All You Can Eat NYC

Geido
331 Flatbush Ave.
(btw’n Park Pl. and Prospect Pl.)
Prospect Heights
(718) 638-8866

Although it’s annoying, it’s also a little endearing that everyone in this town knows where “the best sushi place” is. It’s especially amusing that said place is always, conveniently, right around the corner from where the speaker lives or works.

I’m pretty new to the sushi game so I notice these things. And part of my naiveté is not really noticing many discernible differences between the billions of Japanese restaurants dotting the landscape in these parts.

In retrospect, this is probably not the best way to shore up some street cred for a report on Geido. But it is good to have the full disclosure out of the way before I try to figure out what is so alluring about this place, what calls me back sometimes multiple times a week. I don’t exactly know what I’m doing (which helps, in this case — sushi aficionados often ruin my experience here), and it is just steps away from my front door. But that’s not why.

Geido has a perfect mix of a couple things that make you feel like dinner, well-earned and well-prepared, is ready. One of these things requires time to appreciate (the food — we’ll get to that later), and the other is much more obvious: the joint is jumping.

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City Bakery

3 W. 18th St.

(between 5th and 6th Avenues)

Union Square

(212) 366-1414

When I tromp my soggy, squishing feet through puddles along Fifth Avenue, looking for some respite, anything will suffice, as long as it’s dry. But rainy afternoons are reflective, making us susceptible to that feeling of being welcomed in from the cold that certain times and smells and sounds instill when they come together in sensual alchemy. It’s universal; always longed-for and seldom found in this busy and anonymous town. So, in those times, I often follow my nose, tracking the smell of freshly baked oatmeal cookies to a doorstep and a moment’s respite.

City Bakery deserves its renown. A hidden yet cavernous space makes it no less comfortable than your corner café with the comfy loveseats. That’s because this place churns out that special alchemy from a chocolate-powered engine.

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