The thing about NYC is that there are so many restaurants and so many great ones!! As a curious, "let's try this new place" kind of New Yorker, sometimes I never make it back to some excellent spots. A few years ago my daughter and I had dinner at Saxon + Parole and we loved it. There was a great energy in the room, the food was delicious and Colette still says she had the best cocktail of her life there, a delicious gin and celery concoction! This week I finally made it back and I'm happy to report that Saxon + Parole is still going strong!

Take a look....

My extra dirty gin martini, made with Tanqueray 10, was spot-on with large, juicy, salty olives! I love how they served it in a rather small, elegant martini glass with the rest of it on ice.... so refreshing!

Thicker-cut here, the hamachi crudo is drizzled with the best quality olive oil and sprinkled with coarse grained salt. It is served with sweety drop peppers (small tear-shaped peppers), cucumber, cilantro and lemon.

Grilled peach and burrata with pickled chilies, radish and basil. The cheese was very creamy with a soft, oozing center.... so good!

These diver scallops came with morels, grilled asparagus, sea beans, uni-butter and wild greens. The sauce underneath had just the right amount of rich creaminess and the sea beans added a wonderful brininess that tastes of the ocean. Excellent! We had a side of brussels sprouts with this dish that were crispy and honeyed but also a little chili-spiced. Those were really good too!

Even the bread here was fantastic. It was like a Parker House Roll but crispier on the top and served with sweet, creamy-textured butter.

THE WINE!

The wine we chose was Sean Thackrey's Pleiades XXIV. It is a red blend of which the winemaker doesn't disclose exactly the grapes used. According to Robert Parker, Sean Thackrey is "one of California's most iconic and mystical winemakers" who has "logged in 20 or more vintages of consistently stunning wines that perhaps say it all with the simple quote on his label." On the back of the bottle it says "The object of Pleiades Old Vines is to be delicious, delight the jaded, irritate the Wine Police, and generally go well with anything red wine goes well with". I found the wine to have a lot of cherry, raspberry-like flavors on the nose with a distinct earthiness. On the palate It is medium-bodied with red fruit flavors, delicate, spicy notes and excellent acidity. As far as reds go, for me it was a lighter style one that packed a lot of flavor. It was the perfect accompaniment to this meal.