Grub Street Diet: Lisa Lucas

"That night I finally redeemed myself and met up with some friends, an editor from another imprint as well as an editor from a different magazine. We decided to go to Roberta’s ’cause I hadn’t seen them in over a year, and I certainly hadn’t thought about Roberta’s in ages. It was the first fun night of being back. We had plenty of glasses of wine and we got lots of different pizzas — one for each person because they’re actually relatively small but delicious, and I think everyone was still in that moment of, Oh yeah, we should get something vegetarian and get something healthy. There was a meat pizza, a salad pizza, and another sort of vegetarian pizza, and it became very quickly apparent that everybody wanted the meat pizza and didn’t want anything to do with the other ones. But Roberta’s is delicious, and it still felt like Roberta’s!"

"I ordered dinner from Kings Co Imperial, one of my favorite spots. I’d been missing their string beans in particular — they’re porky and twice-fried."

"I went into the city to meet a friend who owns some bookstores at Lafayette. I ended up having a shrimp cocktail and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, but it was hilarious because they brought the bottle out and poured it, as one does, and it was the supermarket wine I’ve been drinking literally all year long, Gaspard Touraine. It’s like $14.99 a bottle. And a glass of it at Lafayette cost the same. But you know what? I was grateful to them for pouring me a glass of supermarket wine. This might have been the first time I haven’t resented paying a full bottle price for a glass. I also had a really, really, really, really, really good cherry clafoutis. I’m not usually a dessert person but for whatever reason, it just knocked it out of the park, and I remembered the joy of dessert."

"There’s a little Italian coffee shop close to where I live called Lella Alimentari. During the pandemic, they built these enclosed areas where you can sit outside. It’s not the world’s most sophisticated set-up, but it’s in such a good location, and it really is easy-breezy. My friend Erin came over in the morning, early, and we just had a nice sit-down coffee and talked about whatever."

"I met up with my friend Marlon and his partner Nick and we went to Gertie in Williamsburg, which is also really fun because the publishing group I work at also publishes cookbooks. One thing I had been desperately craving was a good bagel with lox and a shmear. They had that. I had also been craving a decent matzo-ball soup — there actually are some good delis in L.A. where you can get a bowl, but they were all across town from me, and I was really missing the matzo-ball experience. So even though it was like 10 a.m., I got a big bowl of matzo-ball soup, a bagel with lox, and a mimosa, and I was like, Oh wow, brunch! I forgot about brunch!"

"I went home for a little bit and then to a little Japanese store in my neighborhood called The 3rd Floor. She makes these amazing rice balls and miso soup and various coffees and teas and sells a lot of Japanese snack foods."

"In the evening, my friend Toby brought some roadies in little koozies and we headed out over to two taco places. It was a totally rainy night, but I was pretty committed to eating tacos. First, we went for birria at Nene’s. I had never dipped the taco into the consommé, which was delicious."

"Then we headed over to Bushwick and went to another place called Taqueria al Pastor that had, I guess they’re called volcánes. I had a carne-asada taco that had cheese on it, and it was this flat delicious thing. I absolutely went hard. I’m not saying we have better tacos here, I’m just saying that I was not unhappy."

"There’s a place in my neighborhood called Cozy Royale, which is a restaurant and bar opened by the guys who run my local — everybody is going to know exactly where I live, this is the worst — butcher shop. The shop has been around for a long time, they’re great and they have a little grocery in there and have amazing taste. They do lots of chilis and prepared foods and sauces, so it’s really cool that they opened up a restaurant."