Vegetables and Laughs: Bond45

Bond 45 is incongruously located on 46th St. The website recognizes this oddity, writing "Yes, your wife is right. Bond 45 is now on West 46th Street."*

The antipasto platter

Nevertheless, when we arranged to go with a group of friend pre-theater, even my husband questioned my sanity. "Are you SURE it's on 46th Street?"  Well, yes.

The Italian restaurant is great for groups, and for eating before a Broadway show. There are pastas, pizzas and meat and fish entrees, of course. But we went for the vegetables.

Vegetables for non-vegetarians

Focaccia

Although our friends are meat eaters, they wanted something lighter before the show. Bond 45 has family style salads, like the large chopped salad platter we got. It had romaine, chickpeas, asparagus, roasted peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, almonds, avocado and cheese. 

The vegetable antipasto bar had nine different choices. You can get a three vegetable plate as an entree, five to share, or all nine for a group. We choose the latter platter.

Our platter had pickled cauliflower, eggplant part, a vegetable tart, Brussels sprouts, roasted Romanesco broccoli, chickpeas and a large ball of burrata. We spread the burrata on the warm focaccia that came to the table. 

Don't miss the fried artichokes

We didn't need, but had to have, the fried artichokes with lemon aioli. It was delicious.

Cocktails, too

Bond 45 has a number of half bottles of wine and reasonably priced carafes. We went the cocktail route. The apparel spritz had a hit of passion fruit and the Vesper martini had great olives. My Manhattan and an absinthe spray, which may be my new breath freshener. 

Although the restaurant was packed with an after work, weekend crowd, we were able to get our food quickly and get to the theater in time. But we weren't rushed, and our waiter joked around with us. He also pointed out the nearby backstage crew from Hamilton.

Sadly, the show we saw was no comparison.

*Note: Of COURSE I was right!