Model-Waitress Courtney Yates of Coffee Shop Gets $250 Tips From Taye DiggsCourtney Yates isn’t bothered that customers stereotype her because she’s one of the many Coffee Shop servers who also happen to be working models (you may have seen her in a Belvedere ad shot by Terry Richardson). “People come in with a chip on their shoulder,” she says, “but once you show that you’re a complicated human being, it’s out the window. I know I’m not stupid.”
Back of the House
Emeril No Longer Live, But Still at Food NetworkThe Food Network reached out to us today about the fate of Emeril Lagasse. FishbowlNY reported — and we repeated — this morning that the Bamtastic One was leaving the Food Network. Not so, says the channel’s spokeswoman, Carrie Welch.
Back of the House
New York to Charlie Trotter: Bring It On!
So Charlie Trotter is coming to New York at long last. (Or so the New York Times says today, reporting that the celebrated Chicago chef has plans for a restaurant on East 22nd Street, at One Madison Park.) Our question is, what took him so long? Trotter has been considered one of the top chefs in America for years, but big names in second-rate food cities rarely make a big splash here. Paul Prudhomme, the pride of New Orleans, had only mixed success here, and in recent years Charles Ramseyer of Seattle (at Wild Salmon), and Fabio Trabocchi of Virginia (at Fiamma), both the toasts of their former towns, have received tepid responses here. (Tim Love, the pride of Texas, washed out completely with Lonesome Dove.)
Openings
Midtown Pop Burger Unveils Its Poppin’ Façade
The recently unveiled exterior of the soon-to-open midtown Pop Burger takes the prize. Looks good now, but wait till the backlighting! Clearly bubble wrap was the inspiration here, making it a real possibility that someone in the upstairs billiards lounge could try to pop one of those windows with a pool cue. Also slated to hit midtown in December and still in hiding in the IBM building: the first U.S. outpost of Roman mozzarella bar Obika.
NewsFeed
RUB Bringing Barbecue to Los Angeles?Hill Country and the forthcoming Wildwood have been getting most of the headlines lately, but RUB seems to be the New York barbecue most likely to take over the world. The huge Vegas operation is set to open on the 15th at the Rio, and owner Andrew Fischel also has plans to open an immense RUB in Los Angeles. “It’s still something we’re in talks on, but it’s going to be big!” Fischel tells us. Of course it is. RUB is a planet eater. But will this occasion the building of a second RUB chopper? Or will L.A.’s car culture demand a RUB hot rod, possibly with a smoke-belching blower coming out of the hood? Or maybe a RUB lowrider? Fischel is mum on the possibilities, but we can’t help but dream.
Related: It’s Not a Motorcycle, Baby. It’s a Mobile Barbecue Pit.
NewsFeed
Essex House and St. Regis Restaurants: Maybe Next Year!A Times restaurant preview had Alain Ducasse’s latest, Adour, opening at the St. Regis Hotel in late November. Also slated to open its doors this month was the restaurant that’s replacing Ducasse’s old joint in the Essex House: 154 South Gate, helmed by former 11 Madison Park chef Kerry Heffernan. In the spirit of competition, we were curious to see if Ducasse could open Ardour before his Essex House replacement—but folks on the inside have informed us that everyone will be waiting ‘til at least next year to see either place cross the finish line. Adour is poised to open late January; no official date is set for 154 South Gate, though hotel sources said it’s also looking more like January. For now, we regretfully release our sweaty grip on our stopwatches.
This concludes your Future Fine Dining update.
Related: Here Come the Chefs
In Other Magazines
Media Somehow Can’t Stop Finding Hidden Bars
We often wake up with our collective head feeling like it might explode (speaking of which, has anyone tried this Berocca stuff? Supposed to work wonders). But today was a little worse, seeing as we stumbled across am New York’s little number on “hidden bars.” Oh, our favorite trend piece has come back to us! Unlike the Times — which absurdly tried to spin this angle back in January (just as they had in 2000 and 2004) — this roundup is so vintage in its coverage that it trots out that ol’ service-journalist pummel horse, Milk and Honey.
Alas, Gothamist receives all of this breaking info with a straight face and goes so far to allude to their own a “secret” bar: “the spacious and dimly lit [REDACTED] on Grand Street in Williamsburg that features an upstairs outdoor smoking patio, reasonably priced drinks and consistently great music on the house stereo.” (That’s their redaction, not ours, and the name is also redacted in the user comments.) Please, people! If you don’t want to spoil your “secret” hangout, why mention having one at all, right? And dancing around the name — what is this, Beetlejuice? If we utter the words “Larry Lawrence,” are we facing disaster? Guess we’ll find out.
