Keith McNally, remarkable New York restaurateur

Last night we enjoyed a special treat.
We met up with old friend and former colleague Richard Robinson, President and CEO of Scholastic Inc, the world’s largest specialist children’s book publisher who took us to dinner at Morandi in Greenwich Village.

Morandi is a rustic Italian trattoria , (reminded me of some of my favourite eating places in Bologna), which will celebrate its first birthday next month, It is the latest, (and he claims the last), in a small chain of superb independent restaurants and bars owned & operated by Keith McNally.

Others in the group include the Balthazar, Lucky Strike, Pravda, Pastis and Schillers, all fabulous in their own unique way.

Morandi is located at 211 Waverly Place – http://www.morandiny.com/ – just along the street from Three Lives and Company, the small but perfectly formed independent bookstore I wrote about on the blog back in August and as we were running a few minutes early for our dinner engagement we popped in here and sure enough emerged with another book – History in a Glass – Sixty Years of Wine Writing from Gourmet, edited and introduced by Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, and published by The Modern Library (Random House), $16.95.

We spent a truly wonderful evening with Dick at Morandi. Keith McNally proved to be a friend of his, and so we were able to enjoy a guided tour of the large, totally immaculate kitchen where I counted 14 people toiling away to bring us the mouth-watering food that we were soon to enjoy. And then later McNally arrived at the restaurant so we were introduced and spent 15 minutes or so enjoying his company.

I am currently reading , and greatly enjoying, Bill Buford’s HEAT, given to me for Christmas by my thoughtful sister. HEAT (Vintage $14.95) is the fascinating, eye-opening story of Buford giving up his day job as a writer and journalist for 12 months in order to work in various roles in the kitchen at Babbo, a revolutionary Italian restaurant created and ruled by superstar chef Mario Batali. So meeting McNally and being in one of his renowned kitchens took on additional meaning. I recommended HEAT to Natalie the charming Maitre d’ as well as some of the kitchen staff. And I recommend it to everyone who enjoys fine food at excellent restaurants. It is a real insight into the effort made by top restauraters and their chefs and of the dramas that take place in the kitchen.

Morandi, surprisingly, is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We will return although Lucky Strike, just off West Broadway at Grand, remains our favourite lunch spot when visiting this great city.