Posts for February 1, 2013

Nitehawk’s Oscar Menu; Marea’s Now Serving Saturday Lunch

• Beginning tomorrow and lasting until springtime, late-night dessert-seekers can visit Gotham Bar and Grill for a $30 three-course Valrhona chocolate tasting menu. [Grub Street]

• Williamsburg's Nitehawk Cinema has released its 2013 Oscar menu, inspired by seven of the year's best films. There's a Beasts of the Southern Wild fried Oyster po’boy, a Django Unchained shrimp and grits dish, Silver Linings Playbook Philly-style "Kandy Kakes," and more. [Grub Street]

• 'Wichcraft is launching special sandwiches in honor of its tenth anniversary. A new 2013 winter seasonal menu includes a roasted chicken sandwich with Tuscan kale and cannellini bean puree, and a meatloaf sandwich. Plus: Starting on February 5, 'wichcraft will serve daily specials for the first time. [Grub Street]

Read more »

Miller’s Tavern Has a New Chef

By Hugh Merwin

Miller's Tavern.

Calyer isn't the only north Brooklyn restaurant with a new kitchen lineup today: Miller's Tavern owner Gavin Compton writes in to say the bistro has brought on Jason Beberman — who cooked previously at Dressler, Gramercy Tavern, and Marlow & Sons — as its executive chef. The new menu includes starters like sweetbreads with aged gouda, walnut, and cabbage; entrees include duck with smoked sweet potato, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and tasso ham. Check out the menu here. [Earlier]

Hebrew National Wieners Are Probably-Maybe Kosher

Mazel tov to Hebrew National; a judge tossed a lawsuit that claimed the company's hot dogs failed to meet Jewish dietary laws. Multiple customers sued ConAgra Foods Inc., the maker of Hebrew National, claiming that the Chosen Beef was unclean and unhealthy. After a serious hot-dog investigation (which is happening a lot these days), the judge said that it's not up to the court to decide, and that the products are "intrinsically religious in nature." Oy. [Earlier, Earlier, AP]

Governor Vets Sign On As Co-Chefs at Calyer

Scott Edwards and Andres "Andy" Fernandez are the new co-chefs at Calyer in Greenpoint, replacing Nathan Foot, who has left New York. The pair met while working at Governor in Dumbo; Edwards cooked previously at Oceana and Town, while Fernandez, an Atlanta native, has spent time at Spring and Le Chateaubriand in Paris. These guys cook with French technique and have already rolled out a few new menus, which Edwards says may incorporate Indian, South American, or southeast Asian flavors as much as anything continental. Take a look over here. [Earlier]

The ‘10 Best’ Vegetarian Restaurants in the City Include Kajitsu, Dirt Candy

By Hugh Merwin

Kajitsu's tiny vegetables with lotus gelée.

The Voice puts up its list of the ten best vegetarian restaurants in the city, and while there's yuba (at Cocoron), there's not a lot of tempeh or soy in general to be found. The list is more about the mastery of vegetables and manipulation of grains, like the parsnip "risotto" at Blue Hill; vegan kimchee at Danji; reinvented veggie burgers at Maimonide of Brooklyn; and, finally, supplanting the old boring stir-fries of your meatless past, the lineup of roots, tubers, 'chokes, and leafy greens Amanda Cohen plates with agency at Dirt Candy. The full list is here. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Mario Batali Has a Pretty Ambitious Super Bowl Menu

"We do pregame chips and salsa and crudite with Greek yogurt dip. Then we do the first-half food for the Ravens: crab cakes and Old Bay tartar sauce. Halftime food from New York City of Papaya dogs with sauerkraut. The second-half food is for the Niners: Trader Vic's-style spareribs and Rice-A-Roni. Dessert is from both teams. Its-It [ice cream sandwiches] and Charm City cupcakes." —The chef also made a sofa out of salumi, complete with fried-ravioli pillows. [ESPN]

