Posts for November 7, 2012 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for November 7, 2012

11/7/12 at 5:30 PM
Leftovers
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Day of the Dead Fest Rescheduled at Empellón Cocina; A Voce Madison Reopens

• Empellón Cocina has rescheduled the Day of the Dead taco dinner that was delayed by Hurricane Sandy for Friday, November 9. It's still a progression of six tacos with unlimited beer and margaritas for $95 before 9 p.m. and $125 after; e-mail to reserve a seat. [Grub Street]

• Good news in the wake of the storm: The Flatiron district's A Voce Madison will reopen for the first time since Hurricane Sandy for dinner tonight at 6 p.m. [Grub Street]

• Copy the breads and sweets from Bouchon Bakery: Thomas Keller's Buchon Bakery cookbook, released in October, has risen to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. [Fine Dining Lovers]

• Tickets are still available at the door for Artwalk NY, an event benefiting the Coalition for the Homeless, which begins at 6:30 tonight at 87 Mercer Street. Starting at $250, they get you access to live and silent auctions, cocktails, and hors d'oeuvres from restaurants including Café Luxembourg and Indochine. [Grub Street]

11/7/12 at 5:10 PM
Lawsuits
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Laurent Tourondel and ESquared Hospitality Group Strike Licensing Agreement

Laurent Tourondel and his former BLT restaurant group partner Jimmy Haber may be sharing a few more milkshakes than anyone thought. Both parties have created a licensing agreement, Crain's reports, that will allow the ESquared Hospitality Group greater access to the BLT brand and its trademark, which is owned by the chef. "He has a lot of opportunities and so do we," Haber tells Crain's, reflecting on three years of lawsuits. "Litigation is expensive and a distraction. It would have been nice to have reached this agreement without all the legal fees." All of this goes to say there will be more BLT restaurants in everyone's future. And probably milkshakes. [Crain's, Earlier]

11/7/12 at 4:10 PM
Downtown
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Here Are 100 More Reasons to Eat and Drink Downtown

By Hugh Merwin

So many choices.

Looks like you will also see the Village Voice critics tonight on a downtown train. Earlier today, Times critic Pete Wells and Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton both shared their thoughts on the brilliance and endurance of lower Manhattan's restaurant constellation, and now Fork in the Road comes through with a 100-part mash note to the stalwarts, the iconoclasts, the takeaway kings, and the standbys. There's plenty to see (and eat) here, so click on through. [Fork in the Road/VV, Earlier]

11/7/12 at 3:40 PM
Quote of the Day
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Allison and Matt Robicelli Are Incredible People

"If people need help, I'm going to help them, and I'm not going to wait for permission. I don't know if it's the Brooklyn in me, or the food." —Baker Allison Robicelli and her husband Matt have essentially transformed their Bay Ridge apartment into a 24-hour relief organization that has already distributed thousands of sandwiches, clothing donations, toys, water, and other supplies to those affected most by Hurricane Sandy. [SENY]

11/7/12 at 3:00 PM
First Look
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First Look at Maysville, the Manhattan Offshoot of Brooklyn’s Char No. 4

By Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite

Having planted his bourbon-and-barbecue flag in Cobble Hill, Char No. 4 owner Sean Josephs has expanded to Manhattan with Maysville, which he opens today, with not a little chutzpah, just down the block from Hill Country. As in Brooklyn, American whiskeys take center stage, accompanied by craft beers, wines wide-ranging in price and vintage, and a sophisticated southern menu courtesy of former Gramercy Tavern sous-chef and native Alabamian Kyle Knall. His regional interpretations bypass brisket and ribs for hay-roasted oysters, whole smoked trout, and smoked pork shoulder and belly with shell beans, turnips, and turnip greens. Here, a look at the urban-rustic space, with its backlit bourbons and illuminated ceiling, and some of Knall's elegant handiwork.

17 W. 26th St., nr. Broadway; 646-490-8240.

11/7/12 at 2:20 PM
Bookshelf
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Cooking Modernist Cuisine at Home, at Home

By Matthew Latkiewicz

Let me just get the sous-vide machine warmed up...Photo: Tyson Stole/Modernist Cuisine

When I think about "home cooking," I picture the same things you probably do: meatloaf, spaghetti, maybe some mac & cheese with carrot sticks. As far back as I can remember, neither mom nor dad ever made short ribs that had been cooked sous-vide for 72 hours or salmon that was crisped with a blowtorch. Yet as its name implies, Modernist Cuisine at Home — the $140 diffusion brand to Modernist Cuisine's six-volume, $625 tome — has different ideas about home cooking, ones that involve whipping siphons and 56˚(centigrade) water baths.

