Posts for September 20, 2012 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for September 20, 2012

9/20/12 at 5:45 PM
Leftovers
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Cocktails Go Avant-Garde at the Modern; Prandial Launches a Bar Menu

• MoMA's the Modern has collaborated with two artists whose work is currently on view in the museum, resulting in a cocktail of Champagne, absinthe, blueberry syrup, and bitters with the appropriately avant-garde name "The Crushed Nun (Light on the Veil)." [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]

• Dellarocco's of Brooklyn opened quietly last month in Brooklyn Heights and is now serving wood-fired Neapolitan-style pies.

• From October 1 to 6, Aquavit will serve an eight-course tasting menu developed with Swedish chef Daniel Berlin that highlights Sweden's southernmost region, Skåne. The menu is $125 ($200 with beverage pairings). [Grub Street]

9/20/12 at 5:30 PM
Quote of the Day
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‘Luscious Eruptions’ Would Be a Great Name for a Band

"Just imagine Fourth of July on your taste buds, with bursts of flavor on your palate, and when you think it’s over, you’re overwhelmed by a second and third round of luscious eruptions ... It’s a food experience of orgasmic proportions." —Old Homestead's co-owner is trying maybe a little too hard to push the restaurant's $350 kobe steak. [ABC News]

9/20/12 at 5:10 PM
Openings
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What to Eat at Casa Pomona, Bringing Seasonal Spanish to the UWS

By Jenny Miller

Last month we did a little sleuthery and discovered that Pappardella (and Village Pourhouse and Little Town) owner Sid Gupta was planning a Spanish restaurant for the Upper West Side. Now we hear the spot is set to bow October 1. As mentioned, Marion Maur (who ran Marion's Country Kitchen in Woodstock for five years) is a partner, and along with executive chef Jodi Bernhard, she plans to work relationships with Hudson Valley farmers to incorporate seasonal ingredients into typical Spanish dishes like tortilla Española, morcilla (blood sausage), and various croquetas; and there's a rotating menu of nightly specials, like whole lobster a la plancha on Tuesdays or whole fish in salt crust on Thursdays. Drinks highlight Spanish wines, sherries, and what's evidently the favored Iberian cocktail, the G&T. See photos and the menu straight ahead.

9/20/12 at 4:45 PM
Video Feed
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It’s a Bad-News Day for Fat Kids

By Jenny Miller

As if it weren't hard enough being an obese youngster, here's news that fat kids have less sensitive taste buds than normal-weight children. In testing overweight and slim kids, German researchers found that the heavier ones had more trouble distinguishing between tastes like sour, salty, and umami. In their findings, it was unclear whether obesity diminished taste bud sensitivity or whether having less sensitive taste buds makes someone more vulnerable to weight gain. And now for even worse news: According to this new commercial, sugar isn't just making us fatter — it's killing us (like heart-disease-and-liver-disease killing us), and ... it's in 80 percent of packaged foods. Watch the depressing video below.

9/20/12 at 4:00 PM
Lawsuits
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David Chang to Kiwi Chef: Bao Out or I’ll Sue

By Hugh Merwin

These aren't the buns you're looking for.Photo: D.O.C. Bar /Facebook

The chef at an Auckland, New Zealand, bar was so moved by the steamed buns he sampled at Momofuku during a recent New York visit that he went straight home and started holding "Momofuku Bao Pop-up Dining" events, using the restaurant's name and the recipe from David Chang's 2009 cookbook, at his restaurant. The ever-popular pork buns with cucumber and hoisin served at David Chang's Momofuku restaurants have spurred all kinds of bao action, but up until recently, no one had actually used the restaurant's name to sell their own. "It kind of made our night," says D.O.C. chef Ben Barton, who received a cease-and-desist letter from Chang's lawyers. "After spending hours making this really long-winded, fiddly recipe, we get phone calls and messages threatening us with legal action ... We saw the funny side of it." The restaurant says it no longer is promoting pop-ups using Momofuku's name, but the promo flier is still up on its vaguely NSFW Facebook page. [New Zealand Herald, Related]

