Top Chef: Too Many Space Metaphors, Not Enough Mussels

Last night's Top Chef continued to bring out the big (judging) guns, as Food & Wine editor-in-chief Dana Cowin (who happens to be Facebook friends with Ed) arrived to judge the Quickfire. She came with wines in tow and asked the chefs to choose a wine and create a dish to pair with it. Ed and Tiffany headed for the Wagyu ribeye, while Kevin, originally convinced he could braise big hunks of pork belly in less than an hour, had to settle for quail. In the end, Padma, wearing a weird suit, gave the win — and a trip to London — to Angelo for his sautéed foie gras with black-salt-and-fennel salad.

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White Castle Eyes New Concepts; A Look at the Restaurant-Lawsuit Firms

• White Castle is currently testing three new restaurant concepts, which focus on barbecue, sandwiches, and noodles, respectively. [NRN]

• Most of the restaurant-labor lawsuits filed recently come out of two law firms. [WSJ]

• A judge ruled yesterday that "ladies' nights" at bars and restaurants are perfectly constitutional. [NYP]

• The Underground Lobster Pound's Dr. Claw is out of business unless/until he goes legit. [Fork in the Road/VV]

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09/01/10

Battle of the Beans: Illy Set to Square Off Against Nespresso on Prince Street

We’re told that when Bay Ridge’s Little Cupcake Bakeshop opens its first Manhattan location at 30 Prince Street in mid-September, it’ll have a full Illy espresso bar. It won’t be the only European coffee brand on Prince — shortly after opening its 200th boutique, Switzerland’s Nespresso has finally opened its Soho store and café about a year after it first put up signage.

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Free Hot Dogs at Sycamore; Snout ’N Stout in Williamsburg

Chelsea: Fatty Crab, Laut, Café Asean, and Spice Market celebrate Southeast Asian cuisine during the Malaysia Night Market on September 14. Events kick off at 6:30 p.m. in the Chelsea Triangle at 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, and food will be available for between $4 and $8. [Grub Street]
Ditmas Park: On Saturday, Sycamore hosts the last installment of its summerlong Brewery and BBQ series with California's Stone Brewery. Pints of craft beers are $5 from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m. and come with a free hot dog. [Grub Street]
East Village: Plum Pizzeria and Bar is open on Second Avenue in the former Café Brama space, while Ruben's Empanadas is closed. [EV Grieve]

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Luke Sung Gobbles Up the Monkfish Liver Sushi at Ino

Photo: Brian Smeets/Grub Street

Each week on the Food Chain, we ask a chef to describe a dish he or she recently enjoyed. The chef who prepared the dish responds and then picks his or her own memorable meal. On and on it goes. Last week, Terry Chan of South Sea Seafood Village in S.F. told us he keeps going back for Luke Sung's potato-wrapped sea bass at Isa. What's been a favorite of yours recently, Luke?

Who: Luke Sung, chef-owner at Domo and Prime Rib Shabu, consulting chef at Isa
What: Monkfish liver nigiri
Where: Ino Sushi, Japantown, San Francisco
When: June, 2010

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V-Nam Cafe Pulls a Henry’s, Allegedly Rips Off Baoguette Menu

Again with the bánh mì ripoffs? The recently opened (and even more recently temporarily shuttered) V-Nam Cafe appears to have taken a page from the Henry's playbook: According to Eater, V-Nam's owner is a former employee of Michael "Bao" Huynh's Baoguette, and his menu is so similar to his former place of employment that Huynh is threatening to sue.

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Tables Available at Ilili and Le Caprice; Alta and Travertine Mostly Booked

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

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Lincoln Center Program: Lincoln Takes Resys, Atlantic Grill Opens Friday

Jonathan Benno’s hotly anticipated Lincoln (set to open September 24) is now taking your reservations at 212-359-6500, and that isn’t the only news coming out of Lincoln Center today. Atlantic Grill, the 290-seat B.R. Guest restaurant that’s replacing O’Neals on West 64th Street will open this Friday. The chef of this second location is Chris Lim, who got his start as a saucier in Daniel Boulud’s kitchens and was more recently chef de cuisine at BLT Steak. Mike Lim (not related and formerly of Sushi of Gari) will oversee a 12-seat sushi bar. Check out the menus below.

