Posts for January 28, 2013

Free Wine at Whole Foods; Lincoln Station Opens

• Whole Foods on the Upper West Side is celebrating the wine store's expansion with a free wine tasting on Thursday. From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., culinary specialist Beverly will serve dishes to be paired with a variety of wines, as well as take-home recipes and complimentary wine options. [Grub Street]

• Lincoln Station, the new Prospect Heights restaurant from the folks behind al di là, opens today. The daytime cafe will start out by selling coffee and pastries, and a full menu complete with a charcuterie section is set to launch soon. [Eater]

• Campbell Apartment is honoring Grand Central's centennial with a cocktail reminiscent of the punches served when the train station first opened. A Centennial Punch is made with Hendrick's gin. [Grub Street]

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Make Your Eggs Look Extra Cutesy

This $12 egg shaper will separate the yolk from the white and elevate your breakfast to Zooey Deschanel–levels of adorable. And with a pinch of salt, your eggs can produce snow. It's so cute that it makes it maybe-almost-still-not-okay for you to photograph your food. [BookOfJoe]

Frieze New York Will Feature Speakeasy Magicians and Cheflike Artists

By Hugh Merwin

Oh, oh, oh, it's magic.

Is Eleven Madison Park's high-concept magic-trick dessert catching on? Well, probably not, but there will be a "hidden speakeasy" at this year's Frieze New York, which takes place on Randalls Island in May. Guests who locate and make it through the "secret door" hidden within the fair will be treated to cold drinks made by "mixologist-magicians," Artinfo reports, who'll "perform tricks while preparing drinks."

Bones. »

Kate Moss Battles an Addiction to Hummus

A sleazy British tabloid is reporting that the supermodel is hooked on hummus. Way to live life on the edge! Moss gets her fix at Lemonia restaurant in Primrose Hill, and she's been battling this disease for a few months now. Does this ghastly addiction involve carbs? The horror. [Daily Star, NYT]

America’s Most Expensive Tasting Menu Is $1,160 (for Two)

As part of its "Whale Week," celebrating the titans and Titanics of high-end restaurants, Eater National has tallied a list of the country's most expensive tasting menus, tyrannical and otherwise. Daniel is a relative bargain, coming in at under $600 for two diners before drinks, and heavy-hitter chefs like César Ramirez and Thomas Keller serve relative bargains. As things get more outrageously luxe, however, Joël Robuchon soars near the top with a sixteen-course degustation that breaks the $1K mark, along with Meadowood in St. Helena, which comes in at $1,080. The costliest menu in the country, however, can be found at Masa Takayama's Time Warner Center restaurant Masa, at $1,160 for two people. Sake, wine, or whatever else you'd want to drink is extra. [Eater, Earlier]

Landmarked Building on Whole Foods Gowanus Site Is For Sale

By Hugh Merwin

Retail only.Photo: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Property hunting in an up-and-coming food neighborhood? Do you like Whole Foods? Well then, consider the landmarked Coignet Stone Company Building that sits at the corner of Third Avenue and Third Street at the corner of the Whole Foods construction. The grocery store opens this fall, and this plucky holdout building, which dates to 1873, has a brand-new roof but will require a gut renovation. Pardon Me for Asking has all the details. Unfortunately, the brick building is zoned for retail. [Pardon Me for Asking, Earlier]

Jolting News: Caffeinated Maple Syrup Is a Real Thing

By Hugh Merwin

Put it in your coffee!

"Natural maple flavor," caffeine, butter flavoring, and invert sugar are just four of the ingredients that make up the unholiest of breakfast condiments, Wired Wyatt's Caffeinated Syrup, which retails online for $12.99 per bottle, or essentially, $1.85 per ounce. Sure, you could get by with a few crushed-up Vivarins, a family-size jug of Aunt Jemima Butter Rich, and a balloon whisk, but the whole point of using Wired Wyatt's — with its tweaky label emblazoned with the words "all-natural" and "energy" and Doug Funnie-on-steroids caricature — is to announce to the world that you absolutely adore caffeine. This seems to be something of a trend.

