Posts for December 13, 2012

Star-Studded Sandy Relief at Pork Slope; Kobayashi Chows for Perfomance Art

• Questlove will perform a set while bartender turned comedian and Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac mans the bar with friends at a Sandy relief party at Pork Slope on Tuesday, December 18. All tips and proceeds from the shot-and-beer special (Jameson and Coors heavy) will be donated to Sandy relief. [Grub Street]

• Supper Club I Was Really, Very Hungry is hosting a fund-raising holiday dinner on Saturday, December 15, at Vinegar Hill Sound, a recording studio in the Brooklyn micro-neighborhood (there will be goose). All proceeds from will event be donated to fund a Sandy relief holiday dinner in the Rockaways with Rockaway Help; the tickets are $100. [Grub Street]

• Hot-dog-eating champion Takeru Kobayashi appears to be diversifying from competitive eating to performance art: He'll be scarfing at Postmasters Gallery in Chelsea as a Sandy fund-raiser presented by the blog Art Fag City. For the mere mortals, it will feature wieners cooked by artists like Michael Mahalchick and Jay Batlle. [Grub Street]

How about brunch? »

Wal-Mart May Buy Hostess, Bring Back Twinkies

Retailers Wal-Mart and Kroger are said to be two possible contenders to buy the bread and snack-food assets from the bankrupt Hostess Brands, Inc., reports Bloomberg, which quotes an unidentified source who says there are "about two dozen" bidders pursuing the company. We weren't really worried that anyone would actually let the Twinkies plug be pulled, and we're definitely happy to hear the news, but Fruit Pie the Magician should probably stop talking to the press. [Bloomberg, Earlier]

Here’s Where to Eat Before and After New Year’s, and Also What to Drink

By Hugh Merwin

Be like Jay Gatsby at the Arlington Club.

Is it too early to start drinking? For New Year's, probably yes it is, but here's a handy recipe guide to all kinds of cocktails and toddies you'll want to be making at home come January 1, from Num Pang's restorative Ginger Apple Cider to Dutch Kills' falernum-based "Horse Tonic," which'll allegedly get you through any industrial-size (or smaller) hangover. If you're feeling festive and carb-depleted, there's also the Cereal Milk Punch recipe from PDT. Finally, if you're hungry, here's a guide to December 31 dinner options with a list of places to score brunch the morning after — that is, if you're up for going out. It's all part of New York's New Year's Guide. [NYM]

Top Chef Seattle Recap: David Rees on Marilyn Hagerty and Missing the 12/12/12 Benefit Concert

By David Rees

Anna Faris and Chris Pratt showed up, too.Photo: Bravo

Last night, while everyone in America watched the 12/12/12/ Sandy benefit, I watched Top Chef. Our episode opens with the aftermath of last week’s CJ-dectomy. The chefs believe he’ll be back — he’s simply too talented not to rise from the grave and take his revenge. Nobody seems to miss Tyler.

Read more »

Park Slope’s Moutarde Looks to Be Closed for Good [Updated]

The old French bistro at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Carroll Street is locked, and its windows are papered over, Here's Park Slope reports. Moutarde was a neighborhood favorite when it opened more than ten years ago. After some health department issues, the restaurant closed in 2010 for a few months but eventually reopened with a fresh coat of paint and a retooled concept. This time last year, however, the restaurant announced it would open just three days a week. In March, Moutarde's owners put the place on the market while also trying to keep the clientele coming, but it seems like they were just unable to ketchup. Update 12/27/12: Moutarde's owners have posted a sign saying the restaurant is once again under renovation. [HPS]

Now We Have to Worry About Something Called Brominated Vegetable Oil Too?

By Sierra Tishgart

Soccer moms are going to be pissed.

