Before I sleep, a word about New York food

Tonight I took my new roommate to the Half-King, a restaurant on the western edge of Chelsea, the western edge of Manhattan, the western edge of the world...

Just kidding. It's not all that exotic. In fact, it's not exotic at all - it's a pub. It may not be exotic, but it's good!

My new roommate, Jennifer, summed it up: "I'd forgotten how good New York food is."

(This is Jennifer, the actress, not to be confused with Jen, the graphic designer. (And yes, I complete the triumvirate as Jenny). She's been doing summer stock theater at a resort in Pennsylvania, which is why we're subletting her room to Matt the interior designer, who replaced the previous subletter, Dave, the comedian).

But back to the food. It was good. Delicious, wonderful, great. Food like this in Austin would be swooned over, raved over, given at least four stars by Dale Rice. And yet, here we were, this ordinary place - that's how it is in New York. Go anywhere halfway decent and the food will knock your socks off, blow the ice cubes out of your water glass, curl the tines on your cutlery.

I love it. I had been invited to try the spot through Kathy at the Statesman, who got the invite from the publicist but (for obvious reasons) couldn't go.

So we went. And ate: Caprese tower (that's the typical Italian starter of tomato, mozzarella and basil, for you non-gourmands). Wonderful summer tomatoes. Housemade mozzarella - made by the charismatic chef who came out to talk to us. His grandmother's recipe! (Grandmother-sanctioned mozzarella at a pub - can you imagine?) Fried calamari, wonderful spinach salad, the most sublime macaroni and cheese for me (three kinds of cheese, bacon, broccoli, green onions), and a buffalo burger and fries for Jennifer. Oh yeah, and the cocktails: my key lime martini tasted exactly like key lime without being too syrupy sweet.

My one regret is that we missed the literary reading in the next room. But we couldn't leave the table they'd reserved for us. So I'll go again on another Monday with a friend and get a beer and mac and cheese to split - it's big enough. That was the great part about that place - you could dress it up or down.

But high or low, it's got great food - there's no getting around that.

Did I mention I love this city?