• Boerum Hill Bakery Bien Cuit has made the leap across the East River: They're open for business on Christopher Street in the West Village. [NYT]
• After a delay because of Hurricane Sandy, Fairway will open its newest store in Kips Bay this Friday, December 21. The Red Hook branch won't reopen until later in 2013. [DNAinfo]
• Ben and Jack's Steakhouse will shutter while a hotel is built in its current location; it will reopen in 2015 in a brand-new space. [Eater]
“It says SBX 1, which is the New York Stock exchange symbol for Starbucks." — SCG Retail CEO David Firestein, who brokered the deal for every single Starbucks in Manhattan, describes the vanity plate on his (no doubt very nice) car. [REW]
Last week, we were told that Serbian professional tennis player Novak Djokovic had purchased the entire world's supply of rare Pule cheese, which costs $1,350 per kilogram and is only made from the milk of donkeys that live within the Zasavica reserve in Serbia. Djokovic, it was reported, would serve small portions of the precious cheese at his restaurants. None of this is true, however, reports William Grimes at the Times. The tennis pro received a sample, but no deals had been made at press time, so a Daily Mail reporter ended up filing an exaggerated report. The kerfuffle has now introduced donkey cheese to a much larger potential market, however, and somewhere, a newly rich donkey farmer is laughing, probably like an ass. [NYT, Earlier]
Coney Island Applebee's: not coming to the boardwalk, but close enough.Photo: Eddie~S/Flickr, Getty Images
National restaurant chains Red Mango, Johnny Rockets, and Applebee's are poised to open in Coney Island, Amusing the Zillion reports. Real-estate broker Joe Vitacco tells the blog that Johnny Rockets and the frozen-yogurt shop will open first and together occupy 8,000 square feet at 1215 Surf Avenue, with a brand-new Applebee's building to follow next door in a parcel that currently contains a building and a vacant lot. The leases were confirmed by Joe Sitt of Thor Equities.
A guy with a lot of time on his hands has erected a gingerbread replica of the Yorkshire country estate in Downton Abbey. The time-lapse video shows how he meticulously cuts and bakes the dough, frosts it, hooks up lighting, and, oh God, it's exhausting just typing this (does he have a day job?). The finished product is impressive — a period piece, really. Now, where's the edible Lady Mary?
In October, we reported that innovative chef Wylie Dufresne is preparing to open Alder, his follow-up to wd~50, in the East Village at 157 Second Avenue. Alder will be a 50-seat pub with a menu of "modern casual food" to match. It's now searching for a manager, according to an ad on the industry networking site Culintro, which mentions that the pub is "slated for an early spring opening." [Culintro, Earlier]
Applegate Farms made a video of bacon crackling over a picturesque fireplace — an emotionally manipulative, if effective, marketing move. No matter how you feel about bacon, firing up the 31-minute video on Christmas morning is a nice way to ensure everyone unwrapping presents also gets a case of the meat sweats.
Ripert, last night.Photo: Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan
Le Bernardin chef Eric Ripert was among the celebrities at last night's annual Tibet House Benefit auction. We caught up with Ripert, looking a little frazzled after walking the red carpet, to talk about the influence for that Playboy shoot, his Christmas dinner plans, and what he hopes to find under the tree this year.
Antidepressants, migraine busters, blood thinners, and statins are among the list of 85 prescription drugs whose effects can be modified if ingested with grapefruit, which has recently been the target of an unstoppable train of citrus-hate. Researchers and physicians are reporting a growing number of interactions between medicine and grapefruit, some of which have been fatal. Blood pressure meds and juice almost killed one patient, while birth control pills and a grapefruit a day caused one woman to develop a "very serious clot" that almost claimed her leg. “The reason we published it as a case report was because it was so uncommon,” the doctor who published that leg-clot case study tells Well. “We need to be careful not to exaggerate this.” The list of drugs that are affected by grapefruit is here. [Well/NYT, Earlier]
Captain Haddock is back in town.
It (hopefully) has nothing to do with that Stu's Stews Portlandia sketch, but tonight at the Cobra Club in Bushwick, a couple of chowder scholars will hold a soup pop-up, starting at 7 p.m. Tonight's Sip Soups menu includes finnan haddie with bacon, leeks and potato, and also a vegan stew made with black-eyed peas, collard greens, and Carolina rice. The soups are priced at $5 and $3, respectively. Sip Soups co-owner Adam Mir tells Grub Street he scours all kinds of old and forgotten cookbooks for new ideas, which he then updates and cooks with local ingredients. The company already delivers and hopes to be serving hot soups at area markets in the near future. Follow their progress here. [Cobra Club]
Drizzling extra chocolate on ice cream is apparently considered "gross misconduct" at a McDonald's in West Wales. After 19-year-old Sarah Finch gave a McFlurry a little somethin' extra (her co-worker ordered it and asked her to "make it a nice one" — aw), the fast-food chain accused her of giving away free food and dismissed her. Finch admits she was heavy-handed with the topping, but come on! Sucks for McDonald's because Finch just settled out of court for £3,000 (about $4,900). [Daily Mail UK]
Our own critics sat out of the reviewing game this week, but the rest of the city's professional eaters did not. Where did they dine, and what did they think of their meals? Read on to find out.
It's nacho cheese, he says. It's all his.Photo: Sean Mathis/Getty Images
Inventor Ray Kurzweil started work as director of engineering at Google earlier this week, so BGR surveys and interprets some of the predictions that Kurzweil, who is also a prominent futurist, made in his 2005 book, The Singularity Is Near. "By the late 2020s," the site suggests, interpreting Kurzweil's theories, nanobots will roam our GI tracts, dropping off nutrients and degreasing all that saturated fat leftover "from eating 20 bags of Doritos every day."
The first of the West Coast chain's New York locations will open next year at 432 Sixth Avenue, and founder Adam Fleischman is looking for an East Coast operations director, in part because he's got big plans. "Umami Restaurant Group," the posting states, "expects that it will open at least two to three Umami Burger NYC locations in 2013 and two to three additional stores in 2014." [Craigslist, Earlier]
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