#14 - Summer Garden & Bar At Rock Center Cafe, NYC

By about 2PM on Saturday we had already hit a lot of the NYC hot spots...Ground Zero, Wall Street, South Street Seaport, Fulton Stall Market, the charging bull, and the Century 21 shopping craziness.  We were waiting to meet a friend for lunch, but by that point we were starving and couldn't wait for him anymore.  So we hit Rockefeller Center and started looking for a place to eat.  Kara mentioned that she had always wanted to eat at Rock Center Cafe...I knew it would be perfect for the food blog, so it was an easy decision.  As everyone knows, during the holiday season the area is transformed into that super popular ice rink.  In the summer, it is transformed again into the Summer Garden & Bar.

We got really lucky, with a table right next to the fountain.

Even though the sun wasn't out on Saturday it was really humid. We tried to stay hydrated, but it's hard when you're walking all over the city.  So after we chugged down some water, it was time for a cocktail.  The skinny margaritas immediately caught our eyes.  The waiter suggested that if we were going to have 2 each, we might as well get a pitcher.  Well duh...


The margarita was fantastic!  It was very light and refreshing, and I love that he brought us extra lime slices in the glass.  Not sure how big the regular glasses were, but we figure we probably had close to 3 margaritas each.  No complaints from the table could be heard.  And of course we couldn't leave a drop of the margarita in the pitcher


All we had eaten for the day was a croissant before we went to Ground Zero, so we figured this would be our main meal of the day.  But we also didn't want to gorge ourselves, at least not yet.  So we decided to split a salad and sandwich.  We also got parmesan rosemary fries as an appetizer.  I was a little disappointed in the fries, because they were just plain fries with parmesan sprinkled on top.  The good thing though is that they served it with fresh rosemary, and that did add great flavor.

We split the avocado and goat cheese salad, and the crystal valley farm chicken sandwich.
Tomato, Butternut Lettuce, Red Onions, Pepitas, Cilantro-Chile Lime Vinaigrette
Sliced Chicken, Aged Provolone, Avocado, Jersey Beefsteak Tomato, Pecanwood Smoked Bacon, Dijonnaise, Greens
Our lunch was awesome!  The salad was really delicious.  It took a little thinking, but we figured out that pepitas are pumpkin seeds.  I've recently become a huge fan of goat cheese, and it went so well with all the other items in the salad.  The sandwich was awesome as well. Not quite sure what type of bread it was, but it was really yummy too. 

Will I go back?  Definitely!  As we were leaving we noticed they have a prie fix dinner menu for $38.  Not bad at all, considering just an entree item in a NYC restaurant can easily run at least that.  Plus it's a great place to sit and relax and enjoy the afternoon.