Earlier: Times Rehashes ‘Secret Bar’ Trend, Snoozes on Goldbar News
Related: Hidden Manhattan Nightspots Recall Speakeasies [amNY]
Clandestine Bars? Please Do Tell! [Gothamist]
NewsFeed
Yolato Founder Donald Park Doesn’t Sweat PinkberryYesterday we reported that Yolato is poised to infiltrate the Empire State Building and other strategic locations around the city. Now none other than founder Donald Park tells us that he’s aiming for a minimum of fifteen to twenty outlets in the next year, including at least one Downtown Brooklyn outlet. The outer boroughs, people! The guy means business! What’s more, he’s planning to announce “a very large deal with a very large company” in the next few weeks. You know what that means — Yolato is going national.
Mr. Snitch
Restaurant Titans Descend on Primehouse for a NightHere’s the thing about restaurateurs: They don’t really care about who has the best ramen in the East Village. They’re not really that interested in where Paul Liebrandt’s restaurant will be, and they find avant-garde desserts about as compelling as algebra. But when Steve Hanson opens a restaurant? That, that is something they’re interested in. The fine art of making money via replicable concept restaurants is one at which Hanson is an acknowledged master, and that helps to explain why the main room at Primehouse last Thursday looked like a who’s who of big-time restaurateurs.
The New York Diet
Model Catherine McNeil Finds Comfort in Chicken Burgers
Earlier this year Times fashion writer Guy Trebay declared 17-year-old Catherine McNeil to be “fashion’s latest crush,” citing her photo shoots for Mario Testino, her campaigns for Hugo Boss and Dolce & Gabbana, and her sudden status as the sought-after runway model. McNeil has lived on the Lower East Side since moving from Australia in February and can often be found at expat hangout Ruby’s wolfing chicken burgers like her mom used to make. “It’s chicken breast, and you can put lettuce and sweet chili sauce and stuff on it,” she explains. Not that she did much eating out this week between shoots for Another magazine and Versace. We caught her on the way to the airport (she was flying to Paris for a Gaultier shoot) and asked her what she noshed on.
NewsFeed
The Box Appears on ‘Gossip Girl,’ Officially Jumps the Shark
We thought the Box lost its remaining counterculture cred when the Times, of all things, called it out on being pretty much any other club. Not so! The real point of no return came last night when it appeared, in the guise of club Victrola, on teenybopper drama du jour Gossip Girl. The place must’ve loosened its rules against interior photography, because the first scene has Chuck Bass (a son every bit as wayward as Simon Hammerstein) explaining why his father should support him by investing in the burlesque club: “No judgments. Pure escape. What happens at Victrola stays at Victrola” (until the Health Department shows up, anyway).
Mediavore
Gordo Casting Restaurateurs; Thomas Keller Feels for Celebrity ChefsGordo’s back on Fox TV for another season of Kitchen Nightmares, and he’s looking for a floundering restaurateur to belittle on national TV. [Eater]
It’s hard out there for a chef, according to Thomas Keller: “No longer are critically-acclaimed chefs allowed — as they might have been even ten years ago — to call it a day after opening a single successful restaurant. Instead, he said, food wizards like him are … expected to pen best-sellers, give lectures, judge reality TV shows and host benefits like the one he gave last night.” [NYO]
The massive, multistory Pop Burger at 14 East 58th Street will start serving baby crab cakes and grilled filet mignon in addition to burger boxes by mid-November. [Strong Buzz]
Related: Massive New Pop Burger Popping Up in Midtown
Foodievents
Are Tuscan Chefs That Good? Find Out This WeekOn the list of people we want to see destroyed, the recently returned Tuscan tourist ranks high. Everyone has met this person. Nothing is quite the same as it is in Italy; “the pasta we have here just doesn’t compare…” “the ingredients are handled with such simplicity…” and blah blah blah. Meanwhile, they have the same flour, olive oil, and wooden spoons in both places, so what’s the big deal? We aim to find out this week, when “Five Days to Taste Tuscany’s Maremma” hits New York.
The In-box
I Want a Personal Chef To Cook Tiny Portions of French Food For My FamilyDear Grub Street,
We are a family of four, seeking a top-notch private chef. We like nouvelle French, Italian, and American in that order. I would appreciate if you could direct us as to where to advertise. Thank you.
