Mark your calendar: It only costs $18 ($16 in advance) to gain entry to Sunny Rest Resort's Beer Festival, which takes place June 28 in Palmerton, Pennsylvania. Because Sunny Rest is a "relaxed clothes-free resort," you'll have to get naked to get past the bouncers, who may also be naked; we're not sure. On the other hand: Unlimited craft beer samples. [Drinks Nation via Foobooz]
Coal and wood-burning ovens are affected.
Yesterday, Mayor Bill de Blasio voiced support for an overhaul of the air-pollution control code — the biggest since 1975, in fact — which would have a profound impact on restaurants and food trucks throughout the city. The stated goal is to target "pollution sources that currently have little or no emission control requirements," the mayor's office says, and it turns out that most of those are food-related.
Fines for food-trucks not running "the cleanest technology." 
Tacos al Pastor.Photo: Liz Clayman
On Monday, the owners of Tacombi at Fonda Nolita and La Brisa in Montauk will open a 6,500-square-foot food complex on West 24th Street, complete with a taqueria called Tacos Madison, as well as a tortilleria and a Veracruz-style coffee bar. The idea is that Cafe El Presidente will feel like a traditional Mexican market, where customers can visit different little shops and bars. Luis Aguilar, the head chef at Fonda Nolita, will produce tortillas made of beetroot, calabaza, nopal, yuca — both corn and flour styles. Jason DeBriere, most recently of now-closed Peels, will head up the brunch menu.
EV Grieve scouts a flyer posted to the former Exchange Alley space on East 9th Street indicating that barman Eben Klemm is planning a restaurant called King Bee and will apply for a full liquor license. In his career as a consultant, Klemm has brought the world over-the-top things like boozy candy-cane milkshakes and popcorn-infused vodka, but he also created the less showy, aperitif cocktails served at Pearl & Ash, so it'll be interesting to see what's planned for the space. [EV Grieve, Related]
Culatello!Photo: Elliot Black
Citing sources close to the deal, New York Post real-estate columnist Lois Weiss reveals — somewhat mind-blowingly — that a branch of Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich's Eataly will open in the base of 4 WTC when the shopping-centric portion of the building debuts in the summer of 2015. The restaurateurs' first U.S. outpost of the Turin-based Slow Food mega-grocer opened four years ago, in advance of expansion nationwide (and world domination).*
"Hey, come on guys, we only have ten seats and lots of other people are waiting."Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, President Obama, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe just took up four of the ten counter seats at the subterranean Sukiyabashi Jiro. (You may know it as one of the most respected, and most difficult to get into, sushi restaurants in the world, presided over by Jiro Ono, the octogenarian chef made famous in the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.)
Wells did love Telepan Local pastry chef Larissa Raphael's coconut cake.
The Underground Gourmet visited Rose Bakery, which it gave three stars and praised for its "Brititerranean" cooking and light touches on dishes like eggs on toast. Pete Wells dropped a solo star on Telepan Local, Ryan Sutton loaded up on Má Pêche's new dim sum, and Stan Sagner couldn't get enough of Gato's Mediterranean dishes. All that, and more, straight ahead.
It's perhaps not so much of a surprise that the success of The Lego Movie means a bunch more family-friendly movies based on toys are in the pipeline, and now it seems the brightly colored marshmallow chicks, bunnies, and assorted other Peeps-iverse creatures manufactured by Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, company Just Born are headed to the big screen. The forthcoming Peeps epic will be set "the night before a Peeps diorama contest, when a wayward Peep gets misplaced and must adventure through the fantasy lands of different-themed dioramas before the contest’s judging begins." Sounds great, but we're still holding out for the Cadbury Creme Egg movie, which promises to be a much quieter affair. [Vulture]
• Celebrate Earth Day at the Musket Room tonight with a candlelight, six-course special menu. Courses include ramps with berries in buttermilk dressing and spring peas with egg yolk and caviar. [Grub Street]
• This Sunday, Calliope continues its literary dinner series with author Andrés Neuman, where he'll be discussing his new book, Talking to Ourselves. Dinner includes four courses and costs $55. [Grub Street]
• Red Rooster will welcome Brooks Winery on April 30 for a five-course tasting dinner with pairings. Tickets are $110 per person. [Grub Street]
"Don't make me feel bad, because I thought that this was pomegranate juice." — Justice Anthony Kennedy, in court trying to sort out the true nature of Minute Maid's "Pomegranate Blueberry," which contains 0.3 percent pomegranate and 0.2 percent blueberry juice. [NYT]
Perfect for the rabbit in your life.