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Internet Hood Dudes Wanna Rock and Roll All Night and Taco Everyday

Come back baby, tacos never forget.Photo: Album Tacos

At Grub Street there’s been a tremendous amount of bandwidth gobbled up with talk of tacos, taco trucks, Korean tacos and fish tacos. Still our preoccupation with all things tacos is no match for Album Tacos, the so-stupid-it's-brilliant tumblr site recently created by the Hood Internet’s Aaron Brink and Steve Reidell, the only two mashup makers brave enough to meld the likes of R. Kelly and Shellac. In keeping with the cut-and-paste craft that’s responsible for their internet infamy, the two are providing a taco-obsessed revisionist look at benchmark albums from the annals of rock, pop and hip hop. Take a look and see which platters from your collection have received the taco treatment. [Album Tacos]

Sacre Bleu! Five-Star Le Bernardin Gets C-Worthy Health Score

Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

It’s no surprise when Knot Just Pretzels in Penn Station gets a health inspection score that puts it in the C range — what is surprising is when the city’s No. 1 restaurant, Le Bernardin, is thwacked with an even higher number of demerit points. The five-star eatery’s hold message touts its Zagat, Times, and Michelin ratings, but what it doesn’t mention is that it received 32 demerits (4 points above the C mark) on an inspection last Friday. Mais est-ce possible? Is Eric Ripert spending too much time broing down with Anthony Bourdain?

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Take Your Meatballs Outside

The oft-frustrating wait times at the Meatball Shop at last have some relief, as the crew debuts their twelve-seat outdoor patio tonight. A dozen new chairs might not sound like a lot, but that's a 30 percent increase on top of the 39 seats indoors — the difference between finally getting a table and giving up only to drown your sorrows in another restaurant's lesser meatball sub.

A Sweet, Frozen New Year

Just in time for the Jewish high holidays, yiddishkeit ice cream purveyor Chozen introduces a new flavor to its roster of rugelach and matzo crunch. Apples and Honey — a honey-flavored ice cream studded with bits of green apple — will be on shelves next week at shops like Zabar's and Garden of Eden in New York, and nationally online.

Goat: Coming Soon to a High-End Menu Near You

Commence with the "roast kid" jokes.

People are afraid of new meats, we get that. But seeing as it's Fall Preview week at Grub Street, we thought we'd call your attention to a trend that's been brewing throughout 2010: the appearance of goat meat dishes on non-ethnic, and even high-end menus. Long embraced in Jamaican, African, and Middle Eastern cuisines, critics and foochebags alike are talking up its marvelous flavor, and chefs are responding from coast to coast.

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David Rabin and Hotel Griffou Team Will Bring Rooftop Lounge to James New York

Photo: Courtesy of James New York

The James New York hotel opened on the corner of Grand and Thompson today, but we’re told the restaurant where David Burke will likely be chef (still no official announcement) won’t open until November 1. This much is set in stone: Thomas Schlesser is signed on to design the semi-subterranean dining room, and we’re told he’s aiming for a cross between the industrial feel of DBGB and the more organic vibe of the Publican.

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Will Top Chef Season 8 Be Top Chef: All-Stars? (Updated With Sightings!)

