Posts for February 6, 2013 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for February 6, 2013

2/6/13 at 6:10 PM
Leftovers
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Rice & Miso at Whole Foods Bowery; Beurre & Sel’s Pop-up at Mizu Salon

• A special selection of Dorie Greenspan’s Beurre & Sel's cookies will be available at Mizu Salon from February 11 to 15. Greenspan and her son will sell a range of Beurre & Sel classics, plus two pop-up-exclusive cookies and a brand-new cookie. [Grub Street]

• Rice & Miso has opened a pop-up shop at Whole Foods Market in the Smorgasburg Bowery Space. Through March 5, you can get traditional home-style Japanese food like rice balls in a variety of flavors like black sesame and sea salt, garlic miso, black seaweed, and more. [Grub Street]

• Gaz Regan is raising the bar: With his project Just One Shift, the bartending expert plans to raise a quarter million dollars for charity in one week by inviting bartenders worldwide to donate all or part of their tips from just one shift. The beneficiary is Wine to Water, a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing clean water to needy people worldwide. The program is scheduled from April 8 through 14. [Grub Street]

2/6/13 at 5:50 PM
Crime
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D.C. Shooter Intended to Use Chick-fil-A Sandwiches to Send ‘Statement’

By Hugh Merwin

The 28-year-old Virginia man who opened fire inside the headquarters of the conservative Christian lobbying and policy group in downtown Washington, D.C., last August was carrying fifteen Chick-fil-A sandwiches "he planned to smear in the dying faces of staffers he expected to kill," according to documents filed today in U.S. District Court, CNN reports.

2/6/13 at 5:00 PM
Video Feed
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Cops Allege Long Islanders Traded Frozen Shrimp for Drugs

By Hugh Merwin

Police arrested four Calverton, Long Island, residents who've allegedly stolen more than $2,400-worth of frozen shrimp from a few King Kullen supermarkets during the last two months. Bags of individually quick frozen shrimp were recovered from a freezer at Tai Yu Chinese Restaurant in Mastic Beach last week after police served the premises, and it turns out the gang was selling seafood by the piece for drug money. Drugs, frozen shrimp, and a hypodermic needle were recovered from the gang's car; the restaurant's owner was also arrested and slapped with a sanitary code violation for selling unauthorized product. Xue Chai Li reportedly knew his connections were strung out, but authorities do not believe he was doing drugs himself. Rather, police say, his motives were purely shellfish.

2/6/13 at 4:35 PM
Food Safety
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Let’s Play the Horseburger Paternity Game

By Sierra Tishgart

Bastard burgers.

The Irish meat company responsible for putting frozen burgers filled with horse meat on supermarket shelves is pointing the hoof at the Polish. ABP Food Group's story is thus: The 170 tons of "beef" it purchased from Irish trader McAdam Food Products was originally imported from Poland. ABP went on to use the meat in its Silvercrest food processing facility, and the rest is history. All you need to know is that people think Poland's the baby-daddy because the horse DNA originated there. But obviously, Poland's saying that there's no evidence it exported horse meat, and since this happened so many months ago, a paternity test won't work. Jerry! Jerry! [Earlier, Earlier, AP]

2/6/13 at 4:05 PM
Companions Eat Free
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This Doctor Who-Themed Restaurant Really Needs to Happen

By Hugh Merwin

Exterminate! Exterminate! Broil for four minutes on high!Photo: W.H. Allen & Co PLC

Sure, the steampunkish Way Station in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, gives customers access to the bathroom through a TARDIS, but we can do better than that. Interestingly enough, an entire Doctor Who restaurant may become a reality, the Independent reports, because the fourteen-acre BBC Television Centre at White City is renovated into a very large visitor center celebrating all the series once filmed there. "Among the ideas so far," the paper reports, "are attractions based on Fawlty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Blue Peter, Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing." A Great British Bake Off bakery has been suggested as well, which sounds fine, but really, it's been 50 years now, and since Doctor Who fandom has spawned its own distinct and scholarly food culture, shouldn't the daleks have a clean, well-lit white tablecloth place of their own? [Independent UK]

2/6/13 at 3:00 PM
Top Chef
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15 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Chances of Getting Cast on Top Chef Season 11

By Hugh Merwin

Padma's not sure about this.Photo: David Giesbrecht/Bravo

Pack your knives and stay: The Bravo show will come back for at least one more season, Deadline reports, which means more tempers, more Tom, more Padma, and, hopefully for all of us here at Grub Street, more Rees. No word on where the next Top Chef will take place, but casting begins next week in Austin. The details — including open calls in L.A., Chicago, Brooklyn, Vegas, and Miami — are here, but if you haven't been working on your mother sauces since the fall and you aren't currently a junior sous-chef at an enormous Asian fusion restaurant, what can you do to improve your chances of getting onboard the S.S. Watch What Happens?