A hell of a drug. »

The Palm Is Hiring, Goes On a New Reality-TV Show to Prove It

By Hugh Merwin

Someone's idea of an ideal career opportunity at the 87-year-old swanky steakhouse chain the Palm is the focus of the first installment of a new competitive reality show called, appropriately enough, The Job. An assistant manager position is up for grabs in episode one, and just as it happens in real life, applicants will endure a series of grueling "elimination challenges" under the watchful eye of host Lisa Ling. Watch a preview here, or just tune in on February 8, as one metaphorical cut of USDA Prime rises from a big plate of mediocre chopped salad. [CBS]

Assemble the Ultimate Hipster Super Bowl Party

By Sierra Tishgart

No. 7 Sub's offering three-foot and six-foot sandwiches. Take that, Subway.Photo: No. 7 Sub

Super Bowl food is usually limited to mediocre pizza, chicken wings, and nachos. In other words, bro food. Luckily, restaurants around town are offering large-form takeout specials that deviate from the norm — potato and kale kolaches from Northern Spy Food Co., buttermilk-brined fried chicken from the Dutch, and tacos from Tacombi at Fonda Nolita. We've sifted through the best alternative options in the city and put together a list, organized by ordering deadlines. Act soon, or you'll get stuck eating frozen mozzarella sticks. How tragically mainstream.

Momofuku Bo Ssam, Parm coffee cake, and plenty more. »

Whopper Lover’s Funeral Procession Takes a Trip Through Burger King’s Drive-through

By Collin Keefe

From Burger King to Kingdom Come

We can thank Taco Bell for giving us “Fourth Meal,” and “First Meal,” but it looks like credit for “Last Meal” goes to Burger King. This past weekend, the funeral procession for 88-year-old Whopper lover David S. Kime Jr. passed through the local Burger King drive-through on the way to the cemetery.

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Does Mario Batali Really Have a Secret Health Inspector ‘Alarm System’?

By Hugh Merwin

Man with a plan.

The Post ran a front-page "EXCLUSIVE" yesterday that does a spectacular job of perpetuating misconceptions about what happens when the Health Department shows up at a restaurant's front door: The paper quotes a Lupa manager and Babbo hostess who claim that the restaurateurs Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich have installed a "hidden alarm that alerts kitchen workers that an inspector has arrived so they can quickly trash any meals they’re cooking and scram." Could this really be true? Maybe someone really does have it in for the chef in the orange Crocs.

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Steven Soderbergh Is Now an Importer of South American Brandy

"I’m importing this liquor from Bolivia: Singani. Technically it’s a brandy. I was turned onto it while I was doing Che and everybody on the crew got hooked. You don’t get that burn in your throat like you do with most hard liquor, so it’s dangerous. You can drink it like water and then you’re invisible." —The uncompromising, visionary director of movies like Traffic and Contagion is quitting Hollywood, and will now sell brandy made from white muscatel grapes. [Vulture]

Yuji Ramen Is Raising Money on Kickstarter for Its New Noodle Project

By Hugh Merwin

How about that mazemen?Photo: Jakob N. Layman/Time Out New York

Yuji Haraguchi, the founder of the Smorgasburg mazemen vendor Yuji Ramen, is looking to spin the concept of omakase in conjunction with his noodle menu and open a permanent ramenya that will serve an ever-changing roster of seasonal ramen — think bowlfuls of spicy tuna mazemen, for example, or cool, kinky noodles topped with shucked summer corn and warm bacon. Haraguchi's just debuted a Kickstarter campaign, Diner's Journal reports, designed to help turn Yuji Ramen's upcoming guest stint at the Bowery location of Whole Foods into a full-fledged test-run for the brick-and-mortar shop. Those who pledge to help fund the ramen omakase are eligible for special preview dinners. Other incentives include a ramen and sashimi party at your home. [Kickstarter via Diner's Journal/NYT, Earlier]

Bien Cuit Is Opening in Williamsburg

By Devra Ferst

Great crumb!

The intensely popular Bien Cuit will launch a regular weekend pop-up shop at 439 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg. The bakery's West Village shop and café — its second location — opened in late December, and now husband and wife owners Zachary Golper and Kate Wheatcroft tell Grub Street their third retail space will set up shop near the L train on Friday afternoons, then on Saturdays and Sundays, from mid-morning until the bread sells out. The pop-up will only sell the company’s dozen varieties of bread, so while Bien Cuit's danishes and tarts won’t be on offer, there will be many loaves, such as the bakery's take on multi-grain called "many grain," which up until now has only been available to its wholesale clients. Look out for that, the pugliese, and so many rounds of miche next month.

Eat Well: Barley Risotto, Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, and Smoked Sable

By Kate Lowenstein

They make your hair look better. Really.Photo: iStockphoto

When it's this cold outside, it can be hard to make it out of the house for dinner. But if anything's going to warm up your insides, it's food. A dish doesn't have to be super rich to feel comforting, and there are actually a lot of hearty plates in the city that have the added bonus of health benefits. Your immune system is working double-time right now, so it's not a bad idea to veggie-load. This week, find solace at the Marrow, Calliope, and the Cleveland.

Fatty 'Cue even has healthy(-ish) fare. »

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