Posts for February 20, 2013 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for February 20, 2013

2/20/13 at 5:45 PM
Leftovers
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Red Hook’s Fairway Market Reopens; Back Forty’s Cassoulet Festival

• Ward III will celebrate the third anniversary of its Whisk(e)y Monday series on February 25. Representatives from Koval Distillery, Spike McClure from Empire Merchants, and others will offer complimentary tastes of various whiskies, and the bar will feature a special menu of cocktails and half price pours from its own whiskey inventory. [Grub Street]

• Ginny’s Supper Club is jazzing things up over this weekend. Legendary saxophonist Benny Golson will perform at the club on February 22 and 23 with his quartet. Each evening will feature two performances at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tickets are priced at $30 (for standing room only). For dinner and seating reservations, call the club at 212-421-3821. [Grub Street]

• Back Forty’s "Cassoulet Festival," which celebrates multiple interpretations of the dish from southwest France, returns with five chefs and takes on pork and beans. This year’s participating chefs are Alex Raij of Txikito, Mike Laarhoven of Back Forty, Shanna Pacifico of Back Forty West, Nick Anderer of Maialino, and Tom Mylan of the Meat Hook. Tickets are priced at $65 (for food and beverages), with a portion of the proceeds going toward the New Amsterdam Market. The event will take place on February 25, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. [Grub Street]

2/20/13 at 5:20 PM
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Brooklyn Bridge Park Gets No. 7 Sub, Fornino, Ample Hills Creamery, and More

By Hugh Merwin

The Sub has landed.Photo: Rory Gunderson

There's a whole lot of vendor news this afternoon out of Brooklyn Bridge Park: Luke's Lobster and No. 7 Sub will run a joint operation out of the "Smokestack Building" starting in the summer, with the latter tenant serving breakfast sandwiches and fresh juices in addition to its regular menu. On the opposite end of the waterfront parcel, Fornino will take the old Bark Hot Dogs space at Pier 6 and operate the large rooftop beer garden, while Ample Hills Creamery will start selling its Salted Crack out of the brand-new Pier 5 concessions building over Memorial Day weekend. There will be more ice cream from returning vendor Blue Marble Ice Cream, and elsewhere, Calexico and the Brooklyn Bridge Wine Bar are also set to return when the weather warms up. [Earlier]

2/20/13 at 5:05 PM
Coming Soon
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L.A. Ramen Shop Jinya Opening in the West Village

By Hugh Merwin

Get a bowl.

Eater NY reports the very cool news that the well-regarded L.A. ramen chainlet Jinya will open its first New York shop this year at 24 Greenwich Avenue, last home to Funayama, which closed in April of 2012. Jinya posted a first look at the new shop today on its Facebook page, and while it appears all sleek and awesome, there's a problem: From the looks of the rendering, it seems the incoming ramenya will be filled with blurry ghosts talking on their cell phones. Just as long as they stay out of our tonkotsu. [Eater NY, Jinya/Facebook]

2/20/13 at 4:45 PM
Beer Me
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It’s Almost Officially Beer Week in New York City

By Hugh Merwin

It's pouring.

You'll no longer be looking for suds in all the wrong places if you just head on over here and check out the full lineup of all the wonderful (and often low-key) events happening during NYC Beer Week, which begins Friday. The grand total of special pours, imports, Imperial pints, pairings, and promotions on tap for the next seven days literally numbers in the hundreds, and events are taking place at bars and restaurants like Alewife, the Cannibal, Jimmy's 43, Rosamunde Sausage Grill, d.b.a., Gramercy Tavern, Bierkraft, and many, many more. You owe this to yourself. [NYC Beer Week/VV]

2/20/13 at 4:20 PM
Video Feed
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Here’s How Astronauts Make Peanut Butter Sandwiches in Space

By Hugh Merwin

Canadian astronaut extraordinaire Chris Hadfield gives us the lowdown on food in space. As we've learned to travel farther and farther away from Earth, we've also greatly improved our snacking capabilities. In Zero-G, it turns out, nothing quite hits the spot like a peanut butter and honey sandwich on a tortilla. Plus, dude uses space scissors! Check it out straight ahead, but please save room for astronaut ice cream.

"I noticed something cool about the honey."

2/20/13 at 3:40 PM
Quote of the Day
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Bitching Is Part of the Chef’s Job Description

"I bitch at (everyone including) myself about making everything perfect." —Daniel Boulud, when asked to define what he actually does all day in one sentence for Daily Intelligencer's "21 Questions." The chef-restaurateur behind Daniel also revealed he gets expensive haircuts, tips panhandlers, and thinks Donald Trump is smart. [DaiIy Intelligencer]

2/20/13 at 3:10 PM
Crime
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Brooklyn Thief Tries and Fails to Steal 75 Pounds of Almonds

A protein-deprived man swiped three 25-pound boxes of nuts from a delivery van in Williamsburg, but as he tried to run away, he dropped the boxes of almonds in the middle of the street. Maybe he needed them to build muscle. The guy ran away empty-handed, but two hours later, he crashed a car into a parked van and got caught trying to flee the scene. This is the most pathetic thing to happen to nuts since the Wonderful Pistachios Super Bowl commercial. [NYDN]

2/20/13 at 2:40 PM
The Feeding Tube
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Does The Taste Have an Anthony Bourdain Problem?

