 Day two, Lady Bird Restaurant on Eath 7th Street in New York City, suggested by my longest time supporter on Patreon and also a girlfriend, Danielle. There was something gratifying in reading about the culinary disappointment that is Eleven Madison Park's $335 test run of a vegan tasting menu, both because critics Ryan Sutton and Pete Wells clearly enjoyed viscerating a legendary establishment and because I myself had failed to get a reservation not long before those reviews dropped. So I got to feel vindicated instead of dejected because that's a lot of money and I would have been irate. Like I've never spent even close to that on food or really most things in my life but at the same time there was something kind of exciting about the prospect. I want to spend money on experiences more than I do things right and one of the most esteemed restaurants in the entire world going plant-based could be a game-changer and honestly a few things make me as happy as a really good meal. So I'm open to spending above my means once or twice a year to get that and while this is way above as a birthday and Christmas and etc present I don't know you can't take it with you but that only works as a justification if it's a life-changing experience and the thing about going plant-based is that you have to really understand the strengths of plants and play to them. They don't taste like meat or feel like meat or function like meat and they shouldn't be asked to. From the reviews it's clear that celebrity chef Daniel Hum hasn't quite figured that out yet and that's a shame in the bigger picture but as a New York City resident it also doesn't really matter because there are many chefs here who understand it perfectly. Amanda Cohen was at the forefront of really embracing vegetables when she opened Dirt Candy back in 2008 and she has been a vocal person in calling out media coverage crediting men for innovating with dishes she's serving for a decade and we love that energy and hate the fact that it needs to be used that way but while Dirt Candy is vegetable focused and vegetarian it's not actually vegan the vast majority of their dishes can be made so but that's not really what it's about for Amanda. Overthrow hospitality on the other hand is all about it. The group owns nine bars and restaurants in the city and their frankly absurd tagline eat drink start a revolution bays pink neon light across the seats of Lady Bird where Danielle and I went to celebrate New Year's Eve. I've been to Lady Bird four times now like with the other throw spots in so many restaurants these days. Tapas are the name of the game get two maybe three shareable plates per person and have a lovely time. The food has always been great I have never actively disliked anything but the buffalo mitake buns, brussel sprouts and truffle mac and cheese are easy winners. The Korean fried broccoli is not quite as delectable as Dirt Candies but it doesn't disappoint either it's different. It being a wine bar means that sober folks like me don't have many options to drink but there's always at least one mocktail that I can get and I do get and it's always pretty good. There has been some inconsistency in service though the first time I went everything came to the table lukewarm it wasn't bad it's just kind of weird and at the time I thought that maybe it was intentional until I went back and it was hot. I went for my birthday in 2020 but because of the COVID of it all we decided to sit outside in the really fucking cold which was a mistake on my part. Fortunately it was still delicious. On New Year's Eve there was clearly some issue because there was like a 45 minute gap between the first and second courses but we had nowhere else to be and the apology glass of rosé was nice for Danielle. This was a whole thing for overthrow five restaurants did five course prefix menus all of which included tickets to a masquerade ball afterwards at one of their bars. We got gift bags with mass and a hilariously fancy entry card but ultimately decided against it the food was enough in a good way. I really hope that some of these dishes get added to the regular rotation and like I don't know how to speak critically about food so I've got no profound descriptions of the interplay of flavors and textures though I think the middle two courses carrots and fairy tale eggplant were the most interesting in large part because there could be no meaty equivalent they were the ones that were really about the vegetables and the eggplant in particular sesame crusted with harissa mint and pine nuts amazing. I'm not a huge eggplant guy but there was an additional ingredient not listed there some sort of white cream that cut against the spice of the harissa and really just brought it all together. We ended up getting a second serving of the wonderful carrots with tamula, hummus, pea shoots and more mint which I'm pretty sure was a mistake but actually turned out to be perfect in terms of overall portioning for the meal. I tend to over order at regular restaurants so that I can have leftovers for lunch the next day and then overeat tapas because there's never enough to take home and I don't want to waste food. With prefix it's not up to me and I imagine a lot of work goes into deciding how much to give people so that they feel good instead of gross at the other end and frankly I'd rather be slightly hungry than too full and I think they did that well which wasn't surprising because they do everything well. 8.5 out of 10. Thank you so much for watching thank you particularly to my patrons my mom hammer and marco cat saracada benjamin schiff anthony kohl magnolia dentin elliott fowler greg lucina cojo phil baits willow i am the sword riley zimmerman claire bear taylor lindyce and the folks who'd rather be read than said if you like this video that's great if you want to see more uh suggestions below man i don't know i got 28 more of these to do uh at this month good golly i hope to see you in more of them