9/20/12 at 3:00 PM
Pod People
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Starbucks Starts Selling Verismo, Its Single-Serve Home Coffeemaker

By Hugh Merwin

Make your own cappuccino flowers

The coffee giant announced its new single-serve Verismo coffee machines are now available for purchase online and will go on sale at stores like Williams-Sonoma by the end of next week. The Verismo is made to fit Starbucks-branded coffee and "milk pods" that can be configured for all manner of lattes. It's an interesting moment for the company, which partnered with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters just less than a year ago to sell Starbucks' blends in other pods that fit that company's Keurig machines. Awkward! "They'll coexist and be complementary," says Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz, who says Keurig and Verismo machines are (separately) fine for coffee, but the pressurizing capabilities of the latter make it best for espresso drinks at home. What all this makes totally clear is that someone really needs to invent an "open source" pod that fits all kinds of single-service coffee makers. That would be genius. [AP/NPR]

9/20/12 at 2:20 PM
The Feeding Tube,
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Total Zoo: Animal New York Launches Food Series ‘Animals Eating Animals’

By Hugh Merwin

The first episode of a new, six-part series called "Animals Eating Animals" isn't a continuing exploration of Jonathan Safran Foer's heady ideas — it's more old-fashioned head cheese. Created, appropriately, by Animal, the web series follows the Beagle's chef de cusine Jeffrey Ryan Creager and Dutch Kills head bartender Jan Warren as they set off on their bicycles to eat meat in the five boroughs' most far-flung corners. The pair hit up Do or Dine to try the foie gras doughnuts, but first, they must get past the bartender in a T-shirt and top hat who serves them a pickleback aperitif in the form of spherified pickle juice. "So, the sphere, man, seriously, how?" Creager asks. Warren makes a grape pisco sour, Do or Dine's Justin Warner makes the foie doughnuts, a challenge is issued, and it all goes downhill from there.

The video

9/20/12 at 1:35 PM
Openings
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Vikram Chatwal Is Likely Moving Into the Plaza Hotel

By Hugh Merwin

Stay classy, Oak Bar

The Post reports billionaire hotelier Vikram Chatwal has joined forces with Tommy Hilfiger and Lion and Crown co-owner Sean Largotta in a bid to operate the 105-year-old Plaza Hotel. The landmarked Oak Room's future has been uncertain since last year, when it closed amid controversy and lawsuits. Chatwal says he'll take a 30 percent stake; the Sahara Group, an India-based business conglomerate which also owns 85 percent of Chatwal's Dream Downtown, already owns 70 percent of the famed Central Park hotel. Additionally, we noticed that, earlier this week, an entity called Sahara Plaza filed a blitz of eight separate liquor-license applications with the SLA for the space. All we know for sure right now is that Todd English's subterranean Food Hall seems to be staying and that Trader Vic's needs to come back. [NYP, SLA, Earlier]

9/20/12 at 1:00 PM
Crimes
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Lansky’s Deli Hit by Vandals

By Jenny Miller

The lights are off for the next couple of days.

This is disturbing: Vandals broke into Lansky's Deli Tuesday night and basically destroyed anything they could, smashing computers, breaking refrigerators and even toilets, taking money, and writing "ugly stuff" on the walls, as owner David Ruggerio told the West Side Rag. This is the third break-in the deli has suffered in six weeks, and a man and woman were evidently apprehended for one of the previous incidents. It's a rough break for the popular restaurant, especially with this most recent crime occurring during the Jewish High Holidays. But as Ruggerio said to the Rag, “It doesn’t deter us ... We’ll return better than ever." [West Side Rag]

9/20/12 at 12:20 PM
Blazes
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Van Towing Gyro Cart Catches Fire in FiDi

Last night, a minivan towing a Gyro King food cart burst into flames near Fulton and Gold Streets, DNAinfo is reporting. The scene was very dramatic, with flames shooting out when the driver pulled over and opened the hood. Nobody was hurt, and luckily those gyro meat logs are pretty much indestructible. [DNAinfo]

