Grub Street

If all goes as planned, Kenshiro Uki of the L.A.- and New Jersey–based manufacturer Sun Noodle will soon open a version of his wildly successful Ramen Lab with chef Shigetoshi "Shige" Nakamura, at 70 Kenmare Street this February. Plans for the tiny Nolita space include fourteen counter seats and an open kitchen, which means a much shorter commute for the throngs of ramen fiends who wanted in on the perpetually sold-out series, which was held in a nondescript industrial park across the Hudson. "Rather than ask people to come to Teterboro," explains Uki, "we had this opportunity to make it more accessible, and increase the kinds of ways people think about ramen. We see it as an education-driven place." If any of this brings to mind images of wizened old ramen lecturers and treatises on the elasticity of gluten, you should probably read on.

The 1,800 pounds of butter, 3,000 pounds of brown sugar, and 22,304 pieces of candy used to construct the Guinness-certified largest gingerbread house in this Texas town have been garnering a lot of buzz. Like actual buzz, from honeybees. "We called in a beekeeper the other night and he said there was a cluster of about 2,000 bees," says the general manager of the Texas A&M Traditions Club, which sponsored the project. If those Red Hook bees that gorged on high-fructose corn syrup and dye No. 40 at the neighborhood maraschino-cherry factory a few years back ended up producing bright-red honey, you can be sure something really weird is about to go down in the apiaries of Bryan, Texas. [Today, Related]

The folks at CNBC noticed that McDonald's corporate posted a comprehensive guide to tipping all sorts of service people that pretty much no McDonald's employee can afford to employ — personal trainers, massage therapists, au pairs, landscapers — on its McResources website, the same portal that unhelpfully instructed workers to sing happy songs to get through periods of stress and break food into tiny pieces during times of diminishing grocery budgets. (Fitness trainers should get "the cost of one session" at the holidays, just FYI.)

Gabriel Stulman definitely wins the award for most improved restaurateur of 2013: After three years of operating with a small, electric kitchenette, he has revamped Jeffrey's Grocery and installed a full-size gas kitchen — as well as an exhaust system, so you don't leave smelling like your dinner. New gadgets call for new food, of course, so Stulman has hired the restaurant's first-ever pastry chef, who will make all baked goods in-house. Chefs Michael Toscano and James McDuffee have conceived a brand-new menu, with an expanded raw-bar program and comfort foods like roast chicken with pretzel stuffing, fish 'n' chips with doughnut holes, and escargot toast. Take a look at a few of the dishes and the menus, straight ahead.

It's complicated, but if you're reeeally determined to have a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle, Schnapps Liquors in Brooklyn has one bottle each of the 23-, 20-, and 15-year, and two bottles each of the 12- and 10-year (Old Rip Van Winkle) cult bourbon whiskey. Here's the thing, though: The most expensive bottle is $1,800, you have to go to Midwood, and you have to get there before sundown — Schnapps closes at 3:45 today.

"When I met Jerry he’d never really known anyone who’d cooked," says Jessica Seinfeld, whose latest book is the Can't Cook Book. "It’s just something I’m naturally comfortable with. I can zone out and relieve stress." There's another reason the mother of three prefers cooking for her family when it's dinnertime: "We are kind of very sarcastic, and — how do I say this? — we kind of antagonize our kids, and our mealtimes are kind of a battlefield. So it’s not the greatest thing in the world to be out to dinner." But Seinfeld still managed to hit Charlie Bird this week ("I've been there so many times), grab some midday meals, and get not one but two Thanksgiving dinners on the table. Read it all in this week's Grub Street Diet.

Chickens have it rough. Their feet are ridiculous. They have no natural defense against predators. Their clucks sound idiotic. And they are just about the most perfect animal to roast over fire and devour whole. When done right, the combination of crispy, crackly skin and tender meat is a texturally perfect canvas that skilled cooks can flavor any way they like: Add some lemons and herbs; perfume the meat with ginger, garlic, and scallions; give it a dash of smoked paprika; slather it with a sauce of bacon and onions. It all tastes good. And now, the humble chicken has become the new must-have luxury menu item at New York's most vital new restaurants.