Catty Males Shake Beatrice; Charcuterie ManiaClinton Hill: There are a few places in the nabe to find gluten-free products, but one celiac sufferer would like to find out about any others. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Lower East Side: Video of a Tailor bartender doing his thing. [Snack]
Midtown East: Former Savoy chef Matt Weingarten’s year-long plans to start dinner service at Café St. Bart’s will come to fruition on May 5. [Zagat]
Upper West Side: Bar Boulud may claim the top charcuterie in town (though Mia Dona’s stepping up), but you can also find some tasty stand-ins at Café d’Alsace and elsewhere, including Fort Greene’s Stonehome Wine Bar. [Citysearch]
West Village: Spencer Morgan of the New York Observer supposedly slapped Hud Morgan from Men’s Vogue at the Beatrice Inn on Wednesday night because the latter didn’t respond to the former’s apology e-mail. A true New York noble. [Gawker]
Neighborhood Watch
Lotus Changing Hands; Pedigreed Smoked Fish Now Served in TribecaMeatpacking District: Tenjune’s Eugene Remm and Mark Birnbaum are reportedly poised to take over Lotus from David Rabin after eyeing the space back in September, but we’re not sure of the fate the waitress who dubbed the club a “tourist attraction.” [Down by the Hipster]
Midtown East: Café St. Bart’s may change its name to Inside Park at St. Bart’s by early 2008 when the restaurant reopens to show off its new renovations. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Prospect-Lefferts-Gardens: Lime, the new bar opening on Flatbush, has hoisted a sign, which has been described, possibly with sarcasm, as “pretty damn spiffy.” [Across the Park]
South Bronx: The produce is speaking for itself at the smallest food co-op in the city, which began operations in September and now has 30 members. Who wouldn’t want better-priced tomatoes whose “juices just burst in your mouth and you have that sensation of loveliness growing in your mouth”? [NYT]
Tribeca: Murray’s sibling Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish, on Chambers near West Broadway, had its grand opening this weekend. [Grub Street]
The In-box
I Want to Surprise My Parents With the Gift of Dance
Dear Grub Street,My parents are going to have their 40th anniversary next month, and I want to do something special for them: a surprise party. It would be really great if it were at a restaurant that had a garden so that they could dance outdoors, which is a big deal for them. Where can we go? We want to get them in without their knowing it’s a big affair.Barry
Openings
Spiegeltent Gives New Reason to Visit South Street SeaportNow in its second year, the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport is already becoming a summer standby akin to the Cyclone and ducking out of the office to quaff ’seccers at Café St. Barts (fashion girls, see you for lunch). This year grub provider Heartland Brewery has stepped things up in the food department and, under giant umbrellas near the performance tent, is serving entrées like poached lobster and crabmeat gazpacho in addition to the usual brews and booze available at the adjacent bar and outdoor beer garden. The Green Room, as the makeshift restaurant is called, is open daily from 5 p.m. (last seating at 1 a.m.), and there will be the occasional D.J. or live-music act. Given the marching bands and individual waterside hammocks, it’s safe to say this is one lobster-roll-serving eatery that isn’t a copycat.
The Green Room menu
The Green Room, South Street Seaport, 19 Fulton St., at South St.; 212-730-016.
NewsFeed
Wood Ovens, and Eventually Dinner Service, Coming to Café St.Beautiful, one-of-a-kind spaces rarely serve good food, for the simple reason that they don’t have to. But in bringing in former Savoy and Porcupine chef Matt Weingarten, the new owners of Café St. Bart’s have put in more effort than anyone had a right to expect. The place is already doing boffo business with its lunch menu, which consists of typically simple but potent Weingarten dishes like linguine and clams with pancetta lardons, summer savory, and wild ramps; pan-braised hake in a spring herb nage; and his signature grilled-lamb-and-prune-hyssop-butter sandwich.
NewsFeed
Matt Weingarten Bids Savoy Adieu, Brings His Lamb Sandwich to Midtown
The last time we heard about Matt Weingarten, the bespectacled, red-bearded chef’s first restaurant, Porcupine, had gone belly up, and he had brought his checked pants and his knives to Savoy as chef de cuisine. But Weingarten, an intellectual type who thinks about food night and day, couldn’t be contained forever, and he will be leaving Savoy in early April to head up Café St. Bart’s, the terrace restaurant attached to St. Bartholomew’s Church at Park and 50th. Weingarten will be consulting on the food this summer and in the fall remaking the menu as executive chef. What can diners expect? “Well, there won’t be any foams,” he says. “I’m not a molecular-gastronomy kind of cook. Everything will be very simple and classic.” He does assure us that he will be bringing with him the leg-of-lamb sandwich with prune-hyssop butter that he has carted around with him since Porcupine. Good. We were worried.
Café St. Bart’s, 109 E. 50th St., at Park Ave.; 212-888-2664.
