Mary J. Blige and Foxy Brown’s producer, known to fans as Don Pooh, owns what is already being called the “hip-hop IHOP” that opened in downtown Brooklyn yesterday. [NYDN]
Related: The Phantom IHOP of Midtown West
Meatpaper magazine is a popular read with both carnivores and vegetarians, which is how the founders learned that bacon, delectable treat of treats, “is how vegetarians change their minds” when they revert to their meat-eating ways. [NYT]
Today in unsubstantiated rumors: David Bouley’s forthcoming Japanese restaurant/cooking school will open across the street from Upstairs at Bouley. [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
Related: David Bouley to Open Restaurant With Japan’s Top Cooking School
Star chef Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago has successfully completed therapy for his mouth cancer which, astonishingly, only caused him to miss fourteen services this year. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Related: Grant Achatz Reinvents the Cookbook Deal
Steve Cuozzo hates holiday-season dining and advises everyone to “avoid all restaurants in the tourist-trampled arc between Times Square and St. Patrick’s Cathedral until Jan. 2,” but he thinks Aquavit and Del Posto are worth a shot. [NYP]
Foodies including Anthos chef Michael Psilakis and Butter‘s Alex Guarnaschelli face off in a debate over polarizing foods like eggnog, capers, and anchovies. [NYP]
Jean-Georges Vongerichten is scouting locations in Aspen for a new restaurant to open by the next ski season. [NYP]
BLT master Laurent Tourondel and others chefs share their favorite Christmas recipes and memories. [NYS]
