New York ‘Times’ to Wonder How Bloggers Stay AliveWhen we received a voice mail last week from Kim Severson of the New York Times, saying that she wanted to interview us, our natural response was one of delight. Was the topic to be hamburgers or our upcoming book on same? Or perhaps the larger topic of meat? Or perhaps the ongoing efforts of Grub Street? It was with giddy fingers that we dialed Severson’s number only to find out that the lady was writing an article on how fat and unhealthy food bloggers are, and to ask us, in so many words, why we were still alive. Apparently, bloggers aren’t the trenchermen they once were: Off the Broiler’s Jason Perlow recently had some serious health problems, and even Steven “the Fat Guy” Shaw of eGullet has gotten on the austerity program. But, as we told Severson, the day we start eating salad she’s welcome to our place at the table. Grub Street may cost us the vitality of our once-springy carcass, but by God the work will go on!
Neighborhood Watch
Doug E. Fresh Bringing Boxes of Chicken and Waffles to HarlemHarlem: Doug E. Fresh’s chicken-and-waffles restaurant is opening on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard at 132nd Street. [Uptown Flavor]
Long Island City: It was an orgy of animal fats at Saturday’s burger bash at Water Taxi Beach, as this slideshow dramatically demonstrates. [Off the Broiler]
Park Slope: Hotel Le Bleu (and its rooftop restaurant, Vue) has pushed back its opening to August 13. [NewYorkology]
Upper West Side: Grom has been stealing Beard Papa’s thunder, but the latter’s mango ice shower is just as refreshing as any gelato. And cheaper. [Ed Levine Eats]
West Village: Jody Williams’s new wine bar, Gottino, is coming along nicely on Greenwich Avenue. [Eater]
Williamsburg: The grubby Chinese place on Bedford Avenue by North 7th Street is turning Japanese. [Lost City]
Click and Save
Jason Perlow Captures the Soul of the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party
This past weekend’s Big Apple Barbecue Block Party was bigger than ever, and any number of bloggers, Sunday newspapers, and podcasters have tried to capture the excitement. But for our money, nobody has really done it like Jason Perlow, whose enormous Flickr slideshow on Off the Broiler conveys the appeal of good-natured Southerners handling massive amounts of meat. Check it out: It’s not the same as being there, but it’s better than just looking at images of ribs and chicken. (Not that we mind looking at images of ribs and chicken.)
Big Apple Barbecue Block Party 2007 Slide Show [Off the Broiler]
Neighborhood Watch
Brooklyn Heights About to Get a Candlelit PizzeriaBrooklyn Heights: Oven, an “all candlelit, 150-label-wine-list pizza joint,” will soon open. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Flatiron: Hill Country barbecue does a preview, and Jason Perlow is there to document it in high-res detail. [Off the Broiler]
Flushing: A Fan Ti is doing amazing things with lamb. [Gothamist]
Long Island City: Water Taxi Beach to throw a “vegan extravaganza” on Saturday. [Joey in Astoria]
Lower East Side: Herring season has arrived at Russ & Daughters. [VV]
Park Slope: Rose Water chef Ethan Kostbar to leave in a few weeks. [NYT]
Neighborhood Watch
Vendors at Red Hook Ball Fields Postpone OpeningBrooklyn Heights: Brooklyn Pigfest, a major outdoor barbecue event at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, is slated for May 12. [The Food Section]
Financial District: Front Street sees the soft opening of New Zealand gastropub Nelson Blue. [Eater]
Midtown West: Haven’t made it to Insieme? Jason Perlow’s photo-essay chronicles, in loving and lingering detail, every course at Marco Canora’s new restaurant. [Off the Broiler] Landmarc at the Time Warner Center makes a mean-looking burger. [Gothamist]
Red Hook: A new stoplight at the intersection of Van Brunt and Sullivan streets should help ease traffic caused by Fairway. [The Brooklyn Paper] Opening day for the ball fields’ food stands has been postponed, for one more week! [Gowanus Lounge]
Flatiron: Eleven Madison Park declines to keep their trial pastry chef, Richard Bies; until they hire a permanent replacement for Nicole Kaplan, Daniel Humm himself is handling the dessert program. [Grub Street]
Related: Nicole Kaplan Ditching Eleven Madison Park
The Other Critics
Richman Kicks New Orleans While It’s DownThis time, Alan Richman may have gone too far. The august critic, whose views appear frequently and at length in GQ and on Bloomberg, is known for his unabashed denunciations of sacred cows. (It’s said that Jean-Georges Vongerichten didn’t get out of bed for two days after being battered by Richman.) Now the writer has claimed that New Orleans restaurants are crap: “I think people either take to the city or they do not. They buy into the romance, or they abhor the decadence. I know where I stand.”
