JudgeFudge

here it is!

2010-01-06T12:55:00.001-08:00

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Photo: Gray's Papaya on 37th street

2009-10-22T07:55:00.001-07:00

The stretch of 8th Avenue between Madison Square Garden and Port Authority is one of the most depressing parts of Manhattan. Even if these blocks are now flooded with Starbucks and Chase Bank branches, it's still the weird, cold, vaguely threatening land of 80's Eddie Murphy movies and hammy "hey, I'm walking here!" New York cliche. The Gray's Papaya on 37th St. seems to be doing its best to keep the old and the new, the good and the bad of the neighborhood in check.[bxA]

Three Stars for Marea

2009-10-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Michael White and Chris Cannon on their three star review today in the NYT. While I was hoping that critic Sam Sifton might drop a big fat juicy four star on White and Cannon's high-class charmer, three stars is perhaps the more appropriate rating. Sifton sort of redeemed himself in my mind with the Marea review -- it contains some elegant prose, it's informative and fun, with lots of sharp twists and turns of the pen. He's brought his A-game, and didn't even make any awkward references to hip-hop lingo, as did in his two star of DBGB's last week. There was one passage, however, that truly belongs on his burgeoning greatest hits list...[bxA]

On describing a delicious appetizer:

The very first item on the menu at Marea is ricci, a piece of warm toast slathered with sea urchin roe, blanketed in a thin sheet of lardo, and dotted with sea salt. It offers exactly the sensation as kissing an extremely attractive person for the first time — a bolt of surprise and pleasure combined. The salt and fat give way to primal sweetness and combine in deeply agreeable ways. The feeling lingers on the tongue and vibrates through the body. Not bad at $14 a throw — and there are two on each plate.

Sexy Sifty, what have you done?

Four Stars for Marea Tonight?

2009-10-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

After laying a big fat deuce on DBGB's last week in his first review as NYT food critic, Sam Sifton is about to deliver his second star rating to Marea, Michael White and Chris Cannon's pricey Central Park South Italian seafood joint. Now, conventional wisdom says that Marea is a lock for three stars -- the food, dining room and service are certainly all there, and many, many critics have already awarded it three stars or the equivalent. So, sure, Marea, three stars, that's the safe bet. But, for one second, could we consider, just consider, the possibility that Marea might join The Four Star Club Tonight? Hear me out, people:
[bxA]
I think Sifton's two star review of DGBG's skewed WAY too high. I know I'm in the minority here, but I was really underwhelmed by the place on my only visit. Sure, its possible I was there on an off night, but of the many dishes my party tried, about half were totally off, and the other half showed the potential to be a lot better. The food was, however, the thing that Sifton liked the most in his review. So, maybe, Sifton is easy when it comes to food. If that's true, than Marea might blow.his.mind.

More importantly, though, I can't help but feel like a four star Marea review might be the perfect strategical opportunity to let the Siftonator gain gravitas in the food world. In the weeks counting down to Bruni's departure, the odds were that it might be his last review, maybe even the first new four star restaurant to come about of his tenure (turns out EMP got that honor). By the time Bruni filed his last review, every big critic had already reviewed the place months before. It sort of seems like the times dining section put the Marea review aside for Sifton, maybe so that he could have a big moment early on. While a three star review might not raise his profile much, a four star review might even get people that don't read food blogs to take notice of Sam Sifton, the new NYT food critic. Also, understanding Marea's price point, a four star review might be an opportunity to suggest something about an economic up swing where fine dining is concerned. A lot of Bruni's four star EMP review revolved around its value. Marea is an old school expensive restaurant, and maybe a four star would be a way of saying that its time that we start thinking about these kind of places a bit more. Also, would anybody in the food world really complain about letting Marea join the four star club?

I'm calling it (perhaps foolishly) on a four star. He's bald. He likes hip hop. He's Sam Sifton, and he's the new sheriff in town.

I'm back!

2009-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, good to see you. If you're in any way a frequent visitor to this site (and thanks), you might have noticed that it's been some pretty slim pickins as far as posts have been concerned around here recently. The short story is that I've been really busy, but that's actually a really lame excuse. I'm sure you're busy too, but you still take the time to read this blog, right? I know I've got a long way to go in terms of making it up to you, but maybe I can start with a piece of food porn? Maybe a picture of a lovely Mexican pulled pork dish, panuchos de cohinata?

[bxA]
The real reason why things have been so quiet around here is that I was looking for, found and started a new job, and I've been doing some other writing as an intern for another food blog, the wonderful, the mighty, the majestic eater.com. Its been a real trip. The people at Eater are great, and as an intern, I've had some crazy adventures, like:

-- Stalking Michele and Barack
-- Standing in a meat locker at DeBragga and Spitler
-- Watching the Artichoke cousins get denied a liquor license
-- Eating lots of street meat in Corona Park
-- Running down all the crazy fried chicken people are making now
-- Dishing out the best deals in town
-- Looking back on 68 years of Gourmet covers

..and lots of other stuff too. At any rate, thanks again for checking out this site, and although I know you have no reason to believe me, I promise to keep filling it with fun things for you to waste your time reading at work. Expect more posts, like, frequently, and like, really soon.

Also I'm tweeting under a different name now: Twitter.com/gregmorabito

Love eternz, JF

Sweet Jesus: The Donald Has an Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor

2009-09-20T17:07:00.000-07:00

Donald Trump is many things - real estate titan, reality television star, hairpiece cautionary tale -- little did I know that there is one more string to his bow: Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor owner.

[bxA]

That's right, The Donald keeps a good old American Ice Cream Parlor in the basement of the Trump Building on 5th ave. Nestled in a sea of gold-trim and fine corinthian marble, Trump's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Shoppe is an oasis calm amongst the frenzied dealings of high finance. A place for businessmen to get their two scoops of peanut brickle and mint chip, and let the worries melt away.

Ice Cream not your thing? Donald's got you covered, with his own line of Trump Jelly Beans. Cheer up Charlie! No golden ticket or glass elevator is necessary to enter this world of pure imagination, just use the escalator to the basement.

The Final Touch: Motorino 2's Snappy New Signage

2009-09-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

With just hours to go until Motorino Part Deux opens its doors, I present a photo of its totally awesome new signage. It's official: this baby is ready to go!

The Smell of Desperation: Oliver's Brunch Signage

2009-09-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

I know that times are tough out there, and I suppose that $13.95 for a two-drink brunch in a West Village pub inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark is a pretty good deal, but if the gigantic sign in Oliver's window doesn't scream desperation then I don't know what does.[bxA]

Birdbath In the Old Vesuvio Space, Huh?

2009-09-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

I guess it's cool that Birdbath is moving into the space old Vesuvio space. I know this doesn't make any sense, but it would be great if they could just keep the old window and awning signage the way it is.

Sneak Peak Inside Motorino 2!

2009-09-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

With just a few days to go until the second branch of Mathieu Palombino's Motorino Pizza opens up in the old Una Pizza Napoletana space, I present a few walk-by snapshots of its remodeled interior!

Green stripes? Check. Framed photos of the Old Country? Check. Also, looks like Motorino Part Deux will be packing more tables than UPN ever did. So far, the decor kind of reminds me of a cross between an old-timey ice cream parlor and somewhere young Ray Liotta would work at the beginning of Goodfellas. Cool! [bxA]

JudgeFudge's Suggestions for New Shake Shack Locations

2009-09-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Eater announced last week that in addition to opening seven Shake Shacks in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, Danny Meyer also has plans to open up three more locations in New York within the next year. Because Danny didn't offer any specifics in regard to locations, here are some he might want to consider: [bxA]

1. Astor Place -- The original Madison Square Park location is only about fifteen blocks away, but a Shake Shack in the old Starbucks location would be a huge hit with NYU and Cooper Union students for whom anything north of 14th Street is a mystery. Tourists are always checking out St. Marks, Astor Place is just a ten minute walk for West Village families, and throngs of bar and club goers from the East Village and the Lower East Side would flock to a location here if it were open late enough. The old Starbucks even looks like the original Shake Shack . . .

2. South St. Seaport -- While tourists love the South Street Seaport because they feel like it's where real New Yorkers go, real New Yorkers generally avoid it like the plague. Adding a Shake Shack to the Fulton St. open mall would be game changing as it would attract Wall Streeters, City Hall workers, and Manhattanites who want a vital third reason to go to the Seaport other than the Ikea Ferry and a decent view of the Brooklyn Bridge.

