Where You Should Be Spending Soccer Season

Last week, we had a brilliant idea. Mexico was playing South Africa, and we knew the perfect place to catch the match: Socceria, the new Greenpoint cantina from the Taqueria Ramirez team. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same thought. We didn’t get in. But we did watch the match at Border Town up the street, where, maybe due to the humidity outside, my ranch water had a celestial quality. Willa ate her fourth taco of the week (more on that later), and Will paced himself with just one michelada, because he had another watch party at 10pm. Read about his night, get the rundown on a new subterranean cocktail bar, and hear the latest on my quest to eat at every Upper East Side Italian restaurant below.—Bryan Kim

It all started at Elio’s. After a meal there, I started counting the number of Italian restaurants on the Upper East Side and gave up around the time I reached number 70. I’ve been to about 20 of them thus far, and I’m starting to suspect that every block of the neighborhood has its own decades-old institution with a celebrity clientele and bottle of Drambuie that hasn’t been touched in years.

Pretty sure I love Nicola’s. There’s just something about the odd stained glass windows, the manager scribbling in the reservations book, and the quarter stick of cold butter they provide with the free bread. The food doesn’t keep pace with the nerdier, more regional stuff the city’s now accustomed to, but that’s fine. I’d never ask Nicola’s, open since 1991, to change. I like the substantial, standard-issue plate of chicken parm, and I don’t care that Lyonnaise potatoes are definitely French and not Italian. Order them. They’re incredible. Crackly on the outside and steamy in the middle. —BK

Bryan’s pick to watch South Korea’s soccer games this summer was rocking from kickoff to final whistle, thanks in no small part to a truckload of soju and Terra. They handed out shirts to almost every customer (they ran out before I could get one), and the only time it was quiet was when Czechia scored in the 59th minute. Eight minutes later, Hwang In-Beom put on a one man show, and the pocha erupted with people chanting “Daehanminguk!” We ate lots of fried chicken, a seafood pancake, and some tteokbokki. I would highly, highly recommend coming here for another South Korea game—just make a reservation, and wear clothes you don’t mind sweating in/getting beer and soju spilled on. —Will Hartman

Every single time I have talked about how much I love Santo Taco, someone brings up the price of their steak trompo taco ($6.95). That someone should probably avoid Tacos Domingo, an East Village newcomer from Mexico City that sells carne asada tacos for $7.95 each. ($10.95 if you want cheese). They’re on the larger side for what it’s worth, and the freshly made flour tortillas are worth seeking out. The fact that the place is open until 3am is a huge plus—I added the place to our Hit List. —Willa Moore

I recently drank, and loved, a spritz made with 1950s Italian aperitivo, and a Ford cocktail made with 1960s Bénédictine—both at Undercurrent, a 20-seat tasting room below sister bar Echo Lake in Williamsburg. When I asked the bartender (owner Paul McGee) how vintage Bénédictine compares to the modern version, he immediately pulled out both bottles and poured side-by-side samples on the house. I also tried a vintage fernet so brain-joltingly bitter that I briefly heard colors and saw sounds. Will I sell off one of my less-essential organs for a pour from a 1930s pre-embargo Cuban bottle? Stay tuned—and make a reservation if you’re in the mood for a night of drinking out unlike anything else. —Molly Fitzpatrick

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