Brooklyn Brewery Experiments With Bacon BeerGarrett Oliver: “Either this will be the most amazingly disgusting thing you’ve ever tasted in your life. Or I shall rule the earth.”
Danny Meyer Can’t Close a Deal in Central ParkBrooklyn Heights: Brutal attacks on plastic restaurant mascots has become an alarming trend. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Central Park: Danny Meyer’s having trouble closing the deal on Shake Shack No. 2. [Down by the Hipster]
Clinton Hill: Pan y Mas is already shuttered; no word if it giving away too much free coffee was the culprit. [Clinton Hill Blog] But Community Supported Agriculture has finally found a new home at Christ’s Church on Clinton Street. [Brooklyn Record]
East Village: Birdbath bakeries offer from 25 to 50 percent off your order if you ride a bike to get there. [Gridskipper]
Flatiron: Tabla hasn’t given up on New Orleans; every bill includes a line for an optional Katrina-relief donation. [Gotham Gal]
Greenwich Village: Otto hostess harangued a party of eighteen over the limit of its dining time throughout a two-hour, $2,000 dinner. [Eater]
Little Italy: A mobster institution may no longer be in the family, but it looks like all debauchery won’t cease; the owner of L.A.’s Forty Deuce, Ivan Kane, will introduce burlesque to the Little Charlie’s Clam Bar space. [Eater]
Red Hook: The land Brooklyn Brewery’s been scouting for a new operation is described as “toxic soup.” [Gowanus Lounge]
Mediavore
Yep, 66 Going Soba; Trans Fats on the Run in Long Island66 will become Matsu Gen in “late spring” and specialize in soba noodles. [NYT]
Related: Vongerichten May Deep-Six 66, Serve Sushi and Soba Instead [Grub Street]
Landmarc, in the Time Warner Center, is wildly inexpensive relative to its location and the restaurants around it, and Steve Cuozzo is predicting boffo business. [NYP]
Related: Will Landmarc’s Downtown Cool Play Alongside Its Ritzy New Neighbors? [Grub Street]
Think you’ll get your lard fix in Long Island? Not so fast: Nassau County is planning a trans-fat ban. [Newsday]
Mediavore
School of Rock for Celebrity Chefs; Organic Produce Got in My BodegaIt had to happen: A cooking school will teach the fine art of celebrity chefdom. [Food Arts]
Albany is looking to get local and organic produce into low-income neighborhoods. [Daily Intel]
A peek inside the supersecret Bite Club. [Off the Broiler]
Related: Stop Being Perfect and Sign Up for Bite Club [Grub Street]
Neighborhood Watch
Brian Young Storms Tavern on the Green; Chipotle Challenger Comes to TownColumbus Circle–Lincoln Center: Brian Young, formerly of Le Bernardin and now-closed Mainland, has been named executive chef of Tavern on the Green. [NYT]
East Village: Sorry, no video: The Department of Health shuts down Blue 9 Burger, citing them for mice. [east village idiot]
Midtown East: Colorado-based burrito chain Qdoba Mexican Grill opens its first NYC location on East 34th Street between Second and Third Avenues. Chipotle unphased. [NYS]
Williamsburg: Too soon to start that Saint Patrick’s Day bender? Brooklyn Brewery debuts new Belgian-style ale, Brooklyn Local 1, that packs 9 percent alcohol. [The Food Section]
Back of the House
The Travails of the Produce Biz; A Rebuke to Our Rachael Ray DefenseAn inside look at what restaurants’ produce suppliers go through and the razor’s edge their business turns on. [NYT]
Nina Lalli believes that we were wrong to defend Rachael Ray, who, she says, just throws fatty food at the masses, with no care for their well-being. [VV]
Joël Robuchon has confirmed that he’s going to open a restaurant in Chicago; now it looks like Alain Ducasse will be doing the same. If, as some speculate, Ducasse never reopens here, we may actually end up behind Chicago in something. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Foodievents
Chefs Versus Firefighters!It doesn’t sound like a fair fight: firemen challenging chefs in the kitchen. But the organizers of the Iron Skillet Cook-Off, to be held Monday night at Strata, assure us that the event is no setup. “It’s been about 50-50 over the last five years,” Ingrid Maritato of World Cares Center told us. “The firefighters can hold their own.” The firemen create the dishes and the chefs, including Marc Murphy of Landmarc and Brian Bistrong of the Harrison, will try to execute their own, improved versions; the crowd gets to try both. There will also be a beer pairing by Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery. Admission is $150 and benefits World Cares Center, a disaster-volunteer organization. Go here to purchase tickets. Mon., Oct. 30. 6–10 p.m.
Iron Skillet Cook-Off
