Elaine’s Turns 45; Chefs Cursing Too $*$@% MuchLiterary hangout Elaine’s turned 45 on Sunday, Tom Colicchio doesn’t think profane language is appropriate for chefs, and “Big Lou” Elrose enjoys his moment in the sun and smoke.
Room Service? Get Me Geoffrey Zakarian!There was never any doubt the Water Club, the $800 million hotel-casino being put up by the Borgata in Atlantic City, was going to have a high-end food pedigree. The Borgata’s a class act! But they did especially well in hiring Geoffrey Zakarian of Town and Country. We’ve had a close look at his menu, and it’s a cut above the usual institutional food: Room-service entrées include filet of bison, braised lamb shank with basmati rice and pomegranate (a nod to Zakarian’s Armenian heritage), and, for when you really don’t want to leave the room, a rib-eye center-cut dry-aged beef chop on the bone with potato purée and field mushrooms. Even the breakfast menu’s four options are hipper than you would expect, among them “The Manhattan” (coffee, bagel, New York Times); the “Long Night” (hanger steak and eggs, grilled tomato, Emergen-C vitamin powder, coffee, water), and, inevitably, “Still Awake From Yesterday” (Philly cheesesteak, French fries, Coca-Cola.) There are 800 other things on Zakarian’s menu, but we somehow doubt we could stay long enough to try them out. In fact, it will be a miracle if we can afford to stay there at all.
NewsFeed
Noel Ashman to Film Life Story, Open Clubs in NYC and A.C.To the canon of classic NYC party movies you might soon be able to add the story of promoter turned club owner Noel Ashman. He tells us that his production company, Co.Op, which he runs with Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Redford, and others, has done two treatments for an as-yet-untitled film loosely based on his life’s story, which involves getting kicked out at the age of 13, having to throw parties to pay his rent, and eventually becoming the owner of clubs such as the second incarnation of Studio 54, Veruka, NA, and most recently the Plumm. Ashman is doing the movie with music producer Che Vicious — it will be set in the mid-to-late eighties in and around the Plumm’s predecessor Nell’s, where Ashman promoted, and may star Plumm investor Jesse Bradford. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Ashman tells us he’s looking at opening new clubs in Manhattan (possibly east of the Plumm) and — trend alert! — Atlantic City.
NewsFeed
Beatrice Owners to Open New Club in … Jersey?At one point Smith and Mills owner Matt Abramcyk was toying with the idea of opening a Skee-Ball bar in the financial district, but now it looks like he has a bigger project on the horizon — in Atlantic City! The Times reports that he and his Beatrice Inn partner, Paul “brother of the actress Chloë” Sevigny, are teaming with Curtis Bashaw, a developer of the Mondrian in Soho, to turn a former Atlantic City Howard Johnson into the Chelsea, a boutique hotel with a Stephen Starr restaurant. A spokesman for the project tells the Times that the Beatrice team is “going to be in charge of celebrity wrangling, including bringing Paul’s sister’s friends down” to a fifth-floor lounge. Chloë has gone to AC for a Morrissey concert, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. Our favorite part of the story? When the Times reporter gripes about getting turned away from the Beatrice.
SoHo Meets HoJo In Atlantic City [NYT]
The New York Diet
‘Good Day New York’ Anchor Ron Corning Eats Mahimahi Dinners at 4:30Inside Weather Up.Photo: Melissa Hom
Good Day New York anchor Ron Corning is used to odd hours— when he worked the gravenight shift as co-anchor of ABC’s World News Now, he found it hard to keep track of his meals and gained “the overnight 15.” Since starting the early shift at Fox about a year and a half ago, he has lost six of those pounds, and to drop the rest he has started eating “dinner” at 4:30 a.m. and “breakfast” at 7 p.m. Corning still manages to eat out, but he says he has only once used his clout to score a table (a manager at Gramercy Tavern called to offer his services after Corning half-jokingly complained on the air about how hard it was to book a resy). We asked him how he navigated his “insane” eating schedule this week.
Foodievents
Flay to Battle Morimoto in Atlantic CitySaturday’s “Women in Wine” event at the Borgata in Atlantic City would be worth going to just for the wine (23 female vintners from around the country) and the chefs (the Borgata’s resident all-star team, featuring Bobby Flay, Michael Mina, Wolfgang Puck, Susanna Foo, and in-house celebrity chef Luke Palladino). But the real draw is something you’ll never see on television: two of the Food Network’s Iron Chefs, Flay and Masaharu Morimoto, going head to head to see whose cuisine reigns supreme. (Normally, Iron Chefs only compete against guest challengers.) The event, which will cost $195 to attend, benefits Living Beyond Breast Cancer and the Atlantic County Women’s Center in New Jersey. Tickets can be purchased here or by calling 866-900-4849.
Women in Wine, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Atlantic City, N.J.
Saturday, November 11