You Can Thank PLCB For Higher Booze CostsPLCB will increase the handling fees of distilled spirits and wine; restaurants and bars will have little choice but to pass the price hikes on to you.
Taking a Stand Against Tequila SwagA very strange thing happened today. Things started out quite normally: We got our coffee, read our headlines, wrote some stuff, tackled the in-box — and then we got to Andrea Strong’s The Strong Buzz, a cheerful foodie e-mail filled with her musings about the usual food-blog fodder. But something was very wrong. Her latest newsletter was — and this is quite rare — angry. About swag, of all things:
This afternoon I received a box from UPS so large I thought it might contain one of those mini refrigerators I used in my college dorm room. It was so massive a box and so heavy that I had to get my brother to bring it upstairs for me. I had no idea what it was since I had not ordered a small refrigerator, or a compact car. Inside I discovered a ridiculous number of those Styrofoam “Esses,” (which stuck to me with static fervor) that concealed a large green wooden treasure chest (locked). When I figured out how to open it (the key was also secreted) I found that this massive blue wood box the size of a mini-fridge contained one bottle of tequila. I screamed. One bottle of tequila and all this waste? And that’s when I sat down to write.
NewsFeed
Danny DeVito Teaches You How to Pour His LimoncelloBecause being a celebrity means having your own brand of something, Danny DeVito is in the limoncello business (fitting, as he rather famously appeared on The View one morning, and after acting, um, blotto, he admitted to having stayed up all night drinking limoncellos with George Clooney). We had the chance to drop in for a Danny DeVito’s Limoncello training session at the Marriott Marquis the other night, and we have to say, we wish Johnny Walker were this much fun. The cute-as-a-button actor didn’t have to show up to tutor the staff on how to pour his personally branded liqueur, but that’s just the kind of guy he is — really! “Did you drink it yet?” he asked us. We told him no, and he handed us an autographed bottle, thrusting it into our hands like the warm, tiny, Italian uncle we never had. “Here, have a bottle!”
Mediavore
Whole Foods Plot Still Grimy in Gowanus; Tony Bourdain on Ina GartenWhole Foods has only one more building to demolish to clear out its plot by the Gowanus Canal for its 2008 opening, but there are still no signs of environmental cleanup. [Brownstoner]
Related: Has the Benevolent Whole Foods Betrayed Its Health-Obsessed Customers?
Anthony Bourdain didn’t waste much time agonizing over the expulsion of Tre from Top Chef before laying into Casey, who slices slower the “Ina Garten on Thorazine.” [Bravo]
Related: The Gay Side of ‘Top Chef’ Comes Out
Amalia chef Ivy Stark hates chicken. So why is there chorizo-stuffed crispy chicken on Amalia’s menu? [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
