Posts for January 9, 2013

Hudson Clearwater Pops Up in Paris; Ryan Skeen’s 83 1/2 Closes

• Hudson Clearwater is making a pop-up appearance at Bob's Kitchen during Paris Men's Fashion Week with a €55, four-course, locally sourced tasting menu. It's a quick affair abroad, from January 16 to 20 only. [Grub Street]

• Pour one out for the homies over at the Washington Post's food blog, "All We Can Eat." This morning, Tim Carman (the blog's primary editor and writer) announced in a post that today is the site's last. [WP]

• Ryan Skeen's UWS restaurant, 83 1/2 is closing its doors after only four months in business. And he isn't actually all that sure why. [Eater]

Read more »

Seattle Man Hit by Bus, Grabs Morning Coffee Anyhow

A city bus hit a 32-year-old man in downtown Seattle yesterday morning with such force that the airborne pedestrian hit and cracked the windshield, the Today File notes. Yet the man, whom the Seattle Times describes as "a downtown business professional," was able to get up after the incident and walk a block over to a coffee shop, where he proceeded to place an order — after getting knocked down, it turns out, the man just needed a good pick-me-up. The unidentified man was declined service because he had a concussion, however, and was instead taken to the hospital. [ST]

Doug E. Fresh Is Opening Another Restaurant

It took three years for the former rapper, actor, and entrepreneur's Doug E's Fresh Chicken & Waffles to get up and running in Harlem, and now it looks like a follow-up is in the works. The "famous hip-hop icon," a Craigslist ad posted this afternoon states, is opening a new soul-food restaurant and is calling on fry cooks and quick-service cashiers but also line cooks with "full-service restaurant experience." Perhaps our dreams of a white-tablecloth restaurant called "the Dougie" are this much closer to coming true. [Craigslist, Earlier]

What to Eat at Qi Thai Grill, Now Uniting the Culinary Forces of Pichet Ong and Sripraphai in Williamsburg

By Hugh Merwin

Ganesha is in the house.Photo: Courtesy Qi Thai Grill

After a few delays, the very large new restaurant Qi Thai Grill opens tonight with 200 seats in a warehouse space on North 9th Street in Williamsburg, and it continues the Southeast Asian street food odyssey of sorts that began at Qi Bangkok Eatery in Times Square and its Union Square outpost. New partners Kea SiwaSila and Sripraphai Tipmanee of Woodside's Sripraphai are providing a menu of small plates, such as beef tendon larb and slow-cooked pork trotter with herbs, while returning chef Pichet Ong is not only providing the desserts, but also his own menu of savory dishes, including Chiang Mai sausages, grilled pork jaw with coriander root, and a riff on Buffalo wings, which are fried and served with kaffir lime and Sriracha barbecue sauce. Check out the full menu, just ahead.

Chiang Mai sausage. »

The French Are Annoyed That Obama Is Serving California ‘Champagne’ at Inauguration

By Jay Barmann

Didn't go through customs.

Korbel has made a special cuvée for President Obama's second inauguration, which they're bottling as "Korbel Natural, Special Inaugural Cuvée Champagne, California," and once again the French wine lobby is annoyed that Americans are co-opting the word "Champagne." Per U.S. law, the label is supposed to read "California Champagne," and the French would actually prefer it say "sparkling wine" anyway.

Read more »

Bill Telepan on Food Television and Show-Off Chefs

"They’re getting left behind because some schmuck can act like a wingnut on television and then all of the sudden he opens fifteen burger joints and he’s awesome." —Bill Telepan, who may be opening a second restaurant, says it's cool that talented chefs can host talk shows, but that loudmouth patty-flippers send the wrong message to young chefs. [New Potato, Earlier]

Oslo Coffee Roasters in Williamsburg Destroyed by Fire

By Hugh Merwin

The Bedford Avenue location of well-loved Oslo Coffee Roasters, which turns ten years old this year, was destroyed this afternoon by a fast-moving fire that broke out around noon. It took firefighters 45 minutes to extinguish the blaze, and no cause has yet been determined. Oslo's employees were evacuated and no one was hurt, but the brand's social media manager tells Gothamist that "the store is basically gone." The shop's second Williamsburg and Manhattan locations remain open. [Gothamist]

Good-bye, Gourmet Live

Condé Nast is killing its Gourmet Live tablet app, which survived for two years, three months, and some days. After the company shut down 90-year-old Gourmet magazine in 2009, it appeased readers by creating a free, advertising-supported app. Though it was one of the most popular downloads in the iTunes store at its prime, it "no longer helps fuel the brand’s evolution," according to a company spokeswoman. Content will continue to go up on Gourmet.com, which currently has an optimistic "Welcome 2013" headline on its homepage. Dream big. [NYP]

Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield Make West Coast Expansion Official