Aramis the Sick Lion Is Getting By on Elk Burgers in Texas

By Hugh Merwin
Watch Video

Here's a guy who probably doesn't mind a little horse DNA in his hamburgers every now and then. Aramis, an African lion living at the In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue Education Center in Wylie, Texas, hasn't been feeling too well. "This African lion is very, very sick," the local NBC affiliate explains. "All he wants to do is eat elk meat." Problem is, of course, dude needed to take his pills and no one had any elk filet lying around. Or so it seemed: the local Twisted Root Burger Co., which also grills venison and boar burgers, had just gotten a 50-pound shipment yesterday morning, so now the center's staff have been able to slip Aramis his meds by tucking them into the chop meat. "I think it's awesome," says restaurateur Jason Boso. "I mean a lion and me, we have a lot in common. We eat buffalo, and elk, and venison, and so I need to help my brother out."

Elkburger Helper! »

Priorities: Eighth Grader Chooses Fried Chicken Over Young Love

By Kara Baskin

They've surely broken up by now.Photo: Reddit

A hormonal adolescent has penned the most honest ode to fried chicken we've ever seen (and Grub Street has seen a few). This note — apparently found on the floor of an eighth-grade classroom — reflects teenagers coming to terms, as we all do, with how best to balance our love lives and our love of fried chicken. Kids, they grow up so fast. [Reddit via Mashable]

Anne Burrell Is Really Opening a Restaurant in New York

Last week Zagat reported that the former Centro Vinoteca chef, who left the line in 2008 and ended up hosting a number of shows on the Food Network, was eager to get back to work in the kitchen and was scouting spaces in the city. In an interview about the second season of her competitive cooking TV show Chef Wanted, Burrell confirms that while there's no opening date, she is in fact working on a New York project and that the menu will "definitely have a nod to the Italian." [Zagat, Earlier]

Water-Main Break Temporarily Shuts Down Shake Shack

By Hugh Merwin

There was a water-main break earlier this morning in the area just off Madison Square Park at 23rd Street and Broadway. The N, Q, and R lines have been evacuated, and witnesses described a burst of water that "flowed into the 23rd Street station and down the subway stairs like a waterfall." Shake Shack in the park was forced to close, but no amount of water can stop the Shack, so now they're up and running again. [Daily Intelligencer, Shake Shack/Twitter]

Applebee’s Fires Server for Posting ‘I Give God 10 Percent’ Receipt, Defends Its Actions

By Sierra Tishgart

But does God serve Weight Watchers entrees?Photo: Reddit

Details have emerged about the customer who wrote, "I give God 10 percent, why do you get 18?" on a receipt and refused to leave a tip. Pastor Alois Bell delivered the holier-than-thou message at a St. Louis Applebee's, where she was dining with a party of twenty. Bell asked to have the check broken up into increments so she could avoid paying the mandatory 18 percent tip, and then proceeded to cross out the $6.29 auto-gratuity. Chelsea Welch, a waitress (but not Bell's sever), posted the photo online "as a lighthearted joke." After it went viral and Bell got outed, she called Applebee's to demand that the restaurant fire everyone involved in the scandal. Welch lost her job.

Jesus Christ! »

Make It Stop! Now Doritos Will Launch Taco Bell-Flavored Chips

By Hadley Tomicki

Taco Bell and Doritos are like that new couple that just can't stop with the PDA. Following Monday's news that the Bell will release a new Doritos Cool Ranch-flavored taco shell, today Frito-Lay declares "I love you more" by committing to a new Taco Bell flavor of Doritos. Whoa, meta. According to the L.A. Times, the flavor will roll out for a limited time in April and carry the labels of both junk-food giants on the bag. We've done this to ourselves, America. [LAT, Earlier]

Critics Say New Tavern on the Green Layout Is Classist

By Hugh Merwin

The entrance for takeout food is all the way in the back.Photo: Courtesy New York City Department of Design and Construction, via DNAInfo