3. Park Slope, 7th avenue near Prospect Park -- I think it's safe to say that at least one new Shake Shack will be in Brooklyn. While I'm rooting for Dumbo, I think that Danny Meyer will want to replicate the success of his UWS location by opening up shop in a family oriented neighborhood close to a park with a lot of foot traffic. So, Park Slope it is. This would be the least visited Shake Shack location by tourists or people from other neighborhoods, but I'm sure that Park Slopers would be proud to have a Shake Shack to call their own, and would make it a smash hit. Also -- Five Guys had no problem opening in this neighborhood about a year ago.

4. The High Line -- It's true, the West Side already has its Shake Shack, but a location under or around the High Line would be the other big attraction that the neighborhood really needs to bring tourists and foot traffic to the area. Residents of Chelsea and the West Village would flock to it, as would day trippers checking out the High Line park. A Shake Shack would also be a delicious, affordable food option in a neighborhood overcrowded with glitzy, high end eateries.

Update: Mere minutes after writing this post, Eater broke the very exciting news that the first new Manhattan Shake Shack location has been announced! It will be in Nolita on the corner of Mulberry and Prince Street. Downtown Manhattan, you have been warned. Start hitting those treadmills now!

Happy Labor Day From JudgeFudge!

2009-09-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Labor Day! 'Tis the season for firing up the grill one last time, seeing third rate Sandra Bullock vehicles, and spending time with family and friends, safe in the knowledge that your children will be heading back to school in a mere matter of hours. I know it's not really a gift giving holiday, but I got you something anyway[bxA]

A picture of a hamburger!

This particular burger is the Bistro Burger from the Corner Bistro -- I ate it a few weeks ago and it was delicious! The burger snobs will say that their beef isn't the most flavorful, and that the burgers are precooked then reheated before it is served to you -- all true, all true. The thing is, for $5.25 a Bistro Burger (served with bacon and American cheese) is a savory, sloppy delight. Sure, there are better burgers in this city, but not when you're eating it.

Applemania Hits a Snag: TripeGate

2009-09-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

While New Yorkers are thrilled that wunderkind chef Nate Appleman will be making his New York debut later this fall at the helm of Pulino's Pizzeria, some denizens of Nate's hometown of San Francisco aren't so happy with a few things he has had to say about their fair city on his way out the door. In an Appleman profile that ran in the Times this week, Nate dropped this little nugget:

"In San Francisco the audience is easy. You put tripe in a bowl and tell them it's from a humanely raised cow and they're going to eat it."

Angered, confused, and seeking answers, San Francisco Chronicle readers turned to food critic Michael Bauer to make sense of this. Did The 'Apps really diss SF, Mike?! [bxA]

In a blog post Bauer defends Appleman, saying that if anything, dude was praising the way the city's diners embrace challenging foods and care for freshness and sustainability, but he does note that San Franciscans are generally "a sensitive lot." While I mostly agree with Bauer's take on the situation, I'm not sure Appleman's comment didn't contain at least some small dig at San Francisco diners. Let's be honest here: tripe is one of the most disgusting foods known to man. It tastes like feet.

Bauer also draws our attention to another Appleman quote from the Times piece:

"New York is totally different. In fact, I'm not sure what you have to do in New York."

It's a good question, Nate. Maybe keep tripe off the menu at Pulino's?

Restaurants in Mad Men: Drinks and Room Service at The Savoy Plaza Hotel

2009-09-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

In the Mad Men episode "For Those Who Think Young," Don and Betty Draper celebrate Valentine's Day 1962 with drinks and room service at The Savoy Plaza Hotel. Located on the majestic corner of East 59th Street and Central Park South, The Savoy was just across the street from the Plaza Hotel, and became known as its younger, sexier counterpart.[bxA]

The Savoy Plaza was built in 1927 by the Childs family, whose chain of eponymous upscale American eateries set the standard for restaurant franchises in the last half of the twentieth century. It was demolished in 1964 to make way for the General Motors building which now houses, among other things, FAO Shwartz and The Apple Store.

Although the heyday of The Savoy is relatively short by New York Hotel standards, its lounge where Betty and Don have drinks was considered one of the most elegant and contemporary of its time. The scene between the Drapers certainly echoes this. Beginning with Betty descending the stairs in slow motion, it is one of the first times you sense Don trying to recapture a moment lost to time.

After a drink at the lounge, and some bad sex in the hotel room, Betty orders room service. She asks for something special and "out of season," eventually settling on a rare petit filet and a half an avocado filled with crab meat. The room service was presumably from Trader Vic's on the first floor of The Savoy, which specialized in steak, seafood and exotic cuisines. Trader Vic's is the restaurant that started the "tiki" craze, eventually expanding to 25 locations across the country. While the notion of a tiki bar seems cheesy by today's standards, Trader Vic's was well reviewed by The New York Times in 1958 and became such a destination for the rich and famous that when the Savoy closed its doors, the Plaza hotel bought the restaurant and moved it across the street.

I find it interesting that Mathew Weiner and Co. chose The Savoy Plaza as the spot where the Drapers try to rekindle their flame, because unlike a lot of other establishments namechecked in Mad Men, the hotel's reputation has been somewhat lost to history. In the scenes at The Savoy, you're left with the impression that, despite their problems, Don and Betty might still be capable of being the beautiful, sexy and sophisticated couple that everyone else sees them as. I guess it's fitting that Matthew Weiner chose to set this scene in a place that only seems to exist in the rose colored memories of long, long ago.

Things I Ate in Port Townsend, WA

2009-09-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

I took trip to Port Townsened, Washington with my girlfriend last week to visit her family and enjoy a little R & R. Port Townsend is a small coastal town about two hours northwest of Seattle -- it famously spawned the bumper sticker "Port Townsend: We're Here Because We're Not All There".[bxA]

The best thing I ate on the trip was a fish taco from a street vendor at the annual Uptown Street Fair. I don't know why New York can't get fish tacos right. This one was great -- three large pieces of heavily battered, perfectly fried cod, hugged by fresh guacamole, pico de gallo and a light but creamy beschamel sauce. Seriously, this needs to make the cross country trip.

Did you know that New York is not the only place that has food trucks? I didn't try coffee from the Java Gypsy coffee truck, but I can vouch for the fact that the barista, who looked like a young Stevie Nicks, was a beast on the espresso machine even though she had a toddler in a sling strapped to her.

Also at the Uptown Street Fair: this woman chillaxing in a baby carriage stuffed to the brim with fresh vegetables.

Breakfast is a big deal in Port Townsend. The Hudson Scramble at The Port Hudson Cafe is superb -- scrambled eggs, spinach, mushrooms, roasted new potatoes and nicely smokey bacon, smothered in very good mozzarella cheese. I haven't had a fresher tasting egg dish anywhere in New York.

Port Hudson's cherry cornmeal pancakes are also a hit. The mix of slightly salty batter and sour cherries really sing when butter and maple syrup are liberally applied.

Waterfront Pizza is a Port Townsend institution. For over 25 years they have been making a durable sourdough crust pie, with a slightly sweet marinara sauce and a well dispersed layer of good commercial grade mozzarella.

I loved how the andoullie sausage on the half sausage half regular pie we ordered was layered in a perfectly even blanket, and added a rich and spicy kick to what is a very starchy pizza. Comparing Wafterfront to John's or DiFara's is an apples to oranges kind of thing, but even by pizza snob standards, this is very, very good stuff.

Coffee. Where to start? There seem to be as many coffee places in Port Townsend as there are mailboxes. I think I tried about three different cups of coffee every day I was in town. On average, the coffee was much, much better than anything we have in New York, mostly because everyone brews it very strong.

The coffee from Sweet Laurette's is the closest facsimile to what I consider to be the best coffee in the world -- Peet's from Berkeley, California. In a blind taste test, I don't know if I could tell the two apart. Sweet Laurette's uses Umbria Coffee Company beans -- their drip coffee has a rich, ashy taste akin to a good piece of dark chocolate.

Tyler Street Cafe also has excellent drip coffee, which miraculously has no trace of bitterness, even though it is dispensed from large self-serve urns. The beans are from Seattle-based Caffe Vita -- the brew isn't as rich as Sweet Laurette's, but it is just as strong.

The Poulsbohemian Coffeehouse in the nearby town of Poulsbo is a charming old cafe perched on a bluff overlooking Liberty Bay. Great vibe, sufficiently strong if slightly acrid coffee from the Mukiliteo Coffee Company. I'm told espresso is the thing to get here.

