Posts for November 19, 2012

Get PBR and a Twinkie at the Living Room Bar; Landhaus Opens in Park Slope

• Landhaus is now open in People's Pops' old space. The Park Slope storefront for the Brooklyn Flea favorite will serve sandwiches, soups, and salads until Spring. [Eater]

• New York Times food writers Julia Moskin and Kim Severson will discuss their book Cook Fight on Wednesday, November 28. The JCC event starts at 7:30 p.m. and will be moderated by Abigail Pogrebin. Find out more here. [Grub Street]

• The Living Room bar at W Times Square is keeping Hostess love alive with a cocktail pairing menu. Tuesday through Friday, try the TBR (PBR with a Twinkie), the Dinger (a chocolate Manhattan with Ding Dongs), and the Sno Ho Ho (a chocolate raspberry martini served with Sno Balls). [Grub Street]

Suckling pig sandwiches. »

False Alarm?: Hostess and Union Back at the Bargaining Table

By Jay Barmann

Friday's news of the potential closure and sale of the Hostess company and its iconic snack-cake brands sent the internet spinning with nostalgia, laments, stories of Twinkie hoarding, gloating by healthy food advocates, etc. Well, it turns out there's still a chance the company will be saved, and maybe they were just showing they weren't afraid to sell it all off in the face of major financial problems and a stubborn union. As the Times' Dealbook site is reporting, a federal judge has pushed Hostess and the bakers union back into mediation this week, and the two sides have agreed to meet one last time on Tuesday to try to come to a deal to avoid 18,000 layoffs and a complete closure of the company. If they can't reach an agreement, Hostess will again seek approval of their close-out plan beginning Wednesday, which includes the sale of the Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Ding Dong brands, and the closure of multiple plants. [NYT, Earlier]

Burger King Is Now Delivering in New York City

By Hugh Merwin

The fast food chain has been tinkering with a delivery model in several markets over the last year, and now Burger King has debuted the service in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The ground rules include a minimum $10 order; coffee, fountain drinks, shakes, soft serve, and all breakfast items are excluded. For now, ten restaurants in the city are delivering Whoppers and Tenders and such, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Call 1-855-ORDER-BK or go here for more information. [BKDelivers, Restaurant News, Earlier]

Mission Chinese and Buvette Are Opening (Separately) in Paris

By Hugh Merwin

Buvette and its espresso-machine-steamed eggs are headed to Paris.Photo: Roxanne Behr/New York Magazine

The issue is not yet online, but according to November's Food Arts, la ville-lumière is set to get two more beacons: The trade magazine reports that Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese is going to Paris "around the first of the year" to look at restaurant spaces. "Jody Williams also has her eye on Paris," the magazine reports, "where she's already started construction on a clone of Buvette, set to open in the spring." France is about to get some more crêpes, scafata, and salt cod fried rice. [Food Arts]

Are These Really the 25 Best Chain Restaurant Dishes in America?

By Hugh Merwin

"We are No. 1, we are No. 1. Wait, are we?"

It takes a real food site to put up an unabashed paean to the Cheesecake Factory's Buffalo Blasts, which, for the uninitiated, consist of meat and cheese tucked away in a chicken-fried dumpling skin in pretty much the same way Ponyboy and Johnny take refuge inside that abandoned church at the end of The Outsiders. First We Feast presents its master list, spanning Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onions, the cheese biscuits at Red Lobster, and even Sizzler's shameless Malibu Chicken. So, yeah, survey says yes: These are the 25 best chain restaurant dishes in America. Meanwhile, New York expects that every man will do his duty, and today Voice critic Robert Sietsema unveils his newest dyspepsia barometer, the Gut Bomb Index. It turns out we should be very afraid, or alternatively spurred into action, by the potato-chip nachos at Swine. [First We Feast, FitR/Village Voice]

Potent: Culinary Cannabis Makes a ‘Hit’ in Astoria

By Bradley Hawks

No seeds, no stems, no sticks. Just noodles.Photo: Bradley Hawks

While New York may have yet to legalize marijuana, culinary cannabis is already popping up in Astoria. At Ornella Trattoria Italiana, Giuseppe Viterale, the same extreme chef who stuffs cannolis with blood and chocolate and occasionally invites guests to try some foul Italian maggot cheese, is bringing a whole new meaning to "pasta pot" this week. Two new dishes at the restaurant are made with organic hemp flour fettuccine. This Yorkshire stuff is strong and gluten-free, though Viterale blends his with a small amount of wheat to soften the texture.

