Tamara Tunie on Harlem Dining
Photo: Melissa Hom/New York Magazine
New York Magazine features actress Tamara Tunie of “Law and Order: SVU” in their New York Diet segment. Tamara just make a special appearance at the St. Nicholas Park annual tree lighting ceremony. Selected excerpts from the article appear below. Click the picture above to read the full interview.
Actor Tamara Tunie calls herself an “East Coast girl,” and she’s had a steady career of “quality work” to keep her in New York. She spent two decades playing Jessica Griffin on As the World Turns and now appears regularly on Law & Order: SVU as Dr. Melinda Warner. A Harlem resident since 1983, Tunie had plenty to say about gentrification, and her husband’s cooking, in this week’s New York Diet.
There’s a fantastic place called Giovanni’s on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and they deliver to Harlem and they have the best pizza. I’m not going to say the best pizza in New York, but it’s really up there.
For dinner, we went out to Covo. A fantastic restaurant up here in Harlem. There’s a new stretch of restaurants and clubs that have opened over by the West Side Highway near Fairway uptown. They’re calling it the uptown meatpacking district. We have Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Hudson River Café, a Thai-Latin restaurant called Talay, there’s Covo, which is an Italian eatery, and a fantastic restaurant and club called Body. I’m very pleased with the restaurants coming uptown. We need them. I don’t always want to go downtown to have a variety. Since Covo opened, my husband and I dine there at least once a week. I went right to the main course, and had a lemon chicken, almost like a piccata (but they didn’t call it that): breaded chicken in a lemon sauce with capers and some large grilled asparagus. [For wine] they have a Montepulciano Abruzzo that I get there. I don’t have a really sweet tooth; my palate likes plain desserts. I like Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. At Covo, they have a particularly delicious vanilla gelato. The serving is two scoops, but I tell them one scoop.
I had lunch with my friend LaChanze, Tony award winner from The Color Purple. We stayed uptown, and we went to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. I mean, what are you gonna have? I had barbecue ribs, baked beans, and a bit of coleslaw. They have this root beer on draft, and I had that with it. We were decadent and did dessert. We split the Key-lime pie, which was so good.
Stumble It!
I am a real New Yorker, having lived there for 30 years I find it
to be my get away from DC whenever I get the chance. be sure
to let me know whats going on in Harlem when something
comes up. I’d appreciate it.