Burger Bistro Expanding to Park Slope; Empanada Mama Spreads to LES

Everywhere: There's still time! See the 1,000+ restaurants that still have availability for Valentine's night. [OpenTable]
Greenpoint: Sea Bean Goods, Brooklyn's first micro-soupery, has launched a subscription service after realizing that customers were requesting delivery week after week. [Grub Street]

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Colonie Chef Brad McDonald Now Opening Two Restaurants in Dumbo, Including Mexican

This, that, and the other.

A rep confirms to Grub Street that in addition to the seasonal American restaurant going in at One Main Street (next to One Girl Cookies, which just opened), Brad McDonald and the Colonie team have also taken over the space just down the street at Five Front Street. The Front Street location will be a Mexican restaurant. Further details on the concept are under tight wraps. Both venues will open later this spring, and before anyone freaks out, McDonald is definitely still at Colonie on Atlantic. So we're all good.

Chilean Wine Name Offends Chinese; California Wine Arsonist Gets Sentenced

"I'll show them chilensis!"

• Hilarious: A wine from Chile's Maule Valley with the label "Chilensis" has some Chinese people upset, and others laughing their asses off. The word loosely translates as "f**king nuts" in Cantonese, and thus it went from a cheap bottle to a collector's item within days. [Drinks Business]

• Ice wine makers in the Czech Republic breathed a sigh of relief this week as temperatures finally dipped in this unusually warm winter and allowed them to harvest grapes for their expensive dessert wines. [Daily News Online]

• Napa Valley vintners sighed and cried this week as a villain was sentenced. Mark Christian Anderson — who torched a wine-storage facility in 2005 to cover an embezzlement scheme, and destroyed at least $50 million worth of premium vintages in the process — got 27 years. [Grub Street SF, Earlier]

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Tables Available at Blossom; Fully Booked at ABC Kitchen, Dirt Candy

It's 4 p.m., and that means it's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: For Vegivores.

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Little Town NYC to Bring Its Upscale Bar Food to Restaurant Row

Little Town NYC: big bar-food selection.

Grub Street learns that Irving Place bar-food specialist Little Town is headed to the theater district next month. A rep informs us the restaurant-bar's second location will open in what is now the midtown Village Pourhouse, from the same owners, on 46th Street's "Restaurant Row." When the spot bows on March 8, you'll be able to pre-game pre-theater with fare like baked clams, garlic fries, grilled cheese, sliders, and more, plus 25 locally sourced suds on draft and 75 in bottles. Tourists, better pack the wet wipes.

Little Town, 366 W. 46th St., nr. Ninth Ave.

Another Closing: Blue Ribbon Sushi in Park Slope

Eater has the scoop that Blue Ribbon Sushi will close in Park Slope after ten years, although there are vague plans to merge with the Blue Ribbon Brasserie next door on March 1. [Eater]

The James Weird Awards: Red Lobster Redemption, Gasoline-Baked Clams, and Apple Pie Bombs

While we were distracted by Crif Dogs' line of condoms and the revelation that Wolfgang Puck used to be shy, weird food stuff was going on right under our noses. So much weird food stuff! We've compiled the best of it in this week's edition of the James Weird Awards, straight ahead.

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More Yunnan in the City, With Tribeca’s Lotus Blue

The sour-and-spicy, sometimes tropical, flavor profile of China's Yunnan province is hard for us to resist; trouble is, the only reliable source we know of is Yu Nan Flavor Snack in Sunset Park. No longer: Forgive us for being slow on the uptake, but Tribeca Citizen recently profiled a newcomer in that hood, Lotus Blue, which opened at 110 Reade Street. Between that and the Yunnan restaurant opening on Clinton Street, things are looking up for this Southeast Chinese cuisine. [Tribeca Citizen]

Back Forty West Is Opening in Savoy Space

Back Forty's famous crab boil.

In light of a couple un-fun closings, it's nice to hear about an exciting, if not all that surprising, opening. Peter Hoffman has announced that his Soho space, formerly Savoy, will resurface as another Back Forty, called Back Forty West, with Shanna Pacifico in the kitchen. Zagat says the new menu won't be identical to the other Back Forty, but it will be close. The opening is a few weeks away. [Zagat]

Jonathan Waxman: Not Into Ants or Spotted Owls

"I had a little bit of a problem with the ant larvae in Mexico. I couldn't wrap my arms around it. And these insects — I don't know what they were — they were bright red like mini lobsters. They just looked weird to me ... I am also trying to stay away from endangered species. I don't eat octopus anymore." — Meatball aficionado Jonathan Waxman may be getting into Mexican food, but you're not going to catch him making grasshopper tacos anytime soon. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Slideshow: In the Kitchen on Opening Night, Next El Bulli Menu

The thing that surprises you about the El Bulli dishes being reproduced faithfully at Next this season is how real they are. The usual knock on molecular gastronomy is that it's all blobs and powders, but some dishes here do nothing more futuristic than batter something and deep fry it. And even the ones that alter their ingredients' physical form the most — the famous spheroid "green olives," a carrot reduced to an "air" that looks like an orange root-beer float — seem to do so just to intensify the flavor, to deliver the essence of carrot or green olive without the distractions of physicality. As photographer Roger Kamholz joined us in the kitchen on opening night, being fed exactly half of the 28-course menu by chefs who couldn't bear to have a guest in the kitchen who wasn't eating, what kept surprising us was how something that looked like it came from Mars would wind up tasting so wonderfully of Spain.