By Alan Sytsma

Headed to San Francisco.Photo: Melissa Hom

For as long as anyone can remember, Ken Friedman has hinted that he'd like to expand his ever-growing restaurant empire westward. Now it's happening. He and his partners — including, naturally, chef (and car spokesperson) April Bloomfield — will take over Tosca Cafe in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Business Times. What to expect: Friedman tells the Chronicle that the plan is to keep things more or less the same, aesthetically. They'll fix the place up, but want to keep the vibe the same: "“The plan is to keep it exactly the same. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it ... We’ll fix what’s broke though.” Also, expect a totally new menu from Bloomfield. Head over to Grub Street's San Francisco branch for plenty more info and backstory on the deal. [San Francisco Business Times, Inside Scoop SF, Grub Street SF]

Lincoln Turns to Chefs to Sell Its New MKZ Hybrid

By Hugh Merwin

It's not Hollywood Squares.Photo: Courtesy of Lincoln Motors

Who can name all the chefs and food people shilling in this ad for Lincoln's brand-new MKZ hybrid, which doesn't seem to be online but does appear in this week's New Yorker? We've got Carmellini, Bloomfield, Falcinelli, and Castronovo, and Brooklyn Based spots Brent Young from the Meat Hook in the bottom right square. "If we were all the same," the ad asks, "how would anyone be special?" You are certainly special, and worthy of our admiration, if you can identify them all. [Lincoln]

Buildings Department Holding Hearing About Mission Chinese Food’s Patio

Danny Bowien's popular restaurant is getting criticized by people and forces other than Eddie Huang. The enclosure for the patio at Mission Chinese is allegedly made from a potentially flammable combination of plastic, wood, and tar paper, Bowery Boogie notes, citing a "concerned tipster" and a complaint. The Department of Buildings, which has given the space over 26 violations going back to 2004, is holding a hearing tomorrow to review the roof. Most violations predate the restaurant, which opened last May, and had previously been resolved. To complicate matters, the Orchard Street building's owner only has a temporary Certificate of Occupancy, which does not cover the rear space. [Earlier, Bowery Boogie]

Authorities Are Once Again Cracking Down on New York’s Food Trucks

By Hugh Merwin

Darin Gibson says Monday night's tow cost Seoul Food more than $1,000.Photo: Courtesy of Seoul Food NYC

Early Monday evening, just outside Union Square, police officers approached and issued $60 summonses to mobile food vendors Phil's Steaks and Seoul Food NYC because they were parked at metered spots, but instead of asking them to move, representatives from the trucks say their trucks were summarily towed. Blogger New York Street Food first reported on the incident, which suggests a new wave of food-truck crackdowns is in place after a sort of grace period that began after the vendors dispensed hundreds of thousands of free meals to victims of Hurricane Sandy. This morning, we spoke with the vendors about their latest round of legal troubles.

To the impound lot. »

The Other Critics: Pete Wells Like El Toro Blanco’s Empanadas; Bill’s Food and Drink Gets Panned

By Max Thorn

This week, the Underground Gourmet reviewed Chez Sardine and learned that the food is so good it's worthy of a "death-row binge." What do the other critics have to say about their recent meals? Read on to find out.

Pig & Khao, Super Linda, and more ahead. »

Resistance to Incoming 7-Elevens Turns Sticky

The arrival of 20,000 stickers meant to be stuck in protest to anything with a clean and flat surface in lower Manhattan represents the latest front in the ongoing neighborhood crusade against the growing number of 7-Eleven stores in the East Village. "Shopping 7-Eleven? Shame On You!" they proclaim, with the added fine print, "it's not too late to support local East Village stores & merchants, turn around and shop elsewhere." If we don't end this war now, come springtime the convenience store will be using drones to drop pamphlets extolling the virtues of Slurpees over Tompkins Square Park. [Daily Intelligencer, Earlier]

Finally, a Nice Message on a Restaurant Receipt

A manager at a Red Robin in North Carolina gave a pregnant woman and her family a discount on their bill. He wrote "MOM 2 BEE GOOD LUC" (it's the thought that counts) and took off $11.50. “It was a pleasant surprise and made my tired of being pregnant wife a little more cheery,” said the woman's husband. It's a good thing she was actually pregnant — or else the manager's gesture could have been misinterpreted as this. [Earlier, Consumerist]

Sidecar at P.J. Clarke’s Is Turning Into a Private Restaurant

By Hugh Merwin

Get one last look.

The upstairs dining room at P.J. Clarke's will turn into a members-only establishment next week, open only to 550 regular patrons, The Wall Street Journal reports. Those who have access to Sidecar now have the freedom to hold impromptu dinner parties, and also have an open-ended invite to Sidecar locations in Vegas, D.C., and Brazil. Unlike other hardwood-paneled havens for high rollers, however, Sidecar is nonexclusive and does not cost any money to join. "The caveat," says co-owner Thea Grace Scotti, "is you have to come and visit us." So why don't you come up and see them sometime? [WSJ]

Advertising
Grubstreet Sweeps

Masthead

Senior Editor
Alan Sytsma
Associate Editor
Hugh Merwin
Assistant Editor
Sierra Tishgart
 
NY Mag