Sexy East Villager Open for New Year’s; Bar Blanc Opening Not ImminentEast Village: One of Gael Greene’s sexy-restaurant-picks, Strip House, made this list of New Year’s Eve dining options. [Restaurant Girl] Sakaya and its daily tastings are now just a day away. [Down by the Hipster]
Fort Greene: The new trattoria Caffe e’ Vino’s menu is so standard that it’s not doing a good jobs of tempting potential diners. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Union Square: The area “centered on Broadway south of Madison Square” was called Ladies Mile in the 1800s because of its concentration of retails shops. Nowadays, restaurants like Tocqueville, BLT Fish, and Bar Stuzzichini have made the locale a culinary destination. [NYT]
West Village: Bar Blanc is supposed to open on Saturday, but these pics of the unfinished space might tell a different story. [Eater]
The Other Critics
Bruni Finds Bar Stuzzichini Good Enough; Sietsema Worships InsiemeFrank Bruni gives Bar Stuzzichini one star, praising its small plates (which give him his obligatory Zeitgeist paragraphs at the top) and then pointing out that the room and service are basically that of a “midtown mess hall.” The moral? Aim low, price right, and execute, and the critics will give you the guarded praise you need to stay open. [NYT]
Here’s one we never would have predicted in a million years: Insieme getting the panegyric it deserves from Robert “horsehead soup in the Bronx” Sietsema. Interestingly, the one thing he didn’t like was the lasagne, which was the place’s proudest boast when it first opened. [VV]
We predicted recently that it was just a matter of time before someone came down on Wakiya, but we never dreamed it would be Danyelle Freeman. She hits the place hard, mostly for the “dull” and “skimpy” food but, not a killer at heart, gives them credit for service, cocktails, and soup dumplings. But it won’t be long before another, meaner critic really lets it fly. [NYND]
In the Magazine
This Week’s Issue Is All About Simplicity
The food news in this week’s issue concerns the simple, the elegant, and the obvious. A guy in Brooklyn tries to raise his food in his backyard. Adam Platt respondes to locavore earnestness by battening down with a box of Oreos. Two Italian restaurants have opened with unambitious, utterly familiar menus, and he likes one of them, Bar Stuzzichini, more than the other, Gemma, which was lucky to escape with a single star. Another Italian restaurant, Accademia di Vino, specializes in grilled pizza, good pasta, and lots of wine, which pleases the Insatiable Critic. In this week’s Openings, Alex Ureña gives up on foam, and another guy in Brooklyn opens a sandwich shop highlighted by a turkey sandwich with potato chips in it. Resto chef Ryan Skeen enjoyed the onion and tomato app at Peter Luger, and the bacon too, so he thought to make a recipe out of all three for In Season. And finally, the city gets three new choices for the age-old conundrum “coffee, tea, or milk.” It’s that kind of week at New York.
The Other Critics
Wild Salmon Saved by Salmon; Borough Food and Drink Gets Bronx CheerAs it has in so many other reviews, Wild Salmon’s raison d’être saves it from getting hammered. The excellence of the title fish is no longer in question. [NYT]
Related: Salmon Cured? [NYM]
Borough Food and Drink meets the world of criticism with a three- (of six) star review from Randall Lane, who finds its tribute to New York’s foods redundant and “leaden.” [TONY]
On Avenue Z (where else would you expect to find him?), Sietsema alights upon Temada, one of the city’s few Georgian restaurants, and is entranced by their turnovers, kebabs, and French fries. [VV]
Neighborhood Watch
Brooklyn Heights Resident Could Be ‘The Next Food Network Star’Brooklyn Heights: Resident Michael “Wild” Salmon, former host of a food radio show on Air America, could be named The Next Food Network Star. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Flatiron: Newly-opened Southern Italian joint Bar Stuzzichini is looking for a baker to join its team. [Eat For Victory/VV]
Murray Hill: A tipster has spotted signage imploring visitors to savor their last drinks at Third and Long; the bar has lost its lease. [Grub Street]
Tribeca: Brandy Library is hosting a single-malt scotch tasting tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. [Brandy Library]
West Village: Chumley’s doesn’t look like it will be reopening any time soon; meanwhile, tourists are still struggling to find its entrance, not realizing that the former speakeasy is truly closed. [NewYorkology]
Openings
Bar Stuzzichini Promises Conviviality, Eggplant
Though not technically the owner of Bar Stuzzichini (the place is in his wife Carolyn’s name), Gerard Renny is plainly its animating spirit – or so Rob and Robin suggest in this week’s Openings. Of course, although Renny, a veteran restaurateur and the author of The Men of the Pacific Street Social Club Cook Italian, brings deep feeling for southern-Italian conviviality to the eatery, its fate will be determined by chef Paul Di Bari’s namesake stuzzichini —small tapaslike appetizers ranging from southern-Italian standards like eggplant caponata and arancini (rice balls) to less familiar snacks like ricotta with saffron and honey, or baccala zeppole. You can skim the menu online here, thanks to our ever-acquisitive database, but it probably won’t be same without the friendly atmosphere.
Openings: Bar Stuzzichini, Bodeguita Cubana, and Cecel Crepe Cafe [NYM]
Bar Stuzzichini menu
In the Magazine
A Journey Through the Food Groups, and Thence to Bed
The typical New York diner (to say nothing of the typical New York reader) will generally get around to all the major food groups in the course of a week. There is the fish group, represented this week by Adam Platt’s one-star review of Wild Salmon, and the southern Italian sea bounty of Bar Stuzzichini, Rob and Robin’s lead opening. The meat group is well served by Prime Burger, the Insatiable Critic assures. The vegetable tribe appears courtesy of Mark Ladner’s spring-onion flan in In Season. Finally, after all this eating, all most of us would want is a bed to lie down in, and Rob and Robin provide some tips for that as well.