—Chefless
NewsFeed
Neighbors Block Sale of Williamsburg Hip-Hop Bar to Balthazar BartenderWe’ve heard plenty about bars being shot down by the community when they try to open, but what about when they’re trying to close? Lindsey Caldwell sent us a desperate e-mail on behalf of her husband Myles Tipley, a co-owner of the artsy Williamsburg hip-hop bar Triple Crown, saying that “the community board refuses to allow [the owners] to sell the place.” The bar has been closed for eight months (with events here and there) after the burden of addressing noise complaints proved too much. But in the meantime, rent and bills have cost the owners $135,000, plus an average of about $7,000 per week in lost revenue, Caldwell says.
NewsFeed
NYC Deli Owners Try Out a Barbecue FranchiseJust when you thought the New York barbecue marketplace was sated — and believe us, we thought so too — comes word that yet another megabarbecue is coming to the city. And not just one location, either: Famous Dave’s has sold a territorial franchise to open seven restaurants in New York and Westchester to Sammy Benmoha, owner of Maxie’s Deli, and, with his father Jacob, the Roxy and BenAsh Delis. What is this Famous Dave’s anyway? And how can there possibly be room for seven more megabarbecues, with Spanky’s, Hill Country, Virgil’s, RUB, Blue Smoke, Daisy May, Dinosaur, and half a dozen others already feeding the masses, and B. R. Guest’s Wildwood on the way?
NewsFeed
Looking at the Cipriani Sexual-Harassment Docs
It’s hard out there for a Venetian millionaire. No sooner did the Cipriani boys get the all clear from their federal tax-evasion trial than a major sexual-harassment lawsuit came down upon their heads. Just in time for your weekend reading, Grub Street has acquired a copy of the legal documents; after the jump, allegations of systematic misogyny and insidious put-downs.
Trimmings
Irving Mill’s 500-Year-Old Bar Table? Might Want to Use a Coaster
For your next birthday party, why not dine at a table that’s 300 to 500 years old? You can find just that at Irving Mill, thanks to the determination of owner-designer Sergio Riva. At a trade show he met the owner of Blue Ocean Traders and — sight unseen — purchased one of the 3,000-pound, six-feet-in-diameter millstones (used to grind flour, wheat, and the like) that the company sometimes receives from Egypt. How much does such a behemoth cost? Just $700 plus $2,000 for shipping, it turns out. “They must be giving these things away in Egypt,” Riva laughs. Actually, Riva’s particular stone came from western China. When he got it after weeks of nagging his supplier, he asked a friend to build (for $2,000) a 42-inch-high base made from steel plates so that patrons can use the artifact as a bar table. And boy if that doesn’t make us appreciate the wheat in our Spaten much more.
Foodievents
Win Brooklyn Kitchen’s Bodega Challenge, and Be the Pride of WilliamsburgWhen we think of bodegas, we think of our favorite shady treats: quarter waters, off-brand cheese puffs, and big cans of Broadcast corned beef hash (for later). But the Brooklyn Kitchen, a Williamsburg cookware store, is now asking for customers to think outside the Nilla Wafer box with the Bodega Challenge. It’s sort of like the South Williamsburg version of the Pillsbury Bake-Off, but less healthy.
Back of the House
Tom Colicchio Named One of the ‘Sexiest Men Alive’ and Sandwich
In the wake of his bigger, bearier, and balder Top Chef season, Craft chieftain Tom Colicchio seems to be finding ways to keep himself busy. Craft L.A., though receiving mixed reviews, is doing boffo business, and two more Craft restaurants are on the way in Atlanta and Connecticut. And, having been appointed the new Earl of Sandwich by Sara Lee, Colicchio is now, just in time for National Sandwich Day, giving confused Americans helpful tips like “think BIG flavor.”
Openings
Radegast May Soon Bring a Second Oktoberfest to Williamsburg
Difficulties securing a certificate of occupancy have delayed the opening of Radegast Hall for over a month, but owner Ivan Kohut and his partner, Andy Ivanov, tell us they’re hoping to pass a follow-up buildings inspection later today, in which case they could have Williamsburg’s first beer hall up and running sometime next week. As you can see from our gallery of interior shots, the place sure looks ready.
Openings
Spike Jonze Anoints Bacaro With Celebrity Cred
On Monday we hit one of Bacaro’s bacchanalian opening parties and suggested a Halloween visit to preview the spooky (and soon-to-be-sceney) basement. Eater, in telling folks that the place wouldn’t open till Thursday, scared off the riffraff and we had no problem strolling in (again, no doorman or publicist or list, just word from a staffer that bubbly was on the house all night) and immediately tucking in to gratis plates of cuttlefish risotto, gnocchi, marinated sardines, spaghetti alle vongole, meatballs, and so on.
