Gourmet Garage opened it’s location in my immediate neighborhood about ten years ago and it actually took longer than it probably should have for me to warm up to the chain. It never has had a huge selection (there are space constraints) and I still am not a fan of their pre-made sushi offerings but they have decent soups, very well priced fresh squeezed juices, micro brewed sodas and some not so bad prepared foods. They also sell Balthazar’s bread, have a nice selection of fresh seafood and cheeses as well as a generous produce department that offers some pretty hard to find fruit (you all know how much I love that stuff.) So let’s take a look at some of the stuff that I’ve picked up at Gourmet Garage over the past month or so.

This Fabulous Flats tandoori garlic naan was anything but. It was way too mealy and there was almost zero chew and no nice little air pockets. Also the garlic flavoring was horribly artificial.

I really like China Cola and often use it when making whiskey and Cokes. When making rum and Coke I prefer to use either Boylan’s Cane Sugar Cola or GUS’s Extra Dry but the Chinese herbs in this cola go hand and hand with the spiciness of a good rye whiskey or the complexities of a rich bourbon.

Gourmet Garage is the first place that I had seen Ayla’s herbal water of any herbal water for that matter. This is not that disgusting, shitty, flavored water that has a horrible sweetness added to it. Ayla’s contains no sweeteners, calories, or chemicals. It is water infused with herbs and spices, plain and simple. They use wonderful herbs across their whole line that range from cinnamon and clove to lavender and lemon grass. It’s good stuff to make ice cubes with.

Gourmet Garage usually offers a pre-made meal a week for $4.99 and while I haven’t been a fan of their pasta I’ve really enjoyed their BBQ chicken with corn on the cob, turkey meatloaf with cous cous and pecan crusted fried chicken with rich whipped potatoes. $4.99 folks and I assure you that it’s pretty damn good.

These Ito En teas used to be hard to find but I’ve seen a bunch of higher end food markets carry the whole line of lightly flavored slow brewed Japanese teas and the white mango oolong is my favorite.

During the summertime Gourmet Garage regularly sells papaya halves with lime slices for three or four dollars.

Gourmet Garage has a nice little line of baked goods that includes cookies, pie, cakes, muffins, bread etc. Their banana walnut muffin is one of my favorite and a good deal at $1.99.

Montmorency tart cherry juices are a product that Gourmet Garage only recently started carrying and boy are they good. Besides tasting great and having a shit load of antioxidants these juices are made for cocktail experimentation. Bourbon, tart cherry juice, a little creme de cassis and fresh lime juice, served up anyone?

Badoit sparkling mineral water is a French brand of water that helps to create vintage cocktails that called for soda water. When making a Gin Rickey it is important to use mineral water as it’s interaction with lime helps create the “very refreshing” taste that the cocktail was intended to have.

Gourmet Garage – 301 East 64th Street (Between 2nd and 1st Avenues) NY, 10065, (212) 525-6721