11/7/12 at 1:45 PM
Openings
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What to Eat at L&W Oyster Co., Now Serving ‘Brooklyn’ Clam Chowder in Kips Bay

By Hugh Merwin

Ahoy, matey. Now pass the mignonette.Photo: Eric Stiffler

Many classic and newfangled clam and oyster bars alike have opened during the last year, and now here's one restaurant setting a high bar for its raw bar. Almond owners Eric Lemonides, Jason Weiner, and Antonio Rappazzo opened L&W Oyster Co. yesterday at 254 Fifth Avenue, former home to Cyril Renaud's Bar Breton and its subsequent revamp La Quenelle. Chef Jason Weiner developed the menu with chef de cuisine David Belknap, who cooked at Per Se. You'll find smoked and fried oysters in the frisee salad; housemade pancetta, corn nuts, and Brooklyn Brewery Oktoberfest in the cream-based "Brooklyn" clam chowder. In a high- and low-end fry-up, there are whole, tiny whitebait in the fritto misto. The restaurant transitions from a luncheonette into a full-blown candlelight and tablecloth kind of place from lunch to dinner. Check out its menu ahead.

Bluefish fondue, whitebait fritto misto, more fish than you can shake a stick at.

11/7/12 at 1:00 PM
Closings
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Boom Closes in Soho

By Hugh Merwin

Boom's gone bust.

The twenty-year-old Spring Street restaurant Boom — a sort of quintessential downtown restaurant once known for the star-power eating endive salads and sipping Chardonnay in its dining room while all the young abstract expressionists made trouble out in the street — is closing. The restaurant's basement kitchen flooded last week and its storm-related damage may reach $100,000, but it's the $15k-per-month rent that's really killing them. “The rents are just ridiculous," former partner Rocco Ancarola tells the Post. "It has become really hard for smaller restaurants and shops to survive when big luxury brands want flagships in SoHo, the Chanels and Louis Vuittons of the world, even though there are never people in those stores." [NYP]

11/7/12 at 11:50 AM
Restore
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Rebuilding Red Hook: Shops and Food Businesses Form Sandy-Relief Group

By Hugh Merwin

Don't give up the Fort!Photo: Melissa Hom

Almost all of Red Hook's food shops, beloved restaurants, and bars were affected by the storm and its surge. Because most of the neighborhood's small business and retail shops will not be covered by insurance, a group of proprietors has formed Restore Red Hook, a collaborative fund-raising organization. On average, each business needs an estimated $50,000 in order to rebuild and bounce back.

How to help

11/7/12 at 10:45 AM
Video Feed
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Watch This Taco Cannon Target Texans With Tortillas

By Hugh Merwin

Is it just us, or is the entire quick-service Mexican restaurant industry slowly being subsumed by the military-industrial complex? Just us? Okay, well, first Taco Bell airlifts 10,000 tacos to a tiny, fast-food-bereft Alaskan town, and now Austin restaurant Torchy's Tacos has invented a CO2-powered taco cannon, which is now available for non-lethal, all-out bean-and-cheese assaults. What's next? Someone clearly needs to safeguard the world's supply of churros and flautas.

Burritos not bombs!

11/7/12 at 10:15 AM
The Other Critics
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Wells and Sutton Offer Sandy Dining Advice; Cuozzo Doubly Puzzled at Il Mulino

By Max Thorn

Salumeria Rosi.

This week our own Adam Platt made a trip uptown to Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto, where he gave two stars to rigatoni con melanzane and Cesare Casella's "signature 'rosemary perfumed' Berkshire pork chop." Where did New York's other critics sup this week? Read on to find out.

11/7/12 at 09:45 AM
Boardwalk Empires
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Cha Cha’s in Coney Island Has Had Enough

After an unceremonious eviction from the boardwalk in 2011, recent neighborhood aggression, and now Sandy, the owner of Coney Island institution Cha Cha's Club Atlantis is thinking it may be time to check out once and for all. “The place is an awful wreck,” owner John “Cha Cha” Ciarcia tells the Brooklyn Paper. Scores of businesses on the boardwalk and along Surf Avenue are only now beginning to assess the damage incurred by Hurricane Sandy. [BP, Earlier]

11/7/12 at 09:10 AM
Presidential Food
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Marcus Samuelsson Has Your Celebration Menu Right Here

By Hugh Merwin

Yes, those short ribs are rather presidential.

If you're in a celebratory mood this morning and you also feel like making a grocery-shopping list, look no further than this handy recipe guide to much of the food Marcus Samuelsson has cooked for President Obama during his visits to Red Rooster Harlem and at fund-raisers. Lobster salad with buttermilk, cheddar and bacon biscuits? Four more years! [MarcusSamuelsson.com]