New York Food & Wine Festival

Shang and Macao Trading Co. Make Debuts (Sort Of)

Last night we got our first taste of a couple of Fall Preview projects. Macao Trading Co., the new one from Employees Only, won’t open till November (no date set), but its chefs are already rocking signature jackets. At the “Midnight Music & Munchies” party — while jean-jacketed Govind Armstrong, Anne Burrell, and others mingled with the DailyCandy handbag-and-heels set and Tom Colicchio belted out Stones and Warren Zevon — Macao’s Jason Kosmas was serving up a bracing, sangria-like cocktail that might just be offered at the restaurant, since it isn’t offered at E.O.: A “Dr. Funk” made with dark rum, homemade grenadine, ginger beer, fruits, herbs, and absinthe. Before that, we had our first chance to taste Susur Lee’s creations for Shang at a Champagne Delamotte tasting in a balcony suite of the now “soft-opened” Thompson LES hotel. It’s too early to assess the Canadian chef’s pineapple-and-tofu skewers, and his crunchy, delicate Asian “cole slaw,” but good to see these (bar) chefs already making the scene.

Shang and Macao Trading Co. Make Debuts (Sort Of)