“About that Health Department inspection …”Photo: Patrick McMullan
Über-restaurateur Danny Meyer will be at Bottlerocket Wine and & Spirits tonight talking about his new book, Setting the Table. If we had the courage, we’d fire off the following questions at the event.
Now that former Gramercy Tavern chef Tom Colicchio has left the restaurant to build his Craft empire and host a TV show, do you secretly wish he’d come crawling back asking for his old job?
Colicchio wields a lot of power these days, and Danny Meyer isn’t the kind of guy to burn any bridges. Still, it’s worth asking the question just to see the look on Meyer’s face.
Are you going to host the Big Apple Block Party again, even though many of the guest barbecuers were outraged about dragging their rigs halfway across the country, only to wind up scraping by on profits from hats and T-shirts?
Meyer could point out that Kenny Callahan, his executive chef at Blue Smoke, would bear the brunt of the blame. The real question is, would he give any hint as to whether the event — complicated, expensive, and not exactly an unqualified success in the past — might actually return?
Is it true that the grill guy at Shake Shack took a $1,000 bribe to make burgers ahead of time? And if so, did he use the money to buy toilet paper?
This double zotz is sure to shake even Danny Meyer’s legendary composure. Still reeling from the bribe scandal alleged by Eater this summer (when Grub Street was still a gleam in our eye), he’ll no doubt panic at mention of the Shack’s infamous failed Health Department inspection.
6–8 p.m., free. Bottlerocket Wine & Spirits, 5 W. 19th St., nr. Fifth Ave.; 212-929-2323.
