Thursday, April 17, 2025

Where to Eat: Crying in Cozy Soup ‘n’ Burger

It's the reader questions edition.
Where to Eat: New York City

April 17, 2025

Marriage, meltdowns and more hyper-specific reader requests

It's been a rainy, cloudy week in New York, so I hope you've been able to hibernate a bit before that summer feeling kicks in. (Any second now, right?) I was waiting for a glimpse of sunlight to break through when I remembered my favorite thing on earth: answering your hyper-specific dining questions.

Got more for me? You can drop them in this form, or send them by email to wheretoeat@nytimes.com.

Seal the deal with dim sum

Where to eat lunch with 10 people after a courthouse wedding in Manhattan? — Joshua

A spread of dim sum and tea, plus two fluters of sparkling wine being poured.
When the question is where to dine with a big group, the answer is often Golden Unicorn.  Heather Willensky for The New York Times

Hey, congratulations! I've always thought the marriage bureau to Golden Unicorn pipeline would make for a really nice day — both such classic institutions. Dim sum is always a solution to the problem (no offense) of a big group meal, and Golden Unicorn is a classic banquet-style place for it. With that many people, you'll want to flag every cart that rolls by and let everyone grab what looks good to them. To me, that's always going to be baked pork buns, fried-then-mayonnaised shrimp with candied walnuts and steamed broccoli and bouncy turnip cakes. May your love be as consistent as these rice rolls, and as steamy as their shumai.

Oh, and if you want to bring a special bottle of wine, they've got a $35 corkage fee. And, after lunch, maybe you bop down Bowery to Bar Oliver for some Catalonian bubbles and to keep the good vibes going.

18 East Broadway (Catherine Street)

A sandwich to cry on

Best restaurants to vent to a friend to (cry)? — MacKenna

A diner booth table with a club sandwich, grilled cheese, split pea soup and two milkshakes.
When you're craving comfort, you can usually find it in the form of a diner meal like this one at Cozy Soup 'n' Burger.  Heather Willensky for The New York Times

I'm sorry you're going through it, but I think a sob session at Cozy Soup 'n' Burger might help lighten the load. In fact, it's a rite of passage, maybe even a graduation requirement, for every N.Y.U. and New School grad to have an emotional episode here.

A diner just feels right for a heart-to-heart: booths built for two separated by dividers, food you don't have to think too hard about and a server who's seen way crazier scenes already, that day. I actually can get behind the titular cozy soup — split pea or French onion — but a perfectly normcore turkey club is always my diner M.O. (This one comes with steak fries, but I'm normal so I'm swapping for curly.) Given your state, I'm going to recommend a true-blue white-bread grilled cheese with a pickle. And a chocolate shake. And a beer.

739 Broadway (Astor Place)

This and a cappuccino

OK, hear me out: Where to get a good baked good, like a solid chocolate chip cookie, after 6 p.m.? — Talya

A glass case of sixteen types of assorted Italian cookies and pastries.
If it's Italian and made of butter and flour, you can probably find it at Fortunato Brothers in Williamsburg.  Heather Willensky for The New York Times

If you've got your heart set on a chocolate chip cookie, you've got an hour to make it to Culture Espresso for the best one in the game.

But if you're open to a slight diversion, Fortunato Brothers in Williamsburg is the place to be, and it's open until 10 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. If you can think of an Italian pastry or cookie, they have it in its most classic form: cannoli, pignoli, sfogliatella. I never really "got" Italian rainbow cookies until my friend Phoebe brought me a box of Fortunato Brothers' and I was left alone with them for an extended period of time. I get it now!

289 Manhattan Avenue (Devoe Street)

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