Grub Street Grub Street New York

Restaurant owners may have lost the fight over letter grades, but at least for now, they’ve dodged another controversial measure, the paid sick leave bill. City Hall reports that Christine Quinn has tabled it while the Partnership for New York City (in conjunction with Ernst & Young) studies its impact on small businesses. Another hearing on the bill is expected in November. Opponents of the study say it’s a politically motivated stalling measure that will give businesses an undue influence on the outcome of the bill, while Kathy Wylde (CEO of the Partnership) says previous studies were biased toward workers: “In particular, Wylde said the claim by proponents of the bill that paid sick leave for restaurant workers costs 8 cents an hour needs further examination.”

With Paid Sick Leave Back In The Waiting Room, Both Sides Take Stock [City Hall]

After a brief stint riding and frying in New York, the Colonel Sanders of the hipster sphere, Dante Gonzales, is off to L.A. to launch a food truck. Why didn’t he do it here? “I tried to open a truck in NY,” he tells L.A. Weekly, “but it’s not a very nurturing place to do it without a budget.” See what you’ve done, City Hall? Oh well, at least the scene in New York is better than in, say, Dallas, where hot food trucks are outright banned in the central business district (among a litany of other roadblocks).

Ride Or Fry: Dante Fried Chicken Truck Rolls Out [LA Weekly]

Mezcal’s isn’t exactly our first choice for Mexican (on this much we can agree with Sietsema — the fajitas at El Cantinero are cheaper and better), but you can always count on it for WTF art, and the memorial to George Steinbrenner now up at the Bay Ridge location is no exception. But would “El Jefe” have approved of nude silhouettes in the dining room? It’s uncertain. He was, after all, the most gentlemanly of diners.

Talking to Capital New York, Ed McFarland explains why a whole lobster costs $28 at Ed’s Lobster Bar. At a conference, he recently told Maine lobstermen (who were befuddled by the high price) that although they get $3.50 a pound, he has to pay as much as $7 a pound, and that’s just the beginning of it: “I’m paying two or three times more than what you get off the boat. Because the guy at the wharf has to get paid, the trucker has to get paid, the guy who delivers it to me has to get paid. And then I have costs associated with doing business. So there’s insurance, there’s payroll, there’s gas, electric, and in New York City, there’s rent and real estate tax, which is expensive.” McFarland goes through 700 pounds of lobster a day.

The Morning Massacre at Ed’s Lobster Bar [Capital New York]

Yesterday, Joe Bastianich likened the lawsuit brought against Babbo to a shakedown, and now the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Maimon Kirschenbaum, has something to say. He tells Grub Street, “I find it bizarre that someone who’s accused of stealing money from his own waitstaff would turn this into an issue of being shaken down by their lawyer. Notice how he has no specific defense — he knows he’s a thief.” And it’s not his only response to Bastianich: Kirschenbaum has now, along with the law firm of Outten & Golden (another notorious player in the area of minimum-wage claims) amended the lawsuit to include plaintiffs Jeffrey Cutaiar, a former server at Otto; Chris Ell and Chris Forbes, former servers at Casa Mono; Jesse Patrick, a former bartender at Bar Jamon; Diana Dietrich, a former server at Lupa; and Paul Toro, Roger Caro, and Daniel Jansen of Tarry Lodge.

When Anderson Cooper visited Harlem’s Gospel Uptown a few months ago, the story was a feel-good one. Owner Joseph Holland touted the fact that he had created 50 jobs and even spoke of expanding the restaurant and performance venue. But as Cooper said at the time, “The restaurant business is a tough one, especially in New York City where businesses open and close almost daily.” Crain's now reports that Holland has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection citing assets of $500,000 to $1 million and estimated liabilities of $1,000,000 to $10 million, including $9,900 owed to the meat man.

Harlem eatery praying for miracle after bankruptcy [Crain's]