Joining that parallel vegetable-based product universe currently occupied by things like Blue Hill's savory yogurt (beet, sweet-potato) and Numi Tea's entire savory line (broccoli cilantro) are Häagen-Dazs Japan's forthcoming Tomato-Cherry and Carrot-Orange varieties, which are exactly what they sound like. Of course, we don't really need to go all the way to Tokyo as long as we have Beet Pistachio Honey Goat Cheese by the cup and cone right here at home. [RocketNews 24, Related]
How about some fresh black pepper with that swank?Photo: dbox
Barcelona native Jordi Vallès, who trained under culinary titans Juan Mari Arzak and Ferrán Adrià and worked at the St. Regis in Bal Harbor, has been appointed to helm the market at Le District in Brookfield Place. The project will open "in stages" beginning this year, the Post reports, and will consist of two restaurants with seating, a café with coffee and sweets, a section for provisions like cheese and meats, and an area for quick takeaway like flowers and prepared foods. Le District joins a new Jose Garces restaurant and a branch of Parm, as well as outposts of Black Seed, Num Pang Sandwich Shop, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Tartinery, Dos Toros Taqueria, Dig Inn, Umami Burger, Chop't, Skinny Pizza, Little Muenster, Olive's, Mighty Quinn's, and Blue Ribbon Sushi. Leasing director Ed Hogan says the organization is still looking for a fine-dining “Michelin-type” chef for yet another restaurant to open within the complex. [NYP, Related]
Their grilled ox kidneys will go on, and down, in history.Photo: Henry Aldridge & Son
Here's a decent restaurant concept idea, enterprising chefs: Up for auction this weekend is this menu for second-class breakfast aboard the Titanic served on April 11, 1912 — three days before it all went wrong. Unlike the ritzy first-class lunch menu that came up for auction in 2012, this one is all about downmarket things like grilled ox kidneys with bacon, herring galore, and potatoes fried, mashed, or served as hash au gratin. If that's not enough starch options, no fewer than six more grains — oats, hominy, scones, buckwheat cakes, and Vienna and graham rolls — were available. At least they also had watercress at the end as a palate cleanser. [NYDN, Related]
How about a sandwich from Mighty Quinn's?Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Yesterday we told you about Berg’n, the Brooklyn Flea beer hall spin-off inside a 9,000-square-foot former garage that's opening soon in Crown Heights. Now here's everything on the vendors' menus, from Pizza Moto's grandma pies to Ramen Burger's late-night Bonkotsu. (And please note: Prices, where listed, are tentative and subject to change before the opening.)
Ramen, pizza, burgers, chicken, and everything else delicious...
"Put a little Castle in your cup," they say.
Because things like this are inevitable, you can now buy White Castle's Original Restaurant Blend Coffee in a 12-pack for the Keurig. Little known fact: The chain's coffee does have its loyalists — alongside OG sliders and pie, quality coffee was an original menu item, and White Castle has sold its coffee in retail packaging since 1996. But times are changing, and in an effort to target "younger coffee drinkers," the fast-food chain is now moving on to the single-serve market, along with "Put a little Castle in your cup," its bold new tagline. [Beverage Industry]
Can I get some extra blue glop on the side, please?Photo: Vimeo
Spain already boasts the world's top restaurant and probably its most exclusive (the single-table Mercès One, a "restaurant only for you"), so why not the planet's most overpriced, too? The new Hard Rock Hotel opening in Ibiza next month has that covered with Sublimotion, an "unparalleled gastro-sensory venture" brought to life by Michelin-starred Spanish chef Paco Roncero, which will feature a 20-course tasting menu that costs its 12 diners more than $2,000 apiece.
" ... a cold snack that they carve on their own iceberg ... "
A petition created by Tom Colicchio and Food Policy Action seeking to convince Congress not to ban GMO labels has attracted 231,000 signatures in just over a week. Despite a range of opinions on the potential threats (or non-threats) posed by the production and consumption of genetically modified foods, most consumers (and several states) already agree to support identifying GMO food as such. The so-called Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, however, introduced April 9 in the House, seeks to block these labels on the grounds that they will pose an "undue burden" on producers. The celebrity chef and food activist writes that it is "absolutely critical that we stand up to elected officials who introduce bad legislation or vote the wrong way on good food policy." [Credo Mobilize, Related]
"If you're not failing, you're not growing."Photo: Liz Clayman
Yesterday, in honor of Aldea's five-year anniversary, Coi chef Daniel Patterson flew in from San Francisco to collaborate with George Mendes on a one-night-only tasting menu. It was as much a celebration of their friendship as it was of their longevity in the industry. (As Patterson says, "Once you get to be 5, it's okay.") Grub used the opportunity to sit down with them before dinner to discuss the challenges of being a chef-owner, how the New York restaurant scene compares to San Francisco's, and if either chef has plans to open a new restaurant here.
'sNice to have known you.
The 10-year-old ’sNice in the West Village has come to the end of its lease and is closing on Friday, leaving a cadre of vegan students without a solid place to work (and snack) throughout the day. As it's been pointed out, if one counts the restaurant's closing along with the demise of Foodswings in Williamsburg and Viva Herbal Pizzeria, these seem to be dark days for loungey vegetarian places. Let's protect the veggie nuggets and sprout sandwiches we have left. [DNAInfo, Related]
How cheeky: Two Tales, a Prague-based microbrewery that produces a variety of lagers and ales, takes a bold stance here and posits that America's epidemic of sagging pants is the source of the world's most severe economic issues. That's why for every six-pack they sell, they'll also send one belt Stateside in hopes of turning it all around. The idea is a win-win — "You can feel good, while feeling good, about doing good," they say. Beer for Belts even has an online petition, which is only 99,999,954 million signatures short of its goal.
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