I was excited to try the coffee from Undertown Coffeehouse, as they serve Stumptown beans, the Portland-based coffee company that is all the rage in New York right now. I've had Stumptown from maybe five or six different places in NYC, and each cup has been god awful. Their coffee is always weak and has a weird perfumey taste, like someone tried to add "coffee flavor" to the beans or something. I figured that if there was one place to try Stumptown, it would in the trendy twentysomething hangout in downtown Port Townsend.

It was apparent that the gang at Undertown knew what they were doing. Upon ordering a cup of drip, they gave me the option of having the dregs of a pot that that was already being served, or a fresh cup from a pot that had just been brewed (they throw their coffee away after thirty minutes). I opted for the older pot, and my girlfriend got a cup of the fresher stuff. As I fixed my coffee, I wondered, was I about to have some of the best coffee of my life?

Nope. Both cups of the Stumptown coffee tasted exactly like they do in New York. I give up. Stumptown makes horrible coffee. While they might know a lot about marketing their brand, they certainly don't know the first thing about what coffee should taste like. I swear to god -- this cup in particular tasted like a Whoppers malt ball.

The Fountain Cafe is the kind of restaurant that simply doesn't exist in New York. The decor is funky, there's one dude on the kitchen who cooks everything, the wine list is stellar, the pastas are splashy but very good, the seafood is fresh and properly seasoned, the desserts are big gooey lip smackers, and everything is reasonably priced.

On our last few days in town, we kept hearing of places to try and foods to sample that we never got around to. Port Townsend is a relatively small town -- population nine thousand -- but it is something of a cultural hub for the area. There seem to be a lot of people passing through, whether it is weekenders staying at a B and B, or sailors in town because of its many harbors and dry-docks -- I guess it makes sense that the food would be so solid, and the coffee would be like rocket fuel.

Thoughts on Julie & Julia

2009-08-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

So, I finally checked out Julie & Julia. Here are some thoughts:

-- If Julie Powell wanted to pay respect to Julia Child, would she really leave a stick of partially melted butter under her portrait at The Smithsonian?

-- OMG Amy Adams' haircut! It goes a long way to tip the annoying/cute scales in her favor.

-- Meryl Streep can do no wrong. With this movie and Mamma Mia, she's probably your mom's favorite actress right now.

-- I didn't like the actor who played Julie Powell's husband, especially whenever he dipped his fingers in something, shoved it into his mouth and went 'OH mug gawd, you mrade thiss?!"

[bxA]

--Frank Bruni is the dinner guest in the cream colored jacket at the end of the film? WTF? I've seen that photo in press for the movie a million times and never made the connection. HE WAS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT.

-- Look out people! We've seen the Manic Pixie Dream Girl many times before, but we've never seen her with a spatula -- and it worked. I bet you five bucks that in Zooey Deschanel's next film her character will be obsessed with cooking/baking/eating/food blogs/The Joy of Cooking, etc.

--Who's doing the dishes in the Powell household? I didn't see a dishwasher in their perfectly cluttered apartment...

-- It's nice to see Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep rekindling their great on-screen chemistry. Also, his inclusion set up a nice thematic link to Big Night, a far better food film than this one.

-- The brown haired actress that played Julia Child's co-author -- did she bone up on her French accent by watching old Pepe Le Pieu cartoons?

-- I loved seeing Long Island City portrayed as the great unchartered wilderness of New York. You know, the 7 train runs there, right?

-- It was fun to see the back of Ed Levine's head in the scene at Dean and Deluca, but isn't Ed more of a Fairway/Zabar's kind of guy?

Let's Get This Party Started: Hennessy Colada at Dallas BBQ

2009-08-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Do you like the smooth, rich taste of Hennessy brand cognac, but wish that it was mixed with ice and milk, zapped in a blender, finished off with fresh whipped cream and served in a margarita glass the size of a small trash can?

Then head down to Dallas BBQ for their new Hennessey Colada. It makes for a refreshing, potent aside to a plate of jumbo fried chicken wings, and provides the perfect antidote to those awkward first-date jitters. You're a class act, and your lady-friend will know it the minute you order one of these bad boys. Get your swirl on![bxA]

Cool Looking Cakes from Pictures of Cakes

2009-08-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

Jessica Reed is a brooklyn based blooger, who's site Pictures of Cakes covers all things cake-world related. One of my favorite things about her site are the pictures of the cakes she bakes herself -- Jess has a knack for making historically themed and aesthetically challenging cakes. A few of my favorite pics of her work, after the jump:[bxA]

Check it out.

Democracy Through Pork Buns

2009-08-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have said a lot of things about David Chang, but I don't think he's ever been given credit for being New York's most democratic restauranteur. His food is always reasonably priced, inventive and satisfying, his dining rooms are designed to accommodate solo diners as well as larger parties, and his one restaurant that takes reservations has an online system specifically designed to prevent any favoritism or special treatment.

And if there is one dish that exemplifies his democratic sensibility, it is his pork bun.

[bxA]

A single order gets you two soft homemade chinese-style buns filled with juicy seared pork belly, slivers of pickled cucumber and tangy hoison sauce. For nine dollars, it's a perfectly substantial meal, and in a city obsessed with pork sandwiches, this is surely the most savory and palate-pleasing.The pork bun is available at three of his four restaurants, including the counter-service-only Momofuku Milk Bar, where it is prepared to order and served exactly as it is at the other two. As Chang's empire continues to expand and his menus become more ambitious, it's great that he keeps this on the menu at the Milk Bar for those times when one can't afford to sit down for a proper meal at Ssam or The Noodle Bar.

Mixing Cocktails: You're Doing it Wrong

2009-08-26T14:43:00.001-07:00

Today, The New York Times takes a look at the new ways bartenders are making drinks, and it's some pretty crazy stuff. Basically, hand cut ice the size of Rubix cubes are all the rage (they have less surface area than a bunch of smaller cubes, duh), and there's a guy in Japan who has developed a superior martini shake method over the past 40 years so complicated and scientific only a few others have been able to master it.

We ain't talking fuzzy navels here.

[bxA]

The Scoop from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory

2009-08-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

I figured the odds of The Brooklyn Ice Cream factory being good were slim to none. Despite its promising old-timey store front, the BICF is located smack in the middle of a grizzly, barren block in North Greenpoint, a stone's throw away from where Newton Creek splits Brooklyn from Queens. One unbearable August afternoon, I stopped in for a scoop -- and guess what? It turns out this place is totally great! [bxA]

The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory serves only eight classic flavors, all of which are made in house. My guess is that they must do a lot of business at local restaurants, as their shop was only a small part of a larger facility and there was a lot of loading and unloading of tubs of ice cream out of the front door while I was there.

I sampled the Peaches and Cream. This is a textbook version of the dessert -- smooth, supremely creamy, and studded with flecks of real peaches. Because they only make and serve a few flavors, I have a feeling everything is probably pretty good, and from the set up behind the bar, it looks like they're equipped to make some next-level sundaes.

I plan on going back before the end of the summer to sample the rest of the goods. If you find yourself ambling across the Pulaski bridge on a hot summer day, or if your Newton Creek fishing trip turns out to be a bust, I highly recommend cooling off with some ice cream in the cozy front room of the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Food and Dining from Blackmark

2009-08-23T13:48:00.001-07:00

Leah Hayes (aka Blackmark) is an amazing Brooklyn-based illustrator and musician. You may recognize her work -- it's been featured everywhere -- but the sketches and illustrations she features daily on her blog are really something. Here are some of my favorite food and dining related sketches:

[bxA]

Check it out.

Applemania Hits the Bowery: Pulino's Bar and Pizzeria Coming in December

2009-08-21T17:19:00.001-07:00

Grubstreet reports that James Beard Award winning, SF pizza-and-pig wunderkind Nate Appleman will be making his New York debut at restaurant king Keith McNally's (previously unnamed) Bowery pizza emporium, Pulino's Bar and Pizzeria.

[bxA]

Any previous intel about this project indicated that this would be a casual whole pie and slice joint catering to the downtown night life crowd. Appleman's involvement instantly makes this more of a formal dining concept, and my guess is McNally will create a typically magical dining room and make this a downtown hotspot to rival Daniel Boulud's DBGB, which is directly across the street.

Slated for a December opening, Pulino will cap off The Year of the High Profile Pizzeria, with Keste, Co. and Veloce already leading the pack. It's hard to imagine this meeting of East Coast and West Coast minds being anything but a huge success. With any luck, Christmas might come a few weeks early this year.

