Crisis! City Goes Without Balthazar Bread This MorningIf your local café was out of Balthazar bread this morning, it’s because there was what director of operations B. Young describes as a “train wreck” at the bakery’s New Jersey wholesale division.
Mediavore
Boulud Makes the A-list; Blue Hill’s New SlaughterhousePlus Lisa’s peanut-butter mashed potatoes from ‘Top Chef’ end up on a menu, there are some good wine books to buy for Dad, and more, in our morning digest of news and gossip.
City Restaurant School in Session; Pickle Day a Big HitWant to open a restaurant? The city is still happy to show you how. [Newsday]
Visitors to International Pickle Day on Orchard Street yesterday consumed an estimated 50,000 pickles. [amNY]
The GM for the Lever House Restaurant Group married freelance writer at Blue Hill at Stone Barns this weekend. [NYT]
Neighborhood Watch
Whole Foods Blamed for Beetle Infestation on the Lower East SideBushwick: Too hard to keep organic? Resident and Blue Hill at Stone Barns alum Kelly Geary will purchase your share of produce from Community Supported Agriculture, turn it into weekly meals (and pies), then deliver it (citywide). Just join by the first week in June. [DailyCandy]
Long Island City: New Greek restaurant Agnanti opens Memorial Day near the Astoria pool. [LICNYC]
Lower East Side: Bowery Whole Foods blamed for beetle infestation in apartments at Avalon Christie Place. [Racked] Rumor mill set a-cranking with speculation that Keith McNally might turn an empty space on Essex and Canal into a Parisian brasserie. [Eater]
Red Hook: The Added Value farm that employs South Brooklyn teenagers will be featured on a PBS series dedicated to sustainable food. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Times Square: You know that neon sign for Virgil’s? It’s a bowl of Chinese noodles. [Lost City]
West Village: A photo ode to Blue Ribbon Bakery’s indulgent sandwiches. [Gothamist] Former fab Bungalow 8 bouncer Armin Amiri’s new club, Socialista, will have a little person named Anthony manning the door. [NYP]
NewsFeed
Urgent All Points Bulletin for Spring Vegetables
You don’t have to look far to see spring vegetables on menus all over New York. But look for local spring vegetables, and you may find they’re AWOL. Unseasonal weather has put the kibosh on many area sources, and for chefs that pride themselves on local ingredients, it’s a problem.
The Other Critics
Morandi Takes Another Hit; a Haute Barnyard SpreeThe Four Seasons gets perhaps the most negative two-star review in the history of the Times; Bruni seems to think the stars were grandfathered in. A telling example of how reputation floats reviews. [NYT]
Meehan, meanwhile, visits a chowhound’s paradise, a Hindu temple in Flushing. [NYT]
Morandi takes another blow, this time from Time Out’s Randall Lane, who like our own Adam Platt, finds it overdesigned and unimpressive, albeit with a few decent dishes. [TONY]
Related: Not So Bene [NYM]