Posts for January 8, 2013

Juice Press Opens First of Six New Stores; Ainsworth Park Serves Alternative Game-Day Fare

• BLT Steak, ESquared Hospitality’s steakhouse, will begin hosting "Prime Rib Sundays." The weekly special event offers twelve ounces of prime rib dry-aged for 35 days, served with au jus, for $47. [Grub Street]

• With some of the biggest sporting events just weeks away, Ainsworth Park opens its doors to fans who would rather knock back oysters on the half-shell and fork tuna tartare than wear out napkins with chicken wings and other grease-bombs. With 65 televisions and a full bar, watching the game indeed remains the main attraction. [Grub Street]

• Juice Press joins the city's juice bar craze with a 1,500-square-foot flagship in the meatpacking district, the first step in the company's plans to cover New York with cold-pressed, vegan, organic juice, from the Upper West Side to Williamsburg. [Grub Street]

• P.J. Clarke's adds to its winter menu. Among the new items are free-range chicken potpie, slow-braised beef stew with root vegetables and farro, and a barrel-cut filet mignon. [Grub Street]

Intelligentsia Coffee Is Opening Its First NYC Shop in Chelsea

By Hugh Merwin

This is happening.

Here's some great end-of-day coffee news: The Chicago-based cult coffee roaster Intelligentsia will open its first New York retail shop this March in an "unnamed development project" in West Chelsea, Sprudge reports. Though plenty of local coffee shops already brew Intelligentsia beans and the company maintains a "training lab" on Broadway in Soho, the company hasn't announced any big plans for the city until now. The West Chelsea shop is one of five new cafés that will open this year; other cities to be caffeinated include three shops in its hometown and its first San Francisco location. [Sprudge via Chicagoist, Earlier]

Here’s What a $2,000 Pasta Dish Looks Like

By Sierra Tishgart

Probably not worth the money.Photo: BiCE

BiCE in midtown is hawking a $2,013 plate of tagliolini with two pounds of lobster, sauteed organic vegetables, and, obviously, black truffles. The Post first reported the dish, which comes served on a gold-leaf platter designed by Gianni Versace, and we've got the first look at it. Rest assured: The $2,013 price includes three other mini-courses and wine pairings. You get to keep the plate, too. [NYP]

What to Eat at the General, Now Serving Sushi and Peking Duck on the Bowery

By Sierra Tishgart
View Slideshow

At the EMM Group's new "trendy casual" restaurant, which opens today, Catch chef Hung Huynh is cooking up modern Asian cuisine. Bowery bar-hoppers can get their fix of straight-forward sushi, but the General also offers dishes like Cinderella rice (mushrooms, squash, and truffled xo sauce), tuna tataki BLT, and large-format green tea lobster tempura. Proof that the fare's a bit more exotic than your standard Asian-fusion spot? The miso-glazed bass, a mainstay of contemporary Asian menus, is spiked with bourbon. Elsewhere, there are cheesecake spring rolls and Philly pepper steak sticky buns on the menu. The massive 4,000-square-foot space, designed by ICRAVE, is sure to be scene-y, but with large-format menu items meant to be shared among parties, this will be a nice break from stabbing your dining partner's fork for one of the coveted bites of a small plate at an izakaya. Check out the space and the dinner and dessert menus, straight ahead.

Dinner and drinks. »

There’s a New Electronic Fork That Will Supposedly Help You Not Get Fat

By Jay Barmann

Not the classiest-looking flatware we've ever seen.Photo: David Becker/Getty Images

A new electronic, Internet-connected fork (yes, you read that right) that vibrates to tell you you're eating too fast or too much just debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The HAPIfork and HAPIspoon use sensors and a Wi-Fi-enabled app to tell people they're raising the utensil to their mouths too fast or that their meal has gone on too long, and it vibrates like a game of Operation when you mess up. Now, we've heard the arguments about how eating slower lets you know you're full sooner, but if you really need an eating utensil to tell you you're binge-eating, you're probably beyond hope. Some problems that are immediately apparent: This isn't going to help if you're stuffing your face with handheld foods like Doritos and hot dogs, and we can also see how this could cause problems for an easily embarrassed dieter who brings one of these things along for a tyrannic, four-hour tasting menu meal at Alinea or Per Se. You'll want to turn the fork's sensor off after the meal's first hour passes by. [All Tech Considered/NPR]

