Tavern29 Celebrates Its Anniversary With an Open Bar; Good Eggs Brooklyn Launching Farm-to-Fridge Service

• Yes! Ducasse-endorsed Lafayette is launching brunch next week. [Bedford + Bowery/Twitter]

• On Wednesday, May 22, Tavern29 is celebrating its one-year anniversary with an open bar. Enjoy 24 craft beers on tap or small-batch bourbon and whiskey from 5 to 7 p.m. [Grub Street]

• Good Eggs Brooklyn is getting ready to launch its farm-to-fridge delivery service this summer. You'll be able to order Hudson Valley strawberries and just-baked bread from dozens of local producers for easy delivery in Brooklyn. For updates on the launch, follow Good Eggs on Facebook and Twitter. [Grub Street]

• It looks like Fonda chef Roberto Santibañez is opening a restaurant in the Beer Table space on Seventh Avenue. At the moment, he's not providing any details, but stay tuned for news in the coming weeks. [DNAinfo]

• Stanley's Pharmacy, a new "wellness bar" on the Lower East Side, will serve healthy drinks like kombucha on tap, herbal teas, and sodas made from organic fruits and sugars — also known as, hangover cures. [T]

A Del’s Frozen-Lemonade Truck Now Roams NYC

By Hugh Merwin

It'll look something like this.

Gothamist made a major and crucial frozen-lemonade discovery just in time for summer: Apparently, Rhode Island's famous Del's Lemonade is now in New York. The soft, slushy, and drinkable stuff will be available at this weekend's Ninth Avenue Food Festival and at Brooklyn Bridge Park, the site reports, where the vendor will dispense cups of the zest-filled and fructose-spiked happiness from the back of a refurbished 1949 Chevrolet 3/4-ton truck. It remains unclear if Del's NY is Rhode Island Del's–sanctioned, or what its Wikipedia page refers to as a genericized trademark, but we'll take anything we can get. Also, they're on Twitter. [Gothamist via Kat Kinsman/Twitter]


Free Shake Shack ShackBurger Coupons Available Sunday in Soho

By Hugh Merwin

If you're excited about New York's newest Shake Shack, which opens May 24 at Terminal T4 at JFK Airport, you might want to stop by Delta’s T4X Soho pop-up at 376 West Broadway in Soho between Sunday May 19 and Wednesday May 22. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day — and certainly while supplies last — visitors can pick up a boarding-pass-like voucher that entitles the bearer to one free ShackBurger at any participating Shake Shack, and not just the new one in the airport. [T4X, Earlier]

Looks Like the Blind Barber’s Also Planning a Williamsburg Expansion

By Hugh Merwin

Darlin', don't you go and cut your hair.

Urban Outfitters isn't the only Williamsburg-bound business in search of a liquor license: Monday night's CB1 Brooklyn meeting also included an applicant listed as "Blind Barber Williamsburg LLC" going into the former Second Stop Café at 524 Lorimer Street, the four-year-old business that stopped selling coffee on December 31 and morphed temporarily into an antiques store before closing permanently last month. This would be the third location of the Blind Barber, which also has an outpost in Los Angeles. [CB1 Brooklyn, Earlier]

This 25-Foot Glow-in-the-Dark Cake Will Be at GoogaMooga

By Sierra Tishgart

Whoa, baby.Photo: Margaret Braun

When you're at the Great GoogaMooga this weekend, exchanging chef trading cards, eating Toro's snail paella, and jamming to the Flaming Lips, look out for this mammoth of a sculpture. "Sugar artist" Margaret Braun completed the 25-foot-tall cake at 3 a.m. this morning, after working on it for months. It's made out of 1,000 hand-drawn and painted fluorescent circles and gilded with silver leaf. Yes, it glows in the dark. No, it's not edible. Someone's definitely already hard at work making a 50-foot cronut sculpture for next year. [Earlier, Earlier]