Members of CB7 Manhattan's Parks Committee were reportedly less than enthusiastic with landscape renderings for the rebooted Tavern on the Green presented during a meeting earlier this week. DNAinfo reports that board members weren't happy that guests seeking the restaurant's less expensive takeout food will have to walk around to the renovated restaurant's back entrance to place an order, while guests looking to spend more money inside will be welcomed front and center by a hostess. "What's coming through is the sense that the takeaway [area] is somehow second class, less desirable," committee co-chair Klair Neuwalt said. Chair Mark Diller called the pathway leading to the full-service restaurant welcoming but agreed that guests who have to seek out the takeout window have "no obvious invitation" to the area. At the very least, the menu at the new Tavern on the Green, which opens this fall, will be less pricey all around. [DNAinfo, Earlier]

Burger King U.K. Admits There May Be a Little Horse in Its Whoppers

By Hugh Merwin

Who's going to broil your wild horses?

Looks like someone got a little creative with the custom blend, messed up in the slaughterhouse, or didn't wipe down the grinder too carefully: Burger King announced that contrary to an earlier assertion, there are in fact "very small trace levels" of horse DNA in its products, but that it has taken action in order to cut out the horse-contaminated meat from its supply chain. It is thought that the multinational Silvercrest Foods bought meat from a "non-approved supplier" in Poland, and the fast-food chain hadn't been able to detect equine DNA earlier this month when it performed tests on its patties, in part because "testing for equine DNA is not a standard practice used in beef production." [Guardian UK, Earlier, Earlier]

Peking Duck and Peter Luger: Ed Koch’s Love of New York Food

By Hugh Merwin

The man could eat: Koch at a 'Meals on Wheels' Benefit at Rockefeller Center in 1987.Photo: Ron Galella/Getty Images

New York's three-term mayor Edward I. Koch, who sat in office from 1978 to 1989, died early Friday morning at age 88 of congestive heart failure, at New York-Presbyterian Columbia Hospital. The man who saved the city from bankruptcy, and had a "wonderfully big mouth" and several post City Hall careers also loved food, a lot.

Secret knishes and raw milk. »

Ben & Jerry’s Announces Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt

30 Rock is over, but the show's leading lady is cryogenically frozen in the form of Ben & Jerry's. Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt will hit stores this spring, and it comes with a blueberry-lavender swirl. Proceeds will benefit the Jumpstart charity, an education organization supported by Tina Fey that serves children in low-income neighborhoods. That's awfully nice. But our beloved Liz would want full-fat cream in her dessert. [Earlier, Vulture]

John Mayer and Allison Williams Dine at El Toro Blanco; Jenna Lyons Wears Green Stilettos to the Dalloway

By Monica Burton

Likes tacos.Photo: SPW/Corbis

Celebrities were up to their usual shenanigans this week, popping bottles and such. Leonardo DiCaprio hit up both Catch and Avenue, John Mayer and Allison Williams dined together at El Toro Blanco, and Adam Levine celebrated his SNL hosting gig at STK. It's time once again for our weekly roundup of celebrity sightings.

Spotted at Cocktail Bodega, the General, and more. »

Eddie Huang Does Dim Sum at Nom Wah, Diets to Make His Mom Happy

By Alan Sytsma

Huang, fighting a hangover to eat some falafel.Photo: Melissa Hom

"Do you want to hear about all the meetings and everything?" Eddie Huang asks as we start to go over his diet. It's a fair question, since he's been everywhere this week promoting the release of Fresh Off the Boat, his new memoir. "It's super tiring, to be honest," he says of the media blitz, but he also admits it's been "a dream come true to see people respond the way they have to the book." Admittedly, a Grub Street Diet does add to the pile of Huang-heavy stories this week, but we still wanted to see what he ate because, between all the interviews and events, Huang still managed to find time for some omakase lunch, some weekend dim sum, and plenty of green juice to keep his mom happy. Read all about it in this week's Grub Street Diet.

"Sunday's the day my mom really doesn't like." »

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