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Gail Simmons Ate Hummus and Popsicles While Writing Book; Not Afraid of Alice Waters

Says her memoir is not so serious.Photo: Getty Image

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Gail Simmons, the chocolate-dipped Ryan Seacrest of the food scene, gave herself a highly disciplined schedule for writing her book, Talking With My Mouth Full. Funnily enough, in order to make her deadlines, her mouth was full of a lot of random, unfancy things. Last night at the premiere of eBay Celebrity and Brad Pitt's Make It Right Auction, Grub Street caught up with Simmons to dish on her authorial eating habits, and whether or not she was afraid of an Alice Waters literary takedown à la Momofuku.

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What to Eat at Lady Gaga’s Dad’s Joanne Trattoria, Now Slinging Upscale Italiano on the UWS

Père Gaga's new restaurant, Joanne, is now open on the Upper West Side, and has already garnered its first (not flattering!) review. Regardless, we wanted to give you a look at the menu from Art Smith, a former chef for Oprah; it's molto fancy, roving from a $28 plate of orechiette with Long Island seafood to Papa G's rosemary chicken with Italian sausage, perchance a dish young Gaga was reared on. A $65 prix fixe offers a choice of four dishes, plus coffee. See those lineups below, and scope some food and the space straight ahead.

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Top Chef Recap: There’s No Cryin' in Fine Dinin'

Dont' let the blindfolds fool you: Beverly is back.Photo: Bravo

You know when you're feeling frustrated with something, like your job or boyfriend or roommates or whatever, and you go on a short vacation and you come back and realize that the thing that was bothering you isn't so bad after all? This season of Top Chef is not one of those things.

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Park Avenue Bistro Is Finis, Aussi

It's not a good day for posh-ish places: Ellabess is set to shutter, and now we learn Michelin Bib Gourmand pick Park Avenue Bistro has thrown in the kitchen towel. Madison Square Park has gone much more burgers than croques madames these days, we suppose.

After Six Months, Ellabess Is Over

From restaurant, to events, to adios.

Grub Street has learned exclusively that Epicurean Management's ellabess in the Nolitan Hotel will end its restaurant services on February 15, then transition into a private event space until the Nolitan introduces a new restaurant in springtime. This exit, graceful as it may be, is likely unfamiliar territory for EM, home of Joe Campanale, and proprietors of some of the city's best, and generally flawless, establishments like dell'anima, L'Artusi, and Anfora. A statement from them follows.

Read the official announcement here. »

How Astrology Affects Restaurant Taste; L.I. Kosher Caterer Broke All the Jewish Dietary Laws

• Aries want meat, Libras like buzzy new eateries, and other things astrological signs say about restaurant tastes. [HuffPo]

• People will downsize their restaurant portions if the server offers them the option; maybe soon we'll be able to say "under-size me"? [Salt/NPR]

• A Long Island caterer is accused of preparing Kosher and non-Kosher meals in the same kitchen, which is strictly forbidden under Jewish dietary law. Oy. [ABC News]

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02/08/12

Stick&Pop Debuts Chelsea Store; Free Drinks for Jeremy Lin Fans at Talde

Bowery: Jazz club Moldy Fig appears to be gone for good, having been evicted from its current space. The club has been closed since one of its owners was hospitalized in November. [Bowery Boogie]
Peels will host a "Shucked at Peels" event February 13 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The evening will feature Erin Byers Murray, the author of Shucked, in addition to an oyster-themed tasting menu. [Grub Street]
Brooklyn Heights: For the procrastinators among us, Valentine's Day reservations are still available at Colonie. The restaurant will feature a four-course meal for $75. [Grub Street]

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Craving Some Food and Drink Fist-Pumps?

Time Out New York's annual Food and Drink Awards have arrived in the foodiesphere, with a month for readers to vote starting today. We see Alex Stupak and Bien Cuit in the future ... and can't help but wonder what and whom Alice would root for? [TONY]

Cafe Blossom Expands to the Village

Blossom kvells over Blossom.

Ronen Seri tells Grub Street that he'll bring another location of his vegan Cafe Blossom to 41 Carmine Street around the middle of next month. The place will serve organic food and spirits, including some "new and very innovative dishes," Seri said via e-mail. The eatery will occupy two floors and have a candlelit grotto and fireplace, so expect the place to appear on every best-restaurants-with-fireplaces list next winter. On another note, Cafe Blossom uptown is evidently a favorite of famous vegan, and Kosher-food blogger, Mayim Bialik, a.k.a. TV's Blossom (get it?!) — Seri tells us she's throwing a red-carpet launch for her new book, Beyond the Sling, there next month.

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