It is skunky? Find out. »

Weak Sauce: Restaurant Critics Endure Fairly Boring Death Threats

By Hugh Merwin

Everyone's a critic.Photo: iStockphoto.com

Sifting through the media debris of the Guy Fieri/Pete Wells Times review, Jim Romenesko polls current and former restaurant critics from around the country and discovers — shockingly, perhaps — that many chefs and restaurateurs who do not dish out the best meals at their establishments often also cannot dish out decent retaliatory threats. Here, the critics share post-review tales.


Pete Wells has a posse. »

Saveur Editor James Oseland on His New Book, Road Trips, and Eureka Moments in the Shower

By Jay Barmann

James Oseland in the Saveur test kitchen.Photo: Melissa Hom

James Oseland — Saveur editor in chief, Top Chef Masters judge — is a man who loves all levels of cuisine, high to low. But his greatest passion may be for the humblest, most rustic, and most unadorned food of untrained chefs and home cooks, and it's these people who are represented (alongside a few big-name food people) in a new coffee table book from Saveur called The Way We Cook. It's a picture book, mostly, and a kind of photo essay about the act of cooking, with a small selection of 50 greatest-hits recipes from the Saveur archive at the back. Oseland was in San Francisco last week, signing books and speaking at the San Francisco Cooking School, and Grub Street sat down for a few words with him about the book, and about the state of food media in general.

Read more »

Turkey Time: Parm-Giving Deal Extended

By Alyssa Shelasky

Attention all ye slackers and procrastinators: Parm has extended their Thanksgiving to-go program until tomorrow, November 20, at 9 a.m. Get in there! They're selling whole turkeys ($90) and a six-person "Parm Italian Thanksgiving Feast" ($200), which includes the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, and spicy rabe. Plus that "hip" pumpkin cheesecake we told you about. Speaking of hips, all that's left is the post-holiday personal trainer (Um, guys, please?).

Thanksgiving Menu [PDF]

Check Out the Lineup for the Bartenders Ball 2012

By Hugh Merwin

No cocktails will be served in glass slippers.

It's a week away, but do you think you might be in the mood for a cocktail (or two) next Monday night? Because the lineup for the First Annual Bartenders Ball 2012, which takes place from 7 to 10 p.m. on November 26 at the Bowery Hotel, includes experts from Dram, Weather Up, Ward III, Death & Co., PDT, the Whiskey Brooklyn, Dutch Kills, and Employees Only. And because 100 percent of the night's net proceeds are going to Occupy Sandy and Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation, the night, which brings together a bunch of heroes who help save New York City, promises to be just like The Avengers. The difference is that it'll be Richard Boccato with a muddler instead of Thor with a hammer, and everything promises to be more civilized. We do hear that Jim Meehan, however, like Bruce Banner, is always angry. That's his secret. [Bartenders Ball]

Watch Fake Guy Fieri Respond to the Times Takedown Review

By Hugh Merwin
Watch Video

It didn't actually air over over the weekend, but Saturday Night Live blocked out and rehearsed a "Weekend Update" segment with cast member Bobby Moynihan adopting his best Guy Fieri schtick. Fake Fieri, like the real one, is a little incensed and ultimately hurt by the incredibly bad New York Times review, and the one-liner defenses he manages to crack range from "My food is best served through a cloud of weed smoke" to "If you come in expecting Le Cirque, then you're a Le Jerk." Click on through, and feel his pain.

He'll hit you with a faceful of Donkey Sauce. »

Now Serving: Parental Happy Hour in Clinton Hill

By Alyssa Shelasky

More kids, more crunk.

