Testing The Cheese Room At Andaz 5th Avenue's Bar Downstairs

October 22, 2010 at 9:10 AM | by MsRebecca | Comments (0)

Now it's been open for a month, we thought it was high time to hit up the bar downstairs at Andaz 5th Avenue, so last night we perched ourselves at one of the oversized, 14-foot Claro Walnut wood slab bars and ordered up a batch of cocktails and cheeses.

We've been excited about this place ever since we heard it would have a cheese room--and we were not disappointed.

While there are other small plates including shrimp a la plancha and skirt steak (that melts in your mouth) on the menu, we highly recommend starting any session here with cheese.

Where the magic happens

The selection includes: a Beekman blaak 1802 sheep's cheese, a Hudson red cow's milk, an Old Chatham Blue, Mt. Vikos feta, Clothbound cheddar, and a Colabro ricotta that is delish with some honeycomb on a piece of bread.

All of the cheeses disappeared off our plates pretty quickly, but if pressed to choose sides, we'd say that the cheddar--nutty and sharp--and the creamy ricotta were our absolute favorites.

They're best washed down with one of the bar's signature cocktails. But more on those next week. Let's just sit for a moment and savor the power of the cheese...

The bar downstairs opens at 5 p.m. and no reservations are required. (When we were there, there was a healthy crowd and buzz going by 8 p.m., but there were still seats available and there was not one sign of a pretentious scene.)

[HotelChatter; Melissa Hom/Courtesy Andaz 5th Ave ]

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