Book Review: Frank Bruni's Born Round

2009-08-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

Born Round is as much a book about food as it is about Frank. The man loves food -- fancy food, trashy food, homemade food, take-out -- you name it, he likes it. And as a reader, you want to eat most of it. So while the book features relatively little about his tenure as the most feared man in New York dining, Bruni's memoir is a fascinating read. [bxA]

Frank Bruni attacks life. From a young age, he was a champion (almost Olympic qualifying) swimmer, a gifted student who rode through college on a full scholarship, and as an adult, a crack journalist who shot through a series of increasingly prestigious assignments and positions. Although the through-line for his story may be the personal ups and downs of his career in journalism, he always brings it back to what he ate along the way.

Frank Bruni's relationship with food is complicated, but one that I think a lot of people will identify with. Growing up in a middle class suburb in Connecticut, he had a belief instilled in him from his first generation Italian American family that an abundance of food meant prosperity, and that well cooked meals were a sign of love. Bruni describes the epic Italian feasts and holiday gatherings from his youth with an exhilaration reminiscent of the best scenes in Goodfellas. Some of the most compelling passages of the book detail with awe the culinary traditions that his immigrant grandparents celebrated long before was even born.

Like many people, Bruni also derived tremendous fulfillment from the act of eating too much, and a lot of his progression through life is seen through the lens of his body image issues. Over the years his diets and the relapses from them included Atkins, periods of purging, fasting, using Mexican speed and Ex-lax to keep the pounds off. In the hands of a different writer these passages might seem maudlin, but Bruni gives the impression of being in control of his habits and you don't feel sorry for him, so much as admire his perseverance and honesty.

On the road to becoming restaurant critic for the Times, Bruni writes about the good and the bad with humor, clarity and a lightness of touch that is completely charming. While it's a treat to hear about his feuds with Jefferey Chodorow and other gossip from his stint as The New York Times restaurant critic, his tales from the epicenter of candidate George W. Bush's press entourage, and his days as an unlikely film critic for the Detroit Free Press are equally compelling. It's true that some parts do drag a bit, like the details of the his fitness regime for the Times, which close the book. But more than anything, reading Born Round feels like catching up with an old friend over a sumptuous dinner and discovering the remarkable life you never knew they lived.

As a side note:

Because of his larger-than-life status and anonymity, Bruni has been the source of much playful teasing from many a food blog and journalist (myself included). I now present the best pieces of trivia from Born Round:

-- Bruni is a cheesteak man.
-- Bruni loves Tori Amos.
-- He once watched Sandra Bullock undress in her trailer on the set of While You Were Sleeping while listening to Des're's "You Gotta Be."
-- He was inspired by Flashdance to get a bicycle.
-- He calls former New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes, "Biff."
-- As an intern at Newsweek he once started the rumor that Mary Tyler Moore had died--the story was eventually picked up by the New York Post.
-- He saw action in an armored vehicle during the outbreak of the Gulf War.
-- For a time, Bruni frequently ate Tyson ready made chicken breasts while driving in his car, leaving the discarded bones in the passenger side seat for months on end.
-- In his acknowledgments, he thanks incumbent food critic Sam Sifton.

Thanks for the memories, Frank. See you in the funny papers.

Bruni Goes Out With The Redhead

2009-08-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Frank Bruni will end his tenure as The New York Times food critic with a review of East Village soul food hotspot The Redhead. Although the Redhead might seem like an odd review to go out on given that it is basically a small one year old bar-cum-restaurant with sensational, moderately priced southern food, I think that Bruni has very specific designs for this review. [bxA] Despite its meager trapping, The Redhead is helmed by former chefs from Eleven Madison Park, which Bruni crowned the sixth four star restaurant in New York last week. More importantly though, the success story of this scrappy upstart is one that I think Bruni will take to heart to express how very much the New York dining world has changed in the five years since he began as food critic for the Times. Bruni was the critic during a transitional period of food journalism, a time when food bloggers started to not only post reviews of restaurants faster than traditional media outlets, but with more photos and looser, casual style. Bruni met and embraced this change head on by not only taking to the blogs himself, but by being the warm, entertaining critic whose style and taste spoke to the Manhattan elite as well as those with slimmer pocketbooks and shorter attention spans. Five years ago, the Jeffery Chodorows of the world were opening up pretentious coliseum-sized mega restaurants to the delight of many diners. Now a days, some of the most sought after tables in New York are tiny downtown spots with young, ambitious chefs severing inventive, satisfying, locally sourced food. The Redhead fits this description to a tee. Bruni was also one of the first people to file in on the Redhead back in December with a round up of affordable dinners for two, and strangely enough, Bruni's replacement, Sam Sifton was spotted eating there last week. Could we expect the Siftonator to make an appearance in the review?

I had an opportunity to dine at The Redhead back in January -- for my birthday-- and while the food was excellent, the restaurant is dark, cramped, and very noisy. I think we can expect a very positive one star from Bruni as his swan song to the Dining Section of The Times.

Update: The Redhead gets the one. It's an optimistic review, with much props paid to Meg Grace and Co.'s pull-yourself-up-by-the-boot-straps attitude and satisfying soul food. Congrats to Team Redhead. Bruni has left the building!

Restaurants in Mad Men Season 2: Lutèce

2009-08-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Of all the great restaurant scenes in Mad Men, perhaps none expresses the elegance and sophistication of Manhattan dining in the 1960s than the show's re-creation of famed East 50th street Alsatian eatery Lutèce. [bxA]

Shortly after opening in 1961, Lutèce became a dining room for the rich and powerful. While French food had always been popular in the New York fine dining world before Lutèce, chef-owner Andre Soltner's unique mix of old world elegance and hearty Alsatian food proved irresistible to those who could afford it. Soltner's insistence on using only the freshest locally sourced ingredients was also years ahead of its time. The dining room at Lutèce was beloved not only for its graceful, highly European accents, but also for its small number of tables (eighteen, four of which were in the garden), and emphasis on comfortability -- its homeyness. The New York Times describes Soltner as "arguably America's first superstar chef" and Julia Child famously called Lutèce the best restaurant in the United States. The most popular items on the menu included Alsatian Tart, sauteed foie gras with dark chocolate sauce and orange marmalade, and the Gallete Nancy, baked daily by co-owner Andre Surmain's wife of the same name.

Pictured above: The real life Lutèce Dining Room, in its 90's twilight.

The Mad Men episode "The Benefactor" ends with a scene in Lutèce -- a business dinner between the Drapers, the Barrets and Utz potato chip moguls the Shillings. The restaurant is also referenced in the first episode of the season when Roger Sterling says that he is taking his wife Mona to Lutèce for Valentine's Day. It is easy to imagine that Lutèce would have been popular in the winter 0f 1962 when these episodes take place -- it received favorable reviews in both the The New York Times in March and The New Yorker in June of 1961. While the television re-creation of the dining room in "The Benefactor" looks as heavily researched and detailed as anything else in the show, Mathew Weiner & Co. seem to bring Lutèce back to life for more than just the sake of historically accurate set dressing. The dinner at Lutèce is used to show the dichotomy between the perceived glamour of both Don's life and the celebrity life of the Barrets, and the ugliness of the business and affairs they keep with each other.

While waiting for the Barrets to arrive, the Drapers and the Shillings remark at the choice of restaurant, and its presumed expense (as was a custom at Lutèce, there were different menus for the hosts and for the guests, the host's menu being the only menu with prices). When the Barrets arrive, Jimmy is loud and snarky, remarking that they should order "while this place is still French." A scene outside the bathroom between Don and Bobby Barret is one of Mad Men's most infamous. It shows Don's desires for sexual deviation and successful business merged into one ugly whole. Although the Drapers are dining with celebrities at one of the most sought after tables in New York, the meal itself is crass, the interactions are ugly, and no one is enjoying themselves. It's hard to think of a better atmosphere to highlight these messy, complicated relationships than in the warm, lilting haze of one of Manhattan's most cherished dining rooms.

For more reading on Lutèce, check out The New York Times' piece on its closing on Valentines Day 2004.

Porchetta: Has This Place Gone Downhill or Something?