Surprise: Soda isn't good for your body. And here's another thing to add to the shit-list against soft drinks: brominated vegetable oil, which is in Gatorade. The ingredient's purpose is to keep the fruit flavor evenly distributed, but it contains bromine, a potentially dangerous element. Though it's been used since the thirties, studies have linked bromine to brain, fertility, and thyroid problems as well as early-onset puberty (especially terrifying since Gatorade’s the drink of choice for Little Leagues everywhere). According to the Times, the FDA hasn't reviewed this additive since 1977 because of a policy loophole, and even then, the ruling was dependent on additional studies and intended to be interim. Now a precocious 15-year-old's leading a petition against the oil. Because it's in 10 percent of drinks sold in the U.S. — including Mountain Dew and Fanta Orange — this could mean some of your favorite sodas are endangered (maybe this is a Bloomberg push piece). First, a possible ban on rare burgers, and now soft drinks: It’s only a matter of time before someone tries to outlaw fries. [NYT]

Hot: Patsy Grimaldi’s Juliana’s Opens

By Hugh Merwin

The paper may still be up, but the pizza starts tonight.Photo: Alyssa Shelasky

Pizza legend Patsy Grimaldi will open his newest coal-oven endeavor, Juliana's, for friends and family tonight at 19 Old Fulton Street, the Post reports. We've heard Juliana's may serve a few pies to passersby, too, but the restaurant will definitely be fully open to tour-bus crowds and the pie-eating public tomorrow. The opening marks a new chapter for the 81-year-old Grimaldi, who, as the "N.Y. Sired" sign that hangs outside suggests, spent decades making pies that made New Yorkers pizza obsessives.

It all begins at 6 p.m. »

Watch This Street Vendor Make the Prettiest Cotton-Candy Flower Ever

By Hugh Merwin
Watch Video

This one is better than the guy who pulls wispy orbs from a black-lit cotton-candy machine while convulsing along to Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us." Much better: In less than two minutes, this street vendor twirls a few scoops of colored sugar into a sugar blossom, crimping its "petals" into place with a skewer. Looking like a bud nipped from Ferngully, the finished pastel pink and yellow flower costs only 80 cents.

Empty, amazing calories. »

Sandra Lee Possibly Upset That Some Random Dude Doesn’t Like Her

Here's something unexpected: Sandra Lee is apparently feuding with Calvin Klein's ex-boyfriend Nick Gruber and the ex's new boyfriend, John Luciano (got all that?). "Page Six" says Lee overheard the new boyfriend bad-mouthing her Semi-Homemade empire while lunching at Bergdorf (of course) and, mistaking where she heard the conversation, confronted a table of Italian tourists to declare, "I'm Sandra Lee; I have feelings too." Luciano's posse fessed up and said sorry, but it pretty much negates an apology when you blab about it to the press. In response, Lee's rep floats the not-impossible theory that Luciano made the whole thing up to get his name in the paper. [Page Six/NYP]

It’s Narwhal vs. Narwhal for Start-up Brooklyn Brewers

By Hugh Merwin

5.4 percent ABV, 100 percent lethalPhoto: Dave Fleetham/Corbis

Basil Lee and Kevin Stafford planned to start making beer in Bushwick under the name Narwhal Brewery, which they registered as an LLC in April of 2011, but soon found out that Sierra Nevada also had designs on that good cetacean name. The seventh-largest beer manufacturer trademarked and released its malty Narwhal Imperial Stout earlier this year, and Lee tells the Brooklyn Paper that while the California-based brewery initially told him they'd retire the name after the stout sold out, more Sierra Nevada Narwhal seems imminent. Though Lee and Stafford don't own the trademark, they want to sit down, share a few beers with the competition, and see if they can work this whole thing out, narwhal to narwhal. [Brooklyn Paper]

Why Yes, Guy Fieri Did Have a Rock of Ages Cameo This Week

By Alan Sytsma
Watch Video

Guy Fieri's Times Square restaurant still isn't getting much love (unless you count customers who go there ironically), but the kewl one continues to make his mark on Times Square. The producers of Rock of Ages invited him to be in the show on Tuesday night because apparently they lost a bet. Of course there's video, which you can see straight ahead. At first, Fieri plays it off like he's reluctant to do this, but you can tell he's just loving it — the costume doesn't even look much different from Fieri's normal clothes. The walk-on probably won't help convince people he's really trying to improve the food and neon-blue drinks at Guy's American Kitchen & Bar, but the tourists in the audience look like they're way into it.

To the footage. »

Dan Barber Says You Should Really Eat More Grains

By Hugh Merwin

Speaking at the World in 2013 festival held last week by the Economist in New York City, Blue Hill chef and owner Dan Barber says that the benefits of local food economies, while appreciated by most, are still somewhat misunderstood, and it's crucial for chefs and writers to encourage the diversity of local food systems, including grains and vegetables. And he probably still thinks vegetarians need to ditch their long-held moral high ground. You can catch a clip of Barber's talk right here. [Economist, Earlier]

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