The Creator of Gorton’s Fish Sticks Has Died

By Hugh Merwin

Maine native E. Robert Kinney came from a small town north of Augusta and was the first in his family to graduate from college. During his time working for the Depression-era National Youth Administration, Kinney figured out that he could buy crabs for a penny each from the lobstermen on the docks, who hated pulling them out of their pots. With a $300 loan and a dream, Kinney started selling canned crab, and in ten years his company was worth $2 million. He joined Gorton’s Seafood Co. in 1950 and created the modern frozen fish stick, which changed the way millions of Americans ate dinner. Kinney, who also served as the CEO of General Mills from 1977 to 1981, died last week in Arizona at the age of 96. [NYT, BDN]

Eben Freeman’s Cocktails for the Butterfly Include Some Greatest Hits

By Hugh Merwin

Light lunch.

Rotary evaporators, liquid nitrogen, and centrifuges are used to make innovative cocktails at bars like Booker and Dax and the Aviary, but don't call those drinks "molecular," writes Bloomberg critic Ryan Sutton. If all that technology can be harnessed to produce the "best, cleanest-tasting brandy old-fashioned you’ll get, anywhere," who the hell cares about labels? Bartender Eben Freeman, whose collaboration with Michael White opens next month in Tribeca, says the business of cocktails has now moved "beyond trends." We know he intends to vacuum-seal his oleo saccharum and rescue the reputation of the grasshopper when the Butterfly opens next month, but it also turns out that Freeman will revive some of the pioneering work he did at Sam Mason's ahead-of-its-time Tailor: Smoked coke-and-bourbons will be on tap, and the famous "edible cocktail" trio consisting of a Cuba Libre, "White Russian Breakfast Cereal," and a boozy marshmallow will once again be available. Viva the boozy marshmallow! [Bloomberg, Earlier, Earlier]

More Costata: Here Are Michael White’s Dinner and Dessert Menus

By Sierra Tishgart

Meat is a must.

Michael White's much-anticipated Italian steakhouse, Costata, officially opens tonight in a triplex on Spring Street. Dry-aged rib eye is the specialty here, but White and executive chef PJ Calapa (who also oversees Ai Fiori) are making lighter crudo dishes (there are nine!) and fresh pastas, which are conveniently offered as both appetizers and entrées. But if you're coming here, it's steak you need to order — and you can choose from three different butters and four sauces to accompany filets, bone-in strip steaks, and prime porterhouse cuts. There's also a decadent selection of caviar and desserts like chocolate-cherry-marsala panna cotta and rum-raison-and-salted-caramel semifreddo. Take a look, straight ahead.

Meat sweats. »

McDonald’s Staffer Catches Thief Cruising Drive-Thru in Her Stolen Car

By Sierra Tishgart

An ill-fated joyride.

When Virginia Maiden woke up on Tuesday, she realized that someone had stolen her 1995 Toyota 4-Runner. Shit. Maiden found a ride to her job at the McDonald’s in Kennewick, Washington, and while staffing the drive-thru, she noticed that a customer was cruising by in what looked exactly like her car. But what are the chances? When she saw her McDonald's visor, which she had proudly hung from her rearview mirror (give this woman employee of the month!), Maiden realized that she was serving the criminal. Maiden acted quickly by telling the 22-year-old female thief that the ice-cream machine needed to be fixed and that she needed to pull up to the next window to wait. The cops arrived in time to arrest the car burglar in the McDonald's parking lot. And that's how it's done. [ABC News via Gawker]

Village Voice Fires Twenty-Year Veteran Restaurant Critic Robert Sietsema

By Hugh Merwin

He insists on the mask.Photo: Courtesy of Chow

Gawker reports that the embattled alt-weekly continued its ongoing series of brutal layoffs this morning by firing three of its most influential writers, New York legend Michael Musto, venerated theater critic Michael Feingold, and restaurant critic Robert Sietsema. During his twenty-year tenure at the newspaper, Sietsema covered his share of white-tablecloth places, but he really made a name for himself by finding wonderful restaurants in the city's most far-flung neighborhoods, particularly at a time when few diners ventured outside of Manhattan for dinner. He also inspired a few generations of food writers and bloggers to do the same.

