Add Bruno to the List of Extinct Old-Time BakeriesIt’s gotten to the point that we’re surprised when a small-time Manhattan institution doesn’t close. The sign on the door of Pasticceria Bruno is a familiar read: the complaint about rising costs, the shout-out to a “community” that hardly exists anymore, and of course, the angry sign-off. Happily, Bruno has another location on La Guardia, so we don’t have to go for the rest of our lives without those fantastic pignoli cookies. But Bruno was one more little bit of the old Village that we now have to watch turn into … what? A Chipotle? A microbrewery? Whatever it is, we’re already inclined not to like it.
Related: Impending Jewish-Bakery Apocalypse?
The Underground Gourmet
The Latest Gourmet Food Cart Is Here
There are two types of New Yorkers, the Underground Gourmet has always thought. There are those for whom eating a street-vendor hot dog (a.k.a. dirty-water dog) is an urban rite of passage, not to mention a show of defiance in this age of culinary correctness. And then there are those for whom it is an indication of mental incapacity, a deviant act that should best be left to ne’er-do-wells and unsuspecting tourists or healthy adults caught up in an emergency situation — like being locked overnight in a bank vault with a cache of Sabretts. Jeremy Spector, the chef of Employees Only, falls into the latter camp.