2009-08-17T11:06:00.002-07:00

I had been waiting to try Sarah Jenkins's East 7th St. pork sandwich spot, Porchetta, for a while now. Several attempts made in the past were thwarted by long lines, and not enough time to wait in them. But, after stopping by on a curiously slow Saturday afternoon, I got to sample two of their signature menu items. [bxA]

The porchetta sandwich features the restaurant's namesake meat--a pork loin slathered in italian herbs, rolled and slow roasted. While the flavor from the pork is fine--reminiscent of a very good homemade pork chop--the meat is dry as a bone. I was really expecting a big, wet, sloppy pork sandwich. The nicely crusty ciabatta bread's fluffy innards are just begging for some rich, fatty juices to absorb. There's a nice anise kick to the seasoning that's spread on the meat before it's roasted, but the pork cracklings that are scattered on top are flavorless, and biting into them is like crunching down on hard little shards of plastic. When homemade pork shoulder turns out right, the skin is pliant, and hugs some delicious fat. Not the case here. For nine dollars I was also expecting a lot more meat.

The potatoes with burnt ends look great, and are also just okay. As far as pan fried potatoes go, these are on the oily side, and not crispy enough. The herbs on top don't do anything, and the burnt ends from the meat are dry, brittle and ruddy tasting.

I know people love this place, and there are a few things that I didn't try that are supposed to be great--notably the beans and the okra salad. While I feel that many of my problems with the signature pork sandwich could be resolved with a heavy ladle of gravy or drippings--and a nixing of those ridiculous cracklings--I can't help but wonder if Team Porchetta have just gotten a bit lazy now that the buzz has died down. In a town as pig crazy as New York, there are certain standards to uphold with your roast pork sandwich, you know?

Vicariously Party Like a Teenager Through Keggers of Yore

2009-08-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

I watched Say Anything last night with my girlfriend (what? I'd never seen it before -- it's a classic, right?) and one thing we both remarked on was how parties like the "end of senior year party" in the film only seem to exist in movies. You know -- the kind of parties where teenagers crack kegs in large suburban houses till all hours of the night? The kind of parties where there is a guy dressed up like a pinata, people get thrown into pools, and some poor sap is the designated "key master"?

Well, thanks to the brilliant, brilliant site Keggers of Yore, I now know that parties like this actually do exist. Some of my favorites photos from the site are below: [bxA]

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks.

via seriouseats.

Is One of the Burger of the Month Guys Pretending to Be a Girl to Get His Friend a Date?

2009-08-12T13:28:00.005-07:00

Perhaps you've heard of the burger of the month guys. The BOTM guys (I'm not joking, that's the abbreviation) are seven white-collar burger enthusiasts in their 30's who keep a blog that rates hamburgers in New York City. The New York Times did an article and interactive feature about the guys back in May, and The Today Show even did a segment about them back in April.

The BOTM guys (seriously, don't laugh) love big steakhouse burgers cooked medium well with bacon and cheese. While I don't really like the kind of burgers they like, or agree with their top picks, I do enjoy their blog if only because it features some pretty loopy, at times even dada food writing.[bxA]

Take, for example, this snippet from their review of The Peter Luger Burger:

When I took the first bite, it was like a party of flavor exploded.

Or this observation about dining at Morton's Steakhouse:

There is always a cute girl ready to seat you, an older male manager in a suit ready to come by the table to ask how everything is, a knowledgeable waiter ready to serve you and a couple of huge men in white chef hats visible through a window in the wall so you can see them cooking your food - what could be more delightful?

Or their issue with the burger at PJ Clarke's:

The burger does not come with fries, those are sold separately which inevitably begins the debate at the table of whether burgers should always come with fries.

Or this remark about Corner Bistro:

This simply is not the Corner Bistro of ole.

None of these, however, can hold a candle to the batshit craziness of their review of 5 Napkin Burger, which is purportedly written by a female admirer. The blog post is titled "My Date with the BOTM". Let's take a look, shall we?

Being a meat and potatoes gal – and still navigating the NYC restaurant scene (moved here 4 years ago from Florida – the land of chain restaurants), when I saw Jenna Wolfe’s segment on a group of 7 guys who formed a burger of the month club, I was kind of intrigued. After watching the segment I went on to BurgerRankings.com to see who these guys were. Deciding you only live once, I sent an email to the site asking two questions – the first, could girls join the club and the second, was Brett single?

Its true, you only live once. And if you're a meat and potatoes kind of gal, men like the BOTM guys must be scarce as hens teeth in this city. So, did the guys let this girl go with them on a burger outing? Yup. She even got to file in the review:

The Burger Review – I pulled the girl move and ordered the “inside out” burger for the carb conscious, since I had already indulged in the bacon cheddar burger only a week before (even though I could only eat half). I have to say, it was just as good without the bun, cheese and caramelized onions. The “secret sauce” that is on the burger was great and the meat itself (ordered medium) was cooked to perfection. The burger came with fries, and while they were no Mickey D’s – they were enjoyable as well.

Girls hate carbs, duh. Also, if you were reading closely, you know that she compared the fries to McDonald's fries because she's from Florida where all they eat is fast food. But enough about the burger, how did the date go?

The Date Review – I have to say, this was one of the most fun dates I have had in NYC. We all ate together, so I guess it was a “group date” and it was quite amusing to see some of the looks we got when the waiters saw one girl surrounded by 7 guys all eating burgers. Brett is awesome and the rest of the group was so easy to talk to and welcomed me into the sacred club as an honorary member.

Wow. It really is every single woman's dream to be the only girl at a table full of strange men wolfing down high end bacon cheeseburgers. So... we know she had a great time, but what does the future hold for her, you know, romantically?

Overall, it was a great night. I offered BOTM some PR advice on how to grow their site and their fan base, so it will be interesting to see if they take any of it (you know men). As for a date sans the BOTM audience, you’ll just have to check back and find out.

You know men. Anyway, I can't wait to check back and see if things start to sizzle between this girl and that Brett guy. Only one question remains, though - just who is this BOTM girl? The post never mentions her name or really anything about her except that she's single and from Fast Food Florida. Also, at the top of the page, it credits this review to resident BOTM guy Jason. Could it be that this was just written by Jason from the perspective of a fictitious female admirer? Why, pray tell would he do this? Would it be to get women to read the site, and in doing so get a date for that poor sap, Brett?

Well, one thing's for certain: I AM GOING TO GET TO THE BOTM OF THIS.

Four Stars for Eleven Madison Park

2009-08-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Danny Meyer, Chef Humm and The Union Square Hospitality Group on Eleven Madison Park's four star review today in The New York Times. This is the first four star review in 23 years for Danny Meyer. Eleven Madison Park is now one of only six restaurants in the city with a four star rating from the Times. Cheers all around. [bxA]

The Pizza at Grandaisy Bakery

2009-08-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

For two weeks straight, the pizza from Grandaisy Bakery was my at-work, lunchtime jam. Grandaisy offers a wide variety of fresh baked pizzas, each with a thin, crispy crust. I think that many of the pizza toppings must be inspired by Italian-style vegetable side dishes. Let's take a tour, shall we? (All of the slices below are priced at either $3 or $3.25.) [bxA]

The zucchini slice is probably my favorite. The topping is a mixture of fresh zucchini, onions and gruyere. The combo is supremely savory, but cheesiness never overpowers the flavor of the greens.

The fennel slice is my second favorite. The cutting, slightly onioney taste of fennel is something you either love or you don't. I do. Onions and pecorino make up the rest of the topping.

The potato slice is great, even if it is essentially one starch stacked on top of another. When the potatoes are still moist and not overcooked, the slice tastes like potatoes au gratin. Onions and pecorino are also here in full force, as well as sprigs of fresh rosemary.

The pomodoro slice is a standard crust slathered in a thin layer of fresh tomato sauce -- no more, no less. Light and delicious.

The mushroom slice isn't my thing, but it's also not a total miss. The slice employs a thick layer of earthy cremini mushrooms, that, like fennel, you either love or you don't.

The pizza Bianca is the simplest of the set, and it's also Grandaisy's most famous pizza. The Bianca is cooked in six-foot long sheets and cut to order. Thicker and fluffier than the rest of the pizzas, a little bit of sea salt and rosemary go a long way to compliment the moist, airy dough. You can also detect the use of some good olive oil. A slice of the pizza Bianca is $1.50, and it is the size of a large fashion magazine.

There are still a few slices that I missed on my bakery-pizza odyssey. Grandaisy makes a Bianca with pecorino, a Bianca with fresh olives, and a Bianca studded with fresh artichokes, as well as a cauliflower slice, none of which I tried.

I will let you know when I cross these off my list.