It was only two seasons ago that Top Chef took place here in New York, so it was a bit of a head-scratcher when we heard the news that the show would be returning to Manhattan for Season 8. Enter a highly plausible explanation for the geographic repeat: An Eater tipster reports that the cast isn't a random collection of unknowns; it's a set of all-stars. Specific names include Angelo Sosa, Tiffany Derry, Spike Mendelsohn, Michael Isabella, Dale Talde, and Tiffani Faison (Update: and Stephen Asprinio and Carla Hall), and we expect more to surface as sightings trickle in — the show is filming in the city right now. If you see any familiar faces, do let us know. [Eater]

You found them! »

Alec Baldwin, Corn-iac

“Really, you don’t understand. I eat about 800 lobster rolls over a four-month season. I’ll wake up and eat a whole quarter of a watermelon for breakfast.” —Self-declared “corn-iac” Alec Baldwin on his diet of fish, corn, and eggs. [Edible Manhattan]

Valley Shepherd Creamery to Open Soho Store

From left: yogurt, hard goat, blue, and Parmesan Gruyère.Photo: Boru O'Brien O'Connell/New York Magazine

Greenmarket veteran Eran Wajswol, owner of New Jersey’s Valley Shepherd Creamery, sells his raw-milk, cave-aged cheeses at farmers’ markets and at the “Sheep Shoppe” on his own 120-acre Morris County farm. Next week, he opens a dairy-dedicated Manhattan storefront in Soho, where he’ll stock twenty or so of his cheeses, plus cultured butter, sheep’s-milk yogurt, fresh pastas like gnocchi and ricotta-stuffed ravioli, lamb meat, and cheese condiments. Wajswol calls his mixed-sheep’s-and-cow’s-milk version of Brie “Brielle” and will serve it on sandwiches made with bread from neighboring Grandaisy Bakery. And for those curd nerds among his clientele, Wajswol plans to schedule bus trips to Valley Shepherd for cheesemaking classes and tours of the facility, including an aging cave carved into a hillside.

Valley Shepherd Creamery, 79 Sullivan St., nr. Spring St.; 646-476-2893

What Makes New York Tap Water So Special? Tiny, Invisible Shrimp

Photo: Wikipedia

New York City's drinking water is a point of pride for natives. Never mind that in practice, depending on your building, it can come out of the tap with a tinny aftertaste or, at least at our last apartment, with a light sprinkling of unidentified white particles that settled and dissolved in about a minute. (Just blame the pipes.) Gizmodo has taken a microscopic look at our superlative drinking water's real special sauce: copepods, a tiny crustacean invisible to the naked eye. It isn't pretty, but it's still clean. In fact, copepods are known to eat mosquito larvae, so think of it as the shrimpier of the two evils. Although kosher? Not so much.

You Swallow These Invisible Shrimp With Every Gulp of NYC Tap Water [Gizmodo]

Sifton Marvels at Il Matto; Greene, Jones Exult in Vandaag

Il Matto is “a spare and radical gallery of a dining room ... odd and filled with unfamiliar marvels,” says Sam Sifton, who notes also that “the service is exceptional and the food beautifully executed.” [NYT]
Related: First Look at Il Matto, Bringing Pecorino Crème Brûlée to Tribeca

Má Pêche “is basically a temple to meat,” notes Leo Carey. As an extension of the Chang empire, “there isn’t a dud on the menu, but there’s no real triumph, either — no signature dish to seal the place’s identity.” [NYer]
Related: Má Pêche Now Takes Reservations

Long Island City Roman restaurant Testaccio “is narrow, dark, deep,” says Robert Sietsema. The pastas and other authentic dishes are good, but the wood-fired pizzas are better: “Indeed, things that fly from the wood-burning oven are so good, you wish the restaurant would make better use of it.” [VV]

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Roger Ebert, Food Writer; BLT Burger Sues Laurent Tourondel

• Though cancer robbed Roger Ebert of his lower jaw, rendering him unable to eat, he’s recently developed a skill for food writing. [NYT]

• The owners of BLT Burger filed suit against former partner Laurent Tourondel yesterday, charging that the menu for his Hamptons restaurant is too similar to theirs. [NYP]

• Burger King may go up for sale. [WSJ]

• New York’s drinking water is full of tiny shrimp-like crustaceans. [NYP]

• As mixology becomes ever more sophisticated, bartenders are increasingly interested in protecting their intellectual property. [The Atlantic]

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