Dining Dollars Down; New Food in Central ParkPlus: Manhattan and Queens residents dining out less, and a plan to help struggling maple-syrup producers, all in our morning news roundup.
One Little Piggy Market Coming to Fort GreeneCentral Park: Dumping various pies into a bucket and eating the result is the next trend in picnicking. [Above the Doorframe]
East Village: Rickshaw Dumpling Bar’s second location will open on East 8th Street. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Fort Greene: From the owners of the Smoke Joint comes Little Piggy (Market), which will offer a mix of southern specialties like grits, biscuits, and hams when it opens August 1. [TONY]
Lower East Side: Robin Romm of literary magazine One Story (that’s right, they only publish one story per issue) has chosen the Manhattan as the cocktail to be served for $3 during tonight’s reading at Pianos. [The L Magazine]
Tribeca: Daiquiris will be the “endangered cocktail” being supported (read heavily consumed) this Saturday at the Brandy Library bash to celebrate the birthday of one Ernest Hemingway. [Grub Street]
West Village: The relatively tame B.E.T with ground brisket, fried egg, and Tabasco won last night’s Between the Buns burger cook-off at Rare Bar & Grill. [ A Hamburger Today]
Ask a Waiter
Tavern on the Green’s Ronny Webb Likes to See You Smile
Fifty-four-year-old Ronny Webb worked at El Morocco and the Rainbow Room, eventually making $40,000 per year as a hotel-restaurant manager, before he decided to “take a step down” and pursue what he says is a less stressful existence. For the past five years, he’s been making cash money as a butler for billionaire Ron Perelman (something he’s not allowed to talk about) and as a captain at the city’s most profitable restaurant, Tavern on the Green. (Apparently, attempting to track-down 2 percent milk and off-the-menu spaghetti for Robert De Niro’s wife and kid is considered low stress.) We asked him more about this lark of a job.
