Riding the B Line: The Hidden Genius of JoeySomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week: Broadway-Lafayette Street
In the Magazine
After the Catwalk, a Bagel for Wakiya, and More
The desks at Grub Street are covered with high-heeled shoes, empty gift bags, and other detritus from Fashion Week, and only a laserlike focus could allow us to catch the disparate restaurant intelligence floating around in this week’s issue. Adam Platt visits Wakiya, the much-hyped Chinese restaurant in the Gramercy Hotel, and hands them a bagel in his restaurant review. The crown jewel of the B.R. Guest restaurant empire, Fiamma, has reopened with one of the most celebrated Italian chefs you’ve never heard of. Baby cucumbers and tomatillos get a close appreciation from Rob and Robin. Add in Gray Kunz’s secret ingredient, and you can see why the latest lines from Milan had but little effect on us.
Neighborhood Watch
Pigskin Parties Kick Off at Hill Country; Rickshaw Delayed Yet AgainChelsea: Hill Country has added big TV screens and plans on being party central for football games. [Grub Street]
Gramercy: Rodeo Bar is now the second place in New York to carry Shiner Bock. [Grub Street]
Greenwich Village: The ballyhooed opening of Rickshaw Dumpling Bar is delayed yet again. [Eater]
Long Island: The first mug shot is made public in the Josie Malave gay-bashing case. [TMZ]
Long Island City: Feminist beer and good salsa are to be found in a new spot in industrial LIC. [Joey in Astoria]
Midtown: Toloache is still your only spot in the neighborhood for grasshopper tacos. [Gothamist]
Williamsburg: Been feeling that what the area needed was a vegetarian Caribbean restaurant? Well, you’re in luck. [Bottomless Dish]
NewsFeed
Bourdain Gets Skewered in the Latest Roman à ChefAnother day, another pissed-off restaurant worker writing an Internet roman à clef. This one, penned with panache by a one Peanut Butter Jesus, isn’t quite as delicious as Sympathy for the Restaurant Industry, maybe because it’s not quite as obvious who the players are. At least one person’s identity is unmistakable:
People he played that game with now fly around the world and tell TV Chefs their broccolini blows. They have three assistants you have to get through just to say “fuck you, meet me at Siberia in twenty minutes”. That game is gone, now filled with cookbooks and TV spots on Today, filled with front of house managers sitting on their ass in their offices during service.
Alright, so that takes care of the man with no reservations. But who are the other characters and venues based on? Here’s what we’re dealing with:
NewsFeed
Daniel Boulud’s Downtown Burger Place Finally Signs the LeaseBreaking news on the as-yet-unnamed Daniel Boulud burger restaurant (the “DBGB” moniker is gone): The lease has been signed and the restaurant is officially a go, according to Boulud’s spokeswoman Georgette Farkas. The much-ballyhooed burger place at 299 Bowery will be opening in the summer of 2008, and will be designed by Thomas Schlesser, the same intelligence behind the look of this fall’s DB entry, Bar Boulud. “The DBGB name isn’t happening,” Farkas tells us. “So in-house we’re calling it TBDB.”
