Mike Colameco's Food Lover's Guide to New York City

We had hope to use Mike Colameco's Food Lover's Guide to New York City this past weekend in a trip to NYC for the The 2009 Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival. Since our travel plans were interrupted, we decided to proceed with a book review anyhow. For foodies, it is an invaluable resource containing almost 350 pages of restaurant information within the city. In fact, Mr. Colameco has dined at each establishment multiple times, most of the time unannounced. And the restaurants encompass a wide range of styles, from $5 hot dogs to $500 meals. For more decadent types, the book contains another 30 pages of listing for bakeries and chocolate shops.

But for our purpose, the primary value is the directory and description of New York City's Wine Bars and Wine Shops. This is the type of compendium that we have been thinking of developing and Mr. Colameco has beaten us. The book contains information on 17 wine bars - which includes Flute a champagne bar we visited during one of our past trips to the city. For each wine bar, Colameco not only describes the location and wines, but also the types of food served. Readers can determine which establishments utilize an enomatic system; which specialize in French wines or South American wines; and which provide mouthwatering desserts.

The beauty of traveling to NYC, is that you can purchase almost anything in the city, regardless of season. Want tulips in December, no problem. Want a French wine from Languedoc, or a Moldovan wine - no problem. New York wine shops carry the widest selection of wines and Colameco points you to their location - plus a nice description of each. One we frequent, Astor Wine & Spirits was listed first - for alphabetical reasons.

One day soon we will travel back to New York City and this book will most definitely be in our possession at all times. Thanks Mike for a great resource.