Bring in a picture of your little runt kid, and the Bedford Hill Coffee Bar in Clinton Hill will you give you a dollar off every drink, for every pain in the ass kid you've got. The breeders-centric happy hour happens every Saturday from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. and was spearheaded by proprietor Allison Stuart, who noticed "a boom in children in the neighborhood — and hearing their parents complain about them." [Brooklyn Paper, Related]

Bloomberg’s Junky Green Room

Yeah, yeah, the reporter spotted some bruised fruit, but what's the majority of free-food options when you're waiting around the green room as a guest on one of Bloomberg's shows? Keebler Elf Grahams, Fig Newtons, and Lay’s Classic chips. [NYT]

Watch What Goes Into This ‘Veggieducken,’ a Giant, Stuffed Thanksgiving Squash

By Hugh Merwin
Watch Video

We've already tipped you with a hipster Thanksgiving cheat sheet, put up recipes from some great chefs, shown you how to drink your way through the holiday, and in general, how to keep it healthy this week. What about enterprising vegetarians looking to make a showstopper? It seems this Dan Pashman guy has got that covered, with this stuffed banana squash "Veggieducken," a vegetarian holiday spectacle that is exactly what it sounds like.

Squash that. »

Bourdain Says Fieri Is Fine, But Wells Should Be Worried

Over in Baltimore, Anthony Bourdain told a slew of smitten fans not to feel bad for Guy Fieri even though "he just got the worst review in the history of journalism" from the New York Times. He went on to say that Guy will rise above (and, ideally, "de-douche"), while "This poor reviewer, Pete Wells, he’s on the run." Also, Bourdain still loves lake trout. [Baltimore Sun, Earlier]

Turnarounds: How Food Trucks Went From ‘Scourge’ to ‘Savior’

By Rebecca Flint Marx

You see something helpful, not disruptive, right?Photo: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images

Recently, food trucks were having a rough go of it: The police were pushing them out of customer-heavy midtown, owners were singing the praises of brick-and-mortar locations, and in October an FDNY presentation titled “Food Trucks: a Transient Hazard” said the mobile kitchens were ideal conduits for terrorism. But when Sandy hit, mobile vendors were some of the first to react and offer their help, and almost overnight everyone was reminded just how great food trucks can be. Only talk-show makeovers can transform an image faster.

Read more »

Sylvia’s Is Expanding in Harlem

By Hugh Merwin

Woods, who died in July, at the 40th anniversary of her restaurant in 2002.

The Post reports that in honor of its 50th birthday, Harlem soul-food institution Sylvia's "will build out in phases" and ultimately pretty much occupy the entire stretch of Lenox Avenue between 126th and 127th Streets. Sylvia Woods, who founded the restaurant in 1962 with a few counter seats, died in July. Renovations will include the conversion of a parking lot into an annex with 200 more seats. "The new facility will be beautiful," Sylvia's granddaughter Tren’ness Woods-Black tells the paper. "It will maintain Sylvia’s Southern charm but with a modern, sleek twist. You will still feel the comfort, Southern soul food vibe." [NYP, Earlier]

West Elm Market Is Giving Away Free La Colombe Coffee

By Alyssa Shelasky

Thanks and giving.

It's the only West Elm "Market" in the world (sources say another will open soon in Vancouver), and if that's not exciting enough, the new kitchen shop and Roberta's-baked café is also a great place to score free La Colombe drip coffee. Through December 16, Fridays through Sundays — and today, if you're around Dumbo, trying to catch a buzz — West Elm Market is handing out free coffee to anyone who makes a donation to their St. Jude Thanks and Giving Campaign. How much? A rep says, "From one penny to ten dollars, it's all good."

Eat Well: Yes, There’s a Healthy Way to Do Thanksgiving

By Kate Lowenstein

Stick to the thighs.

It's Thanksgiving week, which means Thursday is basically a lost cause from a healthy-eating standpoint, right? Well, not exactly. It turns out there are a couple things you can do both ahead of time and during the big day to help soften the damage (and neither requires you to hold off on mom's mashed potatoes). That's not all this week: We've also got good-for-you ramen, a veg-friendly butcher, and more.

Where to find it, right this way. »

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