com/