Sonic Gets Closer to New York, But Blue Coconut Slush Eludes Us
If you’ve been to one of Sonic Drive-In’s 3,400-odd burger joints (you know, the ones with the carhops — some of them on roller skates) and have suburban nostalgia for the chocolate shakes, cherry limeades, and belly-busting 44-ounce slushes, you’ll have to travel 100 miles before you hit the nearest location (in Pennsylvania). That will change by the end of the year, says president of Sonic Industries, Scott McLain: The chain has broken ground on its first New Jersey outpost in Waretown (about an hour and a half from the city), with more to follow. What’s more, Sonic is working to bring a location to the New York metropolitan area within two years, but the closest it will get to Manhattan is Westchester County. “I don’t really know if we’ll move into the city or not,” McLain says, but he’s open to it. It’s time to get those petitions going.
Sonic [Official site]
Mediavore
High Tide for Water Prices; Yet Another BLT OpensAh, the joys of free-flowing water. Well, kind of free — the city water board just agreed to up water costs 11.5 percent this year, and another 11.5 percent next year. [NYP]
A guide to New York restaurants that play that wonderful organ music. [Gridskipper]
A stealth addition to the ever-expanding BLT empire: a BLT Steak in the Westchester Ritz-Carlton. [Westchester.com]
Mediavore
Bourdain Talks Smack About Chodorow, Others; The Joys of Rotting MeatThe joys of rotting meat, as explained by Robert’s Steakhouse chef Adam Perry Lang. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Tony Bourdain was captured on video at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival talking shit about Food Network personalities to a crowd. [Snack]
… And late yesterday, laid into Chodorow using Bruni’s Robert’s Steakhouse review as a pretext: “One might ask if it’s ever a good idea anyway to spend 40,000 bucks reminding the public that the New York Times think you suck.”
[Rulhman]
Back of the House
Startling Results of a Franco-American Summit; Queens Restaurant’s MobFrench journalists and top NY chefs and food personalities meet at Franco-American gastronomy summit. The consensus? The world needs fewer haute restaurants, more steakhouses, and to go to war to protect foie gras. [Bloomberg]
Le Binge: Gael Greene’s account of her French Eat-a-Thon [NYM]
The city contracted with the nephew of a former acting Gambino boss to run Caffe on the Green, Bayside’s answer to Tavern on the Green. This on the heels of the news that the Colombo family and the Russian mob together operate a golf course in Brooklyn. [NYP]
There are apparently a number of people who are enthusiastic about food and travel constantly sampling it. Among these are Jane and Michael Stern, Chowhound’s Jim Leff, and a guy who works for a
management and technology consulting firm. Who knew? [NYT]
Chow provides a sorely-needed molecular gastronomy cheat sheet, which not only explains
spherification, but even tells you how to pronounce the names of the movement’s major
exponents. [Chow]
A relatively inexpensive cooking school established in Westchester, boasting a 100% placement rate. Now about those wages … [7online]
The question of what constitutes “true Japanese” food to be settled once and for all, when the Japanese External Trade Organization begins certifying restaurants. [Mainichi Daily News]