David Bouhadana’s Dojo Will Open in the Spring

Speaking of Japanese food, Crain's reports the twentysomething sushi wunderkind who once made omakase magic at Sushi Uo will return with Dojo, his anticipated LES restaurant, in "late winter or early spring" at 110 First Avenue in the old Polonia space. Bouhadana was 23 when he landed the chef position at Uo in 2009, but left the restaurant three months into the job and reportedly traveled to Japan. [Crain's, Earlier]

Where to Find New York’s Thirteen Coolest Izakayas, New and Old

By Sierra Tishgart

Chez SardinePhoto: Marvin Orellana/New York Magazine

As New York does with almost everything, the city has taken the basic idea of an izakaya — a Japanese drinking den that's very in line with the now-passé notion of a gastropub — and made it wholly its own. Sapporo, sake, and shochu are constants, but a crop of nouveau-izakayas are taking risks when it comes to the food menus: Modernized dishes like miso-maple salmon head appear alongside more familiar small plates like rice balls, fried tofu, and stir-fried pork belly. Places like Chez Sardine and SakaMai may not be traditional, but they're fulfilling a desire for no-fuss eating and marathon drinking. Yet these new kids shouldn't overshadow the more established (and authentic) izakayas around town. We've rounded up a few of our favorites in the city.

Sake, sake, sake! »

Enormous Rent Hike May Close Big Nick’s on the UWS

By Hugh Merwin

Big Nick's is open 24 hours a day.

A $20,000-per-month rent increase may force Nick Imirziades to close his well-loved, memento-filled Big Nick's Burger and Pizza Joint at Broadway and West 77th Street, West Side Rag reports. The restaurant, which is open 24 hours a day and is known for its 27-page menu, boasts an assortment of sacred clutter, framed portraits, thin-crust pizza, and its one-pound, signature "Sumo" burger, which is served on a Kaiser roll. Imirziades posted news about his latest round of rent negotiations on the restaurant's Facebook page to inform his longtime customers of a potentially rocky road ahead, but says he did not intend to "go public" with the news of a possible closure. The 1,000-square-foot restaurant space and two neighboring retail spaces are being offered as one parcel in a new commercial real estate listing that boasts "unparalleled Broadway frontage," which is fine, but a total dealbreaker if that means no more Sumo burgers. [West Side Rag]

Man Hallucinates After Eating World’s Spiciest Curry

By Sierra Tishgart

Another day, another case of dangerous eating. Ian Rothwell, who is a 55-year-old doctor (!), decided that it was a good idea to eat a curry dish comprised of twenty Naga Infinity chilies at a restaurant in Grantham, England. To give you an idea: One Infinity is 200 times hotter than a jalapeño, and can cause mouth burns and blisters. The dish, which is ominously named "the Widower," is so spicy that chefs have to wear goggles and face masks to prepare it. Three hundred masochistic customers prior to Rothwell have attempted to eat it and were unable to finish, and one time, the restaurant even had to call an ambulance. But of course the item remained on the menu because there's no such thing as bad publicity (ugh). Rothwell took an hour to finish the plate, cried a bit, went for a walk, and then started hallucinating. But no biggie: He says he felt fine the next day. The restaurant's owner thinks the doctor is a "legend." We say they're both insane. Is this grounds for Dr. Rothwell losing his license to give health advice? Should be. [This Is Lincolnshire via HuffPo]

South Carolina Restaurant Makes Employees Wear ‘How to Catch an Illegal Immigrant’ T-Shirt

By Hugh Merwin

The employee dress code: HatePhoto: CoreyHutchins/Twitter

On Sunday, a South Carolina journalist tweeted a photo of a worker at a local restaurant called Taco Cid that had been taken earlier by a local high-school teacher. The worker is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an illustrated, cartoonish "trap" baited with two hard shell tacos. "How to Catch an Illegal Immigrant" is printed at the top in the colors of the Mexican flag, and the restaurant's name and contact information appears below the illustration.