Some ideas.

2/6/13 at 2:30 PM
Grub Guides
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Situational Dining: Where to Eat and Drink During Fashion Week

By Sierra Tishgart

Unwind at the Library Bar at the NoMad.Photo: Danny Kim

Complaining about how stressed you are during New York Fashion Week has become a competitive sport. But "Ugh, I'm so busy that I don't have time to grab a free Fiber One bar," is not a badge of honor, folks. Everybody's overworked, hungry, and probably a little moody, too, so it's important that the collective mass of showgoers eat (and drink) properly. We've surveyed the areas around popular Fashion Week venues and put together plans based on available time, ensuring that even the most overbooked of editors will be able to find some sustenance.

From Lincoln Center to Milk Studios.

2/6/13 at 1:50 PM on Grub Street Boston
Studies
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Mixing Diet Soda With Booze Makes You Extra Drunk

By Kara Baskin

Someone get this man a Diet Coke.Photo: iStockphoto

Here's an angle Marc Jacobs should play up in his new Diet Coke campaign: A new study from Northern Kentucky University, where there's probably plenty of time to experiment with such things, reveals that pairing alcohol with diet soda will render you more drunk than if you mixed it with boring, obesity-inducing regular soda. Apparently the sugar found in typical soda slows alcohol absorption. In fact, your breath-alcohol content could shoot up by as much as 18 percent if you use diet soda as a mixer, so you should probably set down the Fresca and vodka before hopping behind the wheel. [Salt/NPR, Related]

2/6/13 at 1:25 PM
The Feeding Tube
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Legendary U.K. Celebrity Chef Delia Smith Is Quitting TV

Celebrity chef Delia Smith, who has hosted more than a dozen television shows and sold more than 21 million books since beginning her career in the early seventies, announced she will quit television, explaining that she can no longer bring the pizazz or muster the drama now commonly associated with competitive cooking shows. "If you do a TV program now," she said, "it's got to entertain." Smith will instead turn her focus to a recently launched online cooking school. [Reuters]

2/6/13 at 12:55 PM
Lawsuits
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Delivery Workers’ Lawsuit Against Indus Valley Restaurant Will Proceed As Planned

By Hugh Merwin

Indus Valley.

A preemptive challenge to a lawsuit brought on by eight former delivery workers against ex-employer Indus Valley has been dismissed, City Room reports. The ex-employees are claiming that the restaurant withheld a cut of the delivery workers' tips whenever orders were placed through third-party services like Seamless and GrubHub; the tandoor and kebab restaurant's owners argued they were just trying to recoup the commissions paid to those sites in addition to regular credit-card-related fees, but it turns out that's illegal. The eight workers will now fight for $34,000, or twice the estimated amount of money that was plundered from their pooled tips between 2007 to 2012. [City Room/NYT]

2/6/13 at 12:20 PM
Beer Me
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Death of Print Journalism? There’s a Beer for That

By Hugh Merwin

Not available in stores.Photo: Jon Campbell

Former Hartford Advocate reporter Jon Campbell is now living the life of a freelancer, and between assignments he's been homebrewing up a pithy, malted barley beer that's as "dark and bitter as the future of American journalism." It's a foamy beer for the heady age of buy-outs and layoffs, and on his blog, Campbell explains that he's also been keeping busy by "making some very elaborate labels."

Beer for breakfast.