Grandaisy Bakery
73 Sullivan Street

Four Stars for Eleven Madison Park Tomorrow?

2009-08-12T09:01:00.001-07:00

Well, this is honestly something of a surprise. Frankie Big Boi Bruni is revisiting Elven Madison Park for his penultimate review. While the choice of EMP is not a surprise -- Bruni has been seen dining there several times in the past few months -- the fact that this is his second to last review, and his second review of a Danny Meyer restaurant in two weeks, does seem a bit strange. [bxA]I honestly thought that Bruni would save EMP for his last review and file in on Marea tomorrow. Now I don't even think we can be certain that he will review Marea next week. I mean, would he really go out with a review of a restaurant that every other critic has already filed a rave for? I think for his last review he might choose something small and under the radar, if for no other reason than it would give him an opportunity to speak to how much the dining world has changed during his tenure with the Times. That being said, I am almost certain that he is going to give Eleven Madison Park four stars tomorrow. Here's why:

Bruni loves it. He's reviewed EMP twice already, and he might want to give it the fourth star to show how it has progressed since its opening -- a progression which happened exclusively during his tenure with the Times.

He robbed Danny Meyer of a star last week with his review of Union Square Cafe. Adding a star to EMP would restore the karmic balance between New York's greatest restauranteur and its greatest food critic.

This would only be the second time in five years that Bruni crowned a restaurant with its fourth star. Masa was the first, but the other members of the Four Star Club -- Le Bernadin, Per Se, Jean Georges and Daniel -- already had their four stars when Bruni passed through; he just confirmed their four star status.

By adding Eleven Madison Park to this elite list of four star restaurants, Bruni would be anointing one of the more reasonably priced, less established fine dining restaurants in New York. He's a democratic man, with an eye towards value -- EMP is exactly in line with his sensibility where price is concerned. Well, we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, to satiate your cravings for any and all things Bruni, here is a new photo of the man that was just released today (he's on the left).

David Chang, Unplugged

2009-08-11T13:09:00.001-07:00

David Chang was featured in an ad for Ally (some financial institution) in the July issue of Bon Appetit:

Does this look like a young restaurant mogul whose aneurysm-inducing hyper stress forces his doctors to prescribe immediate, mandated vacations on a semi-regular basis?

Nope. Dude looks cool as a cuke. Also, you’d think with all his success, Chang might stop taking his photos at Sears.[bxA]

Worst Table in New York : Porter House in the Time Warner Center?

2009-08-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Porter House, on the third floor of the Time Warner Center, is a highly regarded, premium steakhouse with floor to ceiling windows overlooking 59th St. and Columbus Circle. Why then do they have a single table outside of the restaurant in a vacant corner of the TWC mall?

Is this for real? Do people actually sit here and eat big steak dinners? Is this the table where they seat patrons that they want to embarrass? If it is not for real, then what is it for -- to show prospective patrons what the table settings look like if they choose to eat there?

[bxA]

Oprah's Favorite Things: NYC Edition

2009-08-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

So Oprah and Gail hit NYC over the weekend with some students from O’s South African girls school. Where’d they go to eat? Minetta? Blue Hill? Ko?? Try Planet Hollywood, Dylan’s Candy Store and Serendipity 3.

Look under your chairs! Everyone’s getting the worst food in NYC!!!! (Actually, there is no reason to hate. I would give my eye teeth to go to Planet Hollywood with Oprah.)[bxA]

Wilfie & Nell: A Gastropub?

2009-08-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of restaurants calling themselves “English-Style Gastropubs” these days, but I don’t feel like everyone is on the same page when it comes to defining exactly what that is. Sure, a Gastropub is an English-style pub with food. But the question of what kind of food and what kind of pub seems open for wild interpretation. I have a feeling that Wilfie & Nell is more like the establishments that inspired the trend than its glossier, high end counterparts like The Spotted Pig or The Clerkenwell.

Located on an unassuming stretch of West 4^th, the space feels cavernous in the strict sense of the word -- it is dark, it has low ceilings, and its dining room extends into odd nooks and crannies. With its aged brick columns and worn wood work it would be easy to imagine that the space was once a centuries old stable that was converted first to a bar, then a bar with a kitchen.[bxA]

The small bar menu is packed with calorie rich English fare that is well executed and locally sourced. Apologies in advance for the quality of these photos-it was dark in there.

By far the best of what we tried was the grilled corned beef and gruyere sandwich with stone ground mustard. The single layer of thick, meaty corned beef has a tenderness and a faint briney taste that melds nicely with the rich, sweet cheese.

The pigs in a blanket are not the pastry covered cocktail franks frequently served as canapés, but rather deep fried English sausages wrapped in thick cut English bacon. The bacon is extra crispy and tastes like good bacon always tastes, but the sausage in the middle is fatty and under spiced. The sausage also has a firmness and a snap that isn’t entirely pleasurable. Especially when coupled with the bacon, these chubby little stocks of meat represent the kind of pasty, oily food that has given English food a bad wrap for so long.

The pulled pork sliders are good. No punches pulled here. The pork is juicy, and savory in all the right ways. The buns are airy like slider buns, and the excellent stone ground mustard cuts the richness of the meat nicely.

A lot has been said about Wilfie & Nell being an affordable gastropub, and in a certain sense it is -- every item on the menu is under $10. While the three items we shared were filling enough for two people, the portion size is really dipping into small plate/ bar snack territory. While the food is good overall, it does feel like the restaurant, and most of its patrons, consider the food as something of an afterthought. On a Saturday afternoon at around six the place was mostly packed with the young trendsetters working on various stages of a heavy afternoon beer buzz. Wilfie & Nell is certainly a good time, but when the tab is totaled, you can’t help but to feel like you’ve spent a bit too much on that good time.

Ideas For Jennifer Aniston's Restaurant

2009-08-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Have you heard the news? Jennifer Aniston is thinking of opening a restaurant! Here are my suggestions of restaurants Jen could open in NYC:
Central Perk – Hang out like your favorite Friends! This re-creation of the storied "West Village" café features Stumptown Coffee served in rugby ball sized cappuccino cups. We've spared no expense to bring the beloved fictionalized coffee shop to life. Come see James Michael Tyler reprise his beloved role as the finicky barista Gunter![bxA]Marley and Meat – Nosh on the best Caribbean style Churrascaria in Manhattan. Not hungry? Then sit back, relax and enjoy a Red Stripe in the tropical-style lounge while grooving out to some of New York’s mellowest reggae bands. Tuesday is “Undergrad Dude Night,” where male college students of drinking age can enjoy libations on the house in a chilled out atmosphere conducive to mixing and mingling with some seriously chilled out older ladies.
The Embittered Spinster – This English style Gastropub combines nose-to-tail cooking with an extensive menu of cranberry-infused vodka cocktails from resident mixologist Sasha Petraske. Cool off with a “Sext on the Beach” or an “Oreo-Cakester Saketini” while you watch Chef Ryan Skeen prepare a whole pig as part the restaurant’s monthly "charcuterie" event, “The Pitt Roast.”
Friends with Money – Welcome to Soho’s newest hot spot. This auditorium sized mega club features interior design by Steve Lewis, the award winning talent behind Butter and 10ak. Enjoy the freshest club tracks from resident DJ Samantha Ronson, a sushi menu designed by Masa Takayama, and the only bottle service program in New York served exclusively by actual Elite models. Don't worry that the reservation line is unlisted. You can get it from John Mayer’s twitter feed!

Endless Summer Taco Truck: Stepping Up Its Game

2009-08-06T09:18:00.001-07:00

I think the Endless Summer taco truck has really been stepping up its game lately. In the past, their tacos have been dry and flavorless.

Recently, the tacos have been juicy and delicious. The photo above is of a pork taco (r) and beef (l). I think the pork might be my favorite, but seriously, the beef taco is damn fine too. $2.50 for a fresh taco is a solid price point, and the last round I had featured an exciting new addition – some sort of creamy avocado based sauce on top! Basically, these are some of the best tacos I’ve had in New York, second only to Pinche in Soho.

People are going crazy these days for tacos and food from trucks. In Williamsburg, some people would pay good money for a boot leather taco if it was after last call and Anna Maria’s was closed. I hope that the tacos from Endless Summer will continue to be much better than they have to be.

Endless Summer (corner of North Sixth and Bedford Ave.)[bxA]

Bruni's Replacement Announced!