He stayed anonymous. »

Own the Remains of Ninth Street Bakery and Veselka Bowery

Shuttered Veselka Bowery and Ninth Street Bakery, which will close in June, are selling their equipment on Craigslist. You can purchase a Hobart dishwasher, chairs, bar stools, work tables, and hostess stands from the former, and two glass showcases from the latter for $1,500. Owning a part of a bakery that's been in business for 87 years? Priceless. [Earlier, EV Grieve, EV Grieve]

Oh No: Plans for Williamsburg’s First Urban Outfitters Include a Restaurant and Bar

By Hugh Merwin

Like this, but with more flatbreads and root-beer-braised pork.Photo: Store image courtesy of Urban Outfitters

The not-too-anticipated Urban Outfitters that's opening soon smack-dab in the pulpy heart of Williamsburg is apparently also going to have a restaurant and bar. No liquor license application has yet been filed with the SLA, but buried at the bottom of an agenda of more than 50 bars and restaurants up for liquor licenses at Monday night's CB1 Brooklyn meeting was this totally non-cryptic nugget: "Urban Outfitters, Inc, 98 North 6th Street (new, liquor, rest)."

A hip flask emblazoned with a cat's face? How quirky. Where's my pickle back? »

Jennifer Aniston Brunches at Fred’s; Reese Witherspoon Drinks at Cellar Bar and Soho House

By Lauren Duca

Party on.Photo: Alo Ceballos/FilmMagic

Celebrities popped up in many of the usual spots this week: Nick Lachey was spotted brainstorming how to stage a comeback with the other 97 Degrees geezers at Old Homestead Steakhouse and the Ainsworth, Jennifer Aniston brought Justin Theroux to Fred's for brunch and shopping, and Demi Lovato dined at Lavo with her posse. This, and more, in our weekly roundup of celebrity dining.

Where did the cast of 'Smash' drown their sorrows? »

Alain Ducasse Loves Lafayette’s Chicken and Carbone’s Theatrics

By Sierra Tishgart

Ducasse checking in on the warm chicken salad at Benoit.Photo: Melissa Hom

If there's anyone who can properly weigh in on New York's recent resurgence of French bistros, it's Alain Ducasse. The master of the cuisine is pleased with Calliope and Lafayette, even if the spots aren't exactly authentic: "These new French-American restaurants, or the ones I've experienced, have ambiances that are more American than French," he says. "But it's in harmony with the audience. Energy and accessibility are exactly what New Yorkers are looking for." He wasn't in town long, but Ducasse still managed to make the most of his short stay in the city, hitting Carbone, Marlow & Sons, and ABC Cocina. To read about toast sopped with marrow, antipasti feasts, truly Italian espresso, and a fluke tasting with Eric Ripert, check out this week's Grub Street Diet.

"Carbone is a great hole-in-the-wall restaurant!" »

05/16/13

Montmartre Launches Lunch; Hale & Dale Opens Up Shop in the LES

• Next Wednesday, chefs David Chang, Daniel Patterson, Massimo Bottura and more will appear at the New York Public Library to talk about the annual, avant garde cooking event that sees the world's top chefs collaborate on strange and inventive dishes. Cook It raw is now also the subject of a book of the same name. Buy tickets here. [Grub Street]

• The Harrison in Tribeca has introduced a new vegetable menu for spring, with dishes like fava beans and ramps with romesco salad. [Grub Street]

• Montmartre is now serving lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Its menu includes moules frites and a burger with camembert and peppercorn mayo. The restaurant's also now open for dinner on Mondays. [Grub Street]

• Hill & Dale is now open in the Lower East Side at the corner of Delancey and Allen. The speakeasy-style spot from the folks behind the Brooklyneer, Le Bain, and Delicatessen offers cocktails and a menu that includes organic deviled eggs with smoked pork belly. [Grub Street]

S.F. Butcher Who Invented Bacon Hot Dogs Not Offended by Oscar Mayer Rip-off

By Jay Barmann

The new dogs in question.