Read more »

Slideshow: A Night at Curtis Duffy’s Grace, the Country’s Most Ambitious New Restaurant

By Michael Gebert
View Slideshow

In our video series Finding Grace, we showed you the creation of former Alinea chef de cuisine Curtis Duffy's new restaurant, Grace, in Chicago, and the intense dedication of Duffy and his team to creating a truly graceful experience for guests. The irony, of course, is that all that was taking place in the midst of construction — far from an atmosphere of grace in practice. Now the restaurant is open, and our man Huge Galdones followed service one night last week to capture it in full swing as the realization of Duffy and GM Michael Muser's aspirations. We'll show you how Duffy's light, vegetable-flavor-driven dishes come together on the plate, but you'll also see the intensity and precision that goes into creating the total guest experience at perhaps the most exacting and inspiring restaurant opening of the past year. Here is Curtis Duffy's vision — in practice five nights a week, at 652 West Randolph in Chicago.

Caviar Crook Gets Off Easy

By Sierra Tishgart

After pleading guilty to illegally importing more than 100,000 pounds of Russian and Iranian caviar in the eighties, a judge has given 69-year-old Isidoro "Mario" Garbarino a break. He's free after less than five months behind bars. "The case is old and, more importantly, the defendant is old," said 80-year-old U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy. "I know what old means, perhaps more than anybody else in the courtroom." Perhaps the judge was impressed that his fellow geezer had made it on the run for 23 years: Garbarino only got caught after transferring planes in Panama. Garbarino must return to Italy (his native country) right away, but his defense lawyers say he wants to live in Argentina and the Dominican Republic. Never stop hustling. [Earlier, AP]

Waitress at Roberta’s Forgets to Wear Clothes, Serves Food

By Hugh Merwin

It happened in Bushwick.

Transgressive: A waitress may have commemorated her last shift at Roberta's on Friday night by taking off her clothes and having a friend write "PEACE OUT" with a Sharpie on her back. Gawker writer Max Read, who was there, notes that no one cared a naked lady was waiting on tables in the packed dining room. (Assless fishnet stockings don't count, by the way.) Anyway, there's some documentation of the night, and because health code states "employees who prepare or serve food products, or wash and sanitize equipment and utensils must wear clean outer garments," Suzie Nudie could cost the Bushwick restaurant fines and/or temporary closure. So, is this hot, ho-hum, or just a health hazard? [Gawker via Eater NY]

Community Board Notes: Orkin Thwarted, Hill and Dale Soars, Pig and Khao Scores

By Mary Reinholz

Time to make the noodles.

Making his first appearance before CB3 Manhattan's SLA Committee last night was the illustrious ramen maker Ivan Orkin, who said he didn't have a "fancy lawyer to draw up a map" for his planned new spot on the Lower East Side. Maybe he should have, because when the chef and restaurateur told the committee that the proposed location of his first Ivan Ramen was within 190 feet of the venerable Congregation Chasam Sopher orthodox synagogue on Clinton Street, the factoid put a wrench in his plans to sell liquor at the site of the old Ed's Lobster Bar Annex. "Even if it's 199 feet, the SLA won't allow it," Susan Stetzer, CB3's district manager, said, invoking New York's 200-foot rule. "It's against the law."

"It's a nice place, and we're not afriad of ghosts." »

Beasts of the Southern Wild Star Will Open His Harlem Bakery This Spring

By Katie Van Syckle

Dwight Henry is headed to Harlem.Photo: Stephane Cardinale/Crobis

Earlier this year, we told you about Dwight Henry, the baker turned actor who is racking up accolades for his role in the Oscar-contending film Beasts of the Southern Wild. But it's his plans to open a new bakery in Harlem with partner Richie Notar that has Grub excited.

Read more »

Ron Perelman and Eric Clapton Play Backup for the New Le Bilboquet

By Hugh Merwin

Eight years ago, businessman Ronald Perelman waged some sort of campaign against the UES bistro Le Bilboquet and its four renegade sidewalk tables, but things are different now, the Post reports, and the billionaire is teaming up to back owner Philippe Delgrange on the restaurant's relaunch three blocks south, at 22 East 60th Street, in the old Dooney & Bourke retail space. Grub Street reported on the move last June. Eric Clapton, of all people, and the real-estate investor Steven Witkoff are also part of the new Le Bilboquet, which will be four times larger than the original and have 100 seats, the Post reports, three times as many as the original, which closed last month. [NYP, Earlier]

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