Posts for July 6, 2009

That’s Dr. Chocolate to You

By Alexandra Vallis

Kristy Leissle's doctoral dissertation is called "Cocoa and cash, culture and chocolate: A feminist analysis of trade and development in Ghana and Britain," making her perhaps the only chocolate Ph.D. in the country. Join her on July 29 in Soho for a discussion of her research followed by a tasting of international bars. Brooklyn Brewery, Dessert Truck, and Bespoke Chocolates are among the sponsors, and all proceeds from the $35 tickets go to paying medical bills for Shafron “Shay” Hawkins, who was recently paralyzed in a car accident and is uninsured. [Chocolate From Bean to Bar]

Tonight Is Tiki Night at Elettaria

We were so intrigued by news of Elettaria’s tiki night that we just had to see the drinks menu. The drinks are only available on Mondays (when they’re half off till 8 p.m.), but it's safe to say this is a shot over the bow of the Rusty Knot. And chances are, the $6 hurricanes are a world better than the $4 happy-hour monstrosities over at Bruar Falls. Have a look.

An EXCLUSIVE First Look at the Vanderbilt 80 Years Ago

By Daniel Maurer

Photo: Courtesy of the Vanderbilt

We’ve seen restaurant PR get more and more into the plywood thing — Aureole and Marea offered bloggers hard-hat tours, and Aureole even had a Flickr page of its construction. But this is a bit much — a publicist has sent over these exclusive pre-pre-pre-plywood shots of 635 Bergen, where Ben Daitz of Num Pang and Saul Bolton of Saul are working on a Prospect Heights project called the Vanderbilt (the entrance is at 570 Vanderbilt). With Bolton still planning the menu, they can’t give specifics other than that it’ll open late summer or early fall and have a “cool” vibe (read: fancy cocktails), but there you have it — an EXCLUSIVE first look!

Tables Available at Falai, Nobu; DBGB Kitchen & Bar Mostly Booked

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: Certified Geniuses.

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Newest Coffee Innovation: Chemex by the Cup

By Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

In the eternal quest for a cleaner, brighter, better cup, baristi have utilized French presses, Clover machines, and drip bars. The new Third Rail Coffee, a cubbyhole café near NYU, takes a fresh approach: filtering its single-origin Intelligentsia roasts directly into Chemex flasks. Other things you'll find there include bench seating, Ceci-Cela pastries, cold-brewed iced coffee, and a sunny and serious staff, headed by barista-about-town Dan Griffin, late of Williamsburg's Variety and El Beit.

240 Sullivan St., nr. W. 3rd St.; no phone

Meat the Nimans

Bill and Nicolette Hahn Niman, of Niman Ranch fame, are answering meaty questions this week on Chowhound. If you want to know who the best international meat purveyors are, or whether rabbit is a “lower-impact source of mammalian meat,” check in through July 10. [Chowhound via MenuPages San Francisco]

Buttermilk Burglarized; McDonald’s Rent-a-Cop Unloads

By Daniel Maurer

Buttermilk Channel was the victim of a break-in early this morning. Nothing was taken by the “schmuck” responsible, per owner Doug Crowell’s Twitter. Meanwhile things didn’t go quite as smoothly outside of a Bronx McDonald’s. According to the Daily News, the restaurant’s security guard (a former cop) opened fire on a would-be carjacker and shot him in the leg. Who knew McDonald’s guards pack heat — is it a Hamburglar thing?

Sausage Party at Freemans

Lest the hipsterati abandon him for DBGB a few blocks away (or, for that matter, for Loreley across the street), Freemans chef Preston Madson is featuring a housemade garlic pork sausage with sauerkraut, toasted rye bread, and whole-grain mustard on his new menu, which you can see here.

Jo’s Does Brunch and Late-Night

By Daniel Maurer

Newly opened Jo’s is now serving brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. It has some mighty big shoes to fill, being in the old Tasting Room space. Colin Alevras’s fried chicken legs are gone gone gone, as are the Bloody Marys, but hey, now you can get a chicken fried steak. Here’s the brunch menu, and the new late-night menu as well. To compete with Emporio nearby (that newcomer offers a limited menu till 2 a.m. nightly), Jo’s now serves till 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, till 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and till midnight on Sunday.

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News Flash: Most Chefs Can’t Afford Guy Fieri’s $12,000 Guitar

By Daniel Maurer

Scary Fieri.

Guy Fieri is the latest, after Tom Colicchio, to show off his expensive ax — that’s him, and not his imposter, with a $12,000 Fender (comped by the company) in the latest issue of Food Network Magazine. Yikes. Also in the mag is a chef survey that revels in the obvious: Bread baskets are sometimes recycled, chefs work when they’re sick, restaurants mark up wine as much as 2.5 times and often don’t get fresh deliveries on Sunday, food critics are more likely to get VIP treatment than celebrities, only 13 percent of chefs have seen cooks taint food but a quarter say they’d pick up something that’s been dropped on the floor, and supposedly vegetarian dishes aren’t always vegetarian (“one chef reported seeing a cook pour lamb’s blood into a vegan’s primavera”). And of course chefs are overworked and underpaid: “The chefs we surveyed work between 60 and 80 hours a week and almost all of them work holidays. Sixty-five percent reported making less than $75,000 a year. Waiters take home an average of $662 a week, often tax free.”

One Less Papaya

Not sure when it happened, but for the record: Papaya del Barrio of Spanish Harlem has shuttered, joining Clinton Papaya in the papaya compost pile.