This week, Oscar Mayer introduced a new line of hot dogs, one of which has bacon mixed into the filling, which immediately called to mind what we thought was a San Francisco innovation by 4505 Meats: the bacon-studded hot dog. Grub Street reached out to 4505 butcher Ryan Farr to gauge his reaction, and while he's not absolutely certain that he was the first person in history to think of putting bacon into a hot dog, he thought of the idea on his own a few years ago, and he's not too upset that the hot-dog behemoth has copied him. "I guess I'm flattered," he says.

Read more »

Looks Like New York’s Getting at Least One Michelin-Quality, No-Seat Restaurant

By Hugh Merwin

Foie gras and no chairs.

Remember that no-seats restaurant in Japan that had "diners lining up" around the block for its high-end menu? The ORENO Corporation, which already has eighteen such "standing restaurants" in Japan, is now scouting midtown spaces to open its first location Stateside, Reuters reports. "Only a tiny portion of people can afford to eat at Michelin starred restaurants, but those who earn a modest income should also be able to try high quality food," says Michio Yasuda, an executive.

Butter in the dashi. »

Photographer Captures the Beauty of Mundane McDonald’s Customers

By Sierra Tishgart

One of the artist's colorful subjects.Photo: Nolan Conway

Nolan Conway is the artist behind an intriguing project called "Happy Meals": He's visiting hundreds of McDonald's outposts and photographing customers. So far, his series includes images of a man who looks just like Santa Cause, two young parents with their newborn child, and a man going through a drive-through with a dog on his roof (unfortunately, it's not Mitt Romney). "It’s almost like déjà vu every time you walk into a McDonald’s because they all look alike," Conway tells Wired. "But the characters are never the same." He's thinking about turning his photographs into an art show or a book — and he should. His powerful photos are worth much more than that $9,000 re-creation of a McDonald's soda cup. [Earlier, Wired]

Scottsdale’s Amy’s Baking Co. Hires PR Firm, Plans ‘Grand Re-Opening’ Next Week

By Jay Barmann

Samy and Amy Bouzaglo

Husband and wife restaurant owners Amy and Samy Bouzaglo provided an extensive lesson earlier this week in how not to use the Internet, especially after being filmed behaving poorly on Kitchen Nightmares and consequently coming under fire from hecklers on Facebook and Reddit. The story went viral, ensuring maximum exposure. But now the couple has enlisted the help of a PR firm to clean up the commenter inferno that they themselves fanned the flames of. And, wisely or not, they've decided the answer is a "Grand Re-Opening" event at their Scottsdale restaurant on Tuesday, May 21, which is going to double as a press conference and a chance for the Bouzaglos to set the record straight, or something.

Read more »

Japanese Chef Killed in Germany Over Apparent Noodle Dispute

By Hadley Tomicki

Not worth it.

Miki Nozawa, a 57-year-old Japanese chef, was killed this week after having an argument with two customers over a bowl of noodles. Nozawa, a supposed specialist in the world of Italian-Japanese fusion, was cooking on the German island of Sylt when two unidentified customers began griping about the fried noodles and beef they'd been served. The local paper claims that the suspects, believed to be day-laborers, demanded their money back, while German gossip site Bild says that the two guys left without paying. Tragically, the incident didn't end there. Nozawa later ran into the two men at a strip club that night, where the argument resumed. After requesting money from the two men, the heated talk turned into a full-on fight, with Nozawa being savagely beaten and rushed to the hospital with brain injuries and internal bleeding. The chef died from his injuries in the hospital on Monday, while German authorities are still searching for the two assailants. [The Local; Nine MSN; SHZ]

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