Posts for February 13, 2013

David Burke Hosts a Wine-Pairing Dinner; Birch Coffee Expands

• On February 26, David Burke will host California’s L’Aventure for a four-course wine-pairing dinner at David Burke Townhouse. The menu includes strip loin of beef, porcini, fingerling potatoes, and a grenache reduction, with a selection of 2010 L’Aventure Côte á Côte. Tickets are $125 a person and can be purchased by calling (212) 813-2121. [Grub Street]

• Culinary salon City Grit will serve haute Chinese cuisine on February 26. The four-course meal will feature such dishes as steamed white snapper Swatow-style and ma la pork belly, with wines from Chateau Guiraud and Mondavi ($85). [Grub Street]

• Brooklyn Central Pizza is now open seven days a week. The pizza joint is also introducing six new cocktails featuring local Brooklyn ingredients. Cheers to neighborhood loyalties! [Grub Street]

• Birch Coffee is expanding its presence in New York. Its second outpost opened recently in Greenwich Village, and there are plans to open a bigger shop on the Upper West Side. Birch’s special jug delivery service for cold-brewed iced coffee will start in April. [Grub Street]

Spanish Chef Accused of Poisoning Ten of His Fellow Cooks

By Hugh Merwin

Don't trust the toque.Photo: iStockphoto

The view may be fantastic at the El Lavaderu restaurant in Gijon, Spain, but an unnamed assistant chef there is allegedly an aspiring murderer. (Not cool, unnamed assistant chef.) Police have arrested the 55-year-old on the suspicion he's been poisoning his colleagues on the line with calcium cyanamide — perhaps even over a lengthy time period. The Telegraph reports that at least one of the poisoned, nauseous cooks figured something was up when the chef's girlfriend, who worked alongside them in the Asturian restaurant, was the only other staff member who did not fall ill. The assistant cook now faces fourteen counts of attempted murder, and is also being investigated in connection with the sudden death of the restaurant's former head chef, who suffered a fatal heart attack in 2011. It gets worse, too: In addition to all that, authorities say the restaurant's former owners were afflicted with strange maladies that resolved after they'd moved on from the premises. [Telegraph UK via Eater]

Alton Brown Says the New Star Wars Needs More Farm-to-Table Food

By Hugh Merwin

For its March issue, which hits stands next Tuesday, Wired polled all the notable residents of geekopolis to glean their thoughts on what kinds of topics the next Star Wars movie absolutely needed to cover. Alton Brown says "weird food" is high on his wish list, writing that he's always been fond of Yoda's stew, Aunt Beru's taste in vegetables, and the blue milk Luke's Uncle Owen puts out each night at dinner. So bring on the newfangled Jedi feasts. We're onboard as long as it doesn't involve young padawans hitting up their local takeout joints for cheap and greasy tauntaun soup. That's not sustainable. [Wired]

Kajitsu Is Moving Uptown to Murray Hill

By Hugh Merwin

Truffle shuffle.Photo: Michelle Feffer/New York Magazine

We told you it was in the pipeline just over a year ago, and it looks like Kajitsu — which serves an ornate, top-chef-approved vegetarian kaiseki menu — is finally ready to make the move uptown. The Times reports the restaurant will close on February 25 in the East Village and reopen on March 12 at 125 East 39th Street. In addition to having a new chef, Kajitsu 2.0 will serve, for the first time, a menu featuring seafood on its first floor. The show-stopping vegan menu will be served upstairs. [NYT, Earlier]

Starbucks Gets Chef-Endorsed

"Is it embarrassing to list Starbucks? I hope not! This Starbucks is part of my morning commute to work. Since it is located in the Google building, the staff is super pro. Even if the line is long, they are on the ball about expediting and providing stellar service. The dark roast is definitely my favorite ... unless I'm splurging on a peppermint mocha." —Gabe Thompson, the chef-partner at L'Apicio, dell'anima, L'Artusi, and Anfora, also chooses Artichoke pizza and the Standard Grill in his neighborhood guide to Chelsea. [Serious Eats NY]

Four Loko Gets a Makeover

By Sierra Tishgart

This can is now vintage.

The Federal Trade Commission and Phusion Projects finally reached a settlement on Four Loko. The frat-boy favorite is going to sport a new label, which will solve all the problems it causes. If the malt beverage exceeds two servings of alcohol, it's required to have an "alcohol facts panel" on the back. Study up before you chug! The FTC says that a 23.5-ounce can of Four Loko is the equivalent of four to five beers, but someone smart decided not to put that on the can. Information on how to get drunk quickly and cheaply is like catnip for teenagers, whom this drink has left hospitalized.

Phusion's still complaining. »

Questlove on Instagramming Jiro Ono’s Food, While Hating People Who Don't Live in the Moment

By Katie Van Syckle

Dreaming of sushi at a Beyoncé event.Photo: Jimi Celeste/PatrickMcMullan.com

At last night's premiere of Beyoncé's Life Is But a Dream documentary, we ran into Questlove and chatted about his recent pilgrimage to Jiro Ono's restaurant in Tokyo. Turns out, he made the trip mainly to make fun of the Radiohead guys, who bragged that they waltzed into the ten-seat restaurant without a reservation. Once there, Questlove Instagrammed his meal — which, for a food lover, is considered the ultimate taboo. He commented on the backlash, and also shared his thoughts on Malcolm Gladwell, Roger Ebert, and, of course, Jiro the legend.

