The Big Apple

I finally did it: I bought a ticket to New York to visit Kayleigh. Since buying my ticket I have been obsessing over where we should eat; we'll most likely cook most meals at Kayleigh's, but there are a few places I feel I have to try. There are so many big food names in New York it's going to be really difficult to pare my list down to a reasonable few, but how to choose? I know I want to go to Craft, but beyond that it's nearly impossible to choose. I love Mario Batali, but which restaurant to try? He's got, like, five just in NY. Do I want to try family-style Italian or Spanish tapas? My first choice was Del Posto, but they require a reservation a month in advance. Once I think I've made up my mind, I start thinking of all the food I might miss; don't even get me started on trying to choose just one of Daniel Boulud's restaurants. It's kind of challenging to try deciding who's food I want to eat without ever having tasted it, but I feel like you can tell a lot about a chef by the way they talk about food and how they treat their ingredients. Part of me is a little anxious to try any of it; it would really rock my world if it turned out that the only talent with food Tom Calicchio has is talking about it. The thought has me so worried that I actually took my hands off the keyboard and held them over my mouth just now, as if to keep myself from saying something blasphemous. I also read some distressing reviews about Le Bernardin, Eric Ripert's restaurant. I'm thinking a good compromise will be to have lunch instead of dinner, which would be cheaper and that way I could try more places and spend the same amount of money. Anyone had any fabulous meals in NY?