This NYC Reservation Is Worth Fighting For

Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 Founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter, Hey There, It’s Amanda, packed with food, travel, and shopping tips, Food52 doings, and other matters that catch her eye. Get inspired—sign up here for her emails. Getting into buzzy new restaurants in NYC is a blood sport. If you don’t start a month in advance, you’re outta luck. I often forget to start early enough, so I constantly have enough “Notify Me” alerts set on Resy that they may flag me as a bot (or a drunk dialer). Thankfully, I have friends who are better suited to the hunger game of eating out in New York; they set alarms to make reservations the minute they go online, they dm restaurants, they work their connections. Karen, a longtime Food52 colleague who is now at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, is one of these people. She recently got us into everyone’s new obsession, Borgo, which lived up to the hype. The spacious dining room with light wood wainscotting and taper candles on every table made me think of Salzburg, but the food is pure Italy. It must be spring because all the dishes we ordered were green and white–fava bean puree with marinated greens, risotto with peas, and even dessert, a pistachio, ricotta, and cherry tart. A stand-out was the bitter greens salad with breadcrumbs. As I ate it, I thought, there’s not enough love for bitter greens. But, it turns out that there is on Food52! Here’s a round-up we did a few years ago. Bonus: Making any of these recipes is far easier than getting into Borgo! Read More >>

Mar 19, 2025 - 18:30

This NYC Reservation Is Worth Fighting For

Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 Founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter, Hey There, It’s Amanda, packed with food, travel, and shopping tips, Food52 doings, and other matters that catch her eye. Get inspired—sign up here for her emails.

Getting into buzzy new restaurants in NYC is a blood sport. If you don’t start a month in advance, you’re outta luck. I often forget to start early enough, so I constantly have enough “Notify Me” alerts set on Resy that they may flag me as a bot (or a drunk dialer). Thankfully, I have friends who are better suited to the hunger game of eating out in New York; they set alarms to make reservations the minute they go online, they dm restaurants, they work their connections. Karen, a longtime Food52 colleague who is now at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, is one of these people. She recently got us into everyone’s new obsession, Borgo, which lived up to the hype. The spacious dining room with light wood wainscotting and taper candles on every table made me think of Salzburg, but the food is pure Italy. It must be spring because all the dishes we ordered were green and white–fava bean puree with marinated greens, risotto with peas, and even dessert, a pistachio, ricotta, and cherry tart. A stand-out was the bitter greens salad with breadcrumbs. As I ate it, I thought, there’s not enough love for bitter greens. But, it turns out that there is on Food52! Here’s a round-up we did a few years ago. Bonus: Making any of these recipes is far easier than getting into Borgo!