NewsFeed
Farm on Adderley Owners Launching Tiny Ditmas BistroDitmas Park is taking another step toward being the next big Brooklyn neighborhood with an addition to its scant restaurant scene. There now is the Farm on Adderley, Picket Fence, and a guy that cooks ribs on the street outside of left-wing cafe Vox Pop. But help is on the way, reports the Ditmas Park Blog. Gary Jonas and Allison McDowell, the owners of the Farm on Adderley, are planning on opening a small bistro on Newkirk Avenue, currently best known for its laundromats and ill-stocked Indian groceries. The two will be operating partners with Pacifico and Patois owner Jimmy Mamary. We asked McDowell about it, and she explained the plan: “It’s going to be tiny. We’re not doing a big, family-friendly neighborhood restaurant there. It’ll be more grown-up, European, but there won’t be a liquor license, just beer and wine. We’d like Tom Kearney, our chef at Adderley, to do the menu, but that’s still up in the air.” So, apparently, is the name: We’re suggesting the Barn, but only because Lentils & More is worse.
Newkirk Bistro Aims for Xmas Opening [Ditmas Park Blog]
Related: Best French Fries: The Farm on Adderley [NYM]
Neighborhood Watch
Babbo and Le Bernardin Alums Take On the West Village; Grayz Serving LunchChelsea: Cookbook author Judith Jones hosts a reading, book signing, and wine tasting tonight at Bottlerocket. [Bottlerocket]
Harlem: Looks like a new café and bakery called La Perle Noir is coming to the corner of Lenox and West 131st Street. [Uptown Flavor]
Long Island City: Tonight’s free tasting at Vine Wine showcases wines of Spain. [Joey in Astoria]
Midtown West: Grayz is now serving lunch. [NYS]
Tribeca: Eric Ripert’s A Return to Cooking includes lovely seasonal recipes but also pictures paintings from artist Valentino Cortazar, whose originals debut at the Hal Katzen Gallery at 459 Washington Street tomorrow. [Snack]
West Village: Dell’Anima from former Le Bernardin chef Gabriel Thompson and onetime Babbo sommelier Joe Campanale opens today at 38 Eighth Avenue. [NYT]
Foodievents
A Restaurant Gala on a Scale We Can Live WithIt’s event season in the New York restaurant world, so it’s not exactly news that there’s another charity gala featuring chefs from local restaurants giving out signature samples. But we love Careers through Culinary Arts Program’s A Taste of Fall. For one thing C-CAP is one of the coolest programs we know of, encouraging culinary talents in public high schools to find careers in the restaurant business. (The participating chefs are all New York City public-high-school graduates, the pride of Long Island City, Harlem, and Prospect Heights.) Plus, the scale of the event is a lot more manageable: It’s only $110, and $75 of that is tax deductible. C-CAP students will assist chefs from Asiate, the Four Seasons, Tabla, and other good restaurants. While you’re eating, $5 raffle tickets could score you a bunch of good stuff, including lunch at Café Boulud, dinner at Craftsteak, or a session with “hairstylist to the stars” Michael Stinchcomb (that’s the one we’re hoping for). So stop by Taj tonight — you can buy tickets at the door.
A Taste of Fall [C-CAP]
The New York Diet
Single Girl Imogen Lloyd Webber Hops Between the Waverly and Beatrice Inns
Imogen Lloyd Webber says she relishes dining as a single woman — “You can eat cereal for dinner if you want to” — and she should know. She’s the author of the recently published Single Girl’s Survival Guide. “When you’re dating someone,” she says, “you tend to keep up with their eating habits.” (Not that she wasn’t happy, when in town from London, to keep up with her father Andrew’s dinners at the late Manhattan Ocean Club). This week, though, she struck out on her own and hit some more au courant restaurants.
The Next Phase of the Keller Empire; Eater X Strikes AgainPlans in the works for an inn at French Laundry, a butcher shop called Bouchon Boucherie, and, of course, a burger joint, have some critics saying Thomas Keller is spreading himself too thin. [Bloomberg]
Gordon Ramsay may have booted chef Neil Ferguson from the London and severed a decade of ties with the chef because he was being too nice to employees, but Ferguson will have free rein in the kitchen when he opens Allen and Delancey. [Sunday Mirror]
Eater X prepared for his burrito-eating win on Saturday in Maine “by just eating candy for a day,” which he said helped clear his system. [Fox News]