Grub Street

Lidia Bastianich is no stranger to a court summons, following the very weird allegations that surfaced last summer from a former employee. Now wage-violation-crusading attorney Maimon Kirschenbaum sends over a complaint filed by some former Felidia servers, who allege that Bastianich and the restaurant illegally distributed tips and failed to meet minimum-wage requirements; there are also questions of overtime compensation and spread-of-hours pay. Wonder what Joe Bastianich, Kirshenbaum's most vocal detractor, will have to say about this?

It’s rare to catch a glimpse of a snow cone in New York City — except for maybe when the circus is in town. But Daniel Levin started changing that last summer when he sold his housemade snocones (as he spells it) at the now-shuttered Blackbird Parlor. Now he’s opening an artisanal snocone and sweets shop, Handsome Dan’s Stand, in Williamsburg’s Mini Mall. The shop, which is soft-opening this week, sells snocones in grown-up flavors like thyme dream, earl grey cream, orange blossom ginger, rose pomegranate, and chili passion fruit.

Australia is having something of a culinary identity crisis as younger eaters increasingly fail to embrace Vegemite, writes The Wall Street Journal. The yeasty spread (a by-product of beer-making, we just learned) is notorious for its pungent smell and salty flavor, not qualities generally beloved by children. And a growing Asian population in places like Sydney means many youngsters have no familial obligation to ingest the stuff, since their parents never did.

He may have looked all award-clad and Ethan Hawke–like at the James Beard Awards, but apparently Achatz is suffering from insomnia, tweeting, "Any tips on readjusting sleep schedule after being in 5 time zones within 18 days. I am up at 4 every morning now. Productive I guess ... " Unfortunately, he's not getting the answers he needs either, with a follow-up tweet: "Responses 2 correcting jetlag sleep disorder range:Booze, weed, cocaine ambien, herion or cocktail of all vs Melatonin/fasting. Who r u ppl?:" [Gachatz/Twitter]

Donatella Arpaia takes to HuffPo to write about being "the 40-Year-Old Mom." Each Mother's Day, she says, "As much as I loved being the cool celebrity aunt, what I really wanted was the title we were celebrating that day." She only felt ready for a family in the past few years, "having gone through the high highs and extreme lows of a career in a male-dominated industry." She claims Mommy Donatella is a different person than the glamorous one known for nurturing a Prada habit: "while I still like to put on heels, I don't panic if someone sees me without mascara." You go, Donatella, and if you need somewhere to celebrate Mother's Day ... [HuffPo]

“I love seeing how people’s eyes roll to the back of their heads when I tell them that I live in Newark,” says RedFarm's Ed-Eddie Schoenfeld. In addition to expanding RedFarm to the laundromat below and to the Upper West Side, he has moved from Brooklyn to Jersey, into a big old house that came with oddball furniture and art. [NYP]