Popeyes Chicken Founder Kicks the BucketTwo blows have staggered fried-chicken lovers everywhere: First Kentucky Fried Chicken announces plans to change its name. And now Popeyes founder Al Copeland has died.
NewsFeed
Pies-N-Thighs Moving! Get There Tomorrow for Your Last Chicken Under the Bridge
Set in its own cozy postindustrial hellhole, Pies-N-Thighs had one of the coolest spaces in New York. Attached to a bar under the Williamsburg bridge and blocks from any other kind of commerce or even human habitation, the place drew customers purely for the greatness of its chicken and pies, and the above-average-ness of its pulled pork. Well, the pulled pork is gone, and now, apparently, so is the space. Pies-N-Thighs will reopen in another Williamsburg location in time for summer. But owner Carolyn Bane sent us an e-mail saying tomorrow is the last meal for a while.
In the Magazine
Cheap Eats est Arrivé!The annual Cheap Eats issue arrives this week and represents, as usual, a massive compendium of low-end gastronomic wisdom. The Underground Gourmet round up some of the city’s very best cheap eats in the main section, but Adam Platt also weighs in on what passes for cheap in the city’s high-end places, some top chefs give their own picks, and three of the city’s greenmarket specialists vie to outdo each other not just in locavorism but also in “cheapavorism.” Add to that laser-focused profiles on burgers, barbecue, and Korean fried chicken, and you have a Cheap Eats supplement to put all others to shame.
Mediavore
New York is Now Fat City; Korean KFC Comes to New YorkFat is where it’s at in New York today, thanks to the efforts of what Adam Platt would call the “refined meathead” school of chefs like David Chang and Zak Pelaccio. [NYT]
Related: You Know You’re a Meathead When… [NYM]
Kyochon Chicken, the Korean chain behind the current wave of Korean fried-chicken restaurants, has opened in Flushing. Two more locations are planned for Bayside. [NYT]
Ilan Hall defeated Sam Talbot in their outdoor Top Chef rematch yesterday, Hall’s soft-shell crab salad triumphing over Talbot’s grilled quail and potatoes. [NYDN]
NewsFeed
Andrew Carmellini Wants to Stir the Melting PotConsidering how successful Andrew Carmellini’s A Voce has been, we were hardly surprised to hear he was looking at new projects. But Carmellini tells us that, although “I’d like to open another [A Voce] in a good urban market,” he has other, more intriguing (to us, anyway) plans in store too. Carmellini wants to create a multi-ethnic American restaurant at some point in the near future. Given that he made his name at Café Boulud cooking from a wide range of traditions, the idea seems a natural for him.
Back of the House
Pies-N-Thighs Co-founder Flies Coop; Menu Stretches OutIf you’ve visited Pies-N-Thighs in the last six or seven weeks, you may have noticed Steven Tanner, the restaurant’s resident chicken and barbecue man, missing in action. The laconic chef exited the business in early February, leaving the “thighs” half of the business in the capable hands of Diner and Spotted Pig alum Carolyn Bane, who bought out his interest. (“Steven loves to cook,” Bane tells us, “but he didn’t want to own a restaurant.”)
In the Magazine
The Best of New York. Yeah, That’s Right — the BestThe Best of New York, our annual declaration of supreme excellence in the fields of fried chicken, massages, etc., is our gathered opinion, honed down after a great deal of deliberation. It goes without saying that every New Yorker is entitled to his own conclusions. But you can at least credit the collective food brain at New York with getting around to a lot of restaurants (and other places where one eats). Here we cover the high and the low, from French fries to fugu. Is your most admired pot sticker or beloved cupcake on the list? And is it possible — just possible — that our pick could be better?