"At the end of the day, you have to be dedicated." »

There Are 500 McDonald’s Employees on That Stranded Carnival Cruise Ship

By Hugh Merwin

Long lines for burgers! Spewing toilets! It's the worst McDonald's employee vacation ever.Photo: Courtesy United States Coast Guard

Up to 500 of the 3,143 passengers aboard the disabled Carnival Triumph cruise vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are fast-food "franchisees and executives from the Houston area," CBS Houston reports. The stranded ship is being towed by two tugboats and is expected to reach port in Alabama sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, passengers have been sending reports to family members describing four-hour waits for hamburgers; elsewhere, there's news of overflowing toilets and "water and feces all over the floor," which, taken together, is really grim, but also certainly represents the absolute worst nightmare any McDonald's franchisee would ever expect to have.

We're running out of food. »

Så Brooklyn: How Kings County Became the Coolest Thing in Sweden

By Alice Hines

The scene at Kåken, in Stockholm. It might as well be Williamsburg.Photo: Moch

There's been plenty of talk about the influence Nordic culture has had on New York's bars and restaurants, brought up yet again in today's Times review of Swedish chef Fredrik Berselius's Aska. But while New Yorkers fetishize the wilds of Sweden, it turns out Swedes find themselves similarly attracted to the gritty-yet-crafty ideals of Brooklyn. In fact, as one Stockholm resident told me recently of his town: "You can just slap the word 'Brooklyn' on anything and every fucking hipster will buy it."

"Banker chic is out out, farmer chic is in." »

Dale Talde and Chris Jaeckle Showdown at Thistle Hill Tavern

Next Wednesday from 6 to 10 p.m., Dale Talde will meet up with the future All'Onda chef at Talde's restaurant Thistle Hill Tavern for a friendly showdown. For each of the four courses, guests will choose between Chris Jaeckle's preparation (pork chop with Parmesan fonduta and potatoes, for example) or Talde's (think spicy Singapore-style lobster served on crispy noodles). The chefs bonded at Morimoto, where they were cooks; their "East-meets-West" dinner is $60, tax and tip excluded. Call 347-599-1262 for reservations. [Earlier, Related]

Watch a Funny Scene About Artisanal Popcorn From This Week’s Portlandia

By Sierra Tishgart
Watch Video

In this week's Portlandia, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein play pushy movie theater concession workers who hawk artisan, rustic food. "The newspaper infuses the food with the grittiness of the paper," is actually one of their claims. They oblige an overwhelmed customer to purchase Italian soda, arugula salad with fresh cheese ("it stinks, and that's good"), sun-dried grapes, and salted ice cream with a very important drizzle of caramel. Sound familiar? The episode airs this Friday, February 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on IFC.

"It's like being in Europe a little bit, but here." »

Try It Again, Charlie: Trotter to Auction Restaurant Contents Online

By Michael Gebert

"@collector219 ROFL that you think that copper pot can go 4 $6. Bid higher or GTFO"

The last time an auction prompted this much excitement, Cary Grant was trying to escape from the bad guys in North by Northwest. But Charlie Trotter's efforts to sell off the contents of his legendary, now-closed Chicago restaurant keep stirring up trouble and chaos. First a pallet of rare wine disappeared en route to Christie's from Chicago. Then the original live auction in December turned into a three-ring circus, with Trotter tossing out Chicago Tribune reporter Mark Caro, berating the audience for failing to appreciate the cost of the frames of some of his restaurant's art, and finally pulling the plug on the whole sale. But when the auction kicks off online today, all Trotter will be able to do is tweet his displeasure.

Read more »

Is Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Leaving Union Square? [Updated]

By Hugh Merwin

Bobby Flay may be looking to relocate the restaurant.Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images

The 22-year-old Mesa Grill in Union Square was scheduled to close today, Commercial Observer reports, but has been given a "90- to 120-day extension" on its lease. The adjacent 2,200-square-foot clothing shop Arden B has already closed, and realtor Douglas Elliman says potential lessees have the option of taking one or both of the spaces. So where does that leave Bobby Flay's groundbreaking restaurant?

Not so fast. »

The Other Critics: Pete Wells Gives Two Stars to Aska; Ryan Sutton and Jay Cheshes Review Hanjan

By Jessica Goodman

This week, the Underground Gourmet chowed down at Murray Hill's Salvation Taco. They tried Moroccan lamb on naan, fried pig's ears, and snack-size salads of roasted kabocha squash and poblano pepper. What do the other critics have to say about their meals? Read on to find out.

Reviews on the Marrow and Aamanns-Copenhagen, ahead. »

Watch Christina Tosi Make Fruity Cereal Milk Daiquiris With Jimmy Fallon

By Sierra Tishgart
Watch Video

On last night's episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Momofuku Milk Bar's Christina Tosi stopped by to give Fallon a sugar buzz (like he needed more energy). Together, they made chocolate malt cake truffles and rum-spiked fruity cereal milk daiquiris, which caused lots of giggling. Jealous? You can hang with Tosi, too; she's bopping around the city today on her traveling cookie truck to give out free treats with model Karlie Kloss.

Add rum to make any dessert "fancy," and more tips, ahead. »

Bruckner Bar & Grill Faces an Uncertain Future

By Hugh Merwin

Will the South Bronx restaurant keep on keeping on?

The Harlem River surged last fall during Hurricane Sandy and floodwaters crept up in through the front doors of the Bruckner Bar and Grill, the South Bronx restaurant, bar, and community hub just adjacent to the Third Avenue Bridge on-ramp. The Bruckner has been closed since, and because the building's owner and both of the restaurant's co-owners each have strong, individual opinions on how repairs should proceed, any reopening seems increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile, customers have been treated to the details of the dispute — eviction threats and rants included — on Facebook. “The landlord agreed to compromise. You are the problem,” partner James Giddings wrote in an email to co-partner Alex Abeles, DNAinfo reports. “You are the reason Bruckner Restaurant LLC is closed.” [DNAinfo, Earlier]

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