Bad Language on Menus

By Aileen Gallagher

“Grilled to perfection” and “world famous” are two phrases that the Chicago Tribune would like to strike from menus, and MenuPages Chicago adds to the list: “We bristle at near-constant reminders of kitchen equipment (“wood-fired oven” should appear once on the menu, if at all).” What would you like to never see on a menu again? [Chicago Tribune via MenuPages Chicago]

Di Fara Cuts Hours, Hikes Prices

By Daniel Maurer

The good news from Slice is that Di Fara has reopened after Dom De Marco’s minor mouth surgery. The bad news? It will now be closed on Tuesdays as well as Mondays, meaning its hours are now almost as temperamental as Una Pizza Napoletana’s. Plus, slice prices are going up to $5, from $4. We’re radioing Platt to see if this compromises their best bargain status.

What’s Next for Tavern on the Green?

By Aileen Gallagher

No matter which vendor wins the Tavern on the Green contract, expect big changes. Current owner Jennifer LeRoy tells the Post that she’s going to renovate the Crystal Room so you can “see the stars.” Boathouse Restaurant owner Dean Poll wants to redo the entire space. “It needs a building renovation, not a restaurant renovation,” he says. Seth Greenberg of Capitale plans for a trendier, but less sexy, green restaurant. [NYP]

Earlier: Keep the Tavern on the Green?

Game Over for Bounce Deuce

By Daniel Maurer

Last week we noticed that Bounce Deuce was looking awfully closed (its flat-screens weren’t visible from a mile away as per usual), and now Down by the Hipster and EV Grieve get confirmation, via a sign on the window, that it has packed up its TableTappers seemingly for good. Here’s an idea: Being a sports bar and all, Bounce Deuce should be imploded baseball-stadium-style.

Joey Chestnut Breaks Hot-Dog Record

By Aileen Gallagher

This kind of headgear
makes us proud to be American.Photo: Erin Siegal/Courtesy of Deadspin

Good weather drew thousands to Coney Island on Saturday for the annual Nathan’s hot-dog-eating contest, where feelings of nationalism cause otherwise rational people to boo a Japanese guy. Joey Chestnut ate 68 dogs and buns in ten minutes, beating Takeru Kobayashi by 3.5 dogs (and buns). The day before, elephants beat people in a bun-eating contest. The pachyderms swallowed 505 buns compared to the puny humans’ 143 buns. “Humans are facing a rebuilding year,” explained Major League Eating Chairman George Shea. Check out Deadspin’s excellent slideshow, made all the more compelling considering photographer Erin Siegal is a vegetarian.

Joey Takes July 4 With New Record [IFOCE]

Hardee’s Is a Total A-hole

By Daniel Maurer
Watch Video

Hardee’s has a new “munchkin”-esque product that they're calling a “biscuit hole” in the very latest puerile fast-food ad. So what do you like, B-holes or A-holes? Watch the video and think twice about ever going to Hardee’s again.

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Annisa Closes After Fire

By Daniel Maurer

First Anita Lo shuttered Bar Q, and now Serious Eats gets word from her that Annisa has suffered a setback not unlike the fire that broke out at Bar Q last year: “Yes, we had a terrible kitchen fire in the early hours of July 4th, after everyone was gone. The fire marshal hasn’t come yet, so we don’t know what started it. And yes, we are going to rebuild — hopefully better than before.” Here’s hoping the chef’s stint on Top Chef Masters this week helps the cause.

Annisa Destroyed By Fire [Serious Eats NY]

Platt on Marea; Make-Ahead Menus for No-Sweat Entertaining

By Alexandra Vallis

MareaPhoto: Hannah Whitaker

In the magazine this week, Adam Platt takes on Marea, where “you can’t help feeling that the exuberant, intuitive chef [Michael White] is not entirely at home in the precise, finicky realm of fish.” Platt awards three stars even though “[f]or all its impressive, even dazzling qualities, it feels less like a labor of love than like one of ambition and duty.” On the more affordable front, Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld forage for artisan bread by Matthew J. Tilden, who bakes an “ultrarustic, old-world-inspired product line” during off-hours at Toby’s Public House. Home cooks can stay away from the oven when it’s time to entertain, however, with make-ahead summer recipes from Dovetail, Elettaria, and Calexico. If the party’s in Sag Harbor, you could just drop into Cavaniola Cheese Shop; the owners now make food for takeout using local ingredients.

Last Call at Joe Jr. Restaurant

By Aileen Gallagher

Signatures and pleas from faithful customers couldn’t stop Joe Jr. Restaurant from closing on Sunday after a dispute with the landlord. Several neighborhood bloggers chronicled Joe’s last weekend. EV Grieve arrived too late for a last meal, but did get some good photos — we hope owner Teddy Hondros took the sign home. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York made it in time for a cheeseburger deluxe and a chocolate egg cream, and overheard an angry customer leaving a message for the landlord: “This is a shonda!” Brooks at Lost City found people waiting outside on Saturday to get a seat. “I don't know about you, but I've never seen a line outside a greasy spoon before,” he wrote. “That such a quintessentially American business should [close] on July 4th is bitterly ironic.”

Earlier: Will Joe Jr. Pull Through? Owner Says ‘No, No, No, No’

Vendor Permits Could Vanish; River Café Sues Artist

By Aileen Gallagher

• The Health Department is considering pulling 500 street-vendor permits in response to widespread fraud. [NYP]

• The River Café sued artist Olafur Eliasson for $3 million to cover supposed water damage from last year’s “Waterfalls” installation. [NYP]

• Twenty former East Village squatters cleaned up Ray’s Candy Store after it was hit with 60 health violations. [Villager]

• New Yorkers are being overcharged for milk — up to $6 a gallon in Manhattan, one city councilman alleges. [NYP]

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