2009-08-05T12:57:00.001-07:00

Early this afternoon, big, thick plumes of black smoke arose from the top of the NYT buildling. Could it be? Had the sage council of the dining section decided upon a replacement for Frank Bruni? Oh yes. Ladies and gentleman, meet Sam Sifton, your new Food Critic for The New York Times:
He likes Japanese curry, hip-hop, and sesame noodles. He was a New York City School teacher, a food critic for the New York Press and a culture editor for the the Times. He was also the pinch hitter for the NYT food section in the months between William Grime's departure and the beginning of Bruni's tenure back in 2004. Also, his Mom is Vice President of FSG.

And here he is, in two separate photos. These photos were literally everywhere on the food blogs this morning. My guess is that now history may remember Frank Bruni as the last anonymous food critic for a major newspaper. But we still have two weeks to go with Big Boi Bruni, and a few weeks after that until The Siftonator files for the first times. Eat up Sam! We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Frank Bruni Takes a Star Away From Union Square Cafe

2009-08-05T06:21:00.001-07:00

Today Frank Bruni filed his third to last review for the Times, with a two-star for Union Square Café. The first Danny Meyer restaurant, USC is also one of his most beloved, and today it lost a star from the three star rating it was awarded by William Grimes back in 1999. It sounds like Bruni really wanted to keep the star count at three, but that amongst the excellent meals he enjoyed at USC, there were indeed a few mediocre ones. So, two stars it is. The review is, however, a treat, and he really pays props to Danny Meyer and his noble career-long efforts to make sure his customers get what they want.

So, with one review down and two to go, the question is- which restaurants will Bruni choose for his last two reviews? I’m calling it now: next week, we’ll get a three-star of Marea. The week after that,I think we’re going to get that fabled, mythical, four-star review bestowed upon Eleven Madison Park. We know he’s been eating at EMP lately, and we know he loves it. Also, what better way to restore dignity to the Danny Meyer empire than to give the restaurateur’s classy, brassy, youngest child the respect it finally deserves? The message upon leaving would be “sure, Union Square Café is great, but times have changed and – BAMN! – Eleven Madison Park is the new best restaurant in New York. The king has left the building.”

Look! A Food Truck: Pizza Truck NYC

2009-08-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

I saw this truck in Union Square in the exact spot where the mobile outfit of East Village classic pizzeria Vinny Vincenz regularly parks its pizza truck. This new truck bears more than a striking resemblance to the old one. My sources reveal that this is actually the new Vinny Vincenz truck. So, that's that.

My sources also reveal that while the pies are not baked fresh in the truck, the pre-made crusts (in the bag, above) are in fact baked just a few short blocks away at the brick and mortar location, and then topped and freshened up in the truck its self. I didn't try a slice, but I think it's probably a safe bet - I can't think of a more archtypal "solid NY slice" than the ones that Vinny Vincenz churns out, and the mobile operation sounds legit.

A New Photo of Bruni!

2009-08-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Finally, a new photo of Frank Bruni surfaced today, in anticipation of the release of Born Round. Here's what he looks like:
And, as a bonus, here is what he looked when he reviewed Locanda Verde a few weeks ago:

Popular in Soho: Italian Restaurants with Blue Awnings and Al Fresco Dining

2009-07-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Italian restaurants with blue awnings and al fresco dining must be all the rage right now in Soho. How else to explain the fact that on a recent Wednesday afternoon, two such restaurants were open and doing steady business? First, there’s Mezzogiorno. According to their website, “Executive Chef Alessandro Gargani serves a seasonal menu of both classic and innovative dishes.” Specialties include Il "Classico" Vitello Tonnato ($22).

Next up: Savore. Their menu offers “Renaissance era Italian cuisine, and a superb wine list with over 220 labels.” Specialties include Tuscan treats like Manzo Beef Medallions with Porcini Sauce, Potato, String Beans and Spinach ($29).

Who can say if others will follow in their footsteps and open similar Italian restaurants with blue awnings and al fresco dining in Soho. But for now, the corner of Sullivan and Spring Street has two Italian restaurants with blue awnings and al fresco dining.

OMG: Michael Jackson Cookies at Cookie Road

2009-07-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

The good folks at the newly opened Cookie Road bakery in Greenpoint are really on to something with these Michael Jackson sugar cookies.

The detail on these cookies is amazing, especially considering that they’re only about three inches in diameter.

The day I dropped in they were also selling cookies bearing a similarly detailed design of Charlie Chaplin, one of the King of Pop’s all time heroes!

I didn’t try any of Cookie Road’s baked goods, but I know that the owner makes them and decorates them on the premises. The Cookie Road website has some more amazing examples of her work, which you can order on the site. As of late, Cookie Road has become my go-to weekend coffee spot. The owner knows his way around the espresso bar and the result is easily the best cup of coffee in Greenpoint.

Cookie Road
94 Franklin St.
(Between Noble St & Oak St.)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 383 8094

Good, Cheap Soul Food With a Serious Catch at Piece of Chicken in Hell’s Kitchen

2009-07-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to checking out Piece of Chicken after reading a rave from Ed Levine several months ago. This place serves quality soul food at an unbeatable price point from a takeout window on a side street in Hell's Kitchen.

For $5 I got a piece of fried chicken, mac and cheese and a few pieces of ribs. Was it good? Yeah, sure. The fried chicken is some of the best I’ve had in NYC – fresh, nicely oily, and covered in a truly tasty skin. The noddles in the mac and cheese are loose and casserole-like, and although the dish is not that cheesy, it is nicely creamy, smooth and starchy. Piece of Chicken does not use premium cuts of meat for their ribs -- there were lots of odd bones and fat bubbles in the ones I sampled -- but they are glazed with a pleasant barbecue sauce that tastes vaguely like sweet and sour sauce. Not horrible, not great, but meaty and passable for $2.

So, the food is fine, and the people working the window are sweet as pie, but man, I gotta say, this is one of the worst blocks in Manhattan to get sloppy southern takeaway barbecue from. There are no tables, chairs or benches affiliated with Piece of Chicken and it's located in the middle of a scuzzy block of Hell’s Kitchen. Your best bet for sitting down is a ratty apartment stoop, or, in our case, a bench in the parking lot of an off-off Broadway theater. Basically, unless you work in the area or want to schlep this stuff on the train back to your place, be prepared to eat your very good soul food in a completely unappetizing environment.

Btw: Amy ordered a piece of white meat fried chicken, for a dollar extra than my piece of fried chicken. The portion is generous, but the meat is dry as a bone and not nearly as tasty as the dark meat piece. Be forewarned…

Piece of Chicken
630 Ninth Ave., at 45th St.
New York, NY 10036  

Publish Post

212-582-5973

'ello Govnah: Lunch from Myers of Keswick

2009-07-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Located on a breezy stretch of Hudson St., Myers of Keswick is a picture perfect British general store, bakery and butcher ashop. It feels like such a architypically British shop, you half expect to walk in and see a young Michael Caine chatting up the man behind the deli case about Arsenal Football and plans for a forthcoming bank holiday.

Aside from a variety of imported British groceries, Myers sells hand made fresh sausages and a variety of pies and pasties, all of which are made in a kitchen in the back of the store. The pies in particular are a great deal for lunch. On a recent visit, I had the pork pie ($3.25), a teacup sized flaky-crusted pie with a pork filling that tastes a bit like a really good breakfast sausage. Even better is the Cornish pastie ($3.95). Same flakey crust, with a savory mixture of potatoes, carrots, peas and beef. This is really like a shephards pie for your hand. One of either of these is plenty for a large snack or light lunch.

The fresh scone with homemade jam and clotted cream is also a great deal at $2.00. They will make this to order for you at the counter. The strawberry jam is a bit sweet for my taste, but when combined with the fluffy, rich clotted cream, and slightly salty biscuit, the flavor combo works nicely. The scone itself is so cakey, that eating one of these is essentially like eating a deconstructed piece of strawberry short cake.

Myers of Keswick
634 Hudson St
New York, NY 10014-5167
(212) 691-4194

Dining at Papacitos: A How-To Guide for Customers

2009-07-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

The blog for Greenpoint tex-mex drunk food favorite Papacitos features some curious words on customer conduct:

"Papacitos can get crazy...please be patient with your server and our staff: as you are waiting for you food, just chill out, its sunny and warm, the servers are hot, your surrounded by friends and neighbors and what you might not know, is that the reason your food is taking a little while is that we have a full dining room, 100 deliveries going out the front door and most likely a line for takeout. So you're the lucky ones in the garden, kick back, hook your server up an all will be good."

