Free Gelato at Grom; Dollar Oysters at BoboPlus: Tequila shots for moms at Rodeo Bar in Gramercy, and a lecture on stir-fry at the Museum of Chinese in America in Soho, all in our daily roundup of neighborhood news.
BiCE’s New Milanese Bistro Open in Midtown West; Gary Robbins PreparingBedford-Stuyvesant: Egg didn’t make this list of top southern eats, but Five Spot Soul Food at 459 Myrtle Avenue was picked as a fave since dishes like Kentucky Turkey Chops and Charleston Low Country Smothered Chicken “sound good” even if they’re not necessarily authentic classics. [Gridskipper]
Chelsea: Klee Brasserie’s open for brunch and dinner on Easter, and you can order the “Thinly Sliced Easter Ham & Bio Egg,” which combines honey-glazed ham, deviled eggs, and capers, at both seatings. [Grub Street]
Lower East Side: The new vegetarian restaurant Broadway East adds to its sustainability cred by featuring local beer and wine. [Zagat Buzz]
Midtown East: The first soft-shell crabs of the season are now available at the Oyster Bar. [Grub Street]
Midtown West: Bistro Milano from team BiCE has opened at 1350 Sixth Avenue, and sidewalk seating opening this spring will double the restaurant’s 70-cover capacity. [TONY]
West Village: “Chef Gary Robins was the best thing to happen to the most recent Russian Tea Room relaunch. So, naturally, he was fired.” But, you’ll be able to taste his cooking downtown this spring, when rustic restaurant Sheridan Square opens at 134 Seventh Avenue South. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Neighborhood Watch
Johnny the Tofu-Maker’s Wobbly Treat Blows Into the East Village; ChinantlaBedford-Stuyvesant: Grungy bodega Chinantla, known for its Eat for Victory–approved $2 tacos, has just undergone a massive clean-deli renovation. The tasty tacos haven’t just survived the transition; they’re better. [Brooklyn Based]
Chelsea: Trestle on Tenth highlights the wines and cheeses of the Jura region (which extends through France and Switzerland) in special pairings on offer March 4 to 9. [Grub Street]
East Village: You can find high-quality prepackaged tofu by Kyoto’s “Johnny the Tofu-Maker, Blowin’ in the Wind” at Sunrise Mart, and the jiggly treat is so creamy you might want to forgo a sprinkling of soy sauce for a drizzle of honey. [Gothamist]
Hell’s Kitchen: Zanzibar has a new bar menu that’s served Monday through Saturday until 2 a.m. and includes Mediterranean meze and Asian appetizer platters. [Grub Street]
Meatpacking District: 4-Foodies hits up Sue Torres’s communal Mexican spot Los Dados for its next tasting event on Monday, March 10. [4foodiesusa.com]
Midtown West: Trying to decide between a Five Guys burger and one from Burger Joint? This handy midtown-hamburger slideshow should help. [Zagat]
Tribeca: David Bouley pulled back his application for a liquor license for Brushstrokes in response to community opposition, postponing, not bowing out of, the fight. [Eater]
Neighborhood Watch
Soul Food Comes to Bed-Stuy!; 2nd Avenue Deli’s Not Really KosherBedford-Stuyvesant: A “family-run seafood/soul food take-out spot” called 71.Ate has opened at 417 Nostrand Avenue, and while the fried whiting is tasty, the house-made banana pudding will definitely make you want to come back. [Eat for Victory/VV]
East Village: Ruhlman’s hosting a nose-to-tail dinner with “gut man” Chris Cosentino on Tuesday, March 4, at Astor Center. [Ruhlman]
Murray Hill/Kips Bay: Can the 2nd Avenue Deli really be called kosher if it’s open on the Sabbath? Many observant Jews, whom Frank Bruni has chatted with, say no. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Tribeca: Bouley has been denied a liquor license for his proposed Japanese restaurant and cooking school, Brushstrokes, “based on the history of the owner, having problems with the community in the past, and the way he runs his establishments.” [Eater]
Upper East Side: Mia Dona is currently BYOB until the liquor license comes through next week. [Eater]
Neighborhood Watch
Duck Necks Compete With Chicken Wings This Sunday; Midtown East Looking forBedford-Stuyvesant: If you don’t want to brave a sports bar Sunday but still want to catch the game, this restaurants-with-flat-screens list includes yet-to-open Rustik Tavern, which will be up and running by kickoff. There will only be a limited menu, but owner Frantz Metellus promises: “If I don’t have nachos, I’m nothing.” [Brooklyn Based]
Chelsea: Trestle on Tenth thinks it has the Super Bowl chicken-wing-tradition beat: braised and fried crispy duck necks with a garlic and anchovy dip. They’re not as adventurous as castrating a sheep with your teeth à la Giant Grey Ruegamer, but definitely easier to get your hands on; just pick up a few pounds on game day. [Grub Street]
Cobble Hill: “The natives are getting restless” that Trader Joe’s hasn’t opened, and the store’s PR company offers few answers. [Brownstowner]
East Village: Gramercy Tavern’s Haute Barnyard guru Michael Anthony is doing a Farm to Chef dinner at the Astor Center tomorrow night. Farmers, writers and activists aplenty will be present. [Grub Street]
Flatiron: Pinkberry on 26th Street at Third Avenue is now open. [Eater]
Midtown East: The Helmsley’s Annual Anti-Valentine’s Day Ball hopes to attract “the recently dumped and ‘disenchanted,’ as well as the happily single and those looking for love,” or you could just come to see the Ice-Carved Anti-Cupid Satan Oyster Bar (and make fun of the desperates). [Grub Street]