By Hugh Merwin

Why aren't any of these people smiling? (Ludo's grin does not count.)Photo: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Andy Greenwald writes an essay for Grantland that basically tries to sink the unsinkable Anthony Bourdain and excoriate all of the benignly conspicuous conceits of ABC's show The Taste, described as a "a bland, underseasoned mess" that's overrun with "yoga-bowing amateurs" and "deluded Capoeira instructors who make 'food for awesomeness.'" (Greenwald also comes out here, it should be noted, against dessert as a legitimate dinner course.) The show is predictably awful, he writes, though Nigella Lawson is great, and, also, no one will ever dislike Nigella Lawson. Meanwhile, co-hosts Ludo Lefebvre and Brian Malarkey are nonstarters who don't do much to offer culinary expertise or entertain viewers, but worst of all is Bourdain, described here as a once-great "knight-errant of good taste," depicted "on a garishly lit soundstage, defanged like an aging circus lion" and a shadow of his former self up high atop a pyramid scheme of supreme boringness.

Hey, look, it worked.

2/20/13 at 1:50 PM
Third Time's a Nuoc Cham
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Hung Huynh Says New York’s Vietnamese Restaurants Could Step It Up

By Hugh Merwin

Winner of the third season of Top Chef and chef at Catch and the General, Hung Huynh says the city's Vietnamese foodscape doesn't push the envelope as much as it could. "I think there's not enough Vietnamese people in New York to open that niche," he tells Serious Eats. "Vietnamese food is very particular — it's got a raunchy flavor with fish sauce and it doesn't appeal to the masses. What appeals to the masses is simple pho and pork chopped rice, so that's what they opened in Chinatown. It's to make a living, not to elevate the cuisine." [Serious Eats NY, Earlier]

2/20/13 at 1:20 PM
Meat Is Murder
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Morrissey Insists On a Vegetarian Concert

By Sierra Tishgart

"Why do you come here? And why do you hang around?"

How's this for a high-maintenace rider? The British singer and animal-rights activist has requested that the Staples Center in Los Angeles not sell any meat during his concert. The arena will close McDonald's for the night, and offer special meatless food concessions such as vegan sushi and Sloppy Joes. Because that's exactly what people want to eat while swaying to songs about doomed relationships. "I don't look upon it as a victory for me, but a victory for the animals," says the artist behind the album Meat Is Murder. [Reuters]

2/20/13 at 12:35 PM
Grub Guides
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Into the Wild: 8 New York Restaurants Where You Can Find Truly Foraged Foods

By Sierra Tishgart

A dish at Atera, where foraging isn't just a buzzword.Photo: Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos/New York Magazine

Foraged food is seemingly ubiquitous in New York; the words foraged and wild pop up on countless menus, and per Adam Platt, it's even turned into an urban obsession. But it turns out very few dishes actually include foraged ingredients, especially in the dead of winter. "The term foraged is loosely used; a lot of restaurants have foragers on staff — which means they go to the Union Square market and buy produce," says Evan Strusinski, who hunts through woods, forests, and bogs to find ingredients for Momofuku, Atera, and Aska. "I call foraging the F word. I'm generally wary of it because I don't think it means much. When I see it on menus, it's goofy and trendy, and a way for restaurants to push novelty." Sawtooth herb, wood sorrel, and juniper sure sound sexy and untamed, but they're actually sourced from farms. We've surveyed the city's restaurants to find the ones currently serving in-fact foraged dishes, and surprisingly, there aren't many options out there.

Salsify! Chickweed! Ash!

2/20/13 at 12:10 PM
Tragedy
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Body Recovered From Kansas City Restaurant Explosion Site

By Hugh Merwin

Authorites searched through the rubble last night and this morning.Photo: Orlin Wagner/AP/Corbis

Kansas City Mayor Sly James has announced that an unidentified body has been recovered from the site of the former JJ's restaurant, USA Today reports, where last night a gas main explosion destroyed the landmark venue at 910 West 48th Street, near Country Club Place, a popular shopping area. It's been widely reported that a contractor working locally for Missouri Gas Energy may have hit a gas main near the construction zone opposite the restaurant, causing the massive explosion that leveled the premises. One server sought treatment after being hit with a rock that came hurtling from the the site, and fourteen others sustained injuries.