9/20/12 at 12:00 PM
Foodievents
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Francis Mallmann to Grill in the Street Outside Gramercy Tavern

By Hugh Merwin

ToastyPhoto: Courtesy Francis Mallman / Facebook

Francis Mallmann, who taught ex-Isa chef Ignacio Mattos a thing or two about spit-roasting pigs, is a bit like a South American Fergus Henderson, a chef who favors odd cuts of meat with two or three simple ingredients. The grill master and author of the truly excellent book Seven Fires is something of a chef's chef, and on October 1, he'll appear at Gramercy Tavern with Michael Anthony, John Besh, and Carlo Mirarchi of Roberta's and Blanca. TheAutumn Harvest Dinner is an annual benefit for Share Our Strength, so tickets are priced accordingly (read: $$$). Even if you can't attend, it may be worth swinging by Gramercy Tavern to catch Mallmann, who'll also be at Chez Panisse next month, in action: According to Facebook, he'll have one of his custom pieces and will grill in the street. [Share Our Strength, Francis Mallmann/Facebook]

9/20/12 at 11:15 AM
Backlashes
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‘Betrayed’ Chick-fil-A Supporters Voice Displeasure on Facebook

By Alan Sytsma

After yesterday's news that Chick-fil-A would stop donating to groups that oppose gay marriage, some of the people who had previously sympathized with the chain's original position have taken to its Facebook page to voice their, um, displeasure. And they're good: "You betrayed us" is the common sentiment, but a commenter named Shawn Michael really gets to the heart of this perceived reversal of values, writing, "May as well open on Sunday now." [Facebook via USAT, Earlier]

9/20/12 at 10:50 AM
Setbacks
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Money Trouble Delays Picholine Reopening

By Beth Landman

Picholine, as it used to be.Photo: Jeremy Liebman/New York Magazine

Call the reservation line at Picholine, and you will be told that the Michelin-starred restaurant, which also has four stars from New York Magazine and three stars from the New York Times, will reopen today after summer renovations. But due to a combination of setbacks, the spot will remain closed for now.

9/20/12 at 10:40 AM
Video Feed
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Watch Nick Offerman’s Bacon Poetry

Somebody has got to introduce Ron Swanson to the Epic Meal Time guys. [Vulture]

9/20/12 at 10:10 AM
Shacking and Stacking
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Shake Shack Is Posting Its Calorie Counts Now

By Hugh Merwin

It's all good.

As Robocop might say, New York City Health Code Section 81.50 requires restaurants with fifteen or more locations to post calorie counts for each item, and ever since the "Shacking of America" commenced in 2009, we all knew Shake Shack would hit that number someday. Danny Meyer's fast-casual chain quetly added calorie counts to its menu boards earlier this month, it turns out, when Shake Shack New Haven opened, and the WSJ does some waistline-minded comparison shopping.

At least the fries are healthy.

9/20/12 at 09:40 AM
Overnights
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Top Chef Masters Recap: When Teens Take Over

By Michael Alan Connelly

Yeah, it's about time to wrap this season up.Photo: Isabella Vosmikova/Bravo

Well, well, well, look at Top Chef Masters shaking things up in preparation for the season finale. While past seasons have pitted three cheftestants against each other in the final battle, next week we’ll only see two of them facing off. While I’d like to be generous and say this decision was made to spare someone humiliation or make the competition feel more intense, the likely reality is that they needed to fill the ten-episode commitment that was threatened by Missy Robbins’s hand-cutting action, or they’re just taking a page from normal Top Chef. Either way: Someone got kicked off last night, and chances are you’re pretty happy about it!

9/20/12 at 09:00 AM
Coming Soon
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The Franks Will Open a New Spot in Red Hook

By Hugh Merwin

Red Hook bound.

Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli tell Esquire's Eat Like a Man that they've been building out their next restaurant space, which will open in Red Hook. "We're Frankin' it," Castronovo tells the blog with typical brand integrity aplomb, explaining how the pair handles all aspects of renovation, from laying down what will most likely be reclaimed floors to hooking up the kitchen sink.

But what of Francesca?