Shake Shack Is Opening in Istanbul This Spring

By Hugh Merwin

Shake Shack will open in the doner-kebab-ish and tourist-friendly Tunel neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, this spring, Eater National reports. Shaya, the chain's food-service partner throughout the Middle East, will reportedly operate this location as well. Shake Shack is expanding this year to London, and there are rumors of an expansion to Chicago as well. [Eater, Earlier, Earlier]

2/6/13 at 11:25 AM
Food Safety
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There May Be a Few Stray Nanoparticles in Your Morning Doughnut

By Hugh Merwin

The ever-expanding scope of manufacturing, packaging, and production methods may very well mean that in addition to monitoring the salt, sugar, and fat content in their diet, consumers might as well also start fretting about the presence of possibly deleterious chemicals known as nanomaterials in their food. The Times reports that an advocacy group called As You Sow surveyed a staggering 25,000 companies on their nanomaterials usage, but just 26 of them responded. Of those companies, only fourteen — including PepsiCo, Whole Foods, and Yum! Brands — said they do not use nanomaterials. So, is it time to head for the nano-free hills?

What you should worry about.

2/6/13 at 10:40 AM
Sex Sells
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Marc Jacobs Is Diet Coke’s New Creative Director

By Sierra Tishgart

Body by Diet Coke.Photo: Stéphane Sednaoui/Diet Coke

The oft-naked, tattoo-covered fashion designer, who's the yin to Taylor Swift's yang, is designing Diet Coke cans and posing in the corresponding ad campaigns. Jacobs claims he guzzles two or three Diet Cokes a day — which can't be healthy, but day-um, those abs above are about to turn 50. More details will emerge about the “Sparkling Together for 30 Years” collaboration in March, but expect Jacobs's work to be far sexier than Coke's recent anti-obesity ad. He sure can sell a six-pack. [Earlier, Earlier, WWD]

2/6/13 at 10:25 AM
The Other Critics
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The Other Critics: Pete Wells Likes Maysville’s Grits; Robert Sietsema Praises Le Philosophe

By Jessica Goodman

The bar at Maysville.

This week, Adam Platt gave his take on Aska, Williamsburg's new Scandinavian restaurant. The dehydrated pig's blood, pork trotter with sunchokes and apples, and cardamom ice cream helped earn the spot two stars. Where did the other critics dine? Read on to find out.

Another negative review for Tribeca Canvas.

2/6/13 at 09:55 AM
Closings
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Ninth Street Bakery to Close After 87 Years of Business

By Sierra Tishgart

The good ol' days.

As another East Village landmark prepares to shut its doors, Fork in the Road takes a look back at the bakery's rich history. Original owners Max and Lena Wolkirmerski emigrated from Belarus to America in 1913, and they got their start selling baked goods out of a pushcart on Orchard Street. In 1926, the bakery moved to Ninth Street, and the business stayed in the family up until the nineties. Now current owner Oleg Kucherenko can't afford the 38 percent increase in rent. "We are too old now to fight for this," he says. It's a heartbreaking story. Ninth Street is expected to close before the end of the summer, but the landlord is yet to find a new tenant. New York needs a carb-loading superhero, stat. [Fork in the Road/VV]

2/6/13 at 09:15 AM
Video Feed
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Jennifer Lawrence Is a Budweiser Gal

By Caroline Shin

The biggest actress in Hollywood right now hit Conan last night. While there, she revealed that at the Silver Linings Playbook premiere, her dad had shed tears after her monologue beside Robert De Niro. "It had nothing to do with my performance," she told Conan. "It's because I pop a Budweiser" — apparently a Lawrence family favorite. When Conan mentions that her beer plug is sure to result in a bunch of free Bud, Lawrence lights up. But it sounds like somebody needs to send this girl a couple of nice craft beers, stat.

2/6/13 at 09:00 AM
Temporary Closings
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The Sunburnt Cow Is Struggling to Reopen Full-Time

By Hugh Merwin

Gas and electrical issues have beset the Cow.

Although the restaurant has been open on weekends for brunch service, the Sunburnt Cow cannot serve dinner because gas and electrical issues have crippled the restaurant. Manager Matilda Boland tells the Local East Village that Con Edison was forced to shut down gas service to the Avenue C address when post-Sandy cleanup revealed safety concerns. The restaurant is slowly replacing its electrical system, which also needed an overhaul after the storm. Because the bar is no longer generating significant income, Boland can only tell the Local that she hopes to be up and running at full capacity "by the time it’s warm out." [Local East Village/NYT]