41 Greenwich (41 Greenwich Ave. at Charles St.)

Greetings fellow readers! Hopefully this lazy Sunday afternoon is finding you warm & cozy in your respective apartments or houses, and staying in out of the 29 degree snow and cold (like it is here in NYC).

My good friend Dernyn invited me out to dinner on Tuesday night, and after him giving me huge jack-run-around-moves in Soho, I whined that all I wanted was some tagliatelle or pappardelle pasta with some ragu sauce. (What I was really looking for was the exact dish I had at Gradisca, but that's beyond the point.) Dernyn said, "I know exactly the place."

After a quick (and almost GTA-like) cab ride to West Village, we walk downstairs to 41 Greenwich. The restaurant maybe sat 30 people, but luckily we were seated almost immediately. At this point, it's about 830p, and my brain is switching off from lack of caloric intake. We quickly decide on a 2006 Malbec, the tuna tartare appetizer, the salmon for Dernyn, and the pork chop for myself with sides of rosemary potatoes and brussel sprouts.

(Note how I did not get the pasta I wanted; however at that point, I was so hungry I didn't care.)

Our tuna tartare came, and I hate to say it, but I've had better. The tuna was good, but the sesame, radish, scallion and tubettini that came with it totally overpowered the taste of the fish. I ate almost the entire roll of bread, and a good 2/3 of the bottle of wine by the time our food came. The pork chop was HUGE - when they said it takes 40 minutes to cook, they weren't kidding. I tried some of Dernyn's salmon, again it was just alright - but I'm not a huge cooked salmon person, and I know he is. My pork chop came with a bit of fennel and cinnamon roasted apples, and when getting a bite of that, and a bite of really fatty pork all in one...heaven. When it was a middle piece...just okay.

Our server brought out the sides, and they accidentally gave us the spinach instead of potatoes. They then brought out potatoes, and comp'd us the spinach which would be great, except...I don't really like spinach. No seriously, i try it just about every time I go out to a restaurant, but I just can't get into the consistency. Maybe some day....

The brussel sprouts were very firm, a spring green in color and seasoned just right with some salt. The rosemary potatoes on the other hand....absolutely outstanding. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked, so that the consistency was slightly crunchy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. I strive to make these potatoes just about EVERY night for dinner! What am I doing wrong?!?!?! Anyways...

Carmen (Dernyn's sister) came by to join us, and ended up helping us out with our remaining sides and ordered a dish of her own. We ordered another bottle of wine (a pino noir), and some raw oysters from Puget Sound.

I swear, the oysters were the highlight of this meal. Oysters are something I've worked very hard to get over the dislike of, and damn. These were incredible. Definitely comparable to oysters from Long Island I had when our team went out to dinner on Google at Brasserie 8 1/2. We ended up ordering dessert, but I swear these oysters could have been my dessert. It seriously tasted like I was surfing, with seawater in my hair and sea breeze against my skin with every bite.

Lastly, our desserts arrived (I was more than stuffed at this point). Dernyn got some sort of chocolate brownie concoction (again, go figure) and Carmen and I split strawberries with a balsamic reduction and some crème fraîche on top. Props for innovativeness, as I've stated I'm not a dessert person, and I've never seen it before, but the balsamic reduction was such an unlikely yet delicious combination with the strawberries. Light, fresh and tasty.

41 Greenwich gets 3.5 forks...ambiance was great, service was great, oysters were great, but mains and appetizer were just okay.