Get it? The papacitos staff is busy - like REAL busy. And you know what? They're busting their asses, day after goddamn day just so you can hang around, like a lazy bum, and eat $8 carne asada burritos in their restaurant. So just chill out, shut up, tip well, and don't cause no trouble, okay?

Look! A Food Truck: NYC Cravings at 375 Hudson

2009-07-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

The NYC Cravings truck is now setting up shop every Thursday in front of the Satchi and Satchi building at 375 Hudson St. This is the second food truck in the past two months to operate from this spot on a weekly basis, the first being the Wafels and Dinges truck, which now peddles its overpriced, pre-fab Belgian sweets in front of the building every Tuesday.

After grabbing lunch from the NYC Cravings truck, which serves Taiwanese fare, my boss remarked "How great is this? On Tuesdays we got waffles and on Thursdays we got Chinese food!!"

You're the One For Me, Fatty: Pierogies at Veslka

2009-07-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

There is only appetizer that I will eat with breakfast, and that appetizer is an order of Pierogies from Veselka. You wouldn’t think that fried ham and cheese dumplings with sour cream and apple sauce would make a good primer to meal of eggs, potatoes and corned beef hash, but boy, would you be wrong!

Veselka
75 E 1st St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 228-9682

Casanova: Finally, a Good Pizza in Greenpoint!

2009-06-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Greenpoint has something of a pizza problem. I think that for most neighborhoods in NY, you can generally apply the same rule to pizzerias as you can to laundromats: you go to the one that is closest to your apartment. A High density of pizzerias per neighborhood ensures healthy competition between establishments, so even your average, local pizza place should be better than a large chain.

That's not the case for pies in the garden spot. There simply aren't very many pizza places, and the one closest to my apartment, Triangolo, serves a kind of bland, junior high cafeteria style pie. Like many food related things in Greenpoint, sometimes convenience and quality don't go hand in hand.

Enter Casanova Restaurant. Casanova occupies a horrible stretch of McGuinness Ave about two blocks away from the old, grey, Polaski Bridge - not exactly close to where I live, but within a comfortable walking or ordering distance. It has one of those horrible 4' porcelain statues of a fat Italian stereotype holding a pizza (usually a bad sign), and generally kind of looks like someplace Hugh Grant would be taken by James Caan in "Mickey Blue Eyes", if you know what I mean.

Anyway, their grandma Pizza is tops. A Square pie, with a rich, almost foccacia like crust, it's dressed with thin slices of fresh mozzarella, bright homemade tomato sauce and lots of fresh garlic. This thing tastes like summer. The little dabs of basil don't really do too much, but the overall flavor combo is irresistible, and what's more, each slice is completely light and airy, with several huge air bubbles throughout. Unlike a lot of really tasty pizzas, this pie is the very opposite of a gut bomb. We ordered one of these to celebrate a half day friday, and pretty much kept gnawing on it piece by piece for the next 8 hours like it was make-pretend food. A Large (pictured above) is $16.

Casanova

338 McGuinness Blvd.

Brooklyn, NY 11222

718 389 0990

My Phirst Pho at Baoguette

2009-06-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

I tried Pho for the first time the other day on my first visit to Baoguette on St. Mark's. I have a feeling that Baoguette maybe wasn't the MOST authentic place to try one of the most signature of all Vietnamese dishes. Baoguette seemed like a lot of the inexpensive restaurants on St. Marks and in the vicinity of NYU - small, bright, loud, and designed to accommodate a lot of people coming and going. Still, everything that I'd heard about the food here was complimentary, and I happened to be in the neighborhood, so I was game to check it out.

After ordering the classic Pho at the counter and taking a seat, my meal arrived in a few minutes. The soup its self certainly looked and smelled fresh. While I could taste a decent beefy flavor, and some citrus from the broth, the overwhelming flavor was cilantro. The meat was certainly tender enough, as were the noodles, but literally after a few bites, they were nowhere to be found. The rest of the meal was just slurp after slurp of the broth - a light, mostly bland beef bouillon with some citrus flavor. Adding spriracha and some oyster sauce helped to thicken and add some base to the proceedings, but basically, the rest of the bowl was somewhat unsatisfying - just a bunch of broth with some little bits of sprouts and crap in it. Finishing the entire thing seemed like a chore after a while, so I didn't.

I feel like Pho is becoming a pretty popular dish right now in New York, maybe on the coat tails of its sandwich cousin and the other main item at Baoguette, the Bahn Mi. If Baoguette really wants to knock it out of the park, they could easily just add more beef and more noodles to what is one of their most signature dishes. Not to get all Andy Rooney here...but I feel like Baoguette is charging too much for their fare and getting away with it because their serving a very trendy food. While the only item I ordered was $8 - not a lot for dinner in New York these days - Baoguette is table service only. The restaurant is tiny and mostly counters and communal tables - basically the same layout as your corner pizzeria or Falafal stand. Even though the waitress was certainly friendly, the only service involved was walking my soup three feet from the kitchen to the counter I was sitting at. With tax and an obligatory 20% tip, dinner came out to $11. Basically, if Boaguette just knocked off the table service and gave a little more protein and starch with their broth, then I would totally love to go back. But, as it stands, I don't think I'll be hitting this place up anytime soon.

After what was essentially a "non-start" with the Pho, I plan on trying a more authentic "OG" Pho spot in Chinatown sometime soon, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Baoguette Cafe

37 St. Mark's Place

(between 2nd Ave and 1st Ave)

New York, NY, 10003

(347) 892-2614

http://www.baoguettecafe.com/ (BTW, this website has a lot of kinks to work out?)

Airing of Greiveances: Brooklyn Label

2009-06-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

(What's all the hubbub about? Oh, people are getting ripped off? Where can I sign?)

Sometimes I feel like Greenpoint is kind of like some sort of western boomtown when it comes to restaurants. If a new place opens up, and there's nothing like it around, it will see how much it can get away with because it knows it has no competition.

When Brooklyn label opened up a few years ago, it was one of the only restaurants on bucolic Franklin St., and the only place that served the sort of brunch that New Yorker's love - you know, eggs benedict, huevos rancheros, burgers, french toast, that kind of thing. For a while, it was great - great food, great vibe, great location. I feel like for many people it was a fun sort of "destination" brunch spot, especially if you didn't live in the neighborhood. Three years ago, pretty much every entree was right nicely prepared, served in large portions, and priced under $10. Amy and I were particularly fond of their hashbrowns.

Well, let's flash forward a few years, till, oh, I don't know, last Sunday. The vibe is just as cool, the crowds just as big, if not more, the menu is much the same, except that most items are now in the $11-$17 range. Let me repeat: the same menu items are now in the $11-$19 range. Oh, you can still get outa there under $10, if you order a bagel or something. But, hey, this is brunch, a serious meal for the 9-5 crowd, especially on the weekends. What's a few dollars more, if you can really enjoy yourself, right? Is $40 for breakfast for two people really too much to pay if you're enjoying a nice meal, on a beautiful summer morning?

It is. If you wait over an hour after you order for your food. And the restaurant is completely empty. And your $14 plate of huevos rancheros are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. And the eggs aren't prepared correctly. And they skimp on the guacamole. And you could make better oatmeal at home. For $2.

Basically, Brooklyn Label is one of the swiftest, cruelest rip-offs around. Its been that way for a while, but my last time there was the final straw. This was not the first time that its TAKEN FOR FUCKING EVER to get REALLY PRICEY food THAT ISN'T VERY GOOD. We've been burned by this place so many times, that I feel like a moron for griping about my most recent visit.

Fool me once? Shame on you Brooklyn Label. Fool me twice? Shame on...me?

Actually, no, scratch that. Fool me once, twice, a dozen times, whatevs, this place has no reason to be as half-assed as it is for the price. Shame on you, Brooklyn Label.

Brooklyn Label

180 Franklin St.

Brooklyn, NY 11222

718 389 2806

Cool and/or Funny Restaurant Signage in San Francisco

2009-06-06T10:02:00.001-07:00

I'm doubling back a few months to cover some of the cool and/or funny restaurant signs I snapped photos of on a trip to San Francisco.

Stylish, no? I didn't get to see this lit up, but it would be great if the martini glass moved back and forth.

"Hey Honey, do you want to make tonight a New Woey Loy Goey night?"

This place looked like a real shit kicker's shit kicker bar.

This deli did a lot of drugs in the 60's.

Caffe Sport: Treasures from the Deep, From the Friendly Fisherman!