2/20/13 at 11:45 AM
Jamaican Me Juice
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Miss Lily’s Has a Very Special Goyard Machete for Dedicated Juicers

By Hugh Merwin

You can hang this on your bathrobe belt loop.Photo: Miss Lily's Variety Courtesy The World's Best Ever

Perhaps because nothing goes with a West Village condo flooded with natural light and some parched models badly in need of electrolyte replenishment, Miss Lily's owners Serge Becker and Matt Goias commissioned sculptor Toland Grinnell to create this custom, Jamaican-themed Goyard machete that's just like the one Melvin Major uses to thwack coconuts and dispatch all kinds of antioxidant-packed tropical fruits juiced at Melvin's Juice Box, only a bit more luxe. There's really no better breakfast time conversation starter than unsheathing a giant knife from your bathrobe belt loop at 7 a.m. and unleashing hell's fury on the pile of bananas atop your Corian countertop. Since it's "price available upon request," however, we're going to guess that any potential sling-bladers will first have to tone down their Strawberry Riddim habit for a few months before buying. [World's Best Ever via Men of Habit, Earlier]

2/20/13 at 11:10 AM on Grub Street Philly
Bankruptcy
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Revel Lets It All Ride on Bankruptcy

By Collin Keefe

The news of bankruptcy isn't all bad.Photo: Revel

The writing’s been on the wall for quite some time, but now it’s official: Atlantic City’s Revel is headed for bankruptcy. Facing more than $1.5 billion in debt, the megacasino announced last night that it will file Chapter 11 in the weeks to come, according to the Associated Press. The casino and hotel, which is home to many celebrity-chef-driven restaurants and was built on hopes that tonier amenities could help turn the tide on the beach-side gaming resort’s drooping revenues, has been open for less than a year. But with mounting money problems, the troubled hotel and gaming complex, which has received multiple multi-million-dollar bailouts in its brief existence, has consistently turned up at the bottom of the city’s casinos in terms of revenue.

2/20/13 at 10:50 AM
Balthazarnomics
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Balthazarnomics: Plotting the Famed Bistro’s Menu Prices

By Hugh Merwin

How much for that cassoulet in the window?

While the world's brasseries are all watching the just-opened Balthazar in London, Reuters scribe Felix Salmon dials in his attention on the Soho original. Lining up old and new menus, Salmon pits the prices of the daily specials from 2001 against those running currently, and after number-crunching and some crowdsourcing, he realizes that while the prices for six days' worth of the Frenchified meals increased only by 7 percent between 2001 and 2006, they went up a staggering 63 percent between 2006 and 2013. That's a very rich bouillabaisse indeed. [FelixSalmon/Tumblr, Earlier]

2/20/13 at 10:20 AM
The Other Critics
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The Other Critics: Sutton and Cheshes Dig the Marrow; Pete Wells Gives Louro One Star

By Paolo Lorenzana

Juniper-braised lamb neck at the Marrow, a favorite of Jay Cheshes.

New York’s review crew left the critical noshing to other pro eaters this week. Where were dinners had, drinks downed, and stars dispersed? Acclaimed restaurants like the Marrow got even more love, while some lesser-known spots like Elmhurt's Sweet Yummy House received attention, too. Find out which places were great, which were just meh, and which critic thought he was experiencing an earthquake on the job, straight ahead.

Reviews of Hanjan, Jones Wood Foundry, and more.

2/20/13 at 09:50 AM
Reopenings
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Cedric Vongerichten’s Sandy-Damaged Perry Street Is Open Again

By Hugh Merwin

The Times reports this morning that the West Village restaurant Perry Street, which was flooded with five and a half feet of water during Hurricane Sandy, has reopened. The restaurant is back online with OpenTable, and there are spots available for tonight. In November, chef Cedric Vongerichten told Eater NY that the surge from the storm destroyed Perry Street's kitchen and caused more than $100,000-worth of damage. [NYT, Earlier]

2/20/13 at 09:15 AM
Video Feed
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Watch Jon Stewart Take On the European Horse Scandal

By Alan Sytsma

The ever-growing horse meat crisis in Europe is no doubt disturbing for those involved, but it's also the kind of story that's given a lot of fodder to comedians. The latest: Jon Stewart, who points out that even though things in the U.S. seem bad, at least our meat supply (probably) isn't tainted with rogue horse DNA. Then again, as Stewart himself says, What kind of a world do we live in where we can no longer trust the product purity — the regulatory oversight — of Transylvanian meat slaughterhouses? Check out the full clip, straight ahead.

2/20/13 at 08:50 AM
Donkey Sauced
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Here’s the Greatest, Fakest Guy’s American Kitchen Parody Website Ever

By Hugh Merwin

Is the Hobo Lobo Bordello Slam Jam fresh tonight?Photo: Guy's American Kitchen and Bar

"Guy Fieri didn't register his restaurant's domain name," a Brooklyn-based programmer named Bryan Mytko tweeted yesterday, "so I picked it up. I think this new menu look great." Indeed. The fake menu that's now parked proudly at the spoof site Guy's American Kitchen and Bar now proudly offers "Panamania!," a boisterous entrée of deep-fried snake that comes with a "a printed out picture of David Lee Roth stapled on it and a sparkler sticking out of each eye," not to mention a "side of Bud Light you have to wring out of a Hawaiian shirt." It's sort of like the greatest thing ever. Also, it's a little more than depressing.

How fresh is that deep-fried snake?