Midtown West: “Today, the food you find on most bars is the salty kind: chip, pretzels, etc. As anyone in the bar biz knows, these are … meant to make you thirsty, so you order more liquor,” but Keens is one of the last spots to offer sobering snacks of the bygone era: hard-boiled eggs, and they’re free. [Lost City]
Brooklyn’s Top Bed-and-Breakfasts; Free Cupcakes in the Financial DistrictBedford-Stuyvesant: Akwaaba Mansion at 34 Macdonough Street made it to the top of this list of Brooklyn bed-and-breakfasts. [Gridskipper]
Financial District: Crumbs has opened a bakery at 87 Beaver Street between Hanover Street and Wall Street, and to celebrate the shop will give away 1,000 cupcakes this Friday starting at 7 a.m. [Snack]
Harlem: Among its other delicacies, Fairway sells flagels, which are “to the bagel what nuggets are to fried chicken. When toasted, they are delightfully crunchy, but the inside still has the chewiness a bagel should — “just less of it” — because they’re flattened, of course. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Jackson Heights: The city’s first Tibetan street-food cart is up and running near the 74th Street stop. [Gothamist]
Lower East Side: Six Point Ales debuted a new flavor called 8 Days of Wheat at the Whole Foods Beer Room last night, and the first impression is that “it’s pretty darn good.” [Down by the Hipster]
Upper West Side: Senor Swanky’s has put its space on Columbus Avenue between 84th and 85th up for rent. So line up, if you just happen to have a business plan that incorporates giant chile peppers and underage drinking. [Eater]
Neighborhood Watch
Pamplona Debuts Lunch; Bed-Stuy Gentrifiers SlackingAstoria: Il Bambino at 34-08 31st Avenue has a new, yummy-looking menu. [Joey in Astoria]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: The area’s gentrification isn’t happening fast enough, as illustrated by such dining options as standard-issue Indian and spit-out sushi. [Eat for Victory/VV]
East Village: A new spot called Senor Pollo will open on First Avenue at 13th Street. [Eater]
Midtown: L’Impero has started Sunday suppers, homey four-course meals featuring more rustic cooking than you would usually find on the menu, from 4:30 to 9:30, for $42 a person. [Grub Street]
Murray Hill/Kips Bay: Pamplona is now open for lunch and serving plates of truffle-oil-poached egg on white-asparagus salad, not to mention confit of suckling pig with caramelized apples. [Grub Street]
Soho: Bun opens October 29, and 4-Foodies is hosting an event on the 30th with a chance to sample a variety of the dishes including short ribs wrapped on lemongrass skewers and Berkshire belly with nem sausage. [Grub Street]
Neighborhood Watch
Cheesesteak Sliders Coming to the Lower East SideBedford-Stuyvesant: The hippie operation at eight-year-old Doctor’s Cave Cafe still beats out the coffee at new spot Common Grounds, though the later has chess. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Flatiron: The crime rate in West Chelsea’s clubland may have dropped more than 30 percent over the last month, but Eugene’s, duvet and Avalon seem to have just dragged the debauchery east. [NYP]
Harlem: There’s a new greenmarket at East 99th Street between Madison and Park that will be open Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through mid-November. [Uptown Flavor]
Lower East Side: Get ready to dig into the menu of oysters, double-cut pork chops, and “cheesesteak sliders” at the sports bar coming to the old Tenement space, the Blue Seats. [Eater]
Nolita: The petite, new Noble Food and Wine on Spring Street, near Sweet & Vicious, will open to the public on Wednesday. [Down by the Hipster]
Openings
Bed-Stuy Residents Score an Alternative to Dunkin’ Donuts
This café-coffee-shop hybrid swung open its screen door for the first time last week (kitty-corner to a new Dunks), happily filling a small part of Bed-Stuy’s dining void. Owner and neighborhood resident Lisa Bayer is a former personal chef, and her menu of soups, salads, and sandwiches is above par (we tried a refreshing Brie, cucumber, and tarragon-mayo sandwich on a baguette), obsessive with regard to ingredients (the roast-beef-and-Fontina panini are yanked from the menu on days when the beef isn’t just-dead), and boasts waffles, French toast, and a breakfast panino during weekend brunch.
Mediavore
American Reclaims World Hot-Dog Record; Bruni Calls Out SietsemaAt a Nathan’s hot-dog-eating contest qualifier in Phoenix, American Joey Chestnut shatters the world record set by Takeru “the Tsunami” Kobayashi. [NYP]
In a rare critic-on-critic showdown, Frank Bruni comes down hard on Il Brigante, whose pizza the Voice’s Robert Sietsema called “the city’s most perfect evocation of the true Naples style.” Hardly, Bruni says. “Nothing about this pizza argued strongly for a trip outside your own neighborhood.” [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Related: New Restaurant Not Just for Lonely Mountain People [Grub Street]
A critical roundup of the city’s lobster rolls decrees Ed’s Lobster Bar “the world’s best.” [NYP]
Related: Consider the Lobster Roll [NYM]
Back of the House
Bourdain Smacks Down the TV Chefs; Great Restaurants HiringAnthony Bourdain takes on the TV food personalities. Here’s a taste: “SANDRA LEE: Pure evil. This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time.” [Ruhlman]
Many great New York restaurants are hiring. [VV]
Mama’s Empanadas and Papa’s Empanadas go to war. Clearly the Baby Empanadas are going to grow up very conflicted. [Gothamist]
