BiCE’s New Milanese Bistro Open in Midtown West; Gary Robbins PreparingBedford-Stuyvesant: Egg didn’t make this list of top southern eats, but Five Spot Soul Food at 459 Myrtle Avenue was picked as a fave since dishes like Kentucky Turkey Chops and Charleston Low Country Smothered Chicken “sound good” even if they’re not necessarily authentic classics. [Gridskipper]
Chelsea: Klee Brasserie’s open for brunch and dinner on Easter, and you can order the “Thinly Sliced Easter Ham & Bio Egg,” which combines honey-glazed ham, deviled eggs, and capers, at both seatings. [Grub Street]
Lower East Side: The new vegetarian restaurant Broadway East adds to its sustainability cred by featuring local beer and wine. [Zagat Buzz]
Midtown East: The first soft-shell crabs of the season are now available at the Oyster Bar. [Grub Street]
Midtown West: Bistro Milano from team BiCE has opened at 1350 Sixth Avenue, and sidewalk seating opening this spring will double the restaurant’s 70-cover capacity. [TONY]
West Village: “Chef Gary Robins was the best thing to happen to the most recent Russian Tea Room relaunch. So, naturally, he was fired.” But, you’ll be able to taste his cooking downtown this spring, when rustic restaurant Sheridan Square opens at 134 Seventh Avenue South. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Mediavore
Ko Reservation System Almost Online; Banks’ Cafeteria Workers StrikeMomofuku Ko’s online reservation system will go live sometime before Saturday. Here’s hoping the inevitable Web traffic doesn’t kill the server. [Eater]
Cafeteria workers for many of the city’s largest investment banks have been on strike since Tuesday, since they’re taking home an average of $21,000 a year, which is what the average Goldman Sachs employee makes in less than two weeks. [NYDN]
Hallo Berlin! Germany has more three-Michelin-star restaurants than any other country — except France, of course. [NYT]
NewsFeed
Have Egg for Dinner, Starting Tomorrow — And Here’s the MenuIt was an especially timely moment that Egg (which started serving lunch only last year) chose to open for dinner. The southern-style hole-in-the-wall has swooped in to fill the neighborhood’s fried-chicken void just as Pies-N-Thighs mourners start to recover from their mid-month farewell binges. George Weld’s partner in Egg, Steve Tanner, has a P-N-T pedigree so the deep-fried bird that will be available Thursdays through Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. (and includes a biscuit and collard greens) should prove a reasonable stand-in. The menu aims to be much more however, with appetizers like seared duck breast served with a celery root, fennel, and apple slaw and an entrée of braised pork, which comes over Anson Mills grits. You won’t find crisp-edged and properly dense doughnuts for dessert, but we think toasted homemade pound cake weighted down with vanilla ice cream and custard sauce is just homey enough to help you forget. —Alexandra Vallis
Egg’s dinner menu
Neighborhood Watch
Kebab Cafe Alert: Ali Is Back in AstoriaAstoria: Kebab Cafe has reopened with Ali cooking in the renovated kitchen. [Joey in Astoria]
Flatiron: Bowing to pressure from locals, Hill Country has opened for weekday lunch service starting at 11:30 a.m. [Grub Street]
Fort Greene: In the iced-coffee bracket, new coffeehouse Bittersweet advances past fellow newbie Bidonville. Next up: Urban Spring. [Eat for Victory/VV]
West Village: Resident chanteuse Nancy Danino returns to Paradou this Sunday at 7:30 p.m. [Grub Street]
Williamsburg: Egg has extended its hours to 3 p.m. and added a lunch menu. [Eater]
Neighborhood Watch
Porchetta Succumbs in Carroll GardensBedford-Stuyvesant: Heavenly Crumbs baker Shannon Pridgen demonstrates wedding-cake making in this sweet moving picture. [Eating for Brooklyn]
Carroll Gardens: Looks like Porchetta has closed. No press release from Jason Neroni. Yet. [Eater]
Ditmas Park: Connecticut Muffin coming to Cortelyou Road. [Living in Victorian Flatbush]
Gramercy: 2007 James Beard nominee for outstanding wine service Charles Scicolone pours his ten favorite wines tomorrow night for a class at Vino, Italian Wine and Spirits. [Vinosite]
Midwood: First tale of success from the Department of Health furor: DiFara’s Dom DeMarco wears a hat, and his pizza is better than ever. [Slice]
Prospect Heights: Flatbush Farm will be barbecuing Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. [A Brooklyn Life]
West Village: That’s it for mice getting in easy at the Waverly Inn. [Gothamist]
Williamsburg: Beloved gourmet-breakfast emporium Egg buys out Sparky’s. [Gawker]
A Koolman truck’s been spotted on Metropolitan Avenue. Repainting spotted after last month’s garage fire, but no word on whether anyone checked the ice cream. [Gowanus Lounge]
Mediavore
McNally Loves Balthazar and Maria Bello; Imus Types Prank Chinese RestaurantKeith McNally talks about Balthazar, where the breakfast service is “absurdly busy” and his last meal would be “on the navel of the actress Maria Bello.” [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
More radio morons in hot water: CBS suspends Elvis and JV for pranking a Chinese restaurant, asking for “shrimp flied lice,” making dumb egg-roll jokes, and other old-time, racist vulgarities. [CBS News]
Spain’s El Bulli named top restaurant in the world again. No. 2? The Fat Duck in London. It’s a proud day for molecular gastronomy. [CNN]
The Underground Gourmet
Sandwich of the Week: Egg’s Amazing Breakfast TreatWhile the humble egg — gently poached at low temperatures and served in creative ways once reserved for hunks of meat or fish — is having its moment on dinner menus across the city, so too is the even humbler egg sandwich. Witness City Bakery’s new fried-egg-bacon-and-Cato-Corner-cheese brunch biscuit, the “Egg on a Roll” on Prune’s just-debuted lunch menu, and Starbucks’s McDonald’s-inspired line